Quilting this little quilt

Made this little one completely out of my leftovers from another baby quilt.  It will be a donation quilt for the neonatal unit in one of our hospitals...not sure which one to send it to yet.  Hoping to get another couple done before I send it off,  It's good to be able to finish something quickly.

Managed to get some practice with my ruler foot on my domestic machine.  Quite different action compared to my long arm machine I had to let go.  Enjoying learning though, and the Janome 9450QCP is such a lovely machine to quilt with.

We had to have the approval of the quilt controller, of course.  Travis takes this position very seriously.

I do love they different textures and patterns you get on the back of quilts with the different types of designs.

Very satisfying to add to the finished list.


















Thank for popping in.  I have kept this post short as still recovering from catching dear husband's bugs.  A chest infection takes a bit of working through for me, but getting there now.  Plodding through quilting one of the other baby quilts I finished last post.

Take care everyone.  Hugs and blessings to you all.

Clare

Been busy ...

Trying to make some progress.  I see I forgot to put the photo of Travis in my last post...hmmm maybe I was worse than I thought...lol.  Here he is trying to fit into Kerry's slipper - such a daft cat.

Travis has an absolute fascination with shoes and we have to keep our good leather shoes out of his way.  He likes to sharpen his claws on them and he has already lost at least three of his lives in regards to my lovely (expensive) shoes.  Travis lives a very dangerous life indeed.



















I also made  big decision regarding Danielle's quilt.  I made (or tried to) another two blocks and no matter how hard I tried, these blocks would not behave.  It is one of the reasons I have put off finishing this particular quilt.  So these blocks below -

have now been unpicked and we have gone back to the drawing board.  I had an inkling I had seen a pattern in one of my scrap books that would suit all the HST's and triangles already cut out.

There were a lot of them, plus quite a bit of extra fabric available.  That's when I remembered my fabulous book by Amanda Jean Nyberg...

Yay, looked through this fabulous book and look what I found...

This gorgeous quilt uses HST's in five different sizes and I already have two sizes cut.  There are enough left over of the 2.5" ones to be able to cut them down for the smallest size.  I only need to cut the two middle sizes or could leave one out as I don't want to make the quilt too big.  Happy, happy, got 20 done yesterday!














Plus I have made a start on the medallion quilt using my new method of 15 minutes (or thereabouts) at a time.  I'm very happy with how this is starting to look.  My biggest problem is I fuss over colour choices, so that choosing time is not going to be included in the 15 minutes,  Hehehe it probably took me about 30 minutes at least to choose this one little frame,

The photo has come up very dark, but it's not quite as dark as this and the outside blue has little gold dots on it.  All from my scraps - yippee.




















To finish off, I found my collection of thimbles.  These were put away when we moved almost four years ago.  The biggest problem has been "where do I put them."  Guess what my Mothers Day gift is from my DH?  He is making me a cracker little shelf set specifically for them.  I'll keep you posted.

I think there are about 90 something in that container!!  Maybe I have a bit of a problem.  LOL














That's my lot for now.  Thanks for stopping by and I will talk with you again soon.  Have a great time in your sewing rooms.

Hugs and blessings,
Clare
who is linking up with Oh Scrap here - check out Cynthia's blog. Great scrap quilts and more.

Grandies, a Birthday, and my Garden - lots of photos

These three have all featured greatly in the past few weeks.  Last weekend we traveled up to Te Awamutu - a  journey of five hours which takes us all day basically by the time we stop for lunch and anything else that takes our fancy.  On top of this is making sure I have enough oxygen to last while away from the plugged in machine takes some doing. Our granddaughter Jessica turns 21 on November 15th and we arranged with her to have a quiet family dinner with her instead of attending the party Jessica was arranging with her young friends.  We had a lovely time and caught up with three of our kids and 8 of our grand-kids.  Awesome!

Said granddaughter loves playing around with fun photos as you can see.  Lol.

We ended up with a good sized crowd by the time we added boyfriend and a girlfriend into the mix.  Nice.

A c ouple of slighly more normal photos.  My eldest son's partner Dayn and I had a lovely catch up.

Friday morning we went to Patarangi School to attend Grandparents Day.  We were entertained (between rain showers) by each class room, then off we went to our own grandchild's class room where we were served morning tea.  It was a lovely time.  My granddaughter Hayley is 4th from the left.

