What's new Pussy Cat?

That's the name of the quilt I want to share with you, but it could also apply to dear Basil who keeps an eye on me from one of his favourite positions on the back of the leather couch.








And just to prove that I am not totally divorced from the plethora of sport on the television these days, I will show a photograph taken several years ago when we lived in Roseneath.  You can imagine with this view, you have seen it several times, we took thousands of photographs - the whole scene changed from minute to minute.  You can see that from this photo

The snap was taken one club day when all the yachts moored in Evans Bay were hoping for some good sailing; they were becalmed for ages and then the southerly started, and off they went.

The quilt is made from five inch squares, what else?, you start with two made into half square triangles,

Trim to 4.5 inches, layer them right sides together, dark over light, and draw a line down the middle, sew a quarter of an inch either side of the line.  I've put pins in so you can see you get the mirror images

Oops, I had a slight accident and loped off one corner - do not do this!!

Sewn together the block looks like this -

and I put them together like this - but there are several variations you could do.  The block looks good for a border too.

the title came about because I used a couple of cat fabrics - original I'm not!

I went to the Wellington Guild meeting last night, had a most enjoyable time looking at the bags members had made for the big challenge - I can't share any photos yet, don't want to steal the thunder of the committee and their publicity.  The bags were judged by Nada Piatek, and I will just say that she has excellent taste - I picked her winner as my viewer's choice!

The fabric is cut for Molly's bag, so I shall start on that over the weekend.

I leave you with a sporting quote, "It is what you learn after you know it all that counts." by John Wooden who is a US basketball coach.

Thanks for stopping by
June

Great site for a coffee cart!

Maybe not up to the standard of my son's photography yet it shows something of the beauty of the harbour - Wellington city is at the extreme left - and the dark shadow is made by the coffee cart my friend and I will be stopping at in the morning to pick up refreshments for our stitching session.

I shall be cutting out the bag for one of my granddaughters, probably not hand sewing the binding of a quilt I have just finished because it is too late to start machining it on tonight.  I could also be carrying on with the baby blocks, or hand quilting the cot quilt or knitting more squares........ never any shortage of things to do, is there?

Probably the next top to be quilted will be my High Summer, made as an example of ways to use half square triangles as part of my 5" squares class.

I made the blocks by using four pairs of squares of similar tone and colour, then did a sew and flip with a small square on the seam end of the new square, one colour for the centre and a different colour for the outside,

I soon realised I wanted half blocks, didn't really like the blobby look otherwise.

I made the half blocks and then found the perfect border - a fabric I bought to make a blouse, would you believe?

That colour is better, it was looking somewhat washed out in the earlier photos

The next quilt is another from the prison, and by coincidence it was made by the same person who made the moon and star quilt I showed last time.  It goes to show how difficult it is to match four or five different pinks, but use twenty or more, and it works just fine!

The maker had embroidered some names on the borders of the central square and in my effort to mask them I have smudged the fabric, sort of.  My apologies.  I love the little applique hearts too.

I knew there was a reason I have so many works in progress - or flimsies as I believe some people call tops - the quote for today is "A finished person is a boring person."  Anna Quindlen


Thanks for stopping by and for your comments - I have been told the plant I was questioning is indeed a euphorbia, there are many varieties.  I think I shall search some out next time I visit a garden centre but only after I have done some weeding.......

June

SIS Quilts, a coffee mug, and a query

First the query - please what is this plant?  I think it's rather lovely, standing up for itself amongst the deadly nightshade and other weeds.

I seem to remember buying some euphorbia last year which I planted somewhere around this part of the garden but I'm sure the picture didn't look like this.









I came across this next photo recently and wanted to share it with you, it reminds me of a most enjoyable class I went to with Keiko Goke all about free cut log cabin blocks.  Right up my alley, I had a ball using some bright patterned fabrics.  We made the blocks, joined them then cut them into the shape of a basket complete with handle.

When I put mine down on the floor, I realised it looked so much better tilted to one side, with the handle not on the top, but on one side - and hey presto, there is my coffee mug.

There were others in the class who confessed to having great difficulty cutting freehand and sewing seams that were not exactly straight!

Now I want to share a couple of quilts from the women in the Arohata Women's Prison quilting programme, the Shut-in Stitchers as they are known.  I have their permission to share the photos.

Attic Window for a child -

With those lovely deep windows, a child might feel it could crawl into the picture!

