Small progresses hopefully towards future finishes

I very thankfully read the quilt blogs listed on the left every day.  (It's just about the only reading I seem to get to these days!)  Appropriately I sometimes laugh and sometimes get tearywith your stories.  Sometimes I am inspired to jot down notes for future blocks, or how I might engage with the accumulated fabrics.  I date these notes, and it might be years before anything happens.  I really appreciate the people who take the time (whether daily, weekly, or occasionally) write these blogs, sharing their quilting passions and their lives.  And this is not the seemingly mad sharing that sometimes exists on the more popular social networks.

Although this leads to my embarassment/guilt of not finishing much or not writing anything, not sharing, not taking enough process photos, I still have been steadily stitching these past few months.  So far this year, five new starts and no finishes!

The highlight in this time was, back in September, attending an awesome two-day workshop of combined lino-printing (onto fabric) and embroidery with two very talented artists, Cynthia Edwards and Danielle Clough.  Of course my piece is not yet finished, but it's the bottom left one in this group photo at the end of the second day.

First a photo of non-sewing.  The first two pictures up on the walls.  These are daughter C's school works from 25 years ago, I just love their whimsical nature.  A few more up since, but lots more to go.

Progress pictures of Bramble Blooms ll.  The flowers are applique'd to the borders and possibly still need stems, and then the borders to be stitched to the centre.

 

 

One of my plans this year was to try and get the 365 Challenge Quilt to a flimsy stage.  A concerted effort (but not quite every day!!!) has me up to mid November!  Finally all the 3-inch blocks are done.   Have pulled out the reserved fabrics to finish up the final 50+ blocks.

 

 

My new-to-me third-hand HQ Frame and Sweet Sixteen machine were levelled about a month ago, after languishing waiting patiently since I got them in August 2023.  And because I was challenged to just get the first one quilted...here it is on the frame.  A nervous wobbly start, and still need to co-ordinate the starts and stops, but NO thread breaks!  - what JOY! 

EDIT:  that orange print was in the first quilt I designed and made when pregnant with my daugther T, 43 years ago!  Think it's last bits, but fabric definitely does not go off!

 

And these last few photos are from the Little Quilts of Love made by some of the many local quilters contributing to this comforting project.   All are about 24-inch square.

Bramble Blooms I and a few other things

We've settled into the new house, oh why oh why didn't we do it three years ago!   I guess that it was not quite ready to be occupied until about mid last year, and then we wanted to sell the old house first.  Everything in good time I suppose.  Soooo happy to be here!

Not a lot of sewing has been done since the beginning of March, but it's slowly starting to pick up.   I did catch up with the RSC Hen and Chicks blocks for the missed months, here are March's purple, April's yellow and the first pink ones from May.

   

 

And some pink strip sets and crumb blocks.  Curiously, I moved some of these string pieces out of the orange box when orange was the monthly colour as they seemed more pink-like; and now they seem more orange!  And the same for the more purply pinks.

 

BRAMBLE BLOOMS:  This has been a most enjoyable journey.  A calm, slow pace  Some indecisions by me at times.   But reading Audrey's prompts with her wonderful descriptions of her thoughts and choices for each of the sections has been a delight.  Waiting very patiently for the next instalments on this journey.

 

This is where it was in early March and I knew exactly what I wanted to do when she gave the final border instructions, but had to wait until this past week to actually work on it:

 

 And the next border sat cut for a week.  The cat slept on it one afternoon, it got pushed aside another few days so I could do some admin work for a couple of entities for which I have the responsibility, the vacuum cleaner blew a few pieces around - :))

 

And finally in a burst of sewing when Audrey invited participants to share via link-up, it became a quilt top.  My intention was to continue the impression of the top being further away than the bottom, so altered the scale of the various squares, ranging from four-inches at the bottom to one-inch at the top. I will probaly use a dark red for the binding to contain it all.  And, glory-be, I might even consider hand-quilting this one!

 Note to self:  take more pictures, more often!!!!

 

Thanks for reading!

More Blocks and Choosing Fabrics

Every time I sit to write a blog post, I wonder about the ideal layout.  Do I put the picture or the text first?  What alignment to use for the words.  Should they be above, below, next to the images?  So, I change things, but never fully happy.  If you are a regular reader, hope that this was not confusing!   

Just as I was almost done, a hit by our regular "load-shedding", ie the local euphemism for the government failure to keep the power on everywhere all the time.  We had almost three weeks over Christmas/New Year when the power stayed on, but now we are back to two-hour outages about every eight or ten hours.  Cape Town is slightly better than the rest of the country as we have a pump-storage system on one of the mountain rivers nearby which supplements the national power supply.  Glad we have invested in some solar panels and batteries to have lights and the fridge running.

Bramble Blooms:  Border number one attached, with a narrow spacer in red and beige/tan. 

Still trying to get the perspective of the top being further away than the bottom, so red strips are narrower at top, and the crosses are smaller at the top.

Not adding any applique, yet.  Happy so far.

Bonnie Hunter's Indigo Way:   All three borders prepped, just waiting for the desire to press the centre!

It has been unusually hot here, no enticement to get out the big ironing board.  It may be cooler later in the week.

Fabrics chosen to piece a back.  Might be some time before stitching together.

    

Good Hope Quilters' Guild Mystery 2024:  Third set of blocks sewn.  Tantalisingly slow, but a really enjoyable process.  I think that all the blocks might be set in a Suduko type arrangement.  Maybe as interesting stars?  There have been fabulous colour combinations being shown on various whatsapp groups and also facebook.

 

 

RSC2024 Sampler:  Red is this month's colour, and these are the 3-inch and 6-inch blocks made.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3 of January 2024

 Some good, even if daunting, news in hand, and some small progresses were achieved this week.

We have a purchase offer for our current house.  The buyers have a suspensive condition on the sale of their apartment, which in turn affects their offer to us.  We will know at the end of February, so meantime ours is still being marketed.  The reality of moving is now sinking in!

 

 Rainbow Scraps Challenge:  I was able to tidy up the overflowing small box I keep close the cutting mat.  All the tiny bits filed away for future crumb sewing with the more usable pieces put back where they belong.  I did pull out a bunch of dark and bright green fabrics thinking I would sew up a backing, but with above news, they might just go back into the cupboard.

Bramble Blooms:   auditioning fabrics for the next prompt for this improv quilt.  I started out with just the greens up, but couldn't quite put my finger on why it didn't spark joy.  Then saw someone else's and the penny dropped that I should include some of the colour from the applique'd centre.  More thinking needed, as I want to include more details from the prompt.

 

 

Little Quilts of Love - turned right-side out, top stitching up next.

 

 

Good Hope Quilters' Guild Mystery Quilt -  When You Shine

 The designer of this Mystery, Diana Vandeyar, really has us guessing!

 

 

Until next time, happy sewing!