Two of my younger grandies....Olivia and her brother Albert.  Such gorgeous kids and cheeky too.  Great to be able to catch up with them again.  Granddad's ear muffs were great fun.

Just so you can see I have been doing a little patchwork.  Have made a start on quilting this one, and have half the blocks done with the string quilt for grandson.






Wouldn't be right without a cat photo.  Travis was just hanging around trying to rest and would I please leave him alone?

My loo had a trip out to the front lawn on Wednesday while the vinyl layer came.  Yippee great progress as we now have the wet floor in and the whole floor finished.  Shower is ready to be hitched up to water.  Only problem was the wet wall did not show up on time.  After a little detective work at the store, found it had not actually been ordered until the day before.  Lots of scrambling around and hopefully it will arrive today.
This is the last big push on the renovation and my dear husband will be so happy to get finished.  We have a little bit of painting to finish but everything else is done!!!  Wow, he has done an amazing job.

My two new irises have flowered and are so beautiful.  May not get a flower of the 3rd one this season so will have to wait for that.

Phew!! That's the end of this catch up.  Thank you for dropping by.

Blessings to you all,

Clare

Still alive and stitching...

Oh dear, sorry everyone but it's been a bit of a rough time lately and finding the energy to write a blog was just not there.  We lost our eldest grandson to suicide and can only encourage you to talk to your grandies and let them know how much you love them every time you see them - as I'm sure you do.  Thank you for your patience.

I have managed to do a little stitching with my granddaughter's quilt having one side of the frame to go on and then the final border.  Definitely progress, but quite slow.  It has been a very fiddly finishing off process which I just hate with a quilt.  It is going to be simple, simple, simple from now on!!

Have been very spoilt - this is what I have been playing with today!!!

Not sure if the video is going to work.

Look at this gorgeous machine - a Janome MC9400 QCP no less.  Just happened to have a customer purchase my almost new 8900QCP Special Edition and that has enabled me to upgrade.  Wowee, how posh is that then.  I was so annoyed when I upgraded just a few months ago and then Janome brought this lovely new baby out.  When you are selling to a lot of quilters, it's important to have the top machine, now I am set.  Well, those are all my excuses and I'm sticking to them, hehe.

So while I was trying to decide what to practice on because it was Tuesday Chat day and no room to play with borders, I decided it was time to make a move on my box of 2 inch squares.  Had seen Cynthia Bunz's blog here and it inspired  me to get cracking.  Some of these fabrics are probably almost 20 years old so time to use them up.

They are coming along nicely.  Still far too many squares in the box, so might have to do some more yet.  Thought I might put a bright border around next.




Off to hospital on Monday 12th September to have the pesky gall bladder removed.  Hopefully all will go well with the recovery as I have these breathing issues.  Any prayers offered up will be most gratefully received.

Cats are still ruling the house and we are at their beck and call.

Bye for now and talk again soon.

Blessings
Clare

Almost a finished quilt...

I have finally been able to finish the quilting on Rebecca's quilt and I am so pleased with it.  It has taken me ages as I have found it quite hard to quilt for long periods of time now.  Love the modern look of the lines and the way it lets the fabrics speak.  The binding is all made and ready to go on as soon as I can get hubby to move my sewing table close to the big tables to take the weight for me.
He is so busy right now getting the wet floor sorted in our bathroom.  Very  messy and noisy and extremely hard work for him, so don't want to both him too much.

Travis is checking it out for softness and how well it works for sleeping on, or under if you prefer.  It think it gets the mark of approval as he doesn't want to move off it.

I used a lovely soft silver grey Magnifico thread from Superior Threads and it looked great over all the colours.  Had no problem with it either - I always use a size 18 needle in my longarm and have no hassles.

 My sister came to stay for this week and we have been stitching up a storm.  Well Joy has.  I've been struggling a little this week, but have still managed to achieve a couple of things.

This is the gorgeous table runner Joy is making.  Because she has a small table, there has been enough in the kit to make two out of it.  Lovely batik colours and a quick and easy pattern.
















Lastly but not least, it wouldn't be right without a pic of the boys.  This one is Tyson trying to see if he does a better job of hiding that his brother Travis did.  What do you think?  lol

Well that's my lot for now.  Thanks for stopping by and will catch up with you soon.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

Gorgeous bag and other trivial stuff...

