Nearly 700 colonial knots made this week inside the hearts, I’m so surprised I’ve done them???? Now just a few cheery stems to finish and those oak leaves!!!! plus two small hearts that will need more colonial knots and a tiny circle and it is completed. May be next week will see it completed but don’t count your chickens yet LOL.
A woollen Crayz-patch-work coverette quilt was Dropped off at the shop last week and was going to be dumped as it was so dirty, heavy with sand and smelly as it had been used as a dog blanket by the last owner. I put it in to a large rubbish bag and brought it home, I decided to wash it in the washing machine kill or cure , after 4 washes with woollen wash and 4 with wool fabric softener it was still in one piece and finally in the last wash the water was nearly clear and no sand in the water. It is now hanging inside to dry as it has been raining ever since I washed it. I will hang it in the sun when it finally comes out and toss it in to the drier to fluff it up. I’m so surprised it did not fall apart it must have been well sewn. They have done feather stitch around each patch and it is so perfect it is a joy to look at, some of these stitches have perished like the binding. I’m guessing from the woollen fabric it is about 1950 may be earlier. First 3 photo’s are before it was washed.
A Very old crazy patchwork coverette quilt
All wool scraps have been used and there are many moth holes but repairable. I think I will button hole stitch around each hole after I wash it if it is still in one piece.
Very very heavy due mostly to been so dirty lots of sand and dog hairs.
I have now washed the coverette and these photos were taken this morning it only weighs 1/2 the weight it did now!!!!!!
Some of the lovely flystitiching has disintegrated and there are moth holes but as it is wool they are not a problem, if I ever get around to it I’m planning on buttonhole stitching around the holes?????
Green binding has disintegrated the whole way round so it needs a new binding.
It now feels so soft and cuddly and only 1/2 the weight it was after all the dirt and sand been washed out of it.
I needed a break from my LE during the week and played around with my Brolga’s flying in at Dusk you can see how I made the back ground up here
http://www.patchworkdreams.com.au/?p=4525
I sat at the machine and appliquéd two of the birds on using bottom line and a very narrow but close zigzag stitch I have a very old 320 Bernina.
One more bird to do , sewing machines and I don’t get a long very well as I have a back problem so it takes me ages to get some jobs finished.
Old fence entrance first is the original gate that was here when we bought the place 20 years ago, then we added the portable gates so we could drive up in to the drive way to open the gates, before we did this we would have to park on the drive way which is incredibly steep and as we become older more difficult to park and get out on the slope.
Putting in new entrance fencing. Now finally we have a very nice front entrance from the road which blends in with the rain-forest trees.
In the garden this morning.
This red flower will be a complete ball next week and I will share it with you.
One of my boys left an old surfboard here so I have turned it in to a seat in a quiet place in the garden!!!!!!!
Air-roots from the fig tree
Thank you for dropping in and spending time with me. I’m off to link up with =Esther http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/wow-doll-making.html now and read some of the links over coffee and breakfast.
Cheers ALL Glenda
love your quilts! someone did some good work on the crazy quilt for it to stay put together! love your LE and the other quilt you show. We are getting several days of rain coming up end of week – too much from the sounds of it
Hi Karen, We have had torrential rain this week, Monday even the drains could not cope with it, I just hope it does not keep this up till April next year????? Australia is in a bad way with terrible bush fires in one part of the country and in another huge electoral storms causing millions of dollars of damage due to flooding and high winds. Hope you don’t get what Australia has been getting. At least I did manage to get plenty of colonial knots done on my LE by having to stay inside LOL. Love love those circles you are working on at present Karen, for those of you who like some thing different check out Karens blog. Hugs Glenda
Are those gates and fences to keep critters in or out?
700 knots!!
