Christmas decorations, Barn door and doll quilt

Granddaughter Molly came over after school on Monday, shinnied up the ladder to the attic and handed down the box containing the tree and other decorations, then helped me put them up.   This is the one that Carol mentioned, she made one too.  I think it was late 70s or early 80s, about the same time I made the snowman -

He has a large polystyrene ball for a head and his body is over a tin, golden syrup I think.  Bit daft when you come to think of it that we cling to the northern hemisphere idea of Christmas with snow........ if you enlarge the wreath you will notice the seams - I had to turn it round to show the back as the front is very, very faded!

And my last one to share, is one of the very first decorations we bought in the early 60s, we bought two at great expense as a treat, one silver and one gold and they are carefully wrapped in clingfilm, placed in a plastic meat tray and tucked into a suitcase type carton from Vance Vivians - for those of you not native Wellingtonians, that was THE men's shop.

The same day that I saw the brick wall, I came across this barn door which I feel looks as though it should have a quilt arranged over it - the sort of thing Kaffe Fassett does so well - and we don't have to go to Europe!

There were many very pretty weeds and grasses growing in the gravel too.

Here is the third and final of the quilt tops I put together with the blocks given to me at the end of my tenure as President of Wellington Quilter's Guild [in 1995].  The autumn blocks wanted to be arranged like this -

I was pleased to find the border in my stash and here is the back, I used some vintage fabrics - one that I can't bear to cut and the maddest orange you could wish for -

Here's a close up of the panel,

Now I couldn't cut that up, could I?

But this little doll quilt was all cutting; I made it for my first granddaughter, Amy, about ten years ago, she used to love sitting on my lap while I sewed on the machine and she handed me the next piece from the basket of scraps -

My son, the cast driver, is back - they were rained off and cancelled the last three days' shooting so no more great photos for a few weeks, but here is one he sent from Te Kuiti, early morning with the misty cloud still hanging around - isn't this country just beautiful?

I have to chuckle at the words of wisdom for today - "Don't make excuses - make good".

Nice talking with you, thanks for the feedback.

June

Jingle Bells and Quilter's Eyes

I went to a Garden Centre recently with a friend and couldn't resist this as my 2011 Christmas decoration - which will probably stay up all year.

I love the rather tacky look of it, bells and big beads or crystals hit the spot with me - I have sun catchers up at most windows and love the rainbows that move across the room.

We also bought some plants, on impulse for me which is my usual behaviour - used to make my late husband roll his eyes when I came home with more purchases - "And where am I expected to put that?".

He loved a very planned and ordered garden, and I still miss all the beautiful fresh vegetables he grew - even though it made the summer extra stressful bottling and preserving all the produce.  I still have a pot of jam I made in 1979!

My friend and I shared some of the multibuy 4 for $20 specials, which wasn't really a saving as I hadn't planned to buy any - but I got a beauty - a Helianthemum Wisley primrose - never heard of it before but it's for dry places which increases its chance of survival as it is in a pot on the kitchen hatchway.........

Thursday evening was the meeting of the Wellington Quilters' Guild - on the way in to the Church Hall I  had to admire the painted door -

Great to have a sense of humour about these things...

Our speaker for the evening was Claire Regnault, Senior Curator History at Te Papa who gave a slide presentation - is it still called that ? - on Unveiled, 200 years of wedding fashion.  Now that's an exhibition I shall definitely be visiting.

Members were asked to bring along their wedding dress on a hanger, which several did.

Such a great variety and some lovely stories were shared.

More tidying up in the sewing room and I found I had several fabrics with dragonflies featured -

No idea as yet what I'll do with them, but no doubt something will occur to me....

I came across this old brick wall in Petone recently, part of a building that had been demolished perhaps and immediately it reminded me of a quilting design, free motion, like stones.

And here's a close up

I wonder if there is anywhere I can find out whether these are individual bricks and when they were used.

Now, here's the second of the three tops I have made using the blocks presented to me at the end of my two years as President of the Wellington Guild.  As I said last time, I sorted the blocks into colour families and had great fun placing the blocks.  I must say the measurements were many and varied! so I decided to sash them all, with a different fabric on each of the four sides - I did wonder at first whether I would have enough appropriately coloured, I needed 72 ........

Here's a close up showing a little rocking horse button a friend put on her block.