I was very spoilt last week when my lovely friend Eve gave me this fabulously gorgeous bag.
How about that, it has pockets inside and a beautiful button flower on the strap.  The fabric range came from a lovely shop in Missouri that I was taken to when visiting my good friend Barbara from Parsons, Kansas.

Barb and her daughter Jackie took me for a tiki tour (that means a good look around) and it included crossing the border.  I was a typical tourist and got very excited lol.  Anyways I fell in love with this range of fabric and the book that was with it, but had never got around to making it up.  I therefore gave to my friend Eve as she also loved it and "nek minute" Eve turns up with the awesome bag. There you have it the long winded story about this bag.














I went to early morning prayer at church on Wednesday, and the sunrise was stunning.  Had to try and capture it, but this pic doesn't do it justice really.

It looked like the sky and the trees were on fire.  Reminds you of our awesome creator I reckon.


Have done a little bit of quilting on Rebecca's quilt, but it has been quite a slow process.  The change in weather has affected my breathing heaps so cannot quilt for long periods.  Never mind.  Slowly does it.  Rome wasn't built in a day and all that stuff.


Have made another couple of blocks in granddaughter's quilt and cut out some blocks in another quilt.  I am trying to get a whole heap of cutting done, and then designate a day for each quilt.  It's my logic of how to get all these quilts finished, but whether it will work or not is an entirely different story.

I have be on guard to prevent any more fabric slipping in my door!! It is a very difficult job because all these quilt shops put lovely pictures up of all these fantasmorgorical fabrics. Neat word isn't it? So far it has worked for a whole week!

Well that's it.  I shall sign off with this photo of Tyson trying to hide under our quilt so we wouldn't see him.  LOL.

It's a bit of a give away don't you think?  Hehehehe.  Hope you all have an awesome weekend and mothers that you get very spoilt on Sunday by your children and husbands.  You are all such important people who do an amazing job.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

First Quilting finish for the year and a birthday party

I have had to start back at work again already, even though it is our hot summer time here in New Zealand.  We have our bi annual Wine Country Quilts exhibition coming up in mid-March and entrants need to have their quilts in by the end of February.  That is not so long when you have three quilts to custom quilt.
Being so organised (ha!) I have finished the first one.  I have only given you one photo as it is going to be in the exhibition so cant spoil it.

It was like quilting a garden with this quilt and Sue made a wonderful job of all the appliqued flowers.  Had to work hard with the eyes with such a dark navy background and my So Fine blue was almost too good a match.  I used a Magnifico blue down the centre of the feather fern and in the veins to give it a lift.  Thanks Sue, I enjoyed getting back into the swing of things with your awesome quilt.

This is a glimpse of one of the other quilts I have to get done.  I laid it out on my work tables to try and get some inspiration for the quilting designs.  Tyson decided to give me some help and is studying it closely LOL.  Thankfully Catherine knows this boy and I'm sure she will give him the 3rd degree when she sees him next.  It's a lovely round robin quilt that Catherine participated in a wee while ago and the colours are gorgeous.














Then it was off to Wellington for the weekend to celebrate our youngest granddaughter's first birthday.  We are both amazed that this year has flown so fast.  We had a wonderful celebration with Marceline's Mum and Dad - Kea and Richard, Kea's folks and some friends.  Wellington put on the most beautiful day that required sunscreen and all.

This is my cool Tonka Front End Loader that Mum and Dad got me.  I just love it and played for ages with it. Poppa is giving me some driving lessons while Mum looks on.

Gran Gran bought me this gorgeous new dress and was showing me some photos of myself.  I love playing with the camera and am happy to pose for you.  Nana took this one of me with Gran Gran (well just Gran Gran's knees actually).








We all had a yummy chocolate cake but Nana forgot to take a picture of that one.  Gee Nana.








Sunday we all went down to the Farmers Market at the Waterfront.  After buying some fabulously fresh fruit and vegetables, we checked out all the food stalls and had brunch.  The only thing with that is it takes me forever to decide what I'm going to eat and then I end up last!

This is me (Marceline) just hanging around with the oldies!




Please note, not a cloud in the sky and it's Wellington.  Love it.

