First light, first quilt and more strings!

Here's the rail bridge over the Hutt River and an early morning kayaker enjoying the beautiful weather. Aren't the reflections stunning?

I think I showed a quilt some time ago that was my first one, well this one surfaced recently in one of my 'tidy-up the sewing room ' sessions.  It is made from pieces of dresses shortened by the owner of the dress shop in Hataitai back in the seventies and constructed like a "quilt as you go" block.

As you can no doubt make out, the fabrics are all stretchy and polycotton; on checking I find the batting which is quite thin, has a layer of butter muslin. The backing is a white polycotton and I finished it off by turning the sides over to the back and hemming them down - same treatment for the top and bottom. It is these days the preferred daytime bedding for Floyd, my black and white cat; folded into four it is perfect for him to stretch out on.

I've just updated the idea by doing another jelly roll type [hope I'm not infringing someone's copyright by calling them that?] I'll share it with you when I decide on the border but by coincidence I was looking in some old books for instructions for cathedral window for one of the Shut-in Stitchers [I'm not allowed to take my iPad into the prison!]  when I came across this quilt

and the book it was in -

published in 1980, full of really good ideas still.

And while I'm on a nostalgia trip, here's my crazy woollen wagga!

I pinned all these pieces onto an old blanket one weekend after I had dislocated something in my lower back while sitting crossed legged warping up my tapestry loom! the mind boggles - anyway, I spent the rest of the weekend lying on the living room floor and what else can a person do but put together a crazy quilt!

Lots here from my friendly shop owner, the off cuts from shortening trousers and the rest from the scraps of my dressmaking, BQ of course (Before Quilting).  No batting but the backing is red velvet and the binding is satin ribbon.  It is tied with nylon yard which used to be bright orange.  It's a great car quilt for picnics.

To close today I have a slightly different photo to share; my son was experimenting with photographing light and this is one of my favourites, and a quote that resonates with me, "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." Anonymous

Nice talking with you, take care -
June

Sunrise and more strings

Sunrise under the Petone wharf, can't you just hear the gentle lapping of the water?  As a confirmed night owl I rarely get to see the sunrise, but I do appreciate the beauty of the early light.  You can just see the ripples where the southerly is coming across the harbour - photo courtesy of my son as usual.

I've done more with the string pieced blocks I showed last week, had such fun playing with them on the design wall -

I decided the arrangement on point wasn't right, so

All soldiers in a row? - not really - alternate the blocks then?

Maybe alternate them in rows?

Maybe some more symmetry?

But the corners didn't look right, so

I decided I liked that, so found a border to set it off -

I've been playing with the bright strings and white - will share that with you later.

During the week I was in town [Wellington] and took a short cut on my way to a favourite coffee bar when I came across this building -

Do click on it to enlarge - the tiles and wrought iron are amazing.

Here's a very elegant tea cosy from my stash of treasures from the Op Shops - I'd be too scared of staining it to use it!

Here's a close up of the stitchery

And to sign off this week, we'll go upstairs as it were, and look at what is happening at sunrise on the pier

I don't know about the early bird, but one looks as though it's still asleep  - and you can see the ripples getting closer!

Having regard to the latest world news, I think the thought today is quite apt - "It's hard to tell if the world is actually growing worse, or if the new coverage is just better." Joe Moore   !!

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments, they mean a lot.
June

Golden summer

The golden weather continues and I'm loving it; there's a catch phrase that You Can't Beat Wellington on a Good Day!! - and that's so true.  Here's a recent sunset, taken by my son using a four year old "point and shoot" camera -

That's the long pier at Petone beach and when you enlarge it you will see the lights of the road to Wellington along the edge of the harbour at the foot of the hills.

I've been doing lots of tidying and de-cluttering around the house so I now have a large pile of 'stuff' in the spare room to take to the Op Shop.

Something I came up with, which the girls had been using in the doll cot, was this cushion -

Very delicate colours now, but this was from the left overs of a skirt and the cushion was made in 1980 so it's very faded from the original

I returned to the UK to see my parents, both of whom had been unwell, and I took this stitching to do on the plane and in airports etc. - those were the days!  I remember my sister-in-law was intrigued by Cathedral Window so we sat on the floor while I showed her how - and she, who swore she would never be interested in patchwork, was hooked!

