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

Let the Sunflowers shine...

Way back in September 2011, I visited my online quilting friend in small town Kansas - Parsons to be exact.  It was a very special time for me and I so enjoyed meeting Barbara and her daughter Jackie.  Because of Parsons geographical position, it was easy to visit four states within a couple of hours - it sits near the crossroads of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.  Such fun!
While I was there, Barbara asked me to give a talk to her local guild, then it became a few of the little outlying guilds until we ended up with 70 plus people.  It was a lovely evening of showing off our fabulous New Zealand with an awesome DVD of Central Hawkes Bay and other lovely stuff.  At the end of the evening, the President was thanking me and out came this positively massive bag of fabric!!  Unbeknownst to me, the entry fee was a fat quarter of fabric.  Oh my, I got all sorts of amazing fabric gifted to me and some pieces were way more generous.  Most of it had to be posted home as we couldn't fit it all in my bag!!

The reason I have told you this big long story is that I had  around 17 different sunflower fabrics in this amazing collection that I had not really touched in the last 8 years.  However, my (step) daughter was going to turn 50 last month, and I had asked her a year or three before if she would like a quilt.  As Shala is a very good sewist and has made a few quilts herself, I hadn't got around to asking.  The answer was an emphatic Yes!  Then it turned out that she loves sunflowers!  Oh yes again!!  Out came my stash and Shala chose basically all the fabric that had sunflowers on it.  Well Shala's 50th birthday was looming up and I decided about July that I would have a go at getting it ready as her birthday gift for when she came down on 29th September to celebrate with us.

Here you go with a couple of photos and I am smiling so much you wouldn't believe it.

This is one of the two large blocks in the quilt.  It's a beautiful piece  of fabric and the sunflowers just glow.
All the fabrics have come out of my stash, so this quilt managed to make a little bit a reduction, Yay,

 

 I was determined not to put any fabric back in  my stash, so used all the large pieces left to make up the back.  It actually came out really well,

Here is Shala with her quilt.  It was very windy so the quilt would not co operate with laying flat.  Never mind.  I actually managed to quilt it myself as well,  My awesome Tuesday girls pin basted it for me and I did an all over meander on it using a lovely So Fine mustard gold that blended beautifully with all the colours of the quilt.  Looked good as it didn't need anything fancy as the sunflowers were the stars, and then my fabulous Tuesday girls helped again with stitch down the back of the binding,

I can't tell you how amazing getting this quilt finished on time made me feel, as I do have a bit of a struggle with my health issues.  But God was so good to me and gave me the strength and tenacity to keep on and achieve something so filled with love for this very precious member of our family.

Now onto the next quilt...

Thank you for sharing my joy of this quilt and I'll look forward to showing you my next achievements.  I hope you are all having a great time with your quilting and your families.

Many hug and blessings to you all,

Clare

linking with Oh! Scrap here

A Finish at last...

I can finally show you a completely finished quilt.  This is called "River"  and was a range of fabric we sold in our shop quite a few years ago.  It was always one of my favourites.  It was a real happy chance that I found this lovely border fabric so many years ago that goes quite well with it.  My heartfelt thanks to my friend Lorraine who quilted it for me and made a great job and to Lyn who stitched the binding on for me.  These are the heavier jobs I struggle with now.

I am very blessed to have such good friends.  This is all I have for now although I have managed a few other bits and pieces, I will save them for the next post.

Take care and thanks for popping in.  Hope all is well in your world.

Hugs and blessings
Clare
and I'm linking up to Cynthia at Oh Scrap here and you can check out some great quilting.
Also linking with Sarah here at Confessions of a Scrap Addict.  Such Fun to visit.

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt

Finally arrived back to say hi.  Have not been doing a lot of stuff, but did manage to make two baby quilts to give away.  Loved doing something small and pretty.  Used up scraps with both of them, although confess to having bought a couple of pink fat quarters for one, plus a pink binding fabric.  My stash does not contain a lot in the way of pink.  Anyway, forgot to take photos of the first one, so here are the photos of the second one.

Love the little pops of yellow.  The backing fabric I found in my stash too, so that was an extra bonus.  Gives two sides to this quilt.  Loved the wavy stitch on my new Janome 9400.  It looks great the way it stands out on the white squares and adds a little texture.

Now it's back to grandson's quilt as you go blocks.  I am now up to 17 done, 23 to go.  Jessica's is finished but not quilted...will give you pics when finished completely.

Short post as just get too tired these days.
Have a great week and will catch you again some time.  Thanks for coming back to see me.

Hugs and blessings

Clare

Linking to Cynthia Brunz @ Oh Scrap.  Link is on the side of this post.  Take a look, you will love her quilts.

