The New Decade has begun...

with very little being done by me.  Oh dear, I shall be hoping to get a lot better so there can be some progress made soon.
Had a  most fabulous visit to Wellington for the 5th birthday of Marceline Moore.  A schoolgirl now, oh my!  Where has this last five years gone I wonder, with so many major changes.  We managed to navigate the 29 steps up to Richard & Kea's house, twice I might add, lol, but it was maybe a bit much.  Should have used the brain and had a bigger rest gap between trips, but I was too keen to be out and about with the birthday girl.  All is good and on the way back now just a bit more slowly than thought,  and so no stitching is going on.  Darn.! Am working on a solution with a friend who is going to give me a bit of a hand with the bigger, heavier stuff.  Yay.
Not much in the way of photos either folks, sorry about that, but haven't actually been anywhere to take them.  I have done a little bit of cross stitch on a wee sampler I'm doing and enjoying too.  Haven't cross stitched for years.

Thought I would join in the RSC at so scrappy with the first colour being my favourite - green. Now there are only five days of the month to go... not a good start at all, but really keen to move out some of these scrap fabrics.

This is from springtime and now it's all dried up and looking a little sad for itself in the heat.  We have a week of temperatures of around 32 C at the moment.  Too hot for me and my garden, so on goes the air conditioning.









Hoping to make a start with my friend helping on getting the sashing triangles stitched onto the mystery hexagon quilt that I did last year.  Then I will put a small frame and final border onto it.  Looking forward to it getting finished at last as was hoping it would have happened last year, but sometimes things don't work out to plan do they?

The colours are certainly quite beautiful and very different for me to work with.  I have the recipient of this quilt all worked out and it is going to be a surprise.  Love that.


Well, I don't have a lot more to add today, but wanted to let you know what was happening in my world.  I may even get a beanie started this week as the urge is beginning to grow - a lovely friend gave me some gorgeous autumnal coloured wool, so that made the fingers itch a little bit.




Thanks for popping in and I shall try to have some more exciting news for you next time,.  Take care and keep on stitching,
God bless and big hugs,

Clare

I'm linking with Cynthia of Oh! Scrap here lots of lovely eye candy

It's officially finished!! lots of photos

I said to myself - I'm not posting again until Danielle's quilt is finished because you would all be sick of getting updates showing so little progress.  Well, it is done and dusted and as I type it is winging its way up to Danielle in Te Awamutu.  Our youngest son and his family are going up to visit his siblings up that way, so he is loaded down with the quilt and five beanies for delivery!!!

I'm sure most of you think I have fallen off the planet as I didn't realise it had been quite so long since I last posted.  Hmmm, been busy stitching and hanging on to my health.  But enough of that, I have a few photos to share and I hope you enjoy them.

The Beanie production line, lol.
I did have five of them, but the yellow one ended up being given to a dear friend and I am knitting another one for that dear DIL.

Love that my family like to wear them and that it is something else I can make when I'm not up to quilting.

The finished quilt for Danielle.  I am so very pleased with how it has come out.  My dear friend Catherine made a fantastic job of quilting it for me with an edge to edge pattern that let the colours speak for themselves.
It is sideways in the photos as it was too long to hold up length-ways and the grounds was still wet from the big frost we had this morning.

 I found this fantastic extra wide backing fabric at Counting Stitches in Hastings.,  It was the absolute perfect match for this quilt.

This shows a little more of the dark and light in the quilt and the flowers in my late winter garden.  The bees have been making the most of the wall flowers that seem to flower for ever and smell beautiful.

This is my incredible UFO finish.  I started this embroidery cloth when my eldest daughter was 10.  She received it at the beginning of June and Janeen is now 47 years old!!!!  only too 37 years to complete.  The  most embarrassing thing is it only needed a few inches of the crochet edging to be finished for most of the last 10 years or so.  Hehehe

Oh well, a finish is a finish and that is one less thing in the UFO cupboard.  Yay

 My mystery blocks up until May.  Had been enjoying them but had some troubles with June/July blocks and not sure what is causing it.  These blocks come pre-cut and I think there may be some small discrepancies in cutting.  Not ruling out operator error though. Lol

A small baby quilt to be sent to the preemie babies unit.  I used some left over strips from another quilt I had made and added a top and bottom border to make it to size.  Totally from my stash - yippee.  Halfway through the quilting of it and hope to finish off over the weekend,

Finally, a parade of elephants from the Tuesday Girls.  These animals are so beautiful I am almost tempted to start one,  But  I have not finished enough UFO's yet and need a project like this like I need another whole in my head.  Hehehe.


One day, as most of us quilters say about those projects on our wish lists.




I hope you have enjoyed your catch up.  I am currently working mostly on a sunflower quilt for our eldest daughter.  Not sure how long that's going to take but here's hoping not as long as Danielle's seemed to take.



