Forgotten decoration and Carlucci Land

How could I have missed it?  Every year I find at least one decoration left behind when I pack them up, this year would be different I decided, I would be methodical, go room to room.  The cartons sat neatly tied for a couple of days and then my son came round and offered to put them up in the roof space.

This entails moving the cabinet in the hallway - first removing the lamp and other ornaments, key container etc. and putting them into my nearby bedroom while the ladder is lowered.  Then everything is put back - including this which I had put on my dressing table in the first part of the exercise!  It is now on top of the wall cupboard in my little office - remind me  in December where I put it please!

I went to the cinema this week, to The Empire, in Island Bay.  It's been ages since I went over to that part of Wellington so new to me is Carlucci Land and these amazing  - er, installations?

 On the other side of the road was this monster -

The main part of the park is fascinating too, big rock climbing areas and this part that reminded me of Middle Earth -

The children we could see from the road looked to be having great fun.
We saw Tin Tin, in 2D as I get vertigo trying to cope with 3D - and I loved the film, a real romp.

Much of my time this week has been spent trying to get order into my sewing room with the result that I can hardly get in the door now.  There has been much internet talk on organising the scraps, but where do I start?  A few years ago it was easy, pop the scraps into baskets, they look so attractive lined up on top of the cupboards.....

I could have sworn I kept to a different colour in each basket - at least there is one of solids

at the time I thought it a good idea to buy some plastic stackable storage boxes - with wheels so they can be moved easily

At least I can see what is inside them, unlike the solid baby bath type of container - oh dear, there are more of those under the table

Not quite all scraps, the one on the right is actually full of fabrics put aside for backs of the tops already made - always supposing I can remember which goes with which - but also the bindings -

In the top corner of this last picture you can see a partially empty plastic container, it is large and shallow. one of a pair I bought to put under the bed to store clothes etc.  They have been emptied and I thought would be  good receptacles for the scraps from the baskets - the job was taking a long time - but I did have some company -

I shall have to rethink, I feel as though I am rearranging the deck chairs..........  I need a proper system.....

I recorded the film Julia and Julie and have started watching it, well Julie has challenged herself to do something each day.......... maybe I could stretch it out a bit, make it each week - a basket of scraps a week, sorted and reduced to set sizes?  Squares and/or strips all ready to go on the next quilt?

Like this block, which I think has potential!  Two oblongs of patterned fabric, each with two squares of, in this case, calico on top; pinned and diagonals marked on the calico -

Sew on the diagonal, flip the calico aside as needed, then sew another seam about half an inch or so away

Cut off the half square triangles and join the pieces into a zig zag.

Rows could be good, contrasting hot and cold colours maybe; or black and amish........ and the little half square triangles could make a border.........

We are back into the prison in the morning, I shall have to have two alarms - one on the chest of drawers well out of reach I think.

And our thought, how true, "A word of encouragement is a fine tonic".  Thank you for reading my blog and giving me words of encouragement.

June

Summer? and more tidying up

Everywhere I look these days I see the beautiful pohutukawa trees, and the local primary school has adopted it for a logo - how appropriate.

It is indeed an emblem of summer, though since the beautiful weather we had on Christmas Day, it has been a trifle cooler and then wet yesterday - my fault, I watered the garden the evening before!

The last time we spoke I was struggling to make sense of a mish mash of blocks that I had unearthed on one of my dives into the storage drawers.

When I found them, they looked like this -

The basic idea is good, sashed four patch blocks in sizes that would fit together..............in the end I managed to make a sort of order -

Squinting at it improves the overall effect!!  If I put some polar fleece on the other side, the cats will love it!

In the same drawer was a pile of blocks and the pieces to make more, it is of a definite colour scheme, red/white/black - I showed a top I made earlier as a sort of strippy, not sure how I shall put these together.

I just love the way the block looks so different depending on where the light and dark fabrics are placed - if you remember, this block was one that my friend Yvonne from Picton showed me [how long ago Yvonne?] you cut all four pieces from each fabric you plan to use, label them a,b, c & d and put them into different bags.  Then you shake the bags and take out one piece from each and these are the one that go to make your block.  Totally random - and if I picked out the same fabric for piece a and d, well that was the luck of the draw.........