Lovely day out to Quilt Show (lots of photos)

Hello everyone,

On Saturday I leapt into the car and with my good friend Colleen we set sail (well car actually) for Carterton.  We stopped for a coffee halfway in Woodville and then tootled off again.  Picked up our friend Lorraine in Masterton and swooped down to Carterton, threw my sister into the car and off to the show which was run by the Master Guild whose membership comes from all over the Wairarapa.

We had a lovely day.  Lunched in the Cancer Society run cafe on the premises and had the freshest sandwich ever - made while we waited.  The Show was very good and only purchased 4 fat quarters for a quilt in mind and resisted the rest.

Enjoy the photos and see you again soon.

Hugs and blessings to you all,
Clare

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.

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

A little progress, sneaky fabric, butterflies and babies...

Decided today was the day to put hands to keyboard and do my blog.  I have been so slack lately with my blog but it is a bit of a tiredness thing, as I seem to slow down so fast these days.  However, I have made some big decisions in my patchwork life!!!

I have put aside the 365 Challenge for now.  It was becoming a total obsession and nothing else was getting done.  That was not what I had planned on.  The plan was to get some UFO's finished, not start something else that took me totally away from that goal.  So there you have it...I am back on track and really pleased that progress is now being made... here is the quilt I am finishing for a granddaughter.  My friend Lynn has done a lot of the stitchery for me as she loves doing them and has no daughters or granddaughters to do girly things for.  It made a big difference to my being able to see the end of this quilt that began um ? .....years ago!!

These are the blocks  that go between the stitchery.  I have 24 to make, actually only 22 left now.  I am doing these very slowly and carefully, as they are done the old fashioned way of cutting the triangles for the flying geese unit!!  Long time since I have done that, and I need these to be nice and accurate.

I have to say, one of the good things about having starting two mad projects that have small blocks - Farmers Wife and 365 Challenge - is that I have become a much more accurate patchworker.  It has also made me slow down and make my blocks and units much more slowly, and even this small thing will increase accuracy I have found. It did used to irk me when blocks would not come out right, and I think I have finally learnt some of the answers. Fast is not always first class sewing.

The other thing I did which I believe was extremely clever and funny, was at our Wine Country Quilts exhibition last month when I helped to man the Janome stand, there was an Elna Press on display.  So Clare took here 24 fat eighths that had been carefully folded up for 8 years and pressed them on it!  Wow, it was magnificent!  If I get rich anytime soon, I'm gonna buy one for patchwork!! LOL Actually, I have to confess...I only pressed about 8 of them...my friend Catherine did the others.  Mind you, it might have been the only ironing she had done during the week...just like me!  (I'm gonna run now before Catherine reads this)  LOL.

Here is my 365 Challenge stuff all neatly put into a satchel and into the cupboard.  My friend Eve showed me this neat pattern that uses 3 inch 9 patches and I have already worked out that I could use the blocks I have made and make some 9 patches to add to them and "wallah" I have a quilt done.  Hmmm, go to sleep brain.

I like these satchels.  They are transparent so you know what is in them and they stack quite nicely.  Come in lots of different sizes too.


Then, you'll never guess what happened!!!  Some blooming fabric plonked itself right into my stash!!   For goodness sake, as soon as you turn your back, you never know what might turn up!!!  Okay, I'll rephrase that for you.  I couldn't resist the pack at the Fat Quarter Shop of the Star Wars fabric...my lovely DIL is mad about all things Star Wars, and as it is her birthday next month, what better than to buy Kea some fabric and make a quilt for Christmas with it. I let Kea have a look case a quilt was not what she wanted, but it is now in my cupboard in the queue.

So, to keep this fabric company on its way to New Zealand, I felt compelled to buy this gorgeous, scrumptious, delicious collection of low volume fabrics.  I mean....who could resist?

This all means, of course, that I am now all fired up to get some more stuff finished, as I'm not allowed to start anything new without getting two things finished!!  Who made that silly rule I wonder?

I have also decided that I will only quilt my existing customer/friends quilts on my long arm, and will no longer look for new business.  It tires me out too much now, and if I get a cold like I have done in March and April, I am out for about 3 weeks while I recover.  Decision made, and now I'm happy with it.  Besides that, I will now manage to get my own quilts quilted!

In the middle of all this we have been watching our chrysalis and are so thrilled to have seen about 18 beautiful Monarch butterflies come out of their chrysalis'. this little video is of one sitting in the warmth of our autumn sunshine drying her wings before she flies away for the winter.  We were like little children, and on Thursday when about seven of them hatched, we wasted an inordinate amount of time watching them.  Mind you, sometimes you have to stop and marvel at these things.  There is no way I could believe that this incredibly complex sequence of a caterpillar totally changing its DNA to become the most beautiful of butterflies - could have been the result of haphazard evolution.

