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.

Some Progress in 2019

Okay, January has already disappeared off my calendar and I didn't get to post.  I can see that this year is going to go even faster than the last, but I put some of that down to less time available for me to do "stuff" in. Health has leveled out a little and we are managing to get back to our sewing machine so that is the most important thing.
Here are some photos of what I have managed to accomplish so far...

 This is my block for January for the BOM running in the Kiwiquilters Facebook group.  It is a large block - around 22 inches.
Now to get onto February's block.  I'm trying to do it all from scraps in an effort to make a small dent in said pile.

In an effort to keep control of those wonderful bits of fabric called scraps I have got hold of this four tiered basket trolley.  The goal is to have all the colours in their own little spot so no need to rummage through endless bags and drawers to find them.  Let's see how well that works??

You may remember this - Danielle's quilt from Amanda Jean Nybergs book.  Have got two blocks assembled in the next size with the remaining four all sorted ready to be stitched,  Hoping this will be finished this week, then it will be onto the third size.  There's five in all.

My production line, lol. 













That's it for now.  Thought maybe I would be better at this if I kept the posts nice and short and then could do them more frequently?  We'll see.

Oh, did I tell you that my first block arrived today for my new BOM from  Sheila at Quilters Lane in Masterton?  It's a mystery quilt and we could choose from 10 different fabrics.  I have chosen Dear Stella and am very excited.  Only done one other mystery quilt and I enjoyed it.  You can check out Sheila's shop here and see for yourself.  Well worth a visit.

I'll catch you all later and thanks heaps for stopping by. 
Hugs and blessings to you all.
Clare

I'm linking to Cynthia's here for some more eye candy. 

Progress for 6and6in2018 and all that...

has happened in the last six weeks has halted some progress, but I'm quite pleased at what I did manage to achieve.  After the medical hassles mentioned last I managed to get a bladder infection and then react afterwards to the antibiotics.  Ho hum, it goes like that sometimes.  Now it's onward and upwards I reckon.

So I have managed to make some progress on Danielle's quilt which only needs the 5.5 inch and 3.5 inch HST's made.  Unfortunately, because I have changed the initial direction for the fabrics in this quilt I felt there was not enough variety to cut the last of these out.  It meant a trip to the LQS (sad), but it also meant I needed to go to the furthermost away one to get a good selection of batiks.  Oh well, my sister was here to stay for the week, so we had a wonderful day out.

There are lots of photos in this post to make up for lost time.  I hope you enjoy them.

 It hasn't grown much, but I did put the pale blue border on, and now have some idea of what I am going to do next in regards to colour.

This one is not long back from my friend Lorraine who is learning to do custom quilting, and doing a fabulous job.  I shall show you a better photo once it is all bound.  Very happy with how this quilt has come out and it all started with some tiny ends from some WOF's left over from my shop.  LOL.

A sneak peek also at the mystery quilt I did through My Carolina Home's quilt along and it was called Square Dance.  I will have two finished quilts to show you in the next blog.  Wow.

Aren't they beautiful. it was so hard to choose.  Hopefully I will get back to cutting these out next week.

This is the reason I haven't finished my HST's.  Been working on these three little quilts for a few weeks now.  A friend of my DIL gave us a lovely electric lazy boy chair that was almost new.  As she was expecting twin boys, I decided to make baby quilts plus one for the older sibling Noah who is 3 years old.
This one is all finished.

 This one has the binding sewn down on the front and tomorrow I will get it stitched down to the back.  I got these two quilts out of a 5 inch wide roll up plus some extras from stash.  Managed to make two different looking quilts even though the style and colours are very much the same.

This is Noah's one and it is slightly bigger, as it should be for the twins big brother.  This was a little collection that I had in my stash for some time and I added a few strips from another roll up.  Had to do some interesting piecing to get enough picture blocks...lol.

And to finish off these are the beautiful flowers my daughter and her family in Perth, Australia sent me for my birthday last week.  They have lasted extremely well and were certainly very beautiful.





As per usual, I shall try not to be so long in coming back, but for a few weeks there, I had nothing to report to you.