This shows the basics of the technique when done by hand, a square has the edges turned under, then the corners are folded into the centre and stitched down.  The individual squares are joined with an overcast stitch, another fabric square is placed in the centre of each square and the four bias edges are stitched down.

We made Christmas decorations with them, or pincushions.

There was a spell of very wet weather for a day or so, quite a change - and one morning I saw my two cats, Floyd and Basil, sitting by the cat door - Floyd being the look out with his head out -  checking to see if the rain had stopped?

I showed you the coat hanger full of strips of fabric recently, well I've emptied it!!  Yay!!  This is the start of the top that is finished -

I started it with a large corner square, three inch, then put strips around a la log cabin, decided they were too small so joined several strips a la jelly roll and put them onto the outside - those are the blocks at the top.  Next time I'll show what I did then, because now I want to share with you some of the treasures from my box of lace.

Oh fiddle, I can't seem to get the photos to go side by side.

Anyway, it's a beautiful baby bonnet I think, though it has no means of fastening, maybe it's meant to go over a fabric shell?

I'll leave you with another view at sunset, this time taken from the pier looking towards the Petone Esplanade

and with this quotation - which very soon will not be understood by our grandchildren, "Be like a postage stamp.  Stick to one thing until you get there." Josh Billings

Thanks for stopping by and for your encouraging messages.

We'll talk again soon

June

Cloudburst and Sunburst

Here's the cloudburst approaching from the south, a couple of days ago.  It was due to hit Wellington in the morning, then lunchtime - it finally arrived about two o'clock and my son was waiting for it on the south coast.  He said when the southerly wind hit, it was like a blast from a deep freeze and then the rains pelted down.  It reached my house shortly afterwards and the thunder and lightening rolled around for hours,  I think that's the ferry [click the picture to enlarge] on its way to the South Island.......

I've decided to hang up my teaching notes - though I shall continue to teach at the prison - but my five inch squares class has had its last outing, and I would like to share with you the rest of the ideas I had that made up the class.  I can't promise they are original but you might get some fun trying out different things.

So to the Sunburst quilt which was made from a pattern called Frolicking Triangles - not sure where it came from but this is what I did with it.

First the plan -

As you can see it starts off as two squares, right side together, mark the dotted lines which is where you sew, then cut on the solid line - this used to cause some confusion as usually we sew on the main diagonal but we need one large and one smaller half square triangle.

Here's the fabric marked and sewn -

Two more lines are needed to be marked in the lower left of the fabric so you will get one larger half square triangle and four small ones.




The small square needs to be supplied and for my quilt I chose a fabric with many colours to cut up for this square and used lots of different fabrics for the main piece.





Here's the hairy sample block -

Once I had the blocks made I started playing with them - as you do!

You can see the original inspiration fabric where the four small squares meet -

And here are some more -

Then the border had to be chosen, at first I went for the multi colour fabric - but it was yuk! completely swamped the whole thing.  I then found [in my stash] another fabric with the same colours but in a smaller pattern.  I finished it off with another batik which seemed to hold it in!

I am working on holding the camera level [or making a better job of the editing!]

It's been a busy week with office work and then having my granddaughter to stay - she washed my car! and it was her suggestion! wow!  We enjoyed watching "Modern Family", a dvd set I received for Christmas - I love that show, find it real laugh aloud.  Molly also sorted out lots of squares for me to use, together with some plain fabric, to make a couple of checkerboard quilts so they are on the top of the pile of the "to do" stitching - oh yes, she also used my old hand operated Singer to make a mug rug!

Thanks for stopping by, and I leave you with this thought from Lucille Ball - "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."  I love it!!

Till next time
June

Short cut, sewing and the seaside

I was wrong with my description of the last photo from my son, it wasn't time lapse, it - like the one now - is taken with a very long exposure.

So here's the seaside as you don't usually see it, the underside of Petone Wharf -

That's the city lights of Wellington in the distance - click on the image to get an enlargement.

