Tuesday 31 March 2015

Hexagon Quilt finished & a busy time...

Hi everyone, sorry it has been an age since I posted and lo and behold, tomorrow is April.  Life has been very busy with our two great grandsons born at 30.2 weeks in Wellington due to a lack of incubators in the Waikato.  I travelled down to support Tonya and the babies were born about an hour after I got to the hospital. The littlest boy (Jayden) was 1.1 kg (approx 2.4 lbs) and the bigger twin (Jordan) was 1.9 kg (approx 4 lbs).  Although the little one was struggling to grow, he is now doing extremely well and the bigger twin is still needing a little help with his breathing. Both are feeding well, although still via a tube.  Tonya loves the tummy time she has with each twin.  They have definitely grown as we were down a week after they were born and I could see the difference.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

I finally managed to finish Lyn's fabulous hexagon quilt.  Here are a couple of photos, but my best ones are on my tablet and I have to buy a new cord before I can take them off.  Loved quilting this one.

I used my favourite So Fine 402 Pearl, which looked great over all the colours and the background too.  Lyn made each flower from her scraps, but used the same colour in each flower.  Looks awesome.
Did a free motion leaf  feather around the brown inner border of hexagons and used a Magnifico thread in brown.


A close up of the flower.  Very basic but looks good and so easy to do.  Chose the leaf design in the background as it gave such good motion to the quilt.  The outer border was a creamy/tan paisly pattern and I did a McTavishing type quilting on that.  Will post a picture soon.  All in all, this quilt came up beautifully and it was a pleasure to quilt, thanks Lyn.

On our way back from Wellington the first time (when the babies were born) I stopped to take this photo.  Have always had an urge to do this, ha ha.  Lynda took the photo for me.  Lynda is DIL Kea's mum who came at a moments notice on the drive with me to keep me company.  We also had great fun admiring our granddaughter Marcy, as we stayed with Richard and Kea.

It was very kind of them to name this spot after me, lol.  It sports a great bakery, and a couple of other minor industries.  A little further up the road is the A & P Showgrounds.  As a young girl/teenager, I used to play hockey there. Ouch, lots of sore ankles come back into memory.

That's it for now girls.  I am rather tired at the moment and need to catch up on beauty sleep.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and that you are able to spend time with your families.  May you also have time to reflect on the amazing free gift that was given to us all through Jesus and the cross.

Hugs and blessings to you all,
Clare

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Hexagons, washing machines and bits & pieces...

Good grief, now it's March.  What happened I ask.  Hmmmm.   Well, we have been plodding on with the renovations and I can now report the most interesting washing  machine plumbing that you would have seen for a while...lol.  Dh is so inventive!!!


Well, you have to agree, it certainly makes life interesting, and we are definitely going to appreciate the finished bathroom and laundry.  Last night I needed to wash my hair, so knelt in front of the shower base and Kerry held the shower rose while I did the shampooing and conditioning.  We at least found out that the plumbing works.  Gonna be nice to have walls on the shower though...hehehe.
I am working on a hexagon quilt and it has been a bit of a mission deciding on the pattern.  I decided to use this flower and then had to play around with what to do in the plain muslin hexagons between the flowers.  This leafy style gives lots of movement, and I really happy with it.  Now to just do it.

I have started on the border and took my design from the border fabric.  It has paisley shapes and all sorts of other interesting things so "McTavishing" it was.  Lots of fun.  In the brown hexagon frame I am planning to do a freehand leaf feather.  Will take some more photos as I go.


I did manage to get an other block done in my Farmers Wife... maybe I have already shown you this one.  Also completed the bowtie block but forgot to take a photo.  Wow, only 99 to go now!

This is a truly gorgeous block.  It is called spider legs.  A quilt done in this would be quite stunning, but would take quite a bit of patience.  Mind you, once you get the hang of the block it's not so bad.

Had a very busy day/week. We had a visit from Linda of razzle dazzle quilter and Peggy from Taupo called in to see us too.  What a lovely time we had talking at 90 miles an hour.  We lingered over a delicious lunch at the Zinc Cafe in town.  The girls then went back to Napier and attended the SoleMio concert the next evening.  Wonderful I'm told.

Our granddaughter who is expecting twins in May has been admitted to hospital today and they may have to be delivered early (28 weeks). The experts are still mulling it over.  Do hope they can keep them growing for a little bit longer, but depends on them both being safe.

Thanks for stopping by.  Would appreciate your prayers for the babies.

Blessings,
Clare