PatchworkDreams

This is the kimono I’m unpicking for my background fabric it is a lightweight fabric which feels like linen grass.  Quiet a stiff fabric but must have been lovely and cool to wear.   Will try and take a close up of the weave.

I’m still playing with these circles.  In the group with Audrey they are cutting their square 4  1/2 inches. It is just luck that I cut mine 4  3/4″   Kimono fabric is woven at 14 wide so by cutting them 4  3/4″ I was able to get 3 blocks across the width of the fabric  and now that tiny extra will allow for shedding while I make the blocks up and I will cut them back to 4  1/2″  before joining them up in to quilt top.  I’m not sure about those orange ones though. I will live with them for a while and see.

A close up of the background fabric Here you can see the different thickness of the threads used to weave this linen grass fabric it looks thick BUT see below.

Here I’m holding the fabric up to the light and you can see right through it, this shows you have light the weight is and how wonderful it must have been to wear in mid summer.

My Beautiful LE has come to a stand still again as I’m not happy with my oak leaves again?????

He’s a bit like a Wetter  ???

Creepy crawlies are back!!!!

Found this tiny beautiful beetle floating in the pool this morning, I rescued him and when he dried out he flew away!  Just look at those colours!!!!!

Tiny ground flowers so sweet and old fashion, they are a local ground plant.

These followers are flying around the place at night time by the dozen so I’m glad we have fly-screens but they still manage to fly in.

These are amazing frogs they just curl up any where and don’t care how close you get to them they won’t move this one is sitting on the ironing board?????

He was not to keen on me photographing him LOL

Rather large spider under view ?????

Last weeks bud is slowly opening

Beautiful white lilies in my neighbours garden.

Crazy exotic.

Another flower ball!!!!

Old boys nest gets higher and higher

He makes a hold in the centre each day by pressing the leaves in to the walls around the hole making the walls much thicker and stronger.

The old boy and his mound of leaves behind him by the car wheel.

Turkeys nest is real high now and Jersey is feed up chasing the old boy????

This has to be my favourite BOM of all times it was so much fun to make.

Close up of 6 of the charms they are backed and have a light weight padding inside them so can be changed if I want to.

Each month a new charm was uploaded and it took a month for me to make each one.

I added a large star on top of my tree.

I made my quilt larger than the original design incase one day it became a bed quilt????? So I added large candles either side of the tree.

Then added more presents .

Hanging the quilt outside for today as it has been stored the last 10 months in the cupboard. It still needs to be hand quilted or machine??????  It is sandwiched all ready to go and has been for several years now LOL another WIP of mine.

I have removed the oak leaves I had here as they were so difficult to make and I kept putting off making the others I needed.  I’m so glad I have removed them now as the dark fabric is going to look a lot better than the pale cream silk I had used.

I’m going to use a dark coloured silk fabric to add more contrast with the ovals all ready it looks more pleasing to the eye.

Our sea never cooled down this year it was lovely to swim in all year,

This is my favourite beach to swim at, photo taken around 6pm during the week when we went down for a swim and dinner.

For the last week poor Jersey has been trying to chase a wild turkey out of her yard as it is making a nest so far the turkey is winning.

These just popped out this morning!!!!

Taken at night time you have to look hard to see the frog sitting on the edge of the hanging basket?????

This was taken last week and you can now see it is completely out in the photo below

Now it is a perfect ball.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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

There were two ants fighting but I could not capture them they were so fast,

My blessed swimming pool which I would find the summers very hard to cope with with out it.

Leaves that have been swept off the roof this week before the rains come.

Looking down to the river

Bougainvillea in the village

Flowering pineapple not eatable

Bush turkey;  this morning there was a Huge pile of vegetation on the drag sheet he spent the whole morning scrapping it all down in to the bush to start making a nest!!!!!

Turkey has left a clean pull away canvas ???? I hope he decides he needs the dead leaves from the roof too LOL 

Still testing the camera, managed to appliqué all the cherries on the left hand side this week need to appliqué the base of the vase but also need to change the circle at the base as not enough contrast there, also need to do the stems on the cherries.

Very cloudy and over caste so not a good light for photos

As I’m sitting here the sun has come out but not for long so I will just use these photos this week.  I made another 18 little brown circles up last night so hopefully they will be all sewn on by next week.

If you look closely you can see I have had to add more fabric around the edge of my square of back ground fabric,  it shrank soooo much but I had to use it as I had no extra fabric to make another from the Kimono yardage I’m using.  But it does not worry me as it is not called called patchwork for nothing.

Adding the tiny circles, I need to add the last 6 on the other 4 ovals too. I never did get to finish those ones about 18 months ago?????

Completed adding the left hand cherries this week.

This area needs the two oak leaves and two small pink hearts and then it is completed too.

close up of those small circles!!!!!  I’m using bottom line thread and a size 11 needle.

Colonial knots instead of reverse appliqué.

I have 6 more hearts to add the colonial knots to hours of work here still.  LOL

LE as it was this morning.  I made the extra cherries yesterday and started to sew them on last night.

I was going to add the tiny pieces for the corner of the zig zags last night and I lost the tiny purple piece so have to make another tiny piece I bet I find the other one as soon as I make another LOL

Vase a little closer to been completed.

I used colonial knots to make my ovals inside the tiny hearts. DMC thread to make the stems of the cherries.

I have used button hole stitch to appliqué these flowers using bottom line thread which is very very fine and used a number 11 needle.

Blue Iris up close.