The next quilt was only the second that T. made and it's for her mother.  Notice the influence of the Attic Window -

The moon and star were appliqued onto the checkerboard background; it's a large quilt and has been machine quilted - I think you'll agree the maker has considerable artistic talent.

Lately there have been many natural disasters but it is comforting to know that, in the depths of the countryside, we have directions for getting to safety in the event of a tsunami -

It's pretty much a given that you wouldn't go towards the beach..........

How true this is, "Not what man knows but what man feels, concerns art.  All else is science." Bernard Berenson

Thanks for stopping by, nice talking with you.

June

I'm a Mountain Lion!

But I'm not brave enough to get on the ferry in this weather -

This was taken earlier in the week as the ferry made its way towards the Heads and the South Island. Today I don't think you could have seen the ferry at that distance, the clouds were down on the hills and the rain has been persistent.  

The Mountain Lion is on my now upgraded computer and I am having fun with all the improvements.

I had occasion to go to Kilbirnie a few days ago and happened upon a new shop - a quilt shop yet! with a delightful name, Stitchbird, and there I spent some time talking with the delightful owner about vintage fabrics, furniture, art jewellery and Apple computers!  

And I found this fabric......... I haven't bought much these last few years, but if you knew my background  you would understand why I couldn't resist this.

And so beautifully wrapped -

here is the amazing fabric -

Did you know I trained at Portsmouth Commercial College to be a shorthand typist?  So now you understand -

It is such a special fabric being linen and cotton, it has a lovely feel [and smell!] - and I haven't a clue what I shall do with it!  Maybe a lampshade, or a bag - yes, I did say bag.  Quite surprised myself at the use I am getting out of the pink elephant bag I made recently; I have even promised one of my granddaughters that I will make her one; her fabric choice is a hoot!  More later......

Some while ago I shared the canvas work I did while a member of the 127 Group, there was also a quilt - not just an ordinary quilt of course, this was named "Ripeness is All" which I think you will agree is a fitting title -

It was pretty big, large single bed size,  and all those fruits were hand made before being attached to the quilt.  My contribution can be seen bottom left, next to the pineapple - the aubergine!  I made more than one but am not sure whereabouts the others were placed.  We had so much fun making it, I particularly like the kiwi fruit - though in those days I think we called them Chinese gooseberries.

And now I will leave it to my son, his fellow drivers and a man who was hanging around the studio, to say cheerio for now -

My son is second from the right in the tan coloured hat - I have appreciated all the photos he has allowed me to share with you.

A most apt quotation has popped up today, "He who does not hope to win has already lost." Jose Joaquin de Olmedo

Thanks for stopping by,
June

This is the wonderful Wairarapa - I can understand sun worship when you get such clouds!  Lake Ferry  in front and a glimpse of the ocean over to the left.

Nothing to do with the shoe store, but a great photograph I think....

I need new shoes, anyone who wears orthotics as I do knows full well that you can't wear shoes that are worn down, so I went to the Mall, walked around a shoe shop and saw so many ugly, ugly shoes then into another and the same thing, but I spied a book shop and went there for some relief.

I spied a book that beckoned to me -

It's been ages since I bought a cookery book but this one reminded me that my meals are becoming very predictable and unimaginative and just plain boring, and already I have book marks in -

Asparagus - doesn't that say spring is here? - well, I shall wait until it is in the shops and spring will be here - my mouth is watering at the prospect of crisp beautiful asparagus.

Once more I have spoken too soon - remember the squares I am knitting and my blithe comment that at least knitting diagonally means I shall stop at the correct size?

Should have been eight inches, somehow I managed to make it nine and a half!  So I ripped it down and have redone it and another.  So easy to do while "watching" TV because I really can do it without looking.

There was some discussion at a recent club meeting about hand quilting and marking patterns, this is one of my hand quilted quilts -

I named it Floribunda Stellata [my take on lots of stars] and it was as a result of a swap amongst some friends.  I have told you about it before, a year ago yesterday - how spooky is that, 23 July 2011 was the post, but this time I am more interested in the actual quilting.

The beauty of the design is that I didn't need to actually mark the fabric - and I remember quilting it in 1994 after I'd had an operation on my ankle that led to me giving up golf - being stuck in plaster for eight weeks I had plenty of time to hand sew.  I used a little ruler and marked the line going from the edge of the nine patch in the alternate block, bouncing it around the plain square - just by dragging the needle across the fabric.  I could clearly see the line.

