All the way from America!

Frances and I went to visit Janice last Saturday for a scrummy lunch and look what she brought back from her travels for me:
Frances got a nifty folding quick-un-pick (seam ripper). Thanks, Janice! (Janice was very clever about her gift-giving. We weren't expecting a gift but she was showing us the treasures she got and was watching us closely to see how we reacted to each one before she offered them to us!) I haven't tried out the finger grips yet. I imagine I wouldn't constantly have to keep removing my gloves to do things. Does anyone else use them?

Finally I made it ...

... to 100 posts that is. As promised (I know, it's over a week ago now-sorry!) I have some goodies to give away to a lucky winner drawn "out of the hat" from the names of those who leave a comment on this post. I'll give you two weeks 'cos I know only too well how life gets in the way of blogging! So leave a comment by 26 August and if you are posting anonymously you will have to include your name (so I know who you are - well, obviously, doh! lol.) Up for grabs is seven 5 1/2" by width of fabric strips of batiks cut from some of my recent purchases - and there have been many - it's quilt show season over here in NZ - not to mention the usual fabric shops I haunt which had fabric that just couldn't stay there!
That's 38 1/2 inches of fabric. Well over 1 yard for all the Americans out there and a tad under 1 metre for everyone else.

I had blogging woes with the other blog I administer, our club blog for Cotton On Quilters. Apparently they thought it was a spam blog and it disappeared off the face of the earth and took a while to find its way to a new home at http://cottonon.blogspot.com I didn't get photos of our club meeting last week but there is still eye candy for you from previous months. Enjoy!

Such Is Life

I'd say it in French if I knew any :-)

I entered the challenge and my quilt was not selected. Never mind, I can now post a photo of the whole quilt. The title is "There's a Storm in the Air" and my Artist's Statement said "Light as air is, when the storm clouds are gathering the heaviness weighs one down." I used 2 layers of organza with Anglelina fibre as the middle layer. The quilt had to measure 150 cm long by 50 cm wide.
The good thing about entering a juried show is the critique, short though it was. The judges said "innovative use of layers of fabric, choice of fabric enhances the theme, beads may not be correct choice to embellish." I'm guessing they didn't like the beaded fringe along the bottom. At least I hope it was that and not the beading I used to indicate movement of the storm. Strangely enough the fringe was there because I thought the quilt needed some weight to hang properly. I never thought any further than that. So I am learning that everything on the quilt has to be part of the design. Onwards And Upwards!!

Look out for my next post. It will be my 100th (I promise this time) and I will have some goodies up for grabs.

Anyone want a challenge?

Margaret from Sewing and Quilt Gallery is looking for people interest in doing a mini-quilt swap. She has set up a blog especially for this and you can find all the information you need at Four Seasons Quilt Swap. Sounds like a really interesting thing to do. I'm feeling well committed at the moment but Margaret is inviting anyone to join in so I thought I would post the info for you.

97 and counting

Sheesh, I think I'm going to do lots of posts in quick succession and life gets in the way! Anyway we are up to post #97 and I'm still choosing the goodie bag to be won :-)

I have been working on the raffle Quilt for Cotton On Quilters, appliqueing leaves onto one of the borders. I've really enjoyed the relaxing hand work. This is how far we have got:
I need to tell you that I have not done all of this work myself! This is a group effort! Lots of members prepared the flowers, leaves and berries. I have appliqued the vines on all of the sections and the flowers on one of the corner blocks, and the flowers and leaves on the middle border. I still need to add the berries and that one will be finished. Rae did most of the flowers and all the leaves and berries on the top border. Frances did the rest of the 2 corner blocks and is working on the fourth border. Audrey did the flowers on the bottom border. I need to cut out the last 2 corner blocks and take the while thing to club on Saturday to give someone else an opportunity to contribute some stitching.

Speaking of club, our Cotton On Quilters blog had disappeared off the face of the earth! I have emailed blogger help but to no avail yet. Does anyone with more nous than me know what I can do to get it back??

Not Quite to One Hundred Yet

I decided to have a look at my list of posts and found several (bad) drafts, which I have deleted; except for the following, from about January, which somehow didn't make it out into the ether (or did it?):

My friend bought that book (Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space by Lois Hallock) and I read it from cover to cover - twice. The best thing I got out of it (apart from being envious of all the lovely matching cabinetry and tables)was a great way to fold fabric. The book suggested using a cutting ruler but I used a piece of cardboard which I cut to size so I can fit 3 piles of fabrics on each shelf. It took 4 days to refold my stash (not including the fat quarters which took another day and a half) and my friends think I am really sad but I love seeing my stash in neat, even piles and tidy. I can see what is there so much better. Yep - my friends are right - I am sad!

