Patterns and things......

Well maybe I haven't got it completely!

This little photo reminds that we all have different points of view - this is an ordinary blind but altered with the use of my latest iPhone App - think it's Marbled.

I can see great possibilities - maybe use it with striped fabric, or fabric that has patterns set in sort of stripes - which is what I have been doing.

It started with a Block of the Month for Wellington Guild, oh ages ago.....  You cut two squares, then use them to make half square triangles.  I found lots of my vintage fabrics fitted my bill and away I went....  The thought came to me that the pattern was a bit like life, in particular marriage - take two people and try to join them up - sometimes you get a perfect match, other times they seem to take off in different directions, but most times you can get a new attractive pattern.

I auditioned many, many fabrics for the setting triangles - had lots of fun,

Finally settled on this one

and then made a bit of a mistake at the edge - well, I was getting tired, so I stopped for the day and got it right the next day.

The setting triangles look pretty big but I plan to cut them back when I put the binding on.

I shall take a photo of the whole thing to share -
Thanks for stopping by and for your emails and comments - they are much appreciated!

The quote for today is one that we quilters can well appreciate, "The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.  George Santayana


June

I think I've got it!!

This is a portrait of my son, the one who has been working on the Hobbit and sending me such glorious photos - well, we had a day out in the Wairarapa and this is Lake Ferry - not that you can see the lake.  The wind was wickedly cold and strong, you can see where the ocean had surged over the shingle bank.  I was not game enough to go up there in case I couldn't run back fast enough.

The point is I have been playing on the computer trying to find a way to publish my blog with photos, and I think I have found the way to downsize them..........  I'll try one with a quilt.

Not exactly a quilt, but a bag - made under tuition I might add, another friend and I were volunteer guinea pigs for Jan who is teaching the class for Pinestream Quilters.

We had a lot of fun, she is such a good teacher - and what else could I do with that amazing fabric?

All the shades of green and pink were on the one piece.

Jenny put up a much better photo when she showed all the lovely quilts at the recent Pinestream meeting.

I had some fun with the Hit'n'Miss top; really enjoyed finding plaids to go with the pinky four patch and the tee dyed calico

Umm, well; I have just clicked on it and the quality is pretty awful.  Maybe I have been too harsh on the resizing- more experimenting is in order.

In the meantime I have a quilt waiting..........
Thanks for stopping by - as Buddha says "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else you are the one who gets burned,"
June

Words of Advice

This piece of advice was given to me by one of my sons - the one who has taken such great photos when he's been on location - on the occasion of re-organising the office at the family business.

Actually there's no-one I can delegate to, we are a small office, so it's Do it or Dump it!

Well, I'm not yet at the point of dumping my blog and I am having difficulty doing it myself, so I have to search elsewhere for assistance.

Several people have suggested I start another blog, but they haven't actually said how - in words of one syllable preferably!!

I thought I had done so,  and Blogger loved my new name [just the old one with a number added] until I tried to put a photo up - whoops, I have no space.  So I am trying to get another Google account; I think I first have to get another email address - great, except that my computer keeps telling me I'm not connected to the internet......... gremlins are having such fun with me!!

There must be a way to make my photos smaller because I can put up as many small ones as I like, maybe another trip into town to Yoobee.

There is a competition on at present to write a poem about Coffee bars, I entered the competition last year

A cup of coffee with you

The familiar beep 

Signals a message from my son

“Coffee in ten? – you know where”

Our favourite meeting place.

I do look forward to my morning fix - but

I could do without

Screaming kids with my flat white

Well done, Mum

Distraction is the key

And the road works

Are a Godsend

To an embarrassed Mother

Having coffee with one of the 

Girls from the office,

Trying to prove she

Is still smart and with it

And motherhood’s a breeze

We read the paper

Make plans for a cinema visit 

And enjoy the music – funny that

Had a friend who insisted on sitting

Outside

Fat Freddy wasn’t to her taste.

Such a pleasant interlude

In this meeting place that is also

A place of refuge 

Or a refuge from loneliness

And did I mention the good coffee?

 - No prizes for guessing why I didn't win one!!

Ok, back to the sewing room for a last half hour before bed.  I've been waylaid by a pile of two inch squares......

My quote to finish today is, "The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp." by John Berry - I wonder why that one came to the top?

Nice talking with you

June

One year a blogger!!

One whole year ..........

Now how amazing is that!!!  Not just the photo which is another taken from the house in Roseneath looking towards the Hutt Valley - but the fact that I can publish it........ I have been going round and round this problem and perhaps this is the solution.

No, I'm not going to bombard you with photos of Wellington Harbour, but this was taken many years ago and is a digital version of an old slide - so probably very few pixels.

I have been advised to make sure I show smaller photos but not exactly how [all the information I could find is based on using Windows]  I tried to start another blog with a slightly changed name, but it was no use; obviously it's me and my address that has no more space, so perhaps I shall have to look into getting another email address, a new Google identity and try again.

I had to take my computer into Yoobee for more Ram so I can upgrade and the technician suggested I try Wordpress which will apparently take over the old blog.