And here's the back, ready and waiting.....

Thanks for stopping by, and for your emails.    I love the thought for today, "Many a false step is made by standing still."

June

Glacier, Mile a Minute and more........

My son had a day off, so in his words he hopped on a helicopter and went for a ride.  Then down to earth he went for a boat trip - and this is the lake at the edge of the glacier  - and those beautiful, beautiful chunks of ice are at the edge - and are about one hundred feet high!

The boat couldn't get any closer, too dangerous, but what a stunning sight.  To me they look like jade.

From the sublime to the .........here is a mile a minute top I made ages ago, just emptied one of the scrap baskets and started joining small pieces together, then larger, then the logs - a sort of everything but the kitchen sink attitude.

I can pick out various pieces from other quilts and some that friends gave to me -

The purple with gold squiggles on is another very floddery fabric, I remember I starched it so I could sew it more easily.

And now here are another couple of pieces of vintage fabric for your enjoyment!

Isn't this an amazing fabric!  It has rock 'n roll, black and white type minstrels and mexicans.

The next one is pure colour -

When I did my turn as President of Wellington Quilters' Guild I had a  reputation for liking bizarre fabric!  I used to travel around quite a bit and made a point of visiting little shops in more out of the way places - I came up with some fascinating purchases and I used to show them off at the meetings - which gave a laugh to those who didn't share my love of the weird and wonderful.

There was a tradition for a member of the committee to organise an appropriate block for the outgoing President, which was done all hush hush and then presented at the AGM.

The word that went around for my block was that I had this "bazaar taste" in fabrics, so make a block with many different kinds - one poor newbie actually did that, her block had cotton, poly, flannel etc. etc.

This is the stack of blocks I took home and started playing with -

In the end I made three tops, one using all the blue/purples; a second using all the autumn colours and the third using what was left over!

The only one of the three, so far, to be quilted and bound!  The sawtooth border used up all the odds and ends - believe you me there was quite a discrepancy in the sizes of the blocks so quite a few are tip-less!

Here it is draped artistically on one of the couches.  I shall show the other two on another occasion because next I want to share with you a work in progress.  I showed the top made up of rectangles of vintage fabric with calico, well there were many left over so I teamed them up with a pale blue -

These are joined in groups of three patterned and are just hanging on the design wall.  I have a feeling I want to border this one, so am auditioning possibles -

The one on the right echoes the pattern in the blue/purple, but could swamp the whole thing; the next one is delightful, such a pretty pattern and colour, but not strong enough; the blue floral stripe might be used in a very thin strip - I am leaning towards the extreme left -

What do you think?  And do you audition fabrics like this? it's a part of the quilt making that I love - amazing what I find when I start sorting through the cupboards......

I'll close with a photo my son took from the helicopter ride over Mt Cook showing Mt Cook village in the top centre with the water running from the glacier and forming Lake Pukaki where they were filming.  If you click on it you should get a larger picture.

And the little diary tells us something that we all know, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Nice talking with you, and thanks for your comments.

June

Lake Te Anau, Picture quilt and Prison

Maybe I should call this one "Inspiration for Embroidery" - I remember a class or course with that title some years ago or is it a book? anyway there are many various textures in this shot.

I think if I had to tackle it now I would use several techniques - on second thoughts I'll stick to using fabric and colours I love to make quilts.


My granddaughters used to love making pictures using fabric paints on calico.  When they had quite a collection ready we auditioned fabrics for borders and then put the blocks on my bed to arrange the layout.

I should have remembered Floyd considers my bed is his territory -

I volunteered to sew the blocks together and they chose the backing from my vintage stash -

I think I got the bottom row the wrong way round, can't have two Grandmas together - where's the unpick?

Here's the backing fabric

The session at Arohata Prison yesterday went very well; the class was smaller than it has been because several of the women have been released and they were the ones who had been coming for a long time.  The newbies are settling in well and I had special fun showing how to make four patch blocks from two squares, then half square triangles and a couple of variations - it was just one of those teaching moments you grab!

I also took along two quilt tops, lent to me by Heather, which she had made using only cotton shirts she had bought at Op Shops.  Jenny has pictures of them on her blog of the 23 November, Stitching Monday.  I want to encourage the women to continue with their quilting when they go home and show what can be made if they cannot afford the more expensive quilting fabric.