Do you agree?

Okay, here is a picture of the stash after the folding marathon in January (There is even more fabric stuffed in there now!):
So I'm 2 0r 3 posts* away from the big round one. Do you think I will be able to find something for a prize in this lot? What do you fancy? A bit of country, a little bit of (bright) rock'n'roll? Perhaps some warm fuzzy flannel, or crisp 30's, or colour saturated batik, or . . .

The boxes along the top contain about half of my collection of quilting magazines. I have 2 more book cases of them elsewhere. I may not be "Quite One Hundred" yet, but I don't think I'll use up all this even if I do last that long with all my marbled faculties!

* make that 4 posts away. I've just checked and this is number 96

Eeek!

What is happening to bloglines? I don't check for a couple of days and I have 656 posts to read! When I look to see who of you has been so prolific I find that lots of posts are "repeated" (I don't know why bloglines does this). Whew, I can relax, you are all human after all and not super duper multi bloggers leaving me in the dust, like I thought!

I have been working away on one of the borders for our club raffle quilt. A friend came to visit the other night and while she sat on my sewing chair and chatted I spay starched the last of the leaves for appliqueing. It is really pleasant having someone to chat do while doing a job like this.
Yesterday I went out to Janice's to quilt a community quilt top that I had been given to finish. Took me 5 hours on her Swiftquilter from start to finish. Not bad I thought. Immediately after dinner I fell into bed and stayed there until morning. I was tired!! (but pleased with my efforts.)

PS: My 100th post is coming up soon. In the spirit of blogging celebration when I get around to making it and you leave a comment on it I will put you in the draw for a squishy packet. What will be in it I have yet to decide, but I have plenty of fabric to choose from! I will post a piccy of what is up for grabs when my batteries are recharged (yes, that is both kinds of batteries, the camera ones and my energy ones.)

That deadline is a wonderful thing!

I haven't posted in a while and have been "gently" reminded by a couple of friends that I haven't (grin). My excuse is that I have been working on my entry for the NANZQ (National Association of New Zealand Quilters) Elemental Challenge. I have been cutting it a bit fine (as usual). Today is Wednesday and the closing day is Friday. Got it finished last night and in the mail today. Should get there in 1 or 2 days they tell me at the Post Office. I hope they are right. Aren't deadlines a wonderful thing? I would never get anything done without them.

The challenge involved interpret the elements – Air, Fire, Water, Earth – in any way you wish in a quilt that must measure 150cm high x 50cm wide. This is an unusual size for a quilt. I chose Air and I wanted to show the idea of the weightlessness of air. It didn't turn out the way I was hoping but since I was doing it I have entered it anyway. It tlooks more like a thunderstorm than weightless air so I called it "There's a Storm in the air". It is my first time of entering a NANZQ challenge so I have entered it in the rookie class. I'm going to be brave and post a detail piccy:

Remember the Triple F?

Last year I designed a 4 part challenge for my club called the Triple F Challenge. Triple F because it was the Fabulous, Fat Quarter, Four Month Challenge. I posted photos of some of the finished quilts in December of last year. Here are a couple more which have been finished and were shown at club last Saturday:


The rest of the club's Show & Tell for July can be found on the Cotton On Quilters blog here.

8 Random Things

oops, I published this without finishing # 6. See below.

Meggie from Life's Free Treats has tagged me for the 8 Random Things meme, thanks Meggie, you can come on home now :-)

1. When I was about 10 I can remember reading a book and being so involved that when the characters said they had to wait until tomorrow to do something I put my book down and got off the bed, thinking I would have to wait until tomorrow to find out what happened next. What a joy (and a "well, doh!" moment) it was to realise that I could keep reading! I love reading. I read every night when I go to bed. I can't bear not having a pile of books waiting to be read.

2. I learned to use a sewing machine when I was a kid by sewing hems on torn up sheets for hankies. Now the kids use only tissues (supplied by moi of course) and seem to need to leave the room every time they want to wipe their nose. When did I miss this becoming a socially unacceptable activity?

3. I hate my pin container to have anything but pins in it. (You will know this already if you have been a regular reader of my blog.)