I finished piecing the Marriage Quilt which I set on point - had great fun with the setting triangles, somehow managed to twist one or two of them as I carried the pieces from the design wall to the machine - I have a very good unpick.

Things are going well at the prison, with some beautiful quilts being produced.  The Attic Window pattern is proving so popular and they all look quite different.

Thank you for your emails of encouragement, I do miss the chats and sharing and My New Year resolution is to solve the problem and just Do It!

And a most appropriate quote - "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow", Ralph Emerson


We will talk again - soon and with pictures!
June

Greetings all

It's been such a long time since I last blogged and I do miss it, but I can't seem to find an answer to my problem with posting photos - so in the meantime I shall stop sulking and just chat with you.


I have tried several avenues for advice - I even contacted a person who teaches about blogging, I put my problem as concisely as possible and after a week or so received the reply - "sorry I can't help, don't know anything about the techy side"....


Are you watching "Call the Midwife"? - I was hooked from the first scene of a young woman walking along wearing the distinctive bright red lipstick and the date under the picture stating, 1957 - ye gods and little fishes, that could have been me - if I had trained as a nurse instead of a shorthand typist!


The living conditions in the south of England were a far cry from the poor end of a big city, but the attitudes were the same - as they were here.  


I was so vividly reminded of 1959 and being in Wellington Hospital, Ward 28 was the maternity ward, wasn't it?  I was so proud of my new baby, and across from me in the ward was a young woman who cried all the time; the Sister brought in her baby just once, very briefly.  I found out that she was unmarried and her boyfriend was in prison waiting deportation so the baby was taken away.


Maybe I have been watching too many Missing Link programmes but I can't help wondering what happened to the three of them and to hope that they had good lives despite the rocky patch.


I came across this lovely quote, "I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant." Robert McCloskey


Till next time then - and perhaps with a picture or two.
Thanks for stopping by
June

Photo-less blog!

Now I really am  confused!

 Here is another shot of the view from the house in Roseneath, looking over towards the Miramar peninsular.  On the shore line is the old Airforce base - but what an amazing effect with the rainbow and the sun through the clouds.

I started to put a picture of the pattern from the Australian Home Journal - but Blogger wouldn't let me - so once more I chased around trying the get answers to my questions - namely, that I had never asked for my photos to be put into a Picasa album, after all I have them on my computer in iPhoto [I use a Mac] and I simply put those I want to use onto the desktop and put them onto my blog from there, and I was not told when I started that I would have a limited amount of room for my photos so it seems a bit weird to be asked to pay for more storage at this stage.

Then I read all the problems others are having, money being taken out more than once, not showing as having been paid etc. etc. so I thought I would try again - and this time up came the photo.

I wonder if I can put the pattern up..........  I guess not - though the message still refers to" Google's free photo hosting service"........

In the meantime I have been quilting, and knitting and gardening, going to quilt meetings and teaching at the prison.

I also went along to the exhibition in Upper Hutt, "Common Thread" - I have some photos to share too - later I guess.

I shall solve this problem!

"Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind." Plato

Maybe I am resisting learning what I should be doing!

I do so hope I can chat again soon - with pictures!
Thanks for stopping by
June

Brief return with a wonderful view & an old magazine

It's been a while since I last blogged - firstly I was astounded when blogger said I couldn't post any more photos and I was unable to work out what to do, and if the dust and disruption to normal life from builders on site wasn't enough, I caught a wretched bug........ and the days slid past.

This view has been photographed countless times, it was taken from the house where we lived in Roseneath, a suburb of Wellington that looks out over the inner harbour towards the Hutt Valley and way into the distance Mount Hector and the Rimutaka Range.  Balaena Bay is below the house, you can see the curve of the car lights; then across the harbour is the Hutt Road to the valley.  I now live just a little to the left of the path of the moon, a couple of streets back from the Petone foreshore.

Recently, in my quest for order in my life, I have been de-cluttering and one of those jobs that will get done 'one of these days' was to sort through the thousands of colour slides that were in boxes in a travel bag - and sadly rapidly deteriorating.  I was quite ruthless but even so finished up with over 500 slides; I took them into New Image who put them all onto a CD - they are now on my computers and giving all the family a lot of laughs and good memories - and they are so easy to send to other family members by email.

At the end of my last blog I was asking if you wanted instructions for a present for the person who has everything - and then I couldn't show you, well I'll try again.  The instructions are in an old magazine -

I was so lucky to be given these some while ago, and just love leafing through them and inside was this little gem -

Would you believe it - again I have run out of space or something!!  My gosh, the suspense is building, will the little gem live up to expectation??  I shall have to get some expert help in overcoming this problem - anyone have any suggestions?  Please!!

I have managed to do quite a lot of stitching, that I would like to share with you, last week I went over the Rimutaka hills into the Wairarapa, I haven't been for ages so it was great to enjoy some favourite shops and we went to the exhibition of Masterquilters - can't share those photos with you either.  Oh drat!

I am sure there are quotations to cover this eventuality but I can't think of one!
I shall return
Thanks for stopping by
June