Helicopter, High Summer and Hexagons

This was probably taken in late spring or early summer judging by the flowers - you don't often see a helicopter hovering just beyond the edge of your section, now do you?   We were living in Roseneath and I think the helicopter was needed to lift the piano when our neighbours moved house.  There was no access down the hill and it was a very long, narrow path up to the road.

I never tired of this view, that's Shelley Bay across the water, Massey Memorial on the point, the edge of Somes Island and Eastbourne in the distance.

I think that belonging to a quilt club [actually I belong to three] is a great way to meet up with like-minded people and it gives a great opportunity to try out patterns you wouldn't normally.  Like this one, I can't remember the name but the quilt I saw was done in batiks and I thought I would give it a go using some of my vintage fabrics.

You can see it has bars of plain, four down and one top and one bottom, with the patterned fabric showing through - so these were the start, but I didn't really like it, so took off the top and bottom bars and used lots more pattern......

The batik I used for sashing shows up quite tan in the photo, but from the close ups you will see lots of different colours -

You can also see more of my beloved vintage fabrics -

You can also appreciate how pleased I was that the batik repeated so many of the colours in the blocks

I call it Vintage High Summer.

Have you read any of the Linley Dodd books?  They were favourites of my granddaughters and I well remember reading one about the cat that caterwauled in the tree - we had fun competing to make the most awful yowling howl - well, today I heard that sound and there was Basil, out on the decking defending his territory from a neighbour's young cat.

The young cat was all bristling tail and twitching whiskers - the noise was so awful, I had to laugh - dear old Basil who hides under the table at sudden noises was being the defender of his kingdom!

Have you ever made a quilt, given it away and not taken a photo of it?  This photo is the best I can do for such a quilt that I want to share -

When I was a member of New Judgeford Golf Club I used to take my stitching with me, something to do in the 19th waiting for my husband to finish socialising........ and one day I was given a large parcel by a friend who said that a friend of hers had been making a quilt, her family didn't like it so she wasn't going to finish it - she even said she would throw it away.  My friend stopped her doing that and said she knew someone who would love it.

She gave me the top about half finished, but most of the "flowers" done so I set to and finished them, I appliqued the top onto plain dark brown and hand quilted it.  The quilting was done after my husband had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, I sat for many hours in hospitals and various waiting rooms.  It was good to have this to work on.  We also attended a group for the caregivers of cancer patients and I finally completed it there.

In the group was a lovely woman who admired the quilt, she had always wanted one, so it gave me immense pleasure to wrap this one up and pass it over to her.  A good outcome for an unwanted quilt.



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During the week three people have left fabric at my house, one person put it in the carport by the car door so I couldn't miss it!  So, whoever you are, a great big thank you, I shall be taking it along to the prison in the morning.

The class has several newbies as two others have already gone home, two more due to leave before Christmas.  I have spoken to the Shut-in Stitchers and they are happy for me to show some of their quilts, so to finish this evening, here is a Mile-a-Minute top, queen size, draped over a table at our recent Club meeting.

Persephone {not her real name!] had made several black, white and one other colour quilts during her time with the class and this one used up all the leftovers.

Don't you just love these very worthy quotes from my old diary, "Get a move on, effort must precede reward".


Nice talking to you, thanks for stopping by.

June