Lots and lots of laughter Chris. When we first moved in the previous owners had two dogs and they had wire fences to keep their dogs in, as we had no dogs we took them down then we acquired a big dog wolfhound cross when my DGD went over seas for 7 years and he was very quiet and gentle but the neighbouring dogs would come in to our yard and torment him by marking his space and leaving their poo behind so we put up a wooden fence to keep them out and the old gates went back up. There are sooooo many dogs in our street now that we keep the gates closed so we don’t have to go out and pick up dog poo every day. Only about 50% of the dog owners in OZ are trained to be good dog owners and carry poo bags LOL SO far the gates are NOT used to keep people out, most owners around our small village do not own house keys and don’t even think about closing a window let alone lock the doors when they leave the house to go shopping but most house owners have 1 or 2 big dogs too LOL Yep 700 knots each heart has around 55 plus knots and I just filled in 7 hearts the last week. Cheers Glenda
Amazing work on that crazy patch – someone did well with it, for it to survive as a dog bed and then all those turns through the washing machine! I’m glad that you’ve been able to bring it back to a state where it can be rescued!
Well done on all those knots! Makes my fingers sore just thinking about them! Great progress on your LE.
Thanks for sharing your garden photos again – looking fab, despite (or because of?) the rain.
Hi Plum, best part of the crazy patchwork Coverette is that it has come up so so soft and cuddly, when I brought it home it was stiff harsh, heavy and smelly!!!! my eldest son saw it hanging from the attic walk way on Sunday night and fell in love with it so you can guess where it is going to now. I will machine stitch all the squares to the backing though as the blocks are not tacked any where to the backing and I think it will need some stabilising to be used again as a cuddly rug when watching movies or TV in the winter evenings from now on. Or I could buttonhole around all the moth holes there are so many that would stabilise it LOL. I have a front end loader washing machine and stood and only let it wash for 5 mins soak for 5 them wash for 5 and spin so there was no felting at all. I have my fingers crossed that my LE centre will finished next week???. Hugs Glenda
LE is so amazing! Are you going to call it quits when the center is finished or are you going to keep going with the rest of the pattern? LE is a beautiful quilt, but I doubt I’ll ever have the patience or self discipline to even start her.
Your garden always looks so peaceful. I can imagine you out stitching on the porch. The snow from last Saturday is slowly melting away which is good because I never got my flowerbeds cleaned up this fall. That is the job for tomorrow morning. I’ll cut and my husband will haul. The extra exercise will make our Thanksgiving meal taste that much better. Blessings, Gretchen
Dear Gretchen, no I’m not going to call it quits, I have all ready made most of my Zig Zags and little Dutch Pixies as I call them for the first border and have appliquéd them on to these borders, So I’m looking forward to finishing my centre so I can add the first spacer and then lay the first borders next to the centre. I’m thinking of embroidering the flowers arrangements instead of doing needle turn appliqué on these borders as they are so tiny time will tell. Enjoy your thanks giving dinner LOL after working so hard all day it will taste so much better. We also haul away as you call it as the venation grows soooooo quickly here that a wheel barrow disappears under the rubbish in 5 mins. we lay huge grown sheets and over a week I fill 3 or 4 of these each week for hubby to haul away over the weekends !!!!!!. Hugs Glenda
WOW! Wool can be tricky, you have a gift for giving it a new life. So what happens to it know? I always find this part the best. Crazy how this quilt was used for a doggie blanket. It must have been one very special mutt, a treasured member of the family.
Dear Maggi. well I was thinking of offering it to a quilt museum if I could find some one interested enough here in OZ that would not just store it; I did go on line and do a lot of searching where may be I could offer it to, but there was nothing that I think would be the right place for it but some historical villages but I was not to keen on this as I have worked in these places over the years and they chuck out so much stuff it they get some thing better????? How ever my eldest son called in last Friday night and saw it hanging from the loft library walk way and fell in love with it. His comment was “Mamma that is aswsome when did you make that one?” So I’m going to put a new binding over what is there incase some one wants to add it to a museum one day in the future and peel back the layers, when it has a new binding it can be used again on winter nights to curl under to watch Movies or to cuddle under at the drive in movies. It will be loved again and I’m thrilled that DS fell in love with it. With lots of rinsing in wool softener and no stretching when put out to dry all the patches have settled back in to their original memory and there is no shrinkage looks any where, its quiet amazing how wool has a memory to do this. I’m guessing the quilt was hardly ever washed, it only weighs 1/2 the weight it did before I washed it so there was loads of dirt and sand in the wool fabrics. There are loads of moth holes but because it is wool and most of the pieces tightly woven for suits they are not growing or shedding any bigger than what the moths have eaten, it will last another 50 years plus. Hugs Glenda