One step closer - but not quite a finish

Even though my quilting progress the last couple of weeks has been mostly FM quilting... which doesn't translate well to impressive progress shots... I started to get quite excited when it appeared that I was approaching the "last corner".  I even made a bit of a schedule, hoping that I could finish that last corner and head off to my LQS to attend their monthly stitching day on the last Saturday of the month.  It all worked out, with the last few stitches done on Thursday and Nana agreeing that she could look after the kids for a few hours.  Woot!  The perfect opportunity to not only buy binding, but maybe even get it sewn on and the hand stitching started.

I love it when a plan all comes together.

The Country Yard even had the perfect binding fabric - a slightly darker grey than the Bella solid background, with yellow, orange and red stars... picks up the bright colours on the front...

And settles down the colours on the back.

OK, yeah, I was well and truly sick of this spiral quilting by the time I was done - this quilt is about 80 x 80" with a lot of background.  But it is a great filler pattern, giving a comprehensively quilted feel, without being too heavy - and still allows good draping.

Progress on the hand stitching will happen in slow bursts.  Summer time in Northland is not the greatest time to sit with a quilt on your lap.  I also have a bit more hand quilting to finish on a couple of stars - although nothing that would stop the quilt from being used.  I haven't made it to The Country Yard for a sewing day since July... it was great catching up, and seeing what everyone was up to.  Checking out the shop samples, and buying a bit more fabric of course, because what would a trip to a fabric shop be without a little bit of buying?

As I look at this basic quilt layout, I wonder if this scattered block idea would work for my odd bundles of fat quarters that I am determined to create something "useful" out of.  I have a granny square block playing around in my head... along with a million and one other ideas.  With this making it's way off my quilting pile, it is also time to think of the next project that needs quilting.  Oh yeah, and then there's Xmas which seems to be hurtling towards us at an amazing rate of knots.

The change in overnight temperatures from winter to summer meant an ideal opportunity to change the quilt on the bed.  Does anyone remember the Made in Cherry sew along a few years ago?

The difference in lighting and flash... I think the true colours are somewhere between these two photos.  Maybe slightly more towards the top photo...

Fabric, Designs and Festivals

First up is a bundle of goodies that made their way home with me from Festival of Quilts.

None of these fat quarters seem to have any writing on their selvedges... but I seem to be a sucker for that yellow green colour at the moment.

Another place had bolt ends for sale... this one just read as "handy to have in stash"...

And so my mind goes back to what to do with a smallish bundle of fabrics...

I've always liked these somewhat random wedges...

And this totally improv quilt also appeals for some reason even though I have never sewn anything improv... and don't really know if I want to.

Both of these designs are from this book:

This neutral based and irregularly designed quilt from Tula's Modern Sampler book has also been a favourite.  Although it does remind me that my rainbow version is still sitting unquilted :o(

And this Elizabeth Hartman design uses 8 x 1/4 yards, plus 8 solids and neutral background.

All something to think about while I focus on what I am really supposed to be doing (which is actually housework... but you win some/you lose some).

And now for a few more quilts that caught my eye at the exhibition:

I don't know whether it is the design of this one...

or the scrummy fabrics... or the hand quilting...

This little wall hanging was just perfect.  Colourwise and designwise.

These quilts are just magic... and I particularly like the hints of aqua fabric in the background position.

  Oh yeah, and that quilting!

Simple, bold, modern.  With a nod to traditional.  My kind of quilt.

And this little star was 4" I think... hand pieced:

Which just blows your mind when you see the quilt full sized.  Thanks to Charlotte for being the "comparison" to put it into scale.

I am always drawn to the blue quilts... even though this one did start to make my eyes funny after a while.

OK, that's me for a while... back to that pesky housework.

Perfect Time for a Post

Well, everyone in my family have been sent to their rooms... so the house is nice and quiet.  Perfect time to do some composing and catching up.

Last weekend involved a whirlwind trip to Auckland to buy a new vehicle for my husband, after all the dramas he had had with his previous one.  This was a four hour drive one way... with a small amount of test driving in between.  Luckily the car yard was right next to a KFC outlet which had free wifi... so at least the kids were happy.  On the return trip home I sneakily stopped at The Applebasket Patchwork shop and just happened to find some nice fat quarters to add to my collection.

My normal operation of buying is to select fat quarters, who are then introduced to other like minded fat quarters... and one day they make a grouping big enough for a quilt.  This bundle just wanted to stay by themselves... so I've been thinking about different designs that will allow me to use only a small amount of coloured/patterned fabric - and add a whole heap of solid to create a generous bed quilt. 

This elephant gravitated to some other neutrals, but it was just too cute to not take home.

As if one trip to Auckland wasn't enough, this last weekend was the Festival of Quilts, so I joined a small group of friends who traveled down on Sunday to attend.

There were some wonderful quilts on display, and a great selection of merchants.

These were some of the applique quilts that caught my eye, and I apologize for not taking details of the quilt makers... and for some odd photographs shots.

Someone obviously had a lot of fun embellishing these flowers.

These shapes all were blanket stitched in a blending colour, then edge stitched (probably through all the quilting layers) with a heavier black thread, which created a great thick black outline. 