Kerry and I decided to go look in Te Papa National Museum before we left for home and saw the Dream Works exhibition. It was great.  They take you on a dragon flight and wow, it was exciting.

On the way home we stopped in at Sawmillers Quiltery which is run by my friend Yvonne situated in Te Marua, just north of Upper Hutt.  Lovely fabrics and great conversation.  Next door is the Stonestead Devonshire Tea Shop.  Yummmmmm.

 Isn't this a most flattering photo of Kerry.  These made on the spot scones are absolute delicious.  Kerry had cheese while I went for the date, plus jam and cream of course!!!

My last gasp is this....7 little blocks, and I mean little!!!  I made the mistake of reading on Cynthia's blog quiltingismorefun that housework about this mad 365 day challenge.  You make a block a day for 365 days and at the end have this awesome quilt.  Hmmmm. Not all the blocks are 3" - these are the first border around the centre medallion.  I have also decided they must all come out of my stash.! Well so far I'm up to date with two blocks cut and ready to sew tonight which will probably end up being tomorrow as I ended up here instead which makes 15 blocks.  Let's see how long I can hang in there on this one. By the way, there are over 12000 quilters joined up...wow.  (It's free too)

So there you have it...life in the Moore household is still ticking along.  I hope those of you on holiday are having a great time.  Those who have worked through I sympathise with.  Those who dont work ....yippeee I wanna join you!  Mind you, I don't think there is anyone who doesn't work in some way or other.


Bye for now and thanks for reading all the way down to here.  It seems a long way to me too.  I need to stop talking so much maybe but I don't know, the words just keep coming out.  I will see you again soon I hope and take care.

I'm linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap here.

Go over and have a look at her lovely blogs with lots of tempting scrap projects.  Actually I am blaming Cynthia for my falling for the above mentioned 365 Challenge, lol.

Blessings to you all,
Clare

Quilt Exhibition and lots of other stuff....

We wont talk about how long it is since I posted.  Life trundles on and the quilting is slowly happening.  One good thing is another grandson's quilt is now just waiting for me to make and sew on the binding. I forgot to take some photos so will put it in the next post. It's the bit I dislike the most because my head has moved on somewhere else!!

Some pics you might enjoy from the bennial quilt exhibition of Hawkes Bay Quilters & Patchworkers held in Hastings last month.

 This gorgeous quilt below won the Viewers Choice award.  All machine quilted on a domestic machine.  Stunning.

Our trip to Wellington on our long weekend was so enjoyable.  The weather was fabulous for the time of year.  Spring can be so unpredictable. We went to the Botannical Gardens on Saturday and took a picnic lunch.  "Look at the ducks Nana! " Marcy is wearing her new wee dress that Nana managed to whip up before we went down.  Boy I was a bit rusty at making little dresses lol.

It was a lovely, lovely day.  We went to the rose gardens but there were very few out, but a couple of gorgeous beds of poppies were on show.

 Come on Grandad...push!!!

 Trying to hang on the little miss squirmy

Here's pointing at you!  Marcy loves pointing at things now and is so cute. Well, it goes without saying from this very biased angle...lol.

 I have finished cushion no. 2 for daughter Rebecca.  No. 3 is under construction and I had better hurry up if I want to take them up at Christmas time.

 Kerry is such a clever bloke.  This is  my portable oxygen trolley!!  You dont get given anything to cart the small oxygen bottle around in and a backpack is not an option for me.  So, Mr No. 8 Wire went to work on figuring something else out.  It's great because I can put all my gear in, it's lightweight and I can take it anywhere.

Our front verandah garden is looking really gorgeous with our triffid geranium on the left and right and our Clair Matin rose also on the left.  The rose in the middle is a small indoor rose I bought at the supermarket cheap as a left over from Mothers Day.  I put it in this bigger pot, stuck it outdoors and it has turned into the most beautiful rose.

Thought I had better finish off with the boys.  Travis (top) is actually sitting in front of me as I type, in the very same basket and sitting on the batting for the next grandson's quilt!!  Tyson is having a big stretch here.  He measures about 1.1m long at full stretch lol.

Hope to chat with you all again soon.  Take care in the mad season, and let's all remember why we have Christmas....to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Blessings to you all
Clare