4. I'm in love with my coffee machine. (Again, discernible from a previous blog post.) In second place is my dishwasher.

5. About 25 years ago I spent the enormous sum of $750 on a dress outfit. I still can't believe I did it. (Profligacy has NOT waned, though.) It was gorgeous. (And that's not counting the other one I paid $500 for - yikes!)

6. My son was born 4 weeks early, while we were away on holiday, undiagnosed extended breach birth ending in an emergency caesarian, and yes, my waters broke in the wee small hours

To continue, my waters broke in the wee small hours of the morning and by the time I got to the hospital it was pouring out (do you really want to know this?) and daylight had arrived. I remember getting out of the car and looking up at the building and hoping, fervently, no one was watching. I've had only one child so I guess it is predictable that I'm going to remember EVERYHING about his birth. There is more gory detail but you have probably had "enough already".


7. I have NEVER dyed my hair.
8. I once embarrassed myself highly when I attended a vice-versa party at a rugby club (a rugby club! I hate rugby - what was I thinking? oops, very unpatriotic to not like rugby) without dressing up as the opposite gender. I headed to the loo marked "ladies", which of course turned out to be the "mens" - they had switched the signs because we were supposed to have switched gender. If I could have fitted through the window I would have climbed out and quietly gone my way (and that was in my skinny days). When I finally emerged it was to a sea of faces ALL LOOKING AT ME!

I'm supposed to tag 8 other bloggers so if I tag you and you don't like tags, or you have done it before, feel free to ignore!

In no particular order:

Helen Conway of From Down The Well. Helen, you make me laugh!

Teodo from Appunti Patch. Teodo I love having the Italian perspective.

Kirsty from Two Time Leaves. Kirsty, you have probably been tagged a zillion times already but I gotta love your byline (opinionated quilt designer with a limited attention span seeks validation…) and your zany sense of humour. Your quilts are pretty alright too :-)

My good friend Janice from Quilts, Grandkids & Delphiniums. Janice you inspire me SO much.


Oops, clicked "publish post" by mistake and I've only got to 4!


Megan from The Scent Of Water. Megan, your photography is wonderful and your words even better.

Helen from Pixie Post. Helen, I enjoy your comments on life's joys and struggles.

Margaret from MG Quilts. Margaret, I see a quilt in every photo you post. I want to make them all!

May Britt from Abyquilt. May Britt, you live in the land of my forefathers. I'm glad to 'know' you.

Power Quilting (of the candle kind)

It is the middle of winter and we had a 5 and half hour power cut last night from 4.30 pm until 10.05 pm. (It gets dark about 5.30 pm at this time of year.) It makes sewing a challenge! I have a new appreciation for how our fore-mothers coped with less than ideal conditions. The machine was out, the iron was out, precision rotary cutting was out, hand sewing ruled. Could I do some hand applique on the raffle quilt? No I could not! The lighting was really bad, my stitches would have been of the frogging type (rip it, rip it, rip it - you get the idea). What could I do while I was sitting in the dim light of a few candles? Aha! I had some berries to prepare for the raffle quilt. I had the cardboard circles already cut out and it only required rough cutting of the fabric. If I held the cardboard circle on top of the fabric I could see well enough to cut a rough circle. Threading the needle was interesting. I abandoned the small needle I usually use and used the longer large-eyed needle that JUST HAPPENED TO BE SITTING IN MY PIN CUSHION by my chair (lucky, eh!) Then I held the needle in the circle of light cast by the candle and voila, I could get it threaded. Doing a running thread wasn't as difficult as threading the needle and I managed to get 21 berries prepared:
They just need starching and pressing now.

More Country Quilting

Frances and I went out to Janice's yesterday so Frances could have a go on the quilting frame. We were going to take Lorraine with us but we couldn't get her to answer the door. We thought she must be having a really good sleep but it turned out she had ended up in hospital in the wee hours of the morning. What a bummer. She is home now but is awaiting surgery. I hope she doesn't have to wait too long.

Frances decided to quilt the top she made last year at our club's mystery half-nighter. She thinks it is too bright but I think it is just great. I think she is going to give it to her nephew.

Frances pinning on her quilt:

Still pinning the quilt!
Getting underway:
What happened here? Are there any technical-minded quilters out there who can explain how this happens?
The back of the quilting:
Finally finished:
Pretty good for a first effort I thought. I just lazed around while Frances did all the hard work. I was going to do some hand applique on the club raffle quilt but France's daughter Amy came out with baby Georgia Rose to see what we were getting up to. So I had a lovely time being a pretend grand mother giving her lots of cuddles and kisses and playing on the bed that Janice has in her studio (great idea having a bed in your studio!) In fact I might have fallen asleep if I hadn't had Georgia Rose to keep me entertained. We were joined by Kaz, the German Shepherd, who did a good job of barking when we arrived.