There are twenty five blocks on the wall, and fifteen more waiting to be stitched - maybe sashing with sort of stars for cornerstones, or an alternate block - snowball?.......... and while I am working this one out, what shall I do with all the little squares which are two patch blocks at present, from using them as starters and enders.

The carton is quite deep - I have already made one large quilt from these blocks which I showed some time ago;  I am leaning towards 'square in a square' using a plain fabric and a tartan - then staggering the setting............

I have been watching dvds while I sew, both musicals - in the lounge I wallowed in La Vie en Rose, the life story of Edith Piaf - what a terrible childhood she had! I just love her voice - hey ho, ITunes, here I come!

In my sewing room I've been watching "Carmen Jones" with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Bellafonte, made in 1954 - my, how time flies!  I had the lp, my kid brother and I bought an electric record player  to share which was in constant use.  I found I was still word perfect!

I'm not quite sure when these vintage fabrics were made, probably about then -

The fabric is a shiny polished cotton with that lovely crisp feel - and you thought black and white and lime green was a modern combination!

This next piece is a quilt pattern on its own!

Thank you for your comments and emails, the thought today isdesire" "For the thing unknown there is no desire- or another version, "What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over" - or maybe not!

Nice talking with you
June

Teapots and tidying up

How's this for a teapot tree?  I couldn't resist the look of these in another great Jackson Street shop, Coffee Creation - I really couldn't justify another teapot, though I am very tempted by the look of the orange pot with the metal lid and how about some of their other crockery?

You couldn't be down in the mouth looking at these - and I did get some good advice about the kind of coffee that might suit me, and it does.  They have lots of other goodies, teas galore and nibbles too.

I am getting into the very bad habit of late to bed and late to rise but I did get up early Friday morning to get my nails done -

I found it so difficult to photograph my own hand - see the pinky waving with the effort?  Anyway, it's in an attempt to encourage strength in the nails and stop the splitting - having paid good money for this result I will put gloves on when doing the dishes and gardening.  No more of this hanging out the washing and oh dear, look at the weeds, I'll just grab a handful or two........

There's been quite a bit of talk lately on Kiwiquilters [the online quilting group] about tidying the sewing room, getting things organised etc. which I also do from time to time.  One day I came across a pile of half rectangle triangles that a friend had given to me.........  I started playing with them and making them into blocks -

Some I kept separate and sashed them, others I joined - without having to be precise -

I then put them all together, sort of flowing the colours across the top, and used up the last of the hsr in the border -

At the moment it is the photo I use for wallpaper on my computer - so I can enjoy the many favourite fabrics in it!

When last I posted I was working on the second rectangle of vintage plus pale blue after I cut far too much up into three and a half inch strips - well that is a complete top

It fought against every border I tried, so it doesn't have one; I have also pieced a back plenty large enough in case the situation changes.......

The day before yesterday I found a pile of fabric, can't really call them blocks.  A sort of "what on earth was I thinking of" pile  - I remember making them, four patches in several sizes and they were supposed to fit together............. however they break my now golden rules of scrap quilts which must either have good strong dark/light contrast or stick to a colour scheme - see what I mean

What a mish mash!!  But I am too mean to throw them away - and no, the women in the prison would not be interested! so I shall attempt to put them together somehow.  Watch this space!

I have been indulging in my Jane Austen dvd collection.  I love the Sense and Sensibility film with Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant, then I watched Andrew Davies' BBC adaptation which was different but just beautiful and I loved the settings.  I am now almost finished watching another BBC production, dramatised by Alexander Baron which, imho, falls far short of the other two.  Of course, this now means I shall have to re-read the book!

Harking back to my comment about throwing away the four patches, the thought for today from my diary is, "Waste is a crime."   Maybe I paid more attention to these saying than I realised!

 Great talking with you.  Thank you for the encouraging comments.

June

Tree and tapestries

Despite the cloudy weather it is still too light at after nine o'clock to get a good shot of the tree - but you might be able to make out the 'snowflakes' on the window - another momento of my Canadian trip.

I hope you all had a very pleasant time over Christmas as I did.  We are pretty laid back these days; there were more of us than usual but even with my small house, it was no problem.  I can't remember another year when I have had both front and back doors open until bedtime with no worries about the wind!

My two sons were here, plus one daughter in law, two granddaughters, my son's mother-in-law and a family friend who would otherwise have been on his own.

