Old Maid's Puzzle

A while back I finished this quilt.  Then more recently I was looking for a picture of it in my 'finished quilts' folder to show someone and couldn't find it, leading to the conclusion that I hadn't taken any photos of it finished. So here goes.  

It was a hot, sunny day and it's a pretty big quilt.  I hauled it into my garden and used a couple of trusty bulldog clips to string it up on an old climbing frame.....

But I think I like the distance shot more.  It shows the light-to-dark effect better.  Shame it shows all the junk in my yard at the same time.....

Then I took a shot of the back, because if you're any sort of quilter at all, you always want to see the back...

And here's a close up of the back so you can scrutinise my quilting.  It was machine quilted on my domestic machine, by me and my trusty machingers gloves....

Then I tried an arty shot, draped over a old wooden ladder propped up against a poplar tree.  I think the sun was gently frying my brain by then.....

So I gave it up and went inside for a cold drink....

Hope you like it.

Multi-tasking

So I've discovered that I'm not really a 'one WIP' kinda girl.  I've been focusing on getting my Tree of Life quilt ready for the Auckland Festival of Quilts, and with a week and a half to go before hand in date all I can think of is all the projects I'd RATHER be doing.

You get an old pic to make me feel better about how far it's come since this - and because I've temporarily mislaid my camera.

Like trying monoprinting.  I have a big sheet of glass and I used it to monoprint a couple of pieces of organza for my Tree of Life quilt the other day.  Turns out it's fun, and it's easier than painting the organza direct.  So now I'm itching to play with printing.

And I'm a third of a way through quilting my Old Maid's Puzzle quilt.  It's so close and yet so far because I haven't worked on it for months.  I swear it looks at me resentfully every time I dump something else on top of it in my studio!

This was taken months ago - before I moved into my new studio!

Then there is the other stack of UFO's.  I can't even claim that they are WIP's because the work and the progress part are sorely missing.

I'd really like to work on this organza piece some more. 

And it's spring.  The garden is a forest of borage and brassica flowers - all very pretty, but it doesn't bode well for the menu come summer.

So, in a way, I'm glad that the deadline is approaching way too fast.  Because whether I finish my Tree of Life quilt or not, in a week and a half, I'll be able to pick up something else.  Or two or three other things at once - I'll be in multi tasking heaven again.

Retreating

It seems like a week or so of hard knocks.  Life has been handing them out to many people I know.  It makes my studio woes seem laughable (which they are really).  But I'm retreating from life for a little while.  It is the weekend of our guild's regular quilting retreat and I'm going to sew, baste, quilt, piece, (probably unpick), chat, eat and drink (just a little) the weekend away.

I've finished my Old Maid's Puzzle quilt and I hope to layer and baste it this weekend.  So this morning I've been working out a backing for it.  I have a very scientific method to work out if my backings will fit.

I lay the quilt on the floor (after first pushing furniture out the way and assessing whether the floor needs a clean!) and then lay my bits of backing on top to see if they will fit.  Not very scientific, but actually pretty fail-safe!  I also have a not very scientific way to measure whether my quilts will cover the bed enough.

Just take your quilt top and lay it over the bed you wish it to cover.  Does it fit?  And there you have your answer.  It's also a good way to do a little more admiring of all your had work...;)

I have a collection of paint chips and I rummaged through them the other day matching them to the colours of this quilt.  I think I might use it as the inspiration for the colour scheme of my studio.

Anyway, have a great weekend, I know I will.  And my thoughts and love go out to everyone around the world struggling with illness or tragedy, hardship or grief.

Weekend Fun.

Well, I was promised a whole weekend by Hubby.  But children aren't quite so respectful of promises made, so a fair few snacks were prepared and disagreements sorted out by me when Hubby was elsewhere!  I sometimes wish I had somewhere to go on my days off where I could quilt to my hearts content well away from the demands of the house/children.

Anyway.  On Saturday I spent a lovely morning at The Country Yard.  They were having their New Year's launch and so Suz and I went on down and browsed and rummaged and pondered fabric combinations.  They had a lovely new range of Stof fabrics available as a fabric club, new classes to sign up for and yummy new patterns and kits.  After much discussion, I chose some border fabric for my Old Maid's Puzzle quilt.  Here it is without the borders on.

