Thursday 12 September 2013

Sky scrapers! and Log Cabins

How many storeys does a building need to be considered a sky scraper?.....looked at from ground level all buildings are I suppose - anyway, son Phil went into Wellington city one afternoon and had a wander around The Terrace and took photos that I think are almost blueprints for a quilt...

What do you think?  Blue, black and white.....    How about a variation?

Lovely subtle shades and just a hint of red; lots of texture and negative spaces.........

and while I'm on things 'family' remember the wool I had to knit a hat for Molly? well, doesn't she look cute in it?


So onto things really quilty - here are two quilts made by Shut-in Stitchers - I showed a gold & black one last time and here's another using similar colours but a different design made by a different person -


I have just noticed the mistake in the top right corner, funny how looking at a photo makes mistakes jump out at you!  She will unpick it tomorrow, I'm sure.  It's her first quilt and she is justifiably proud of the accuracy of her sewing.

The other one is the second top made by Desdemona [not her real name!] we collected possible fabrics for some months until she had enough -


So again, a big thank you to everyone who has contributed fabric to the programme.

I wanted to talk about log cabin quilts which are a particular favourite of mine, and to show how I got started making them.  Back in the distant past, I made this -


Yes, it's pretty faded, the outer row did have a very dark background, this was made in the seventies and the method we used was to sew by hand onto a muslin backing -


Yup, by hand onto a backing using light thread for the light fabrics..........etc.
We progressed to sewing by machine -


but this was 'quilt as you go', then it was machine but just two fabrics


Then a forerunner of my wonky hexagon log cabin, made using offcuts of Indian cotton - the dye was most unstable, fugitive I think it's called - it certainly ran............ [pardon the pun!]

Nothing subtle about the stark piece of calico in the centre!

Then there's a change of resulting design, great possibilities here -

Greek key I think this is known as......

And another variation where you start in one corner - I have shown the resulting quilt I made with this technique, called Boldly I Went!  I made the blocks in fours using a variety of sized blocks to be different worlds floating in the black.


Here's a thought to ponder, "If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?", George Carlin

and back to a beautiful sunset showing Mana Island


Nice chatting with you, thanks for the feed back, take care.
June

2 comments:

Nancy J said...

gold and black, and Purple, both stunning, all those squares perfectly matched, great stitching there, with so many seams all matched, and the purple, great design, love it too. great scenery pics as well. Greetings to all, and so well done to the SIS, go girls!!!

*-* said...


Hi June, I can see how the mistake jumped out in the photograph, now.
I love all those Log Cabins, old & new.
K.