Over The Hump

It is Wednesday night of the last week of the second term and a lovely sense of calmness has descended upon me. The shortest day (but not the coldest, which is usually about 6 weeks after the shortest) has come and gone, the reports are done and I finished some other paperwork deadlines today at work (tedious marking and self evaluations and all that stuff) and written my piece for the next club newsletter. There are only 2 more days of term and we are halfway through the year! Over the hump! Holiday time! Yipee!

I'm going shopping on Saturday, using Janice's quilting machine on Sunday, taking my Thai homestay to the airport on Monday, Club day on the next Saturday, committee meeting Tuesday after that, picking up new homestay from Vietnam (well he's from Vietnam, I'm picking him up from the airport), working on the raffle quilt, using Janice's quilting machine, working on a quilt for a challenge, sewing curtains for the laundry, using Janice's quilting machine, finishing the attic window community quilt (which only needs the binding hand sewn), catching up on reading and commenting on blogs, using Janice's quilting machine, planning next term's work clean the house, tidying the sewing area, using Janice's quilting machine - all in two weeks. Did I say a sense of calmness had descended?


Another view of that wonderful walking foot:

Look What I've Got!

My very friendly sewing machine mechanic found this to fit my 1963 Singer 201:
It's a walking foot! Who would have thought that a walking foot was available to fit a machine this old!! I certainly didn't but it works a treat and has made my quilting life a whole lot easier - thanks Hugh! You know my Elna died and I haven't got it fixed yet. In between deciding what to do about it the place where I was going to send it closed and all Elna business in New Zealand has been taken over by Janome. The Elna machines have been produced by the Janome factory for a long time but the businesses were still separate. At least know when I decide I can afford to get it fixed I can take into my local Janome shop and they will send it away!! In the meantime I can sew a seam, quilt with a walking foot and free-motion quilt. No fancy stitches though! A friend has loaned me her spare machine so at least I can do zigzag on that.

Sewing wise I haven't done much after the coffee moment of last week, except I have finished sewing the vine onto the second border of the raffle quilt for Cotton On Quilters. Frances finished the second corner block. Progress photos are here.

A Coffee Moment I DIDN'T Need!

What a day!

I spilt coffee over my form class' school reports today. Eek, a swear word did leave my lips, but not the really bad one. Our students take 7 subjects, each one has a report on half an A4 sized sheet of paper, plus a cover sheet. I was sorting and reading through 25 students worth of them when my elbow knocked my coffee over. Well, I mean I didn't ASK my elbow to do it did I? Nothing for it but to type up a note to attach to them (apologising and asking for them to be reprinted) and put them back in the other teachers' pigeon holes. We did manage to save a large portion of them but there are about 70 to be reprinted. So I won't be flavour of the month but at least they are done on the computer and not hand-written. And why did Helen have coffee near her reports? I hear you ask. 'Cos it was my non-contact period and I had duty in the next break. A gal needs her caffeine fix!

On a quilty note I have been working on our club's raffle quilt. We are doing "Passing Fancy" by Kim Deihl from her book Simple Traditions (used with permission). I have hand appliqued the vine and stems on one side border and this is what it looks like (the colour isn't good):

Flowers, leaves and berries need to be added (and 3 more to be done). Frances has done one of the corner blocks and you can see this on our club blog here. I have done part of another corner block but Frances has taken it away to finish the leaves and berries for me. Progress is being made.

Quilting In The Country (again!)

On Saturday I went out to Janice's to learn how to load the 3 layers of a quilt on her Swiftquilter frame. I had a ball and only made a bird's nest once from forgetting to put the presser foot down. You can see a picture of me fixing it here. (I won't tell you how many needles I broke - suffice to say I owe Janice a new packet!) Janice wasn't feeling the greatest and pottered about working on her raffle quilt blocks.