I hope the video works - as I not much good at editing these things it might be a bit long.  I hope you enjoy it though.





At the weekend, we had Richard, Kea and wee Marcy come to stay.  Richard was back to give his Dad another hand in finishing our house off.  It was so awesome that he was able to do this. Kea, Marcy and I headed off to Napier for the day.  We picked up Kea's lovely parents and headed off to the National Aquarium.  Not sure if we were impressed but it was interesting.  The weather was stunning, so that was a plus.  Here is Marcy have morning time in the "big bed" with Nana and Granddad.  She is wondering if that Granddad fellow is friendly or not...lol.

I didn't take a lot of photos as my phone was not charging properly.  Kea has lots and will send me some.  These weekends are so precious, and you realise that this time will never come again.  The little ones grow up so fast.








So there you have it - the update in the realm of the Moore's of Waipukurau.  I hope you have enjoyed reading all this most interesting stuff that makes up our lives.

What has been happening in your life?  Lots of huggy moments I hope.  Things like watching butterflies, and little girls learning to twirl, see a beautiful sunset and a chat with those who you love having in your life.  Smiling at those who need a smile and seeing it making a difference to that person. Life is a gift and we should remember to treat it as a precious thing.

Phew, well that was a right bit of the old philosophy  he he.   I think I'll go hug the cat...oops I mean my husband and see what difference it makes in his life!!

Blessings to you all
Clare
here is the link to Cythia Brunz  Oh Scrap.  Make sure you take a look, it's great eye candy.

Wine Country Quilt Exhibition and more scraps...

It's almost upon us, our 5th biennial exhibition Wine Country Quilts up at Pukeora Estate that showcases the wonderful skills and creativity of quilters from the east coast of the lower North Island.from Gisborne down to the Wairarapa.  I know that there are going to be almost 200 quilts for you to look at, so do make sure you come if you have the chance.  It's open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so lots of opportunity to get here.  The website is here and will give you all you need to  know.  I will be up there working on the Janome stand over the weekend.

Having recovered from my cold, I have tried to keep up with the 365 challenge but have not made much of an impact as yet. I have been trying to at least cut out the fabric for each block, but am still a little behind.  I did make one block yesterday, but here is my pathetic February tally.  Oh well, catch up will happen some time. Lovely little plastic bags with their appropriate dates written on them look very impressive, but they are not much until sewn up.

Then I was a very good girl and made this quilt my Tuesday project, and now it is almost a quilt top.  It is for my daughter Rebecca, and I just need to put the black frame and outside border on..  Quilting will hopefully happen sooner rather than later.

I am very happy with the way it has come out, plus it is a stash reduction project, as this has been waiting for quite some time to become a quilt. Now what to work on next?  So many choices of things that need finishing, but I am fighting the urge to start something new and different.  Smack the hand and get back to moving these older projects out. Maybe a little something new, but using stash could satisfy the urge do you think?
Actually the most worrying thing about this quilt exhibition at the weekend is there will be quite a few  merchants that will have the most tempting morsels of fabric.  Oh dear, got to work on my will power.

Look what I've got now.  A real bathroom (well almost) as it doesn't have the washing machine beside the loo, and a real laundry room.  Whoop de doo.  I am ecstatic and can't believe how big both these rooms are.  Kerry has make a neat unit with the old set of drawers from the kitchen sink unit and now we have storage all over the place and somewhere to put the baskets and all sorts of other general stuff!!!!

In the bathroom we are going to install a wet floor shower, but that is last on the list, although the list is getting much, much smaller.  Kitchen is now in use and has only the tiles to go.  I am loving it and Kerry has done a wonderful job.  Wow, how awesome it is to use the dishwasher after looking at it for about 8 months.







And lastly, here is a shot of one of my entries in the show.  I forgot to take one of it once finished and bound, so will do that when I get it back.  Will tell you the story then too.

That's it for now, hope you are having a great week, and hopefully I will see some of you up at the exhibition.  I hope you continue to enjoy your creative journey with great enthusiasm and receive wonderful satisfaction from seeing something come to life in your hands.  Enjoy your family and take time to smell the flowers too. If you have no flowers, fresh air is just as good, as it is a blessing to have fresh air in some parts of the world.

Thanks for stopping by.
Blessings
Clare
linking to Oh Scrap  here
rainbow scrappy here and
Confessions of a Scrap Addict here