Blowing hot and cold!

What was that I said once about reading the labels?  I just love the delicate colour of the blooms, but they need full sun and that's not easy in my garden - what with my shrubs and the huge trees on my neighbours' sections - so my solution was this pot so I can easily move it around - and it's working.


The big storm at the weekend came just as they weather man predicted - I was contacted by a friend with a wind warning from Civil Defence, so after much thought I decided to cancel the quilting programme at the prison for that morning.  


It would have been rough driving there and the site is somewhat exposed, always colder there than in town.


Really I got off lightly, a few puddles around the section, the lawn and deck covered with leaves, a few small branches snapped off and a good excuse to have a lie in and spend the day sewing.


I showed earlier the stained glass windows in my bungalow and today I can share one that is in my son's house -

Did you ever make a stained glass quilt or wall hanging?  I seem to remember doing one, I wonder what happened to it; perhaps it's in the Orphan Block container.....


I have started hand sewing the binding on the Puss in the Corner quilt, I found it all ready cut in the container; it is the same fabric as the inner border and is looking good I think.  -

You can see where the border goes under the star, and having struggled lately to join the ends of the binding with a diagonal seam, this was joined straight - diagonal looked far too obvious!


Perhaps you also remember the jelly roll - my version - that I joined using strips cut from twenty blues on the same pile - well, it wasn't a huge success, so a friend and I unpicked it into strips -

Four strips wide, which gave me this - so I then subcut this lot into squares -

and put them onto the design wall as I cut them, then I fiddled a bit -

Sort of Rocky Road maybe?  How's this for happenstance - when I had cut all the squares I had short pieces left over and I sewed them together to make the sixteen patch block in the middle of the bottom row!  So really no waste at all!


I haven't been out to Pete's Emporium for quite a while, last time I went there I bought the plastic square rule with the sharpener on the edge.  I said I would let you know what I thought; well, it is a good size and I can hear the rasping which I suppose is the rough edge sharpening the blade; can't say I have noticed any real difference though - and, one downside to the coating is that I find it difficult to see dark fabrics -

Maybe I just need a good natural light over the cutting board.


The bathroom is progressing, and tomorrow I shall have a shower - at my son's house!!  I am not moaning, I do realise how lucky I am in so many ways.  As Ralph Emerson put it, "Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good."


Great talking with you, thanks for visiting.
June

Windows, washing & more strings

This is the stained glass window on my front door.

I just love the simple design and the touch of red colour - which is why I chose that colour for the door;  it is also considered good feng shui.

It occurred to me that there are many similar houses around Petone, so I am planning to use that as an incentive to go for walks with my camera.  I very much need more exercise.

The second window is slightly larger and is on the south side of the house.

The little ledge is the perfect spot for my 'houses', some of the ones on the left still contain alcohol I think. The first ones were those on the right given to us by my sister in law, I found the General Store in a second hand shop in Kilbirnie - just love the cat licking up the cream, and the little brown one to the left is intended to hold potpourri.

I might have opened the floodgates of fabric buying after my indulgence at the Waikanae exhibition.  After we had finished at the prison last Saturday a friend and I had lunch at Kaizen, and did some shopping finishing up at Spotlight where we made a beeline for the specials.  I took all that was left on the bolts of the purple and splodgy orange - both colours that are often requested by the Shut in Stitchers.

Here they are drying on the line - had to take a photo to show off the lemon tree and the marvellous  colour in the self seeded geraniums and cineraria.

I am on the last row of quilting the blocks of my wonky log cabin but haven't touched the hand stitching of the extended nine patch and talking of progress - well, the yellow and green quilt that has given me so much angst lately is now finished.

I changed my mind so many times - maybe the moon or the planets are in funny positions!  something was addling my brains, that's for sure!

I fluffed around, then took the bull by the horns yesterday and just sewed a couple of rounds and decided enough is enough!!

It could be a table cloth, or as I have sorted out some fine flannel for the back, it might go somewhere as a baby quilt; the birth was certainly difficult!!

Now this next quilt was a joy from start to finish, another strippy one made from mainly vintage fabrics.  I was given a pile of squares of various sizes so used one cut in half for the two corners; it is simply called Summer Strings -

I made the binding extra wide as I used the material from one of my late husband's shirts, excellent cotton.

You can see that both corners of each block are the same.  I thoroughly enjoyed hand quilting it and just love all those old fabrics.

With asparagus in plentiful supply, there is now no reason I cannot enjoy my favourite meal of steamed asparagus and a poached egg - I now have four different egg poachers!

On the left is the pair of orange rings - useless, as the egg just disappears under the ring.  On the right is the fancy gadget I ordered from Avon with full written instructions and as yet unused; the green fish?? were presented to me by a friend and also have yet to be tested - will they stay upright if they float? and the sort of ladle with holes was found to be skulking in the drawer of kitchen gadgets and forgotten about.  Do you ever do that?  I think it is meant to hook onto the side of a saucepan but that could be difficult as all mine have lips for the lids.........  Maybe I shall have to persevere with the spinning water; goodness, if my son can do it.......

Oh my gosh, the thought for the day is "Envy hates the excellence it cannot reach".

Nice chatting to you, thanks for your comments

June