I hope your weather is good wherever you are.  We have had heaps of rain these past few days, which is most unusual for us and quite welcome really.  It will give our farmers a good start to spring and summer.
The garden is just starting to burst into life with my beautiful deep yellow freesias almost outdoing themselves in the gloomy weather.  I shall have some pictures for the next post.  Take care of yourselves and have a fabulous day.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

p.s.  I'm linking to Oh Scrap here  and 18 in 2018 at What A Hoot here You will enjoy a visit to both these blogs,

A scrap of this and a scrap of that...

Is all I have managed to get done since my last blog.  It has taken longer than I thought to get back my energy.  However, we are getting somewhere now. I have finally managed to sew the mystery top together and have chosen the frame and border fabric.

And now onto the large sized HST's for Danielle's quilt.  Got all the little ones finally finished - 350 of them.  Now only the medium and extra large ones left to do.  Hopefully these will go a lot faster being bigger and less of them.  Gosh I'm hoping to make some progress soon.


















That's me for today.  Hope you all have an awesome week.  Thanks for stopping in.  I am linking to Cynthia at Oh! Scrap and you can click here and enjoy some eye candy from lots of contributors.

Hugs and blessings,
Clare

A Winter rose...

What a lovely surprise to have Kerry bring in this lovely wee collection of flowers from my 25yr "Clair Matin"  rose.  It's the middle of winter and we have had some boomer frosts this past week.  Has been a real gift for me as I am just back from a weeks stay in hospital.

 Just a cold that decided to take a left turn instead of the exit!  All good now and the last 4 days were in our little local medical ward.  It's like being treated in the warmth of your own home, and the nurses and carers are so loving and helpful

We are so thankful to have this wonderful facility in our small town.
Today has been the most amazing winter's day - bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight all day.  Beautifully warm if you are tucked away from the winter breeze but suddenly very cold if you enter the shade.  It's one of those lovely things about winter.  Sort of giving us a reminder of the the lovely warms days of spring and summer to come and that our patch is just having a wee rest.  Hmmm, getting a bit poetic here!!  LOL.









On the patchwork front, it's all a bit of a shambles but there has been some progress of sorts...

This is my new BOM called Golden Days.  I have only just started by first block and block four just arrived yesterday, so the plan has gone to the pot quite quickly.  Oh well, it's not a race is it?  I do love the wonderful fabrics that come with this quilt.  Nice to have some new, modern fabric to play with. There are only 5 applique blocks and the rest are pieced - some with quite a challenge.

This has my knitting (son's next beanie), my challenge piece that might miss the deadline now and the next pile of HST's for Danielle's quilt.

The mystery has been revealed and I'm quite pleased with it.  Now need to choose a frame and border and then I'm going to donate it to a chap at church who is going through a cancer journey.


















So that is where I'm at right now.  Looking forward to seeing our granddaughter Marcy during these holidays coming up this month.
I trust you are all well and look forward to seeing you again soon.  Thank you for popping in.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

I'm linking to Oh Scrap here  and 18 in 2018 at What A Hoot here You will enjoy a visit to both these blogs,

Just when you think you're finished...

I was doing a happy dance on Saturday night as I stitched the very last piece on the very last block of my applique quilt.

At last, after approximately 10 years of on again, off again attempts, I had finished the blocks I had chosen to do.

So yesterday I trimmed them all up and put them up on my design wall (and forgot a photo), only for the Tuesday Girls to tell me I had one too many!!!! Horror of all horrors, how could I possible have put myself through the agony of stitching the very last block and then find I had one too many. 

Well, you just have to laugh your cotton socks off, don't you?  It really is quite funny and now of course, I shall have to do another four blocks.  With no interest in doing a cushion with the left over one, I shall carry on and do another 4!  And just between you, me and the gate post, I am actually quite pleased to have a few more blocks to do.  It felt quite strange to say I had finished it.






This is why I didn't leave my applique blocks up on my design wall...

The Tuesday girls got stuck in again and we have made enough blocks to make this second quilt, and believe it or not, we have about 26 of the 30 needed for quilt number three.

These quilts are being made for charity - and we are still discussing who we will donate them to.

