Frogs, farmyard friends, some excitement and some sadness...

Gosh, it has been a busy time here and getting time to post has been very tricky.  I quilted this lovely wee cot quilt for Rosie last week.  She wanted some basic custom quilting and it has come up really nicely.  A bit tricky with the embroidery blocks as they have a thickish pellon behind them.  Ruler work was a bit dicey.

I used So Fine 402 Cream which is one of my favourite colours.

They are such cute looking animals.

Each one is beautifully hand stitched.

Don't their patches make them look extra cute as well?  Rosie just wanted a large heart in the four patch.  It worked well.

My friend Lorraine came through on Friday to pick up her gorgeous quilt which you can see here 
and brought her froggie quilt up for a little "basting" which turned into quilting the borders and sashing for her lol.  It was such fun though and Lorraine will finish it off herself.

Yummy colours, all batiks.

Used a lovely King Tut in jade greens but have forgotten the number.

It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon, and Lorraine did bring lunch!  Yummy cottage pie.

The sad part of this post is on Thursday we had to say goodbye to our old cat Oscar.  We adopted him when we moved to this house 10 years ago and he has had a good time with us.  Age caught up with him.
Oscar (the light ginger cat) was good mates with Tyson.

Farewell old friend.  Life will be different.

To makes us smile, isn't this a gorgeous picture of my great granddaughter Tiana who lives in Perth, Australia.  I have yet to meet this precious wee girl, but gosh, she looks so like her Dad.  She was out with her Nana, my daughter Janeen. It just does not feel right saying all that...I feel far too young for those titles to be used...lol.

Then the said Tyson cat decided to try and fit into the folded towel...

I wonder if anyone can see me?   Hmmmm.....

And now for the EXCITEMENT!!!!!.  We sold our house tonight and will be on the move!!! Oh my gosh and the scariest part is moving day is only TWO WEEKS AWAY.  Screaming here and running around in circles.  What have we done?  On top of that I have a quilting weekend at the shop ALL THIS WEEKEND!  Oh well, it will make for a very interesting two weeks.  Just dont expect too many posts please friends, and oh yes, did I mention I still have customer quilts to get done in amongst all this.  There  might be a few night shifts about to happen here.

However, we are very thankful for answered prayers and things will work out. They always do.

Take care and see you again soonish...
Blessings
Clare

Pretties Scrap quilt just needs borders..my tea cozy...

Last week was not a good one for my own patchwork progress.  Apart from cutting out the blocks for my Paper Bag Challenge on Friday, nothing happened!  My excuse is that I was exhausted from that black quilt, and that's what I will stick too.
However, come Sunday and I thought I had better get  my act together if I wanted to get onto that lovely new baby fabric!  So plod away I did as I watched the documentary on Nancy Wake and her amazing war exploits in France.  Awesome and extremely brave lady. So all the rows are now together and looking good. I did try to photograph this properly, but you will have to speak to Tyson about this, vbg...

Tyson's claws are extremely large and very sharp, so did not want to risk trying to remove him.  He was so positive that a) it was his quilt to try out and 2)  I think she wants to play with me!!  LOL.  Now it is on to the borders - there are three to go on.
 We spent the day in Napier on Saturday and had a lovely time looking around at Placemakers and Mitre 10 and the different kinds of kitchens available.  We are trying to get some ideas formed on how we will convert the shop building when the time comes.  It plans to start early as there will no doubt be a little to and fro in the discussion of what goes where.  As I said to Kerry, if you just put things where I want them, we will have no hassles.....RFLOL.
And here is another of those blooming cat pics as I forgot to take photos of the quilt I finished and it is bitterly cold outside, so not going over to the shop...sorry.  Of course, for those of you in countries where cold is REALLY cold, we are just a bunch of sooks....it must be all of 3-4C degrees out there, but remember - for us it IS cold.
I did buy Kerry a present - his old drill has died a natural death, so treated him to a lovely new set.  Tyson, of course, thinks all boxes are designed with him in mind.  I was too slow to get the bottoms-up view, but here he is all turned around.  A little tricky to curl up in though....

So we got him another box to sleep in and then it was a case of "no show without Punch" and Travis sulked until he got his box too.

Naturally, the too big cat is in the smaller box, and slightly smaller brother is spread out in the luxury of the larger box....hmmm.
Ok, enough cat pictures.  Here's a photo of this gorgeous tea cozy cover that I picked up at a local church fair for 10cents.  Love it.  I will come back in a day or two with some pics of the last quilt and maybe even the one I am loading now.