We spent much of the day outside playing boules, tennis on a stick, badminton and practicing golf chip shots - the amount of laughter made up for the lack of skill I think.  It was a wonderful time together.

My son and his family are settled into their new house and during the move came across a blanket I embroidered over twelve years ago for the first granddaughter.  I agreed to go to a class at Nancy's in Wellington to keep a friend company, and we used wool to embroider a woollen blanket, using mainly bullion knots....

Diana, Amy's other grandmother, drew for me the symbols for her name which I put on the blanket

Somehow, someone washed the blanket - and probably not by hand - which has caused it to shrink ........

I think I shall have to take off the binding and re-size the lining - and in the photo there appears to be quite a lot of colour bleeding - after all the hours of stitching I am reluctant to abandon it - what do you think? is it worth saving?

This afternoon I had a few errands to do - I just love Wellington at this time of year!  Well, anytime of course but now it is so empty it is a pleasure to go out knowing you can get a car park just about anywhere.  I finished my errands, made a detour into the office after receiving a phone call from my boss [my son] and attended to business, then decided I had earned a coffee so went to The Dowse where there is one of my favourite coffee bars, and while there had a look at some of the exhibitions - I shall have to return to do them justice.

But I did get a good look at the Gordon Crook tapestry exhibition, 18 Maritimes.  These works are based on oceanic and nautical themes -

They are each displayed in the wooden frames, reminiscent of portholes to me -

Some of them are based on microscopic organisims

I find it fascinating to examine and enjoy these minute works of art, such a change from queen size bed quilts!

Talking of which - well, this is maybe a large single, it is made using a small amount of the feature fabric and because of this I take it into the prison to show that it is possible to extend the favourite fabric by the use of complementary coloured/patterned fabrics.  I started off with an irregular piece of fabric with figures of children - totally unreal, but pretty -

Some of the pieces had to be cut at odd angles, so I completed the block a la crazy patchwork and used alternate blocks of sympathetic fabric - many of them also vintage, but some reproduction thirties

I understand we are in for rain tomorrow, good because the garden needs it and with a clear conscience I shall spend the day sewing - I am having problems with the latest pale blue and floral scrap top, so I shall have to reconsider - and guess what the thought for the day is? "Method saves hours of wasted effort"

I have been watching a dvd of Mansfield Park, a BBC version which I am enjoying.  One of the books this month was "An Old Captivity" by Neville Shute - it's ages since I read anything of his, he has a quite unmistakable style that I enjoy - this one seemed to finish all of a sudden but that could have been because I was reading it on my iPad and not holding an actual book when I would have known that I was at the end - if you follow me.

Nice talking with you, thank you for your comments and feedback.

June

Quilts, cats and earthquakes

This is another 'decoration' that stays up all the time on my bedroom window cill because I like the way it reflects and refracts the light - and get a load of the little mosquito houses at the bottom!!  That's what I was told they were when I bought them on my memorable trip to Canada all those years ago.

I collected the office mail this morning and dealt with a couple of things, then off to the bank and on the way drop off a few things to Vinnie's.  Would you believe it, I bought a women's magazine last week - first time for yonks - because it had Jim Hickey on the cover and he is a favourite of mine; I got my copy of the Listener in the mail yesterday, together with - you guessed it, a copy of the same magazine.

I often mention my design wall, and show many works in progress displayed on it - so here it is unadorned -

The covering is one that used to be available by the metre and was stuck on by the builder who made it when the studio/garden shed was built.  I copied the idea from another quilter friend, it is double sided and on wheels so that its secondary function is to shield the stationery cupboard that holds my fat quarters -

You can see there was once a sort of system of colours or types, like conversation prints or pansies.....

Something that has proved popular with the Shut-in Stitchers has been panels.  The first one has two panels joined with an interesting use of striped fabric.

The next was a piece of highly coloured curtaining, so it was bordered with complementary colours and quilted for a successful child's quilt

That wavy line is on the Bernina machines we use and is much liked by the women.  The photo was taken in my garden, being held by a couple of friends.

In a much more subdued colour scheme is one of my tops made using some odds and ends of mostly vintage fabric, inspired by the one that looks to me like a gendarme  -

Here is a close up - see what I mean

I am taking an awfully long time to hand quilt my wonky hexagons, but sometimes there are difficulties -

I put my needle down for just a minute - but that was enough for Floyd - he has me well trained!