I didn't take a photo of this whole quilt, but again - the embellishing on this was extreme!

This quilt was part of the Recycled category... a wool blanket, appliqued with a drift of flowers to cover moth holes.

More to come...

I also bought some fabric... no surprise there!

Just a wee bit more

It has been good to get just a little bit more done on most of my projects.

I recently read the following lines in a M/M romance novel, and they really hit my "oh yeah" censors...
"We all must make peace with the intersection of our dreams and reality."  From Tight Knit by Annabeth Albert (about a knitting designer and a barista...)

Anyway, I did mention a bit of progress...

 We have a new Starburst Cross block:

This is a hand dye, or a made to look like a hand dye, in a terrific chartreuse shade.  Do not have any idea where it came from, perhaps someone gave it to me???  But it is exactly the perfect match for this printed fabric.

And we have another VQR block:

And Monikas.  We both liked this block because it was easy to sew, but in hindsight, awkward to piece together into a quilt.  It looks clonky joined together, but equally weird imagining sashing.  So a good option for a sampler quilt I think.

My new fabrics are slowly migrating into the sewing cave, and I finally laid out my new Bonnie & Camille fabrics with their corresponding project.  I had been a bit hesitant with these as in my mind they were a lot muddier than the existing fabrics... but I'm sure the picture shows that they will blend in with the other fabrics just fine, even though they are completely different ranges.

I have even done some more FMQ on the Constellation quilt - which hasn't been worked on since Term Two holidays!  So yeah, my dreams and reality are getting a bit closer :o)

A BLIP in the programming

Well, I didn't think it was possible to have a worse school holidays than the previous Term One and Term Two holidays earlier this year.  In fact, Term Three holidays sucked, big time.

First up I got sick.  Real sick.  Lie in bed for days on end sick.  It was really just a coughing sort of flu, high temperature, no appetite and pretty queasy.  But it just went on and on... and I discovered, that if you stopped breathing, you could stop coughing... but of course, you could only do that for so long :o)

Sick enough that staring at this quilt close up made me feel queasy.  All those dots, and speckles and swirls... Now that is real sick.

After the first week, I started to feel a bit better.  We planned a trip to visit Charlotte and her stitch and chat evening - so that hubby and kids could go night fishing while I was otherwise occupied.  I packed an easy project so that it would be mostly a social visit, with a bit of hand stitching to keep occupied.  We started the trip, and called into a nearby supermarket on the way, to buy bait... but when we tried to  re-start our vehicle, it wouldn't go.  Even jump starting it didn't work.  So we waited for over an hour for a tow truck, then made the 45min journey back home.  It was a pretty sucky night, and meant that I didn't have a car for the rest of the holidays.

Then it was back to work last week... and that was the usual week of settling in, and getting back into the rhythm of work and school life.  The first Friday of term four is traditionally Greats and Grands Day at Nadia's primary school.  This year Poppa John (my father) was invited, and he came up for the day and stayed with us over the weekend.  It was a great opportunity to catch up, and he enjoyed spending the time learning about Nadia's school progress.  With pretty much 60 years between them, there is a lot of difference between his schooling and hers.

OK, any sewing being done?  Not here, but Monika did manage to get her version of this block finished.

The different fabric placement makes quite a difference.  In fact, I really have to look and double-check the units to make sure that it is the same.

Term Four goals... I would like to get the rest of the quilting done on my Constellation quilt and maybe even get the binding on, and get a few more of the VQR blocks out of the way.  Also, make some more progress on the Starburst quilt, and get a few more Sugar Club blocks jumbo sized.  Really, just continue with progress made already this year.

Spot the difference

Day One of the Term Three Holidays...
Weather: Raining
Health: Everybody sick in some way or another.
GREAT!

Although progress has been a bit hit and miss... photographic evidence does help.
Spot the difference in these photos:

Just like those old Pantene adds, it might not happen overnight... but it will happen!  The jumbo-sized blocks are growing.

And spot the difference with these ones...

This is called last minute disco dressing up for an underwater theme... thank heavens for left over face paint...

We have a new quilt on the bed: Star Crossed.

This was a quilt I designed for a magazine submission, so was top secret for quite some time.  Then I had a friend who quite liked it, so I was hesitant to use it incase it was going to be sold.  When that fell through, it disappeared into the pile of finished projects.  What do I love most about this quilt?  Probably that because of the variety of backgrounds used it catches the light... sort of looking like it is permanently placed under a tree with the sun filtering through the leaves... Was this planned?  No, just a happy coincidence and unlikely to be repeated successfully.  Also, this quilt was made entirely from stash.  I am both proud and somewhat embarrassed by this.  Did this BUST the stash?... NO it would appear not :o(  Do they ever?

The quilting was simple... stipple and spirals with a hint of hand quilting around the stars.

A moment of weakness and a Moda sale meant a new package arrived in my post box.  These were the stash builders... a variety of mostly monotone prints...

Some Bonnie and Camille florals to add to the mix in the Sugar Block Club BOM triangle production line...

And a few just because...

Do I have goals for these holidays?  I've been thinking about it, and haven't quite decided whether I am ready for goals yet.  Maybe, I'll let you know.