Scrappy Week

I have been tootling away at some more scrappy hearts and hope to have about 20 to send away on Monday.  The response has been overwhelming.  Thanks everyone.
I finished another hat this week.  This one was for my friend Helen, and it was a lovely pattern called Irma by Aneta Gasiorowka, whose Ravelry username is agasi.  It took a little bit of brain work for me to get the hang of it and I was actually amazed that I managed it.  I've never unpicked so much before without chucking it in the corner and leaving it there forever.  However, instead of said throwing out the toys from the cot, I did persevere and it is well worth it.  I even washed and blocked it, something I have never done before.  It was interesting...I watched a clip on YouTube and the knitter suggested using a partly inflated balloon to put the hat on to dry.  What a brilliant idea I thought, and after much scrounging Kerry and I managed to find a balloon that was not perished.  Of course Kerry had to blow it up, as I don't have any puff these days (darn). Next problem - neither of us could tie the blooming thing!!!  So we tied it tightly with a bit of fabric strip.  Later that evening said green balloon had become deflated instead of inflated.  "Nec minute" we found a vase that was shaped like a head.  Popped hat on and went to bed.  Oh dear, the ribbing had ended up on the widest part of the vase and was awfully stretched...  Back to the basin to soak and this time, I laid it flat.  After all this I forgot to take a picture.  This photo is of the one I did just before that for GD Marcy.
Thank you Aneta for such a lovely pattern.

Now my photos don't want to behave and load on my computer so I'm afraid this is all you can have today.  I am working on finishing my next two hexagon blocks in my mystery quilt and need to get a move on before April's arrive.  Trying hard to keep up with this one.  More importantly, need to get the next section done on Danielle's quilt.
Here's a couple of older quilts just because...enjoy.

The quilt above is one of the  very early quilts when I began doing long arm custom quilting and free motion.


The second one is the quilt I made for my granddaughter Olivia.  It was such a happy animal quilt.








Hope life is going well for you all and that you are enjoying some family time over the weekend.
Hugs and blessings to you all

Clare

I'm Linking up to Cynthia's Oh Scrap here and hope you enjoy your visit.

Scrapping away still

I'm not going to talk about the fact that it's already well into March. Much better to talk about fabric and projects and everything else except how fast time flies. That's what you get when you look in the mirror I told  myself.  Just don't look and you wont have to think about it.  LOL.
In my attempt to reduce my stash,  I may have been a little successful since I spoke with you last, because at least I haven't bought any new fabric!!  Progress has been made on a number of projects, and I even dug out some (very) old UFO's and did a little on them.  I had to pinch myself a little at this point.  Hahaha.

The photo to the right shows that I have now laid out the fourth section of Danielle's quilt ready to be sewn up.
Section three has two blocks up on the design wall and the other two have be stitch into rows and just need making into the 2 remaining blocks.
That will just leave the fifth and final section to be done.  Woohoo as they say, sounds like it's almost getting there.  Must not speak too soon just in case.  LOL.















I'm trying to do some each day, but it can be a bit of a struggle some days.  All in good time.  The next three photos are of some eye candy from the Tuesday Girls who have been very busy of late.

This is Lorrie's lovely Christmas Redwork wall hanging.  It is really pretty.

Lorraine is doing a Boston Commons using hexagons.  These are quite large hexagons for Lorraine.  Often she is working with little tiny things that can barely be held in one's hand.  Mad, I think, LOL.  It's certainly going to be a beautiful quilt.  The fabrics are all French General scraps that Lorraine was gifted.

Not sure if I have already mentioned this quilt before but this is Lynn's Pies and Tarts quilt that looks fabulous.  It was interesting choosing the correct binding colour and I found a delicious rusty red in my stash that was perfect.

I have gifted my pile of completed pies and tarts and the cut out pieces and fabric etc to a quilter who needed it a lot more than I did.  I had to take a look at how important this quilt was to me in relation to my health issues and decided I did not want to continue with it.  Feeling really happy with that decision, and it has allowed me to continue on with other projects that need to be finished.

