WOW 22nd Feb 2012

Only 7 more sleeps till Esther puts up her first part of the Mystery BOM for 2012 yippee.

I have been writing this blog since Sunday its a bit like a WIP as I’m down with a stomach virus and keep running out of steam so decide to write my blog early so I’d have enough energy to finish it to day and link to Esther’s blog.

I have been nutting out my 1920 Rose of Shannon block I bought of the net in 2007 from Kansas. Back then there was very little on the net but I have been back in over the last week and there are pages and pages of information of the rose of Shannon now, and I have found several of this particular one finished in yellow, red, and pinks, with different green leaves and red buds.  SO I have worked this out to be a pattern that was most likely in a news paper for the quilt readers as so many of the centres are the same but the placement and leaf bud part are so variable. I have made up my own adaptation for the leaf and bud design

Using reverse applique to make leaf for the Rose of Shannon

Rose of Shannon 1920's with my final choice of leaf and bud

as this was not included with the 8 centre parts of the Rose of Shannon just a big leaf and no fabric and this leaf template is not so pleasing to my eye as the leaf and bud option. Fabric used for the rose is  interesting too, it is not a soft muslin but a very tight tight stiff woven fine fabric which does not shed and is very hard to sew; I have a roll of old blue green cotton Kimono fabric which has a similar weave which I’m using for the leaf and sepal. Each of the main petals has been pencil marked for the seam but they only allowed 1/8th of an inch or less so it is a real challenge for me to do the needle turn. I have made up  templates out of freezer paper and ironing this on to the back of the pieces and I’m thread basting the fabric around it. When finished they will need to go on a 14 1/2 inch block

Rose of Shannon 1920 Nearly ready to applique down.

as they are so big; so they will still make a good size quilt when finished even though there are only 8 to make; I will off set them.  I was up at 2am working on my Rose of Shannon this morning and I now have two rose buds to add and it will be finished. I have padded the centre and bud tips.

Two more rose buds to be appliqued on and it is finished then 7 more to go!!!!.

Look what I just found, it is the year of finding long lost WIP some like this one over 10 years old

Friendship blocks for the PAPUA NEW QUINEA quilting group 1997!!!

I lived in PNG for 6 years and joined a quilting group just after I arrived up there and have been quilting ever since. We decided to do a friend ship swap there were 32 of us all keen, we were to make the same block 32 times then swap. Well it sound like a lot of fun but after several weeks of making the same block over and over it was not so much fun any more for many of the quilters. I choose to make Sun Bonnet Sue and dressed her in different clothes each time so it was lots of fun for me?????  For some reason I stopped working on it not sure why……….. Well I now know why I stopped, I was very new to quilting when I was making this; it must of been one of my first attempts at log cabin style and I was self taught from pictures I saw in magazines back then. I have been sewing a couple of the blocks this morning and when I went to add them to the top row found that the last block was 1/2″ smaller than the rest, sat down and nutted out where I had gone wrong back then and spent 40 mins unpicking and resewing and it should be OK now. Back then I most likely could not see where I had made the mistakes and gave up in frustration!!!!!!

Top row now finished

I still have a pile of strips with this UFO so I can finish the top row and side rows if I’m lucky in the same fabrics!!!!!

No photo’s of the beach today or garden, I just don’t feel like leaving the snugness of my house. But I will leave you with the below visitor?????

On Friday night  a rather large  flying bug was flying around our lounge, these ones I’m not to fond of inside.

Rather Large flying insect that came inside!!!!!!

Another creature has come to visit today, she is on my front veranda and so beautiful. Wow what a colour.

Beautiful beautiful colour. Nature is amazing!!!!!

If you enjoy reading quilting blogs check out Esther’s WOW (Work on Wednesday) at http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com Every Wednesday.

Cheers Glenda

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