The short cut is another of the blocks from my class - I tend to look at all blocks, especially those with many pieces and break them down; this one was crying out for simplification.

It's meant to be square, probably distorted with the photocopying; you can see there is a large half square triangle, and two blocks which are the first step in making four patch from the squares - sew down opposite sides and cut in the middle and when you are making a scrap quilt two the same will get lost if you don't want them in the same block.

That leaves the patch top left which is a half square triangle re-cut -

In an earlier blog I showed how I rearrange the pieces with the little triangles either side of one of the small squares, well this time it's a bit like a funny rabbit if you tilt your head to the left.......

You can see the instructions divide the block into dark and medium, which was no problem to those of us who have little boxes filled with squares of different colours and values.  I simply removed the dark square and replaced it with one of medium value - and put the dark one into another box for later use.

Here's another part of the top 

 And here's the finished top - you will appreciate there are  lots of ways this particular block could have been put together, it just seemed happy when I did it this way.

I came across this photo recently of some embroideries I did, I think these were part of the class at the Wellington High School - for adults I hasten to add.

There's the obligatory hexagon cushion made from Indian cottons, the cross stitch tray cloth and drawn thread table cloth - the same one my granddaughter recently spilt her bolognaise on - which washed out no trouble.  Two glasses cases, the one on the left made from variegated wool so the pattern came from the actual wool, and the other is showing the colours of Norfolk Island where we spent some very happy holidays.  

The pincushion cube is a favourite, I made another but was foolish enough to put some rosemary leaves out of the garden in with the stuffing - and there must have been insects with the plant matter and they ate their way out!!  Unfortunately the photo is not good of the baby picture; we were given the task of making a frame for such a photo, so this is needle lace around a photo of my niece - supposed to be showing her surrounded by a blanket of love.......

I did some more weeding today, after even a little rain it is so much easier but I still have to cut back the wallflower and the geranium and the bay tree........it's neverending!

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." - John Burroughs - I so agree with the man!

Thanks for your comments and emails

Take care

June

Churn Dash and Cross Patch

How's this for giving a lie to the theory that Wellington is always windy!!

No, I lie!  This photo was taken by my son from the Petone Beach using time lapse - makes the sea appear so calm and almost milky.

I thought I would share with you another block from my class for five inch squares.  I have been tidying up the sewing room [again!], re-folded the pile of twenty two tops with their backings waiting to be quilted :) also re-folded the vintage yardage and put the larger scraps into one of those fold down mesh bags sold in chain stores because I thought I might use those for a Cross Patch quilt.......

This is the block

I've seen it as a quilt, set on point and it was most effective.  One weekend I was at a Retreat and across the room I saw a friend cut little squares and little strips to piece this.  I thought there must be an easier way, so I suggested she sew the strip onto one side, cut it in half, resew it, sew on another strip cut and resew - you know, she just sat and looked at me as though I were speaking a foreign language.

My friend, who was a lab technician, sat down and drew up what I had just said - and I use that page as my instructions to this day!

So, take the square, in this case an eight inch one and sew a one and a quarter strip along one side -

Measure in from the raw edge, in this case four inches and slice parallel to the strip,

Sew this piece to the strip - the observant among you will notice the fabric miraculously changes colour!

Sew another strip along one of the sides at right angles to the first one

Again, cut four inches from the raw edge and resew the cut off piece onto the strip

Bingo, it's changed colour again - and this one is actually made from a five inch square, using a three quarter inch strip

I'm toying with the idea of using white with the vintage, so many of them have white backgrounds - or maybe different colours, and I haven't yet re-folded the pile of tops without their backings, but I did sweep the floor which made the whole place look good!

I've always loved the Churn Dash block and one weekend I dug out a pile of dark, plain fabrics scraps and had great fun putting them together.  I remember how enjoyable it was to hear Roberta Horton talking of the Amish quilts when she visited NZ many years ago.

It's also been many years since I last made any sort of New Year's Resolution, but I remember vividly when this thought hit me with great relevance - "Only I can change my life.  No one can do it for me." Carol Burnett.  

Thanks for stopping by, 

We'll talk again soon - take care

June