This is the first two blocks in the mystery quilt I am doing with Quilters Lane in Masterton.  I chose the Dear Stella colour way as a change for me and just love it so far.  The bestest thing though is it comes already cut.  I just have to sit and stitch it up together.  But guess what... I still only just got them done before the next blocks arrived. What.... that's just sad,  hahaha. Mind you, I had to pull out a few rusty old drawers in the filing cabinet of my brain to remember how to get these stitched up properly.  (whispering - I had to unpick a LOT...lol)  To change the subject....

This little quilt appeared in post here a while back and a couple of friends had suggested I make it bigger.  I'm never too sure what to do with little quilts, and the fabrics were not suitable to donate it as a baby quilt.  So I have added on a small frame and another floral border so far.  Have another floral border but with different flowers cut from the same striped fabric so will put in another lighter frame and put that one on too I think.  Then I will have to decide what to do with it from there as it will probably end up neither one thing or the other.  Might have to ask if anyone would like it and send it off somewhere to live happily ever after!!









So that's about it here for now,  thanks a heap for popping in and reading about my crazy life.  My health has been great the past two to three weeks and New Zealand has been sitting under this ginormous high and the air pressure has been so good for me. Now it's back to reality as this dratted little low came by and moved it out the road.  Okay, I know we all needed the rain, but gosh it was fun while it lasted.  Ignoring the fact that winter is definitely coming with the cooler autumn nights and mornings we are now having and realising the other side of the world is very happy about that.  Oh well.  See you again soon.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

I have linked to Confessions of a Scrap Quilter here enjoy your visit.
Also linked to Oh! Scrap here for even more scrappy goodness.

The end of 2018

Thought I had better try and catch up with you all before the year is gone.  November/December have been hard months for me health wise and I got back home for Christmas on Christmas Eve Day.  Yay, thank you Lord.  Spent Christmas with some of our family.  Photos coming.
Might not be a lot more posts in 2019, we will see what progress I can make.  However, there is still a strong urge to kill that stash, so I'm hoping to do a little more stitching yet.  Hoping to infect (lol) one of my granddaughters with the bug as much interest is being shown.
Have started to assemble Danielle's quilt at last and did get three blocks worth together before crashing.  Today is when I'm feeling like stitching again, yippee.... so onwards and upwards people.
Now for some photos to finish the year off.

The two blocks

Danielle's blocks - one has fallen down and all the stuff has been plonked in front of my design wall.  Sorry, but you get a vague idea.
Colours are looking great.

This is Meg from our Tuesday Group who does the most amazing handwork.  Sorry about the light behind the quilt.  Meg has also done numerous hexagon quilts of all types.

This is our family at home between Christmas and New Year.  My daughter Rebecca is standing in front of her 6' 5" son Bradley along with her three beautiful daughters.  My eldest son Daryll is sitting beside me and my sister Joy has my grandson Hamish on her knee.  Love this photo except by beautiful daughter in law Dayn is taking the photo.

 On the way home Rebecca met up with her youngest brother Richard, wife Kea and daughter Marcy in Napier.  Glad they had a chance to catch up as they live in opposite ends of the country.

Suzy's quilt got finished before Christmas.  She was so completely blown away that it was hers to take away and have. I must acknowledge with such grateful thanks my helper Lynn Murphy for making and stitching on the binding for me.

Forgot to take a close up of the quilting which was a beautiful big daisy pattern.  Long arm quilter was Gael Byrne from the Quilting Shed in Hastings.  Made an awesome job and loved the way she put the red thread front and back.  It gave a fabulous two sided effect, and I jolly well forgot to take a photo!!!!

This is one of my favourite finishes for 2018.  This quilt was totally made from scraps and stash - oops, I forgot - I bought the green sashing as lack of large pieces of stash. It was quilted by my friend Lorraine Baker of Masterton who is now an accomplished long arm quilter.  The centre blocks are made from leftover bits of WOF  that I couldn't quite bear to throw away as was about an inch and a half wide.  LOL.  What a funny little lady I am, and loving it!!!