We are not going into the prison tomorrow - not our choice, we were informed that quilting has been cancelled until January 14th - but I shall get up early and get into the supermarket.  I did intend to go after I had been to the office, but all I did was drive through the carpark which was packed solid then came home - and worked in the garden so it will be early to bed for me tonight.

 I am sure all our thoughts are once more with the Cantabrians suffering through more earthquakes.  While I write this I am playing the music on my computer, and the song right now is Bruce Springsteen - My City's in Ruins........

Nice talking with you,
June

Prison quilts & Expressions

Only four more sleeps - said the notice outside the nearby coffee shop and this is another decoration, which might be recognised by some local quilters.

A few years ago - and really that is what Christmas is all about to me, the traditions and fun from past years - a friend of mine was asked to teach this wall hanging at a local shop - so she worked out her pattern and then asked a couple of friends [I was one] to be guinea pigs one day.

It was great fun and I am very happy with the end result - and with the actual making because the other friend was such a fast stitcher, that they had ironed out any problems before I got to that part of the pattern!!

There has been some conversation on Kiwiquilters, [a yahoo group] about the two programmes for teaching in New Zealand prisons; one in Auckland and the one I take part in, here in Wellington.

The quilts vary considerably of course with the skill and patience of the maker, the latter being sometimes in short supply!

The first quilt I want to show you took some while for us to gather together all the fabrics, lilac, pink, purple and greens were wanted and sewn together in a traditional way -

This photo was taken when showed the quilt at a local club meeting.

The next one also took some while to gather all the fabrics, this young woman wanted blues - any blues. and she showed the tenacity of a real patchworker in the way she put them together, I think -

The choice of piecing and the fabrics used remind me of some of the Gees Bend quilts, here is a close up of the left 'block'

And here is the centre  -

And the right hand - though come to think of it, the quilt was probably used the other way, with this next block at the foot -

Rather wobbly because of the difficulty of holding it still - by my granddaughters in my sewing room!

And talking of my granddaughters, they have moved house this week which is one of the reasons I haven't been able to blog more often.  I am thankful that they are only half a mile or so from their previous house, but moving is so stressful at the best of times.  The week before Christmas is not to be recommended........  I was able to help by having the family over here for the evening meal which gave us a chance to try the Christmas Cake I had baked the day before.  I use the recipe from my Goodhousekeeping Book, 1958 edition which I brought out to New Zealand when we emigrated.  It is a recipe I just love so I really need people here to help eat it!

These days I don't do a lot of knitting, but thought I would share this blanket -

It dates back about forty five years - yoiks - when I was President of the Hataitai Kindergarten Mothers' Club - actually it was rather funny, I was invited along to a meeting and there was a misunderstanding, perhaps the accent confused me - anyway, the meeting I showed up at was the committee meeting, not the actual club - and by the end of the evening I was the new President, without ever attending a club meeting!!

Anyway, we were asked to make blankets for the orphans in Romania - sound familiar? - so we knitted peggy squares and joined them with crochet.  After we had finished I carried on and made one for myself - you can see it was well used by the amount of darning on some of the blocks.

Today I went along to Upper Hutt, a few miles up the valley, to buy a particular Christmas present for one of my granddaughters, mission accomplished I decided to look in on "Expressions" the Art Gallery and also have a coffee there.

The current exhibition was on Dolls, a bit off beat like most of the exhibitions at Expressions but well worth a look, it is open for quite a while yet.  Some while ago there was another exhibition at the Dowse in Lower Hutt of Malcolm Harrison's family of dolls - and the exhibit today that caught  my eye was of Huttette at 21 by Vita Cochan.  Huttette is the name of the baby doll in Malcolm's family.  So here she is, all grown up.

Beautifully made and the embroidery, particularly on the bag, has me seriously contemplating getting out my threads........  But not until I have finished hand quilting the wonky hexagon, and then the baby quilt - and what about hand piecing the extended nine patch?  Maybe I'll content myself with admiring the work of others.

I am sure the Hobbit fans out there have enjoyed the teaser trailer, I have more photos to share, this one from the beginning of the shoot up Matamata way -

Last week a friend told me my son's photo at the end of the blog wouldn't open, I have no idea why but if you are having trouble like that, please get back to me and I will investigate.

The thought for today, "It is easier to be critical then to be correct" - don't think I quite agree with that!

Nice talking with you,
June