 And again through the calico which was the paving around the garden.  Don't know that my stitches are that small these days!

So a visit to a shoe store will have to be made soon, but I won't be coming home with a pair like this!!

Thanks for stopping by - and remember as  Betty Talmadge said, "Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans."


June

A special quilt

Well no, this isn't the quilt - just me having fun with my new App - MarbleCam - this was a handbag on display in the Mall...I'm sure I can use these photos somehow; perhaps print them onto fabric, set on point........











The quilt I want to share has a fairly long history, it was the first thing I started doing soon after the death of my husband.  John died in 1997, we'd been married for nearly forty years ............ as one friend said to me, You are on auto pilot, aren't you? - well those of you who have been through a similar experience will know what I mean.

I was still meeting with Anna every few weeks, the rest of the group had moved away for various reasons  ........  Anna had a book open on a stand with a photo showing, I can't remember what the photo was of, but the colours are vivid still.

I had always wanted to do a square in a square [and have done more since] so she suggested doing one sort of freehand, maybe slashing them, putting them off centre - which was just how I felt.

So I gathered the fabrics and started cutting and sewing - then I don't know, it just sort of got put aside until I sold our house and moved to my bungalow - and even then it was a couple of years before I had access to my main fabric stash and found the pieces.

By this time I wasn't sure what my first intentions had been, so I listened to the blocks I had done, found other fabrics and finished it...... and felt pretty good to have it completed - Light at the End of the Tunnel seems an apt name -

and most appropriately, I asked sweetly and my son agreed to hold it up in our workshop.

Here is the back, being held upside down, but who cares?

And here is the label,

As I said, a fairly long history - fourteen years in the making!!!

And to finish, before I go off to have dinner with my family, here is a quote from Agatha Christie that I can agree with wholeheartedly!

"I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about....It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you."


Thanks for stopping by,
June

New shop on Jackson and the elusive pattern

Clementine's was closed the day I had to walk to the bank from the office - I'd had a close encounter with the side of my son's carport [mine is huge, as I told my builder when it first went up it would sleep a family of six! so I have plenty of room to park creatively] the result at my son's however, was a parting of the ways between the car and the wing mirror - funny thing that - it showed me how many times I actually glanced into that mirror while I was driving, only to be brought up by the sight not of a reflection, but the innards!

Anyway, I couldn't resist the gorgeous model with the beautiful clothes - and because the shop was closed and I had to photograph through the window, you get the ghostly reflection of the other side of the street.

Clothing, jewellery & accessories - and I saw some two layered skirts - they are silk and so graceful.  Open only at weekends at present because of a new baby.  I shall return...

Back in April I told about a present for the person who has everything - well, each time I tried to put the item up, Blogger cut me off.  Now, I am beginning to wonder whether the joke, as it was supposed to be, is going to fall flat.

You see it is for such a quaint item - and I have to admit I don't have the skills to work out how to do it, or write it up, so it is not very nice to poke fun.......... anyway, here it is -

And I do love penguins!!

I just think it is a bit o.t.t to put one on my teapot.

I'm not sure if it will enlarge enough for you to be able to read the instructions but if you really want to make one, get in touch and I will email you a larger version!








Now here's another blast from the past; in the olden days [?!} when I first came to New Zealand, my very favourite shop was James Smith - I loved the wooden escalator, the marvellous window displays and of course Nancy's Embroidery shop - where I bought my first kitset tray cloth to try my hand at embroidery.

The other day my granddaughter was tidying her mother's kitchen drawer and came up with this -

 I love it  - did you ever get one?

Now I'm on a roll, so I will also share with you a bar of soap I discovered when I had the big clean out before my bathroom was renovated.  I hope you can make out the wording - so pure   so mild   - and the cute baby -

Well, you know that the harder the soap is, the longer it will last!

I've been doing a bit of knitting these chilly evenings, a friend belongs to a group and they are making eight inch squares to be made into knee rugs.  I found a few I had tucked away so they have gone, and I tidied up my knitting container and am doing more.  I think the pattern says thirty stitches with double knit and 4.5 needles, just as well knitting is flexible, as some will have to be squashed and some stretched.

So I thought I'd have a go at working from corner to corner, see how that pans out  -

At least I will be sure the straight side measures the correct size before I start reducing......  Not terrible exciting colours, but the rugs made are very warm.

Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate hearing from you.

I'll sign off with a retro quote - from the early days of feminism I think, "People call me feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." Rebecca West.

June