The biggest problem is the scrap basket doesn't seem to have gone down very much at all.  Meg reckoned they were being very naughty at night time and multiplying.  We all think she is right.  LOL











Here's a shot of the industrious beavers at work - we had sewers, trimmers and pressers working away.

It was quite a job vacuuming up after this session, but we had a huge amount of fun.












We plan on doing this once a month, and at this rate we will get quite a few charity quilts made.  I'm ever the optimist that my stash will decrease. hahaha hahaha.






The other good news is I am up to date with my scrappy nine patches for the Square Dance Mystery Quilt Along over at From My Carolina Home.  Wow, this is exceptional for me to be so organised.  Maybe there is hope after all for me.  The next clue must be due by the end of this week I think so I have only just made it.

There are 40 of these lovely blocks and they are very scrappy.  Fabric is so expensive over here (now over $30 NZ) for a lot of it, that we tend to think of scraps as anything under a fat eighth.

And last but not least, I have been chugging along with the pies.  No tarts for a couple of weeks, as the ratio is 8 pies to 3 tarts.  LOL.  Love this quilting language.  This is my slow stitching project as my hands tend to object to too much of this intense stitching.  (Um mm, I'm a little bit OTT with my little stitches the girls tell me, but I cant help it, LOL)












That's it friends.  The autumn days are certainly drawing in and we finish daylight saving at the end of the month.  Winter will be here before we know it and for those of you on the other side of the world you will be rejoicing in the warmth of summer.  I guess we need to let you have your turn.  Enjoy your springtime.  It's so lovely seeing all the flowers pop up isn't it.

Thanks for popping in and talk to you again soon.  I'm  going to link up with Cynthia of Oh! Scrap 
here  Do pop in and have a look.

Hugs and blessings,
Clare

Report for 6 and 6 in 2018 and 18 in 2018

So how has your month been?  I'm reasonable pleased with mine as I did achieve a few things.  We're also allowed to not perform quite as well in February because it's a bit sneaky in only having 28 days.  THREE whole days of stitching lost. Hmmm...
So here we go:

Happy, happy.  I have finished the second to last applique block of my quilt.  Already started on the LAST block.  Happy, happy, can you tell?

 The pies and tarts have doubled themselves, which is not great progress, but I have been concentrating on the applique.  This one is definitely going to be a slow project as it's very hard on my hands.  Still love it though, so although I had decided to abandon it, the girls have encouraged me to keep on going.  Glad they did.

The pile of nine patches has grown for my Mystery Quilt.  Such happy blocks to make and not too much brain work involved.  It's quite incredible that a simple bunch of squares like this can make so many wonderful patterns.

 I have finally made a block for Danielle's quilt.  Got a bit fed up with all the cutting and sorting, so decided to make a block.  I am pleased with how it looks, but it is a tricky wee block to make with all those triangles.  So important to get the size right too, so wondering whether to abandon the pattern and make something else up with the units I have. More pondering and  maybe I'll make a couple more blocks before I decide.

 My sister came up for the weekend and we had an awesome time stitching.  We have become very close since I got sick, and I love our time together.  We went out for coffee before Joy headed home.  The other good looking bloke is my dearly beloved Kerry.  Definitely a keeper as he has trained up quite well and looks after me extremely well in my illness.  I praise God daily for him.

All the kidlets and their tribes are doing well.  This year we have two grandies achieving their 5 years old milestones and will be gorgeous little school kids.


In between all this I managed to sew a swimming and book bag for my great granddaughter Tiana in Perth, Australia.  I did make it much harder than it should have been and you would laugh at the stupid things I did.  Was going to be simple - yeah right!



And to finished on a smiley note - don't you just love the way sunflowers make you smile.  These are growing out the back of our home and way above the fence (1.2 m) and much taller than yours truly with the camera.




I hope you have enjoyed my wee summary of February and hope yours has been good too.  Let's hope we get lots more sewn in March cause we have three more days in it, and Easter means no work and we get a very laid back start to April!  Oh dear it's going fast again isn't it.

I'm going to link to - Oh Scrap and this will take you there - here
To Pomegranate and Chintz'   6in2018-february
and Lynette at What a Hoot for 18 in 2018 here

Hugs and blessings and thank you so much for popping in.