Close up of colonial knots using two threads of DMC.

Mid week

Little pink hearts have been appliquéd on; now I have to fine time to add the tiny yellow centres on them,  on the other corner hearts I embroidered  french knots .

slowly slowly she grows

All these fabrics are silk.

LE this morning

My goodness that centre area looks so empty now that the 4th vase is nearly completed.

I have the last of the red cherries to make now add the broderie perse at the top of the vase and finally I need to add those French Knots to the hearts another week at least. .

Last night I added the last wee flowers to the top of the flower arrangement above the iris and added the cherry stems.

I have all ways been fond of frogs so it is so nice to have them in my garden all year round.  He’s only about 1″ long or less.  Lives around the swimming pool where it is all ways cool and damp. But he has about 100 cousins who live here too?????

Tree Frog sitting on the entrance rail at night time.  He’s a good 3″ long.

Spider Orchid

It has taken me over 18 months to start my 4th Vase???

For some reason I kept procrastinating over this vase and finally I started it last Wednesday after noon!!!!  Now I have to make those last two oak leaves and 4 ovals to finish this side of LE.  I’m dreading those oak leaves as I choose the wrong fabric to make them heavy silk with silver threads  and it sheds ??????

I have spent all my spare moments this week working on this vase arrangement finally I can see that may be this year I will complete the 4 vases on my centre.

I’ve just made up two small cone flowers I think now it needs an iris in the top middle ?????

Just finished making the Iris in the centre of the arrangement at 11.55pm I took me 4 hrs to cut out appliqué and pad this flower????  Now it needs a few yellow stitches to give it depth I think????

So far I’m happy with how it is growing.

I don’t have a design it just grew.

I love Irises so I’m glad I have one here.

spider orchid

A little fabric colour too!

Our gardenia is in flower and the whole garden smells like a perfume shop.

From the most beautiful to the most unusual plants

Stunning red.

How lovely it is early in the morning as the sun rises

I love ducks but so do the carpet snakes so I have wooden ones ?????

How quickly the sun rises, orchard bathed in early morning sun.

A quiet place.

First I made up some small yellow flowers for the top left hand corner

Added a salmon flower made up of 9 leaves from small to tiny tiny ???

I’m thinking of appliquéing these wee flowers at the base of the arragment, will sew them down with blanket stitch if I use them.

Added some leaves to the left side now need to work on the right side with more flowers and leaves.

Need to find some time to make up another 14 or so cherries for the left side.

I have just made the 8 small hearts and they soften the strong vase.

It is now looking like we have a 4th  flower arrangement.

Appliquéd the yellow main flower and quilted it last night but it still needs the centre padded and appliquéd on.

My gut feeling is the centre should a soft green shade but I also made a pink one?????

Have added the green centre on my centre flower finished adding the pink lantern flowers these are padded and I did get to make 1/2 of the cherries today.

I now have the beginning of a flower arrangement

Stems completed and have started to appliqué the vase on.

Have made a template from the opposite  side to show where my oak and ovals will be.

I Have stitiched  a running stitch around the ovals rather than mark with a pen.

A little difficult to see the running stitches in the photo but i now I can see where to place my flowers.

First flowers pinned?

A couple of lantern flowers stitched and padded. When I started this vase I kept thinking yellow, here is the start of the yellow I was thinking of.

Yellow petals basted around the wash away freezer paper ready to be appliquéd down and the 5th pink lantern flower added.  Remember this is my flower arrangement not the original arrangement.

Unbelievable I have pulled vase 4 pattern.

Cleared my work top and cleaned it so I can start.

Cutting the flower stems so I can draw them on to my backing fabric.

Pinned pattern to my backing and Drawing in the stem lines with a pencil you won’t see them as the bias ribbon will cover them.  What I found out the hard way is the vase shape for this block is much bigger than the other vase in this shape so I’m having to make the stems longer but it will be OK in the long run.  I made these vase shapes up at the same time not realising the difference in size and I have no more of this fabric so it just has to be.

If you look carefully you can see the stem lines, I was not happy with the way they flowed so I have given them a little curve here and there.

What it looked like when I went to bed last Wed night. Now I need to add the left hand stems then I can have fun adding the flowers and leave.  I’m thinking of soft yellow at present???

My LE is still out of wraps

I’m working on  my 3rd borders of LE this is 2 of 4;  2 more to complete????  I have iron on stabiliser on the back of the panels to stop them from twisting as silk does and this makes for a good foundation as well.  This will be a Coverett not a quilt.

Closer view of this border this is the easy part making all the wee flowers for inside these Zig Zags and Dutch Pixies is were all the hard work starts!!!!!

Close up of the wee Dutch Pixies you can see the texture in the back ground fabric it is heavy  silk and those are ridges in the fabric plus flowers woven in the fabric.

Back ground fabric is quiet heavy due to the tight  weaving not that easy to appliqué on to?????

Our male Sunbird

Female Sunbird building her nest.

Paola this is for you a memory????

Dr WHO????????

I have still not located my missing panel so it is still at this stage but I have worked out how to join the panels so I have solved that major problem.

Looking in to the rainforest

After a couple of days of rain this new raised stone garden looks like it has always been here.

More colour. then it poured with rain.  Notice the white railings then look at photo below. 

Just hung this old hanging babies cot in front of entrance I will grow herbs in here so that the wild turkeys can not dig them up; they hate any thing that swings. 

One minute it is sunny then it is pouring with rain but it only