I love this pic with ever-patient Hubby's ankles out the bottom!

Then today I spent a hot morning digging over and mulching a garden bed, then realised that the hot weather was much more conducive to dyeing than gardening!  I've been collecting supplies lately to have a go at some fabric dyeing with Procion MX fabric dyes.  And I've found a supplier of high thread-count white cotton sheeting.  It's hand is like a batik fabric so I'm hoping it will raw-edge applique really well.  I loosely followed these instructions from Patsy Thompson.  And I learnt a lot.  Like tight fitting gloves are a must, and a breezy day makes dyeing a little trickier!  These need to be washed now, so the colours will probably lighten a little.

Squeezed into the corners of the weekend has been the quilting of my wall hanging that I'm making for the school to sell at their regatta and raise stacks a little bit of money. These are views of the back.  Lots more quilting to go yet.

And now I must go and feed the chooks and put the kids to bed.  Hope you all had a productive weekend too.

Morning Mist

This was my view this morning as I drove home from night duty.  Our valley, shrouded in mist.  It's one of the things I enjoy about night duty.  I get to see a fair few dawns and I think they are the most beautiful time of day.

Last night I used the wee small hours to finish my Midwifery Standards Review report and today I posted it off.  It's one of the reasons I've been a little quiet over the last week.  And Hubby made it home safe and sound - he's been towing a barge up from Picton.  Being a single parent is a busy life.

Midwifery Standards Review is process every midwife in New Zealand goes through bi-annually.  This is the description from the New Zealand College of Midwives website:


Midwifery Standards Review has been developed to provide a systematic process that enables the midwife, whatever her practice setting, to reflect on her midwifery practice with two reviewers - one midwife colleague and one consumer of midwifery services, each of whom has been specifically educated to do this work for the NZCOM.


The process assists each midwife to reflect on her annual practice by giving her the opportunity to consider statistical data. Depending on how she works, this can be her own midwifery outcomes or those from the maternity services in which she works.


Feedback from women for whom she provides midwifery care is considered, and feedback from midwifery colleagues can also be sought.


The process is educative, robust, supportive and challenging. It enables midwives to consider their professional development goals by integrating learning from their own midwifery experience as well as the contribution and challenges provided by the reviewers.


By participating in Midwifery Standards Review, a midwife demonstrates her commitment to her own ongoing professional development.


So I've been busily writing, reflecting, and reviewing myself.  Now I've sent my reports away to the reviewers to examine so they can get a handle on what questions they would like to ask me and in two weeks time I'll sit down with them for the official review.

I also sewed the last two seams on my Old Maid's Puzzle quilt.  But I'm pretty sure it needs a border so I can't declare it finished yet.  No photos yet sorry as by the time I slept, then picked up kidlets etc the light wasn't so great.

And this weekend, Hubby is working back all the brownie points he used up by gadding off for a week and is giving me two days to do as I like ;)  I'll see if I can't produce something blogworthy by the the end of it!  Hope you have a great weekend too.

Old Maid's Puzzle

A while ago I showed you this pile of fabrics and told you that I was making a simple pieced quilt - suitable for fairly mindless quilting when I'm on night duty and have nothing to do.  So I've been nutting away at it slowly but surely and the other day I was at the stage of laying out all my finished blocks.

These will be eight inches finished.  Spot the Amish mistake block - I'll be unpicking that one, there are enough mistakes in it without a glaring one like that.

I'm really loving the colours and effect, but I've decided it's not big enough.  I've cut out and begun to piece another 15 or so blocks.  That will make it six blocks by six blocks.  With borders, that should be big enough to spread over my king-sized bed.

I'm making more dark with dark blocks and light with light blocks and that should help the colourwash-ish effect when I lay them out again.

One thing I do lack in my corner of the lounge where I sew is a large design wall.  But I find laying it on the floor is ok, especially when I take photos and look at them on the computer screen, things I want to change around become quite obvious.  I guess it's the same as taking ten steps backwards.

How do you lay out your quilts?  What do you use for a design wall if you are lucky enough to have one?