Friday 2 September 2011

Strings and another class, update on Bell block

Have you ever seen a plant like this before?  It is a bamboo sent to me for my birthday by my niece.  I was so surprised when I saw it - and amazed that it seems to be thriving on just water in that little black vase that is filled with pebbles.

Good feng shui I believe and I am all for all the help I can get.  The little crystal tree was given to me by my granddaughters for Christmas one year, rose quartz which also has such good vibes.

About the Bell Block quilt, I have not heard back from England, so emailed the NZ contact - between them we should be able to find out the names of all those who contributed blocks.

I have put the borders on my Floribunda but will wait until I can bribe my friends to hold it up so I can photograph it -  a small drawback [getting in my excuses early] to using some of the old fabrics, and I do mean OLD - is that they are not all the same weight and they distort - but nothing I am sure that cannot be quilted out!!

I thought I would share with you an old string pieced quilt; this one was done using pages of an earlier publication, the Radio Times. and all the blues I could find, taking blue from blue/green to purple -



It's been on my bed for about twenty years - in the winter it is under the down duvet - well, I feel the cold!

I ran out of the right blue for the borders so put in a little corner block -



As you can see I also used the scraps for binding.  I hand quilted it using a design from a great book of Amish quilting designs - I liked the idea of a square in the centre of the cable, seemed to go with the block design.


In the early years after my husband died I had to push myself to do things, it was so easy to curl up with a book after work - my security blanket books that I had read many times - I found it good to go along to the prison for teaching and one day in a shop I saw a quilt that attracted me - the colours of course - so joined in the class.

However, how do I put this politely - the woman taking the class had obviously just made this one example .............  it was a Kaffe Fasett design and his was made with two colours, pink and blue I think, cut into strips then sliced on a sixty degree angle at random before being joined.

One of the students complained that she couldn't get a good join at sixty degrees - well, you all know the secret, you find the quarter inch seam corner, pin and sew from there - we were told that it was soooo difficult, but not to worry, do the best you can and we will slice half an inch off each side of the strips!!

No way, so I joined mine at a forty five degree angle, cut off the extra half square triangle, and then used them on the back.


No delicate pastels for me, I used all my bold - some would say bizarre - fabrics and separated them with black sashing.  It is called "A nod in the direction of Kaffe Fasett"

The back, once again, used all the left overs -


I quilted it on my Bernina using the wavy stitch - a bit hit and miss on the diagonal - aren't those fabrics fun!

I am having a big more techno trouble, all to do with passwords - I want to download some books on my iPad but keep being told the password is wrong.  So I set about changing it - and am still waiting for the verification email - blogging is a pleasant way to pass the time while I wait.  Think I'll go and tidy the sewing room.....

Sage words from Isadora Duncan - "You were once wild here.  Don't let them tame you!"


Thanks for stopping by, I do appreciate you comments and emails.
We will talk again soon
June

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