That's all folks for this year of 2018.  One of so many ups and downs for me I can truly say.  For once I am very surprised at how many quilts I managed to finish and give away to family and friends.  My stash (old) did reduce by quite a substantial amount, but alas and alack, I fear the new fabric section may have grown a little,.  Hehehehe.  It just means I will need to try and make even more quilts in 2019.
God has blessed our family constantly and I can say with all my heart that He  answers those prayers we ask of Him.  Sometimes it is in His way and time, other times we get what we asked for.  He is always good and God is love.  May your 2019 be full to the brim of love and laughter.  Love will always overcome dark.
Thank you for coming to visit my blog and I hope to see you again next year.

Hugs and blessings
Clare
I'm linking up with Oh Scrap here take a look and enjoy some eye candy.

Stitching on...

in this very hot weather.  We had 35 C yesterday and I'm afraid we just huddled inside with the air conditioning on.  It has never been my thing - hot sunny days at the beach.  I'm an autumn, spring sort of girl and don't even mind winter that much.  Mind you, compared to some places our winters are very mild.

I have managed to do a little stitching though, and have all the blocks made on the Craftsy BOM 2013.  Now just to figure out how to put it together and what colour joining strips I'm going to use.  The HST border does nothing for me, so I'm planning on a small frame then outer border.

I'm really happy with the colours in this quilt.  They are mostly hand dyed fabrics from a class we held at our shop quite a number of years ago.  I had been looking for a project for ages and the 2011 Shop Hop fabric my pal Barbara in Kansas sent me was perfect.  Mind you, lots left over yet and keep thinking a 9 patch would be lovely too.
Then about 10 days ago I fluffed around with these 4 patches in a vain attempt to join in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January. The colour was purples, so I  took all of my purple scrap 2" squares that were already cut, and stitched the whole lot up into these patches...now what!   LOL.

It was such fun, but I must not let them become another UFO!!

At Tuesday Chat today, Lynn brought along her gorgeous Hexagon quilt that she has finished.  Lynn did this as a BOM for the papers, but chose all the fabrics herself.  It is truly wonderful.

That's it for today.  The Tyson cat managed to get out of his collar overnight and now we are of 2 minds what to do with him.  His stitches had ripped open which is why he had the collar on after they were restitched.  Hoping it will heal this time without problems.  The shoulder is such a bad place for a cat.

Talk to you later.  Happy stitching.

Hugs and blessings
Clare
and I'm linking to Cynthia's here at Oh Scrap

It's Jolly July and winter is here..

Wow, what an amazing autumn early winter we have had.  Fancy having 19 degrees (C) in July for goodness sake.  Unfortunately for our farmers it's not so good - drought from summer right through to winter is a bit hard on them.
It's been a month of a couple of finishes for our Tuesday Chat group.  At long last we finished the Grandmother's Garden hexagon quilt that we chose to finish off some 4 (?) years ago.  This quilt was part of a couple of boxes of fabric remnants dropped off by a quilter's partner after she had died. We decided to finish the quilt off and raffle it with the proceeds going to cancer research in her memory.  When we popped a little piece in our local paper about "was it you who dropped this in to our shop" the chap turned up and filled us in.  Ivan asked if he would be able to have the finished quilt as he had not realised exactly what it was...we agreed if he paid for some of the finishing costs, which he agreed to and included a donation in his partner's name to cancer research.
As I have been unable to do large quilts needing custom work now, I asked my good friend Linda from Razzle Dazzle Quilter to do the honours for us.  Linda did an awesome job as you can see.  You can check out Linda's blog here and encourage you to have a look at Linda's beautiful quilting.

This photo shows Ivan with myself, Lorraine, Lyn and Eve.  Missing that day was Lois who also did a lot of work on the quilt.
The border was a gorgeous blue from Kona Cotton range and it really did lift up the colour of the quilt.

It never occurred to Ivan that all that stitching had been done by hand.  It quite blew him away, and he began to realise why it had taken such a long time for us to get this finished - especially as it was done in between our own projects.
In this photo you can see the lovely feathers Linda has done in the border and a little of the all over pattern that created such wonderful life and texture in this quilt.













