Before you know it....

... it'll be Christmas!!

With that thought in mind, I knew I had better get back to blogging and adding to my patchwork journey. For me personally it is hard to write about exciting new projects and add shiny new photos because lately I have only been sewing two projects; one is the continuation of my Caring Hearts quilt and the other, joining my first Quilt-Along on Facebook for the Farmers Wife 1930's sampler. I didn't start the project till after the New Year and am slowly catching up to the other 6000 quilters!

Not a lot happens in between.

Whilst I find some pics on my latest projects here a few shots of my garden last Spring. Now, I'm no gardener so I can't name the plants/shrubs, but to me they look interesting and at the end of the day, if they don't need watering then that's fine with me!!

This begun flowering after a flood one year, I have no idea what it is.

My Lilac began flowering last year for the first time.

This is Scarlett O'Hara, it begins with "B" and does need water!

Caring Hearts

And so, here is 2016.

Thankfully I am so pleased that 2015 is over. Not that I'm ungrateful, but let's just say sometimes when life gives you lemons and you can't make lemonade, those lemons can become quite tart and distasteful.

On to patchwork. I thought yesterday as I was busy sewing making more hearts for my Caring Hearts quilt that I had better start blogging again otherwise I will forget what I'm up to when I go to look back at my progress... and if I haven't written anything there will be nothing to read!

I've been attending my Wednesday evening sessions at Quilting Quarters with my sewing buddies and haven't stitched anything more in between. No motivation or actually, no vroom was within me to sew at any other times of the week. Luckily Christmas came and I have spent the last week busy in my sewing room catching up on lost time and finally my sewing spirits have found me once again.

When I come to a hurdle, as I have at the moment, I momentarily go "darn it!", then think the process over in my head until I come to a solution. The quilt I am doing at present has been changed a bit and instead of going sewing straight blocks I have tossed it on its head and am sewing on-point instead. I have no pattern to go by so am figuring out how to put it together at the ends as I go along. It may not be the correct format, but I'm guessing in the end, it will work for me!

Back to my machine, until next time - happy sewing!

Blanket stitching a heart

The only time I get my ironing board out!

Still working in the wings

I have been patchworking, I just haven't been blogging... I haven't any updated pics of my Caring Hearts since I begun building them, but perhaps soon I shall take some and load them up. Basically I was going with the flow for a while making lots of nine-patches and then beginning my hearts. I put pen to paper just recently and will require about 70 odd of each block to complete a queen sized quilt. More progress to follow.

In the meantime here is a shot of something else. Little buddies in my sewing room whilst I was sewing some time ago.

Caring Hearts Quilts - Elaine Rose

One of my first quilt patterns was a Elaine Rose one, a cushion. This time I am tackling a 68" size quilt, but no doubt it will grow bigger to cover the length and width of a queen-sized bed. I basically wanted a new project to take along to my Wednesday class and came across this one in my magazine "wish list" pile! 

When I first started quilting and purchasing magazines I would put in bookmarks for all the beautiful quilts I would make one day!! Naturally I went through them again and then took a more realistic view of my bookmarks and narrowed down to the ones I would "actually" make or have the time to do it. So, this Caring Hearts quilt was in that narrowed down pile and looked to be pretty basic enough to use up some of my fabric I had started to buy over past five years.

The quilt consists of nine patches surrounded by, you guessed it, caring hearts.

The fabric I am using for the nine patches was brought through the Sew Pretty website (now the Make Cafe). The fabrics have a mixture of mushrooms, imaginary little people and ant trails! I basically went for it and cut long strips into 2.5" wide and then sewed them together. Then of course I cut and sewed them back together again! The things we do for making a quilt!!

Here is a piccie of some of my strips sewn together before I cut them up.

Landscape class

Back in May a few of us took a landscape class at Quilters Quarters. I've always wanted to learn the basics behind the art of putting pieces of fabric together to form a picture. For myself I chose a very easy image, that of a stained glass landscape with a lighthouse. A few chose very hard challenges that included sky, mountains, hills, bushes, shrubs, roads, rivers and boulders all in the one image, crikey!


The course was over two days, 10-4 each day. By 3pm on the second day I think most of us were truly fagged. As much as I love to patch and quilt, staying focused and sewing for two days is pretty full on, but I'm so pleased I gave it a go. I have yet to quilt it together, but now that I have the fundamentals behind me I can now make a start on another one with more confidence.

Here are some pics of everybody's landscapes at the end of day two:

My simple landscape with lighthouse

Judith's West Coast with swing bridge

The challenging one with all the bells and whistles

Katherine's West Coast tree

Otira Gorge with the viaduct

Julie's Milford Sound 

Before the light was added

Detail of lighthouse

Hard work focussing

Star Wars bag complete

Finally finished my Star Wars bag! I've been using a very small leather bag whilst I waited for my treasure to be built. Now it is complete, it looks really huge! I love everything about it, the paisley lining, the contrast pockets, the zipper, the braid and of course the Star Wars fabric I chose for the main body of the bag. I would upload a photo today, but I can't find for the life of me my card reader... Time for a tidy up! The biggest compliment I've received so far is from a fellow SW fan and "he" was able to name every spaceship and or star ship on the fabric. Hopefully after a hunt or two I shall be able to find my card reader and upload some pics. Until then happy sewing :)

Found my card reader and here are some pics to prove that my bag is complete!

The sewing was completed at my sewing classes at Quilters Quarters

The beautiful paisley fabric was chosen from Grandmother's Garden

The Star Wars fabric and studded braid were brought from Fabric Vision

Long time, no see...

I sit here at my computer and think, why I haven't been blogging lately. I haven't been up to much, just bits and pieces really.

I attached the straps to my bag.

Bella found a fun place to cuddle into.

I started work on the bag lining, using my favourite kind of fabric, paisley :) I used the contrasting fabric for the pockets. I brought the beautiful paisley from Grandmother's Gardens roadshow which was held in Rangiora. It's not as though I needed to buy any more fabric, but... where there is a will, there is a way! I also ended up buying more Holly Hobbie for my "intended" Holly quilt that I "will" make "one day"....

Back in March I made a one off block for my Aunt's 90th birthday. It is called a Wonderful World from a delightful book given to me by a fabulous quilting Aunt, titled 'Simply Scrappy Quilts' by Nancy J. Martin.

Again I chose a paisley as the centre block in celebration of my Grandmother who wore those lovely fabrics of the day. The other colours were inspired by an outfit my Aunt had previously worn, aqua. The block contains 37 pieces. Initially the block didn't delight me in the way that it should have, but I have since warmed to and after seeing family reactions to it, I think it's not so bad after all. The warm pink and grey colours were chosen by Mel at Quilters Quarters, thanks!

Binding attached and hanging frame added.

Rounding up the end of April I decided to do another one off block just to see what it would look like from my new book titled 'Singular Sensations: 14 great quilts from one simple block' by Barbara Douglas.