I used a quilt top I had pieced from a whole lot of 2 1/2" squares I had cut out, years ago, of furnishing fabric samples and off cuts. These squares were intended to make a colour wash jacket and I had most of them pinned out on a huge piece of newsprint. It was one of the many things I never got finished. I had pulled them off the paper and had sewn them together in random (not colourwash) pairs. There they sat. With our club doing the Community Quilts project I pulled them out a couple of months ago and sewed them into 16 patch units. I finally got them together in an attic window setting. Not the greatest quilt in the world (in fact I think it is pretty ugly) but perfect for practicing some meander quilting:

Janice tells me I had the backing rolled the wrong way around, but it didn't seem to cause too many problems. I managed the edge quilting better than last time. I didn't quite get the whole lot finished in one day so out I went again on Sunday to finish it off.

The last run:
The Juki (back view):

Pulling the quilt off the rails (what a great feeling):

The back:

And the coffee was great!

A friend is someone who lets you quilt 2 quilts on her brand new equipment when she has done only one! At the end of the month Janice is going away for 5 weeks and has given me a key to her quilting studio! Coincidentally I have 2 weeks holiday starting the day after she and Terry leave. I can go out and practice machine quilting to my heart's content. Thank you, Janice.

"You've Come A Long Way Baby"

I have been thinking about how I got started quilting. I have been patchworking and quilting in some form or other since I was in my teens. My first effort was a 'quilt' made from left over dressmaking fabrics. My sister and I used to sew all our own clothes in those days. I cut 8 inch squares from mostly brown, burgundy and blue suiting weight fabric (of plains, stripes and checks - plaids to the USA) and sewed them altogether with a 5/8" seam. There was no pattern. It was huge, heavy and never got any further than the "flimsy" stage. But I remember being very proud of myself that I had made it so big and I can remember listening to Simon & Garfunkle's Sounds of Silence on the radio when I was sewing it. I don't know what happened to it. I guess in the end my mother threw it out. Sadly I have no picture of it.

The first time I used "proper" purchased fabric was when I was 18 or 19. I decided to make a cushion cover from these wonderful fabrics. I had no pattern but decided to make up one myself. It too never got past the flimsy stage, but I kept this one (maybe 'cos it was little?) and here it is.

the front (great original pattern huh?):

the back (don't you love those pressed-open 1/2" seams):

and a closeup detail of why adding a seam allowance all around is important (I knew it needed to be added and I did on the horizontal and vertical seams but I forgot about the diagonals of the triangles:


The fabrics coordinate really well don't you think? (One great shade of blue!!) They were purchased when specialty quilting fabric first began to be generally available in New Zealand (I'm talking around 1974/75.) At least I had some idea of light and dark, although not totally successfully because the 4 corner blocks are all the same construction with one half-square triangle and 2 quarter-square triangles. The last picture is closer to the real colour.

Community Quilts Stacked!

It was Community quilt hand-in day at club last Saturday. We got 52 quilts for distribution, which is an awesome effort. To see the quilts displayed around at the meeting visit our Cotton On Quilters blog here. You can also see the Show & Tell photos.

This is what 52 community Quilts look like stacked up on a bed. Don't they look great!

Today is a public holiday, Queen's Birthday (although it is not the Queen's actual birthday - very good of her to give us a day off though). I am having a sewing day at my house with some good friends. Which is great 'cos it made me do some tidying (how long will that last?). Janice has just arrived so I'm off to have some fun.

The Pin Container . . .

Well, here it is. It really isn't much to look at but I love it. It is round, which makes putting the lid on easier. It has that little pin cushion on the lid, which gives me somewhere to put the hand sewing needles. It is just the right size to fit next to my machine (that's the one that isn't going, by the way, and which I haven't yet made a decision about). The lid is indented and to replace the crumbling foam rubber that was originally there I cut a circle of card the right size and a circle of fabric bigger and ran a gathering thread around the fabric. I stuffed it with a scrap of batting, gathered the fabric around the card, tied it off and glued it in place.

It will probably shatter apart if I drop it on something hard because that hard plastic gets brittle with age. Perhaps I should be hunting the second hand shops for another one?? I don't think I've seen this type of container in the shops for a long time. Okay, that does make me sound sad, doesn't it?

It is a bit bereft of pins at the moment. I have some new ones to put in, somewhere . .

I'm Done Cutting!

I've finished the cutting. The piles at the top are for the flower applique. The cream piles in the middle are for the blocks, with background fabric placed on top of each pile. The skinny pile to the right is for the berries and the green pile at the bottom is for the leaves. I am tired!

I will post a picture of my little pin container tomorrow since some of you are interested. I need to wait for the camera batteries to recharge!

In reply to Tanya, my organisational skills are wafting their way to you via the ether, right now!