Then it was on to our next finish of the week.  Lynn has been the first of our group to finish her Farmers Wife Quilt.  Oh boy, Lynn did all 111 blocks and it didn't take her very long either it seemed.

The colours are lovely, and Lynn used a lot of reproduction fabric garnered from all around the country and from each other.  Once again we sent this one off to Linda as it was too much for me to handle these days.   What an awesome job again from this amazing quilter.

 Here Lori and Norma are admiring all the different blocks and the styles of quilting.  One of these little 6.5 inch blocks has 64 pieces!!  Gotta be mad to do that one I reckon.  Shhhh, don't ask what's happened to mine, lol.

Linda did something different in every block - wow!!  The sashing design was so clever - it creates a star at every cornerstone.  What a clever lady Linda is.


















I have managed to get a little bit of stitching done over the past month.  Almost finished these blocks on my granddaughters quilt. Only 3 more to go thank goodness.  They do look pretty.

It has been a good lesson in sewing slowly with accuracy.

Another block or two in grandson Bradley's quilt goes on the pile.  I am really enjoying this one, and am looking forward to how fabric it will use up out of my stash.

That's it for now.  Everything else is trundling along. We have made some progress with the bathroom and are now practicing the theory that "everything comes to those who wait." Love it, hehehe.

Take care everyone, and who knows, maybe I will manage to come back sooner instead of later.  It's an energy problem as I love chatting with you all.  Keep warm or cool wherever you may be.

God bless,
Clare
I'm linking with Cynthia at oh! Scrap check out all the great links.

Farmers Wife, Vanuatu Quilts = less UFO's

At last I have managed to grab a moment to say hello and that I am still around.  Easter came and went and I made a big effort to get two quilts done to donate to the appeal for Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam caused such devastation. I found these two in the pile labelled "Quilts to be Quilted" which has now been reduced by 2!!!  Woohoo.
This first one was a sample quilt I made way back when I first began teaching.  Was a scrap quilt class and I am really pleased how lovely it looks now that it is quilted.  I used a lovely variegated King Tut which looked fabulous over all the autumn colours.

The back looked almost as good as the front on this one.

 And I absolutely loved the effect of this freehand border square.  I found this in my latest Angela Walters book and decided to have a go at it.  So easy and fast to do and it didnt actually matter that each block was not exactly the same size as the next one.  Love it.

 It's quite hard to see the patterns on the blocks, but I tried out lots of different types of sashing styles and fillers and tried to give this quilt a bit of a modern look to it.

 The other quilt I did was the complete opposite.  A gorgeous panel quilt that I had made up years ago for the shop and had never gotten around to quilting it.  A delicously bright quilt and I hope it gets given to a young girl.  I used a soft lilac Magnifico thread which looked great.

The back was a soft pale blue, but the late in the day light gives it a deeper look.  This pattern was also a practice of a freehand feather flower also by Angela Walters.  It was super easy to pick up and if I got stuck, a few spirals and hooks soon got be out of the predicament.  Another lovely one to learn as an all over edge to edge that is freehand.

This is a close up of one of the gorgeous panels.  I was almost sad to give this one away it turned out so cute.

Here is a picture that I promosed of the whole of the hexagon quilt.  Wonderful colour choices from Lyn

Wouldn't be complete without the cat would it?  Travis decided I had put this nice warm pile of batting there just for his pleasure.  Had to tell my sister I couldn't start her quilt until the cat has finished his rest!!!

And I have managed to do a little bit of sewing.  Now have 14 of my Farmers Wife blocks done.  I think the slowest part is choosing the fabric and getting them all cut out. Some of these blocks have well over 30 pieces in them.

 Spot the booboo in this one.  Darn it, more reverse stitching.  I have had to be much more careful and accurate with these blocks and that must be a good thing.

Okay, that's it people.  Up to date sort of and I must away.  I shall try and be back a little sooner next time, but we will see what life throws at us next.  Hope you are all well and enjoying those wonderful little moments that constantly amaze you about being alive!

Blessings
Clare

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

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