Our weather is supposed to be quite horrible over the weekend and it has already become quite cold.  Big snow falls down in the South Island and we do have snow up on our ranges.  This is why we have had two boomer frosts.  Rain however is forecast and we actually have not had very much rain at all and it would be most welcome.  It is also an excellent reason for being in your quilting room!!

Bye for now and take care.  May you feel blessed in you have and do.

Clare
I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh! Scrap
and Sarah at Confessions of a Scrap Addict.  Click here to visit Sarah.  It's worth the 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.

Almost there...

I am taking a short break from trimming the very last of the HSTs for Danielle's quilt.  Soooo pleased to have finally reached this point and that assembly can now begin.
I was a little delayed as I stitched up this quilt for someone we know who lost their house in a fire.  Kerry dropped it off to the LA quilter this morning.  A little big for me to handle these days.

It was made using two roll ups of Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I had in my stash - bought the 2nd one by accident, and is lovely and sunny and bright.  I will show you again when it comes back from being quilted, but very happy with it.  Nice and quick to make and the pattern is from a Layer Cake tutorial from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.












Our Tuesday girls had a couple of beautiful finishes too.  Here is Lois with her fabulous Cat in the Garden quilt she has made for one of her granddaughters.  Awesome job Lois.

The colour choices are gorgeous and don't those cats looks fabulous.  Well done Lois.  Quilted it herself too, such a champion.


















Lynn was our other star yesterday.

Lynn does beautiful handwork and this table runner is so lovely.  The colours are really nice and the ric rac around the edges makes for an awesome finish.  Clever lady.



















That's it for now folks.  Off to trim up those last few triangles.  Hopefully the next picture will be of the progress of assembling this quilt.

I'm linking up with Confessions of a Scrap Quilter here for Can I get A Whoop Whoop! Yay, go visit the eye candy.

Hugs and blessings to you all.
Clare

Oh no! Look what I found!!! (lots photos)

It's been a little bit cooler over the last week, which has been a welcome relief.  Today felt positively cold this morning, but it soon warmed up by the afternoon.

 The other day, DH decided it was time to sort through all of the "stuff" that had literally been shoved into the conservatory at the back of our house and forgotten.  Unfortunately for me, there was a large rolling bin full of ..... you guessed it!!
UFO's.  More blooming UFOs is just what I needed.  Well, like a hole in the head, I should say.

So I sat down and emptied it out and had a bit of a stroll down memory lane.  This Angel project goes back to 2003!!  That's only... let's see....ummm 15 years.  Not bad when you say it really, really fast?  Oh dear, it only needs the border done and it would be together,  On the list it goes.

Then there are these two pieces of unfinished work.  They originate from a class I held in my shop back in ????? for the most lovely bag.  You fused the background and then cut out the flowers or a vase and put soft bridal netting over then.  Then you stitched it all down however you liked.  Made a fabulous looking bag, but maybe not until it's finished?  LOL.

























This vase full of flowers was lovely to put together.  Oh dear, this will definitely have to be finished.  Now how long do I have to live???

This is the pattern and you can see how beautiful it is supposed to look as a "finished" product.

Oh well, on with the parade.,.,,.

I found these most beautiful embroideries in a garage sale.  The lady who had stitched them had passed away and they had ended up in a church garage sale being sold for an infinitesimal amount. I love them and will do something with them soon.  Maybe set them on to a background and make a wall hanging with them.

This is the second half of a bargello quilt that I started making at a class with Malcolm Angus. The challenge was to use a colour not normally in your stash, so my friend Colleen and I swapped favourite colours.  I got purple and she got green, and it was very challenging.  Well it has to go on the list too, doesn't it?

My sample piece (wrinkled) of learning to hand quilt using the Luixin Newman method.  I only have some detail around the edges to finish and it could become a cushion.  Undecided on this one as I used a not very good quality quilters muslin, but it is one of my few hand quilted pieces,  I love hand quilting, but my hands don't!!

The left over makings of a sample from a Janome class in our shop.  It was used to learn lots of techniques like couching, decorative stitches, ribbon work, etc.  This lot will be donated to my friend who makes the Fidget Cushions for Alzheimer patients.

And then there was this magazine from 1997!  I thought why on earth did I keep this.  It's either the Sashiko stitching or the quilting patterns, but it's too long ago to remember, lol.

And finally, I found this Thimbleberries  Pun'kin Boy panel that was given to me by a friend for my birthday, probably about the same year as the magazine!!  I think they have even done a reprint of these I recall seeing somewhere.  Does it count if you have an original.  Not sure what on earth I will do with it?








Well, I hope you have enjoyed this walk down memory lane with me.  I am upset that I now have another six or so extra UFOs to get finished, but I do still like most of these, so I guess that's not so bad.



I hope you have all had a great week or so stitching and quilting.

I'm off to get organised for bed I think.  Shall try and make the next post a little shorter.  Take care.

Hugs and blessings
Clare