Keep warm and thanks for stopping in.

Blessings
Clare

I'm linking to BOM's Monday

The Affair is Over!!!!!

I have finished the black quilt Affair of the Heart and I am totally rapt with the look.  My lovely friend Helen came around with her very good camera and took some "proper" shots for me so you can see the quilting properly.  Here are the photos - lots 'cause I am so happy I want to share...

And here are a couple of close ups...

So there you have it.  This beautiful quilt will go back to Lorraine for the finishing touch and I am so thankful that she challenged me with this amazing quilt. Every other quilt will seem easy I feel.
Today I have done very little.  I loaded a simple little quilt, but didn't have the energy to even turn my machine on...lol.  Tomorrow will do.

Hope your week is going great.  Talk to you again soon.

Blessings
Clare

A Visit to Taupo Quilt Show and a few morsels of fabric....

But they have a designated use.  I found some lovely fabric to make a baby quilt for our grandchild that we will get to meet early next year.  This will be number 15 grandie and it is just as exciting as the first.  These are the fabrics....what do you think?

I am having a hard time keeping my hands off them and would love to start cutting them up right now.  But we must be strong here....finish something first Clare I told myself firmly.  Darn it, I had better get back to that Pretties quilt and finish putting those last rows together...they are all sewn, just need to be joined. Then this lovely wee owl fabric reached out and took my hand....it is so sweet, maybe it could be a nappy bag or something.

Don't you just love these elephants, giraffes and birds sitting on the hippopotomus' bottom?  There is a head to the hippo, but this is my all new try a different angle type of photography...cool eh?

Yesterday morning I hitched a ride to Taupo with my friend Catherine and her hubby Paul.  The day was quite wet and miserable, so it was a good day to go to a quilt show.  While Paul chatted away to various people, Catherine and I did the rounds of the quilts with our "expert" eye...lol.  There were some nice quilts and I finally remembered to take some photos, but I need to learn to hold steady as there were a few fuzzy ones...sorry about that.

This quilt with large daisy flowers was striking.  My friend Linda from Razzle Dazzle Quilter did the awsome quilting on it.  Then I did love this one made from lots of Kaffe Fasset fabrics with Suffolk Puffs of all different sizes....fun.

Aren't they just so gorgeous.  Not sure if I would have the patience to make them all, but I love ém. I thought this was lovely too and very nicely made.

   Isn't this a lovely quilt too.  I am rather taken with the flowers and the stems of course are made from ric rac which looks great.

This is one of the challenge entries which I thought was just so clever.  The theme was the 25th anniversary of the Taupo Quilt Makers.  This quilter made this realistic looking cake, the candles and a larger quilt plus a miniature one.  So well done.

After a visit to Linda once we had feasted on quilts, we headed back home to Waipukurau.  We stopped at this posh restuarant in Hastings for late lunch come dinner - just trying to think of its name...it begins with M and has this great big sign outside with a yellow M on it....oh I remember now....McDonalds...vbg.

Today after church we were going to have lunch at our favourite place in Waipawa, when Mr Moore plaintively said,  "I wouldn't mind McDonald's"  Well, what could I say...you now know that I have had two helpings of junk food this weekend!  Both from the same posh restuarant too!!!!!!

The good side of ending up in Hastings was that I went to see if my favourite hairdresser was on duty today.  Yay....she was...Hinnepare is so good with my hair and I was really happy to have a good haircut finally after the last disaster.  As I was leaving the Plaza, bumped into friend Marie.  Had a lovely chat and I asked her to take a photo of my haircut, then in return I took a photo of Marie to put on here....we both talked about hating to have our photos taken, but what the heck.  Have decided at my age I don't care anymore!! My hair is till wet so does look a bit funny and oh my goody gumdrops do I see some white showing there!!  Eeek.

Doesn't she look so lovely, I think so.  Well, after a couple  more stops at exciting places like Mitre 10 and Jaycar for man stuff, we cruised home.  A jolly lovely weekend with not much work done by me.  Back to the heart quilt tomorrow...I have finished all the blocks and will be starting on the 3 borders left in the morning.
The end is in sight.

So that's the big catch up.  I hope you have enjoyed this very long post...it's a bit of a saga, but then my whole life has been a saga.  We are all on a journey aren't we?

Have an awesome week and may you have many blessings along the way.

Clare

Hearts are back and a scrap or two...

