Otago on location, tumbling blocks and more strings

What wonderful clouds - and can you see the cherub blowing?  top right, I am sure I can see a face....!

Another shot from my son, somewhere in Otago on his way down to Dunedin - though when they got there, after a day of rain, this is what the site looked like -

I mentioned Art Quilts which some of my friends make, it's a thorny subject sometimes, you know, one person's art.......... like the cleaner recently who scrubbed off what she thought was a dirty mark in the gallery and it turned out to be part of the installation.!! ouch!

On one of my recent walks I came across two young men sticking posters on a wall - and from across the road, it definitely looked like a piece of Art -

Could be a quilt pattern, or a mosaic.....

I have contemplated doing Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt - but then again, I do have enough projects on the go - projects, I hasten to add, that I am enjoying doing - just need a few more hours in the day.

Like this scrap, mainly vintage, tumbling blocks - work in progress...

You can see parts are still in units, I was checking out how much more I need/want to do

It's a good project for taking to meetings, it is all in a roll up case my sister in law made for me.

You see the bright green in the centre of the photo? the one with the little white pattern? that's one of the first fabrics I ever bought by mail from America.  It was when Quilters Newsletter had the shop, Quilts and Other Comforts I think the name was.  At that time we couldn't get much green here, so I sent away for a pack of greens and I still have bits and pieces in my scrap bags.

The completed top I wanted to share is one I made after a friend organised the Block of the Month for Pinestream Quilters.  We were asked to use bright strips with black and white for the corners of the snowball block - I decided to make one for myself, using really bright brights!

I used some of the half square triangles from the sew and flip corners to make a little block for a corner stone

I think the quilt looks rather like paper lanterns.

I had an unexpected trip into Wellington today, a chunk fell off one of my fillings when I was cleaning my teeth this morning and I was lucky to be able to see my dentist straight away - I was due for my check up next week but didn't want to wait in case I ended up with toothache....... as a treat I went into Whitcoulls and found a couple of DVDs to ease the pain - my dentist did find a very awkward filling to do next week!  I noticed a boxed set of Lark Rise to Candleford - but that was very expensive...... hmmm depends how uncomfortable the procedure is next week.....

Tomorrow evening I am on the roster to help set up Fabrications at the Horticultural Hall in Lower Hutt,
which promises to be a great event.  I shall be going along on Saturday after quilting at the prison and am taking a couple of pieces of vintage fabric to see what the expert says about them.  Might see some of you there.

Our thought for the day is so apt for bloggers, "Think before you ink".

Thanks for dropping by and for your comments.

June

Strings galore

Isn't it amazing how the flowers bounce right back, the coating of snow doesn't seem to have hurt these polyanthus - maybe it just killed all the bugs.

I had a pretty busy weekend, prison on Saturday where the class went well and we have lots of quilts and tops to take to Wellington Guild meeting this week for Show & Tell.  We get so much support from quilters it is a buzz for me to take work along so people can see what happens to their donations of fabric.

Earlier I mentioned that I have been doing string or strip piecing for a long time, here is proof positive - my office in the family business, several years ago.........

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a typewriter - not a computer - on my desk, with its own strip pieced cozy; on the back of the chair a quilt and two little ones on the wall.
At least the typewriter was electric.........

Now in the eighties, no self respecting quilter was without string pieced, quilted garments - I had this jacket, and I remember feeling conspicuous wearing it until I got to Cuba Street in town, when I was overshadowed by some of the regulars........

And the back view

Also it was reversible, inside out it looked like this

You can see that Quilt As You Go is no novelty for me!  Though I did make one recently and learned a valuable lesson - do not use compressed batting!!

Ah yes, this one shows the binding not sewn on - boy, that was not easy and some of those joins are almost lethal.  I need to hammer the batting down to make it possible to sit on the quilt.

See it is finished - I love the back, those old fabrics - four pieces are part of a rather worn embroidered table cloth - I'm pretty sure I had those in a proper pattern...... I must have moved them around as I joined them - oh well............

One of the things I did early on was cut out the shape of an apron - yes, this was in the days when it was ok to wear an apron to protect your clothes, use as a basket, wipe noses or mop up blood etc. etc. - I then covered the base with strips; first in the traditional vee, my Christmas apron - a big lop sided and that's before having a tipple!

Then with the strings fanning out from one position -

Then I wondered if it were possible to change direction on the one apron -

And it was, and then another vee - chevron I think it was called, different colours -

After teaching on Saturday, a friend and I went to Pataka, had lunch at Kaizen - and they were having a day celebrating all things from Wales.  They had a display of handcrafts -

Two hexagon quilts and the Celtic knot that we were told was very old, and samples of  embroidery.  As we ate our lunch we were serenaded by the choir, unaccompanied and just lovely to hear. 

I couldn't resist snapping this lady draped in a flag, what a great emblem it is!

It seems ages since my last blog, so I am rattling on a bit.  Will close now and attend to pressing matters like answering emails, sending promised photo to a friend, doing the dishes.......

My thought for today comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "There are not days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination."

We will talk again soon, thanks for stopping by and for the lovely comments.
June