Clare

Scrapping along...

It's been so rewarding working on the second to last block (or penultimate block as they say) of my "Applique Affair" quilt designed by Editya Star.  Rewarding, but at the same time frustrating as I plodded through this seemingly very plain block.  Then when you do the last of the leaves, all of a sudden this block turns into something rather beautiful that speaks of gardens.  The seed pods are definitely not my best work, but then neither is any of it really.  Is it the end of the world?  I don't think so, therefore it stays as it is.

These are the first of my nine patches that I'm doing as part of the mystery quilt with Carole as explained in my post here and I'm trying to keep ahead.  Life has a habit of getting in the road and all of a sudden then next clue arrives and the last one hasn't been done.  Trying not to do too much of that this year.  Also so happy to be using up some more scraps.

We had a group day to work on our charity quilt.  All the blocks are now made and we will sash it next.  Sad to say the dent in the scrap baskets was barely noticeable.  I think we have enough to make about 20 or 30 quilts.  Oh dear. Fancy having to keep on quilting....lol.














That's all my patchworking news.  But look who I got to meet on Sunday.... may I introduce our newest great granddaughter - Nathalie Charlotte.  We go to have cuddles and it was so lovely.  Nathalie was only 6 lb ?  born and is now well over 7 lb.  Mum and Dad are both very tall (Dad is almost 6 ft 5 in) so she is all arms and legs, which will catch up in the middle at some stage.  Very blessed indeed to have this wee one come into our family.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Hope all your patchwork is meeting where it should and all is well with your families.

I am linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap do go visit.

Hugs and blessings,
Clare

6 old and 6 new in 2018 -Making progress in record heat!

Oh boy, our air conditioner has been working overtime in the last few days, and there appears to be no let up for the next week.  A few days ago it was is around 42C,  (107F I believe), and that is just too hot for comfort.

Here is my report for the 6 old dand 6 new in 2018, plus I have joined the 18 in 2018 too!!  Just keeps me honest or mad or something!  I did at least make a little progress.

My goodness, it takes some time to get your head back into th right space with a quilt that was barely started in 2008.  All the counting has been done so I know what I still have to cut, and the next job is to finish off all the trimming of these HST's.  I think I might be a little short of fabric in the right colours, so, (every so sadly) I think I may have to go to a quilt shop. Hehehe.

Managed to finish the little tart as well as a pie this month, and have cut out and prepared quite a few more.  This project will definitely be long term as it is quite hard on my hands.  Another way to use up quite a good lot of fabric.

The second to last applique block for a quilt that has been in the making for quite some time.  I seem to have made a mistake in the drawing out of the pattern and had sewn on about five pieces and wasn't happy.  I decided to unpick, clean off my markings and start again.  Very happy I decided to do that.  The is so close to being finished I need to make a concerted effort to finish it.

I have decided that I am going to join in with Carole and My Carolina Home blog and do her Mystery Quilt and you can click on the link to see for yourself.  I usually don't get organised in time but this time I am determined to make it and of course we are given a month for each clue to be finished.  I felt it would be a great way to use up some more of that stash I am a little tired of.

Here is the River quilt all put together.  It's not a very big quilt, but will make a nice lap quilt or even a wall hanging.  I was so pleased the way the border fabric worked out so well, as it's always a bit of a problem after you have left it about 10 years to finish!!  Oops.  Never mind, it still counts as an almost finish for my 18 in 2018 list.















Most of my other projects have not been touched, but I did spend quite a bit of time resorting my fabrics and scraps.  Over the last couple of years as we finished this house, things got moved around quite a bit.  I have now managed to start getting everything back in the right places and can find things when I want them!  Well, that's what I'm pretending, LOL.  Actually, it has spurred me on to get moving on using some of these fabrics up, because although I still like them, I'm a bit fed up with looking at the same old stuff!  Keen to buy lots of new stuff in these lovely fresh modern colours!  Haha, that's famous last words.

I think that's all for now.  Happy stitching.
I'm linking up with Lynette of What A Hoot Quilts here
and Pomegranite and Chintz of 6 and 6 in 2018 here

Hugs and blessings,

Clare