Yesterday I finally reloaded the Affairs of the Heart quilt, but my head was still too mushy to cope with a black background.  I was pleased just to have it reload without any hitches and for it to be nice and straight.  Instead, after spending quite a bit of time chatting to Eve and Lorraine while they stitched and I sat,  I decided that I should be doing something.  Bad idea when you are suffering from mushy brain!

I know, my brain thought, let's make another Farmers Wife block.  Bad move Clare.  After finally getting all the pieces cut out with only four mistakes, I happily stitched this block together(with a little unpicking here and there.)  Plonked it down on the table and guess what!  Had one of the HST's upside down.  Oh dear, mushy brain is no fun.  This morning I decided to get it fixed straight away during my first 10 minute quilting break.

It still looks a bit hairy, but I not doing no more to it!!!  That background fabric frays like crazy too.

I was really rapt to get a whole row of hearts quilted today.  That only leaves one more row before the last three borders. One of these blocks was really finicky, but it came out well.

This shows the detail in the v shaped black that needed to be flattened.  Quilte pleased how this one turned out.

After finishing with quilting for the day I decided to be good and trim a few HST's from my box of offcuts from those flip corners while waiting for Kerry to finish up.  The box is getting a bit full.  Decided maybe if I trimmed 20 a day I would get on top of them???

The finished ones are definitely growing in number...lol. Maybe this mushy brain can become permanent (vbg)

And to finish off here is Hamish with his birthday cake last week.  Dayn said it wasn't actually as big as it looks, but the look on his face is good!!

Thanks for popping in.  I hope your week is going really well.

Hugs and blessings,
Clare

The Russian Doll quilt and scraps...

Here we are again, Sunday evening and the beginning of another week in the morning.  So incredible to think we are now into the second half of the year...oh my.

I had a good week in amongst the coughing from this flu and managed to get another quilt done.  This one is my friend Felicity's and is a yummy scrap quilt with Russian Dolls in the centre block.  I emailed Felicity that her quilt was ready to pick up, but she thought it was a bit too far to come from Yorkshire, England!!!  LOL.  Well, I suppose she is right and I will see her when she comes back home.

 I used a  lovely King Tut variegated thread 917 that just looks great over all these colours.

The pattern is Passion Fruit by Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting.  It is really sweet and easy to do.

The colours are just gorgeous in this quilt.

And a sweet backing fabric to complete the look.  Nice one Fliss, I enjoyed quilting your quilt.  Now you know which one it is (vbg as Felicity reads my blog regularly).

Yesterday my friend Eve and I spent quite some time adding a border to a quilt we are going to give to a couple from church that have left.  Unfortunately we ran out of fabric and willl have to go hunt for a bigger piece that matches well.  I spent an hour or so making the extra blocks for the outside row of my Pretties  quilt and hope to make the last four rows in the next day or so.

Monday I think it will be putting the Affairs of the Heart quilt back on and hopefully will have it finished by the end of the week.  It has been a lovely lazy Sunday with Church first thing and then brunch.  Afternoon tea with our friends and now a relaxing time in front of the telly.

By the way, the design Cool Bears that I used earlier this week on Jude's quilt is by Apricot Moon designs and was printed by The Quilt Connection.

Talk to you all again soon.  Take care.

Blessings
Clare

The Pretties Scrap quilt plus a modern look...

Well I have survived my flu and am starting to come right.  Thank you for your well wishes and prayers, they were most appreciated.
I plodded away at the Pretties Scrap quilt, some days unpicking as much as I stitched, but I won in the end.  The top is now half way together and it does look gorgeous still.   I am already thinking about quilting designs.

 I have been very strong with myself and just put my hand in each bag of Block A or Block B without looking.  It surprises me how good it has come out doing this.

Plodded away over the last couple of days and basted and removed the applique quilt as my eyes couldn't handle the black yet.  Popped on this very modern looking lap quilt that is being sent off to Australia for Jude's son in law.  It has come up really nice.

I used a pattern I have had for a while but not used called "Cool Beans" but I have forgotten the designer.  Will let you know next blog.

The thread is Superior's Magnifico in a gorgeous dark jade green.  It stands out nicely and gives good texture.

On the back is a lovely green fabric that is much more apple/limey green not the jade colour that this photo shows.

and last but not least...please hold this up for me dear hubby!! I need an outside shot and the ground is wet.

Happy to have got something done.
Weather is extremely chilly but we are much better off than a lot of the country which is getting a good snowing. The fire is roaring so we are real cosy.

Catch you again soon.  Thank you for coming by.

Blessings
Clare