Sunday 8 January 2012

Summer? and more tidying up



Everywhere I look these days I see the beautiful pohutukawa trees, and the local primary school has adopted it for a logo - how appropriate.

It is indeed an emblem of summer, though since the beautiful weather we had on Christmas Day, it has been a trifle cooler and then wet yesterday - my fault, I watered the garden the evening before!

The last time we spoke I was struggling to make sense of a mish mash of blocks that I had unearthed on one of my dives into the storage drawers.

When I found them, they looked like this -


The basic idea is good, sashed four patch blocks in sizes that would fit together..............in the end I managed to make a sort of order -


Squinting at it improves the overall effect!!  If I put some polar fleece on the other side, the cats will love it!

In the same drawer was a pile of blocks and the pieces to make more, it is of a definite colour scheme, red/white/black - I showed a top I made earlier as a sort of strippy, not sure how I shall put these together.


I just love the way the block looks so different depending on where the light and dark fabrics are placed - if you remember, this block was one that my friend Yvonne from Picton showed me [how long ago Yvonne?] you cut all four pieces from each fabric you plan to use, label them a,b, c & d and put them into different bags.  Then you shake the bags and take out one piece from each and these are the one that go to make your block.  Totally random - and if I picked out the same fabric for piece a and d, well that was the luck of the draw.........

There are twenty five blocks on the wall, and fifteen more waiting to be stitched - maybe sashing with sort of stars for cornerstones, or an alternate block - snowball?.......... and while I am working this one out, what shall I do with all the little squares which are two patch blocks at present, from using them as starters and enders.


The carton is quite deep - I have already made one large quilt from these blocks which I showed some time ago;  I am leaning towards 'square in a square' using a plain fabric and a tartan - then staggering the setting............

I have been watching dvds while I sew, both musicals - in the lounge I wallowed in La Vie en Rose, the life story of Edith Piaf - what a terrible childhood she had! I just love her voice - hey ho, ITunes, here I come!

In my sewing room I've been watching "Carmen Jones" with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Bellafonte, made in 1954 - my, how time flies!  I had the lp, my kid brother and I bought an electric record player  to share which was in constant use.  I found I was still word perfect!

I'm not quite sure when these vintage fabrics were made, probably about then -


The fabric is a shiny polished cotton with that lovely crisp feel - and you thought black and white and lime green was a modern combination!

This next piece is a quilt pattern on its own!


Thank you for your comments and emails, the thought today isdesire" "For the thing unknown there is no desire- or another version, "What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over" - or maybe not!

Nice talking with you
June

3 comments:

Nancy J said...

That last fabric is a quilt all on its own, I do like the idea of the " lucky dip" method, that way there is no right or wrong with the selection. Yes, the trees are showing brilliant colour right now.Cheers from Jean.

Unknown said...

Hi June, I've just been scrolling through and catching up on your blog. I love it.. so much colour and great ideas. I've come back from Myra's with a huge lot of her scraps.. beautiful scraps. I want to make a 'Myra' quilt using one piece of each of them. any shape.. so your gorgeous wallpaper quilt has given me ideas..

Jenny said...

Random blocks, you say? Oh no, not for me - my little brain just can't cope with random! There must be a name for someone with my condition, but I don't want to hear it. I like to think of myself as "ordered" or "balanced". After all, I am a Libra, so I think that explains it.