Next week I shall take along some of the samples from the class I teach.  One of the very basic blocks is the double four patch - here is one I had great fun making using dozens of my five inch squares and every red I could find -

This is draped over my design wall with the sunlight hitting the top right corner

Some familiar fabrics in this part........ but maybe less familiar are these next two - these are from my vintage stash and I would really like to know more about them,

I love the clean lines and bright colours of this and the next one -

Such strong lines and geometric shapes, you can almost hear the stamp of the feet in the dance?  Not something I am in a hurry to cut into - but then I don't see me wearing it either........

Remember the Spreading Chestnut Tree?

Well I am so glad I photographed it when I did because it is no longer on that spot.  The construction of the new Civic Square is well under way and this tree appears to have been a casualty.....collateral damage, isn't it called?

Unless of course it was moved......

At least it is immortalised on my blog!!!


I am off to my book club meeting this afternoon. I have read "The Life of Pi" - first time reading off the kindle app on my iPad - so the whole thing is a new experience and I am looking forward to it.

My little diary is so full of worthy sayings, "Rebuke with soft words and hard arguments" - could that be a hint about the meeting this afternoon??

Thanks for reading my blog and for your comments.

June

Tekepau pub sign, Mt Cook and lupins

I can't resist sharing these photos with you, just received from my son.  The first one is a sign on the front of the local pub at Tekepau

I wonder if anyone claimed the free meal?

Then this great shot of Mt Cook.  The base camp is near Lake Pukaki I believe

The water looks so milky, jut beautiful - not sure whether extra large for the photo is a good idea.....

And the third one shows the lupins in all their brash glory

This post is really scraps of information and inspiration!!
It's past my bedtime but I just wanted to share these with you.
June

Milford Sound, Lake Te Anau - and more scrap quilts

Last week with snow expected to low levels, my son [who is a cast driver with the Hobbit somewhere in the South Island] had a couple of days off and he drove three of the cast for a cruise on Milford Sound, two and a half hours out to the sea.

I have forgotten how high he said the cliffs were with the waterfalls but they look wonderful, don't they?

I have had a very busy and enjoyable week - office, family, friends - what more could I want?

I have been trying to go for a walk every day, I do so need the exercise and my Inner Brat has woken up and keeps prodding me.  The first few days it was not a pleasure, I am so unfit!, I flopped into a chair on my return just thankful that the torture was over.  However - by the end of the week, I couldn't believe how good I felt after that walk - really full of energy.  Then I let it slide for a couple of days, but the brat started nagging today - 'a little bit of gardening yesterday is not enough - get moving those legs'.  Do you have a conscience [or brat] like mine?

Anyway, one of the many plusses today were the flowers in bloom and the bird song, and this hedge that had no flowers yesterday -

Such lovely old fashioned roses and the bumble bees were having a great time, but they appear to be camera shy!

Did I mention earlier that I had a few small pieces from a quilt one of the women is making in the prison?  She didn't think they were worth keeping, so I played around with them -

I tried out various sashing fabric

The pale greeny fabric was interesting with the squiggles on it, in the end it is pinned ready to quilt with a flannel backing

It is just the right size for a cot or pram cover and will go to the hospital or Bernardos - after I have shown the Shut-in Stitchers what can be done with small pieces.

I showed the yellow borders quilt, well it is now quilted, and that one too I backed with flannel

I have almost finished hand sewing on the binding, I quilted in the pale yellow sashing using a decorative stitch from my Janome

I used variegated thread to add a little interest - and talking of interest - silly me to put it on the floor to take a photo, because Basil just had to come along for a look-see -

I had a bit of a tidy in the sewing room the other day, and came across a packet with some beautiful panels of  hand batiked cats - I think I bought them in the UK on my last trip

So I had a quick look into one drawer and came up with some compatible fabrics

Then I will have to put on my thinking cap and come up with how best to show off the cats...........

Having mentioned Lake Te Anau I will finish with one of the photos my son sent, this was taken on one of the days that Windy Wellington lived up to its name - and beyond!  Boy, even my little low slung car was rocking in the wind.

Thanks for your comments, it's such a pleasure hearing from you.

The thought from my diary is, "Unpunctuality is slackness - nothing else." - My unpunctuality usually happens when I am ready early and think I have time to do something, which takes longer than the time available.  Me slack? never!

June