Saturday 22 February 2014

Painting, quilting and sweltering!!

Oh my goodness, it has been so hot here this week...we have had about four straight days with the temps in the early 30's Celsius.  I guess it is not that hot in the scheme of things like Australia, but we had winter here about 10 days ago.  These hot days are a bit of a surprise and the humidity is much higher than we are used to in Hawkes Bay.

Been a busy girl this week, what with the new exercise regime...I am just loving the swimming.  Went for a 2km walk yesterday but my body did not like the hard surface.  With quilting on top of the walk it was not nice by nightime.  Oh well, aches and pains become a part of your life as the deterioration increases!!! lol.

Managed to get this lovely summery quilt of Sue's finished today.  The pattern is "Tickle Too" and it is just perfect for this quilt.  Sue had done square corners (not sure what you call them actually) and I had never quilted these before. I had about six different threads spread out on the quilt while I auditioned them and settled on a lovely So Fine blue 473 (I think).


All set to go!


The square corner.  I tacked them down very close to the edge so they didnt get caught.


The pattern has some lovely swirls and echoes in it and is a pleasure to quilt.


The corner came up perfectly.  I was a little worried about whether the borders were nice and flat, but apart from a little bit of movement they came out well.

The back looks good too.  I used Bottomline Sage green which was soft enough to sit with the blue without any pokies.


One more view.  I am sure Sue will be pleased with this quilt.  The border fabric is a lime green stripe with a dark green.  It definitely makes the eyes go awol!!

Just to finish my day off I went home and helped Kerry with the house painting.  I have been doing a couple of doors inside that never got finished.  One more to go plus one set of wardrobe doors.  Oh, and the frame around the front door....oh and maybe the back door too!!! That's the thing with old houses, there is always something to do.

In January my friend Eve gave me a plant that she called a "Blood Lily" which had very large green leaves that were similar in shape to Dumbo the Elephant's ears.  They died off and then it just sat there looking odd for the last few weeks.  Evidently they dont flower until the leaves die and then these funny little red things started poking up and turned into the flowers below.  Interesting, but quite small in comparison to the leaves.





Well that's my lot for tonight.  I need to try and get to bed and sleep instead of being so hot you wrestle around for hours as I  am on projection tomorrow at church.  Last  minute call to help.  If I am too tired who knows what they may end up singing...lol.

Thanks for reading and catch you all later.

Blessings
Clare










Sunday 16 February 2014

Pictures at Last

Life has been busy.  Had a great day at Otane on Saturday where I got lots and lots of stitching done, especially on those projects in my "Finish List"  lol.

Here are the quilts I got done last week.  The exact same pattern, just different fabrics:


This one is made from French General fabrics.  Linda has made these quilts for her kids.


The pattern is Effervesence and I used Magnifico thread...Snow Goose from memory.


The back looks really good too.


The second one was in these lovely pastel girly colours.  Was so lovely to quilt.

Pattern on this one is Pretty Penny.  Nice big pattern and looks just right I think.


Another close up just cause I can and too tired to write much tonight :)



The back looks awesome too.  Used a King Tut variegated thread on this one with the light teal on the back giving two quilt looks.

Off to bed lovely people.  Will fill you in on my busy days later in the week.  Hope you all have an awesome Monday.  I have to be at the pool at 8am!!!!

Blessings
Clare








Thursday 13 February 2014

That "ex" Word

It's just all too much friends....I have started to exercise again!  There is no hiding the fact that I have a very on/off relationship with exercise.  It is something I NEED to do, but do I really WANT to do it?  Not really....lol.  The only problem is that as I begin to get into it, I love it and actually DO start to feel much better.  Oh dear, what a conundrum.

My friend Rae and I have decided to help each other and we are going to the pool twice a week and floor type exercises one other day.  On top of that, we are going to encourage each other, and perhaps even eat very healthy food!  Of course, if we keep it up, we will both lose some weight (needs to happen) and continue to feel much healthier and happier...  Mmmm.  Watch this space.

Photos....still not working properly with my phone.  Have to go back and talk to someone else and hope that they know something!  The last person didnt.

Am on the second of two quilts for my client Linda.  I have taken some photos of the first one and will take more tomorrow when I finish the second and will use my good old camera.  Shall go back to the old fashioned way.  These two quilts

both have different pantos, but are the same pattern different fabric.  They are quite different but look equally lovely.

Will post the photos tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of quilts from the past...well....my past :)


This medallion has been waiting for quilting for a long time.  I designed it about 10 years ago.  It's still nice, just never got to the top of the quilting pile.

This was a panel that we had in our shop that wasnt selling, so I made up a sample quilt then couldnt keep up with the demand for kits!  It was sold and sent to Columbia!!

Thanks for reading and see you all again soon.

Blessings
Clare

Sunday 9 February 2014

I Did It!!

Technology is so wonderful when it is working.  My phone has decided to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things, so I cannot get my photos off it.  I will take some with the camera tomorrow and then things will come back to normal.

Have been busy doing all sorts of ordinary things like painting doors.  Kerry has been working on finishing the back porch area and the cats have been luxuriating in the front bedroom keeping out of the rain.

I finished my modern quilt and have made some progress on the finish list quilts.  Only two more blocks to finish blanket stitching around and that's it.  Yippee.

By the way...the "I Did it" bit is that I finally made a decision on my hair and have had a new hair cut.  Photos tomorrow!!

I will talk to you again tomorrow when I have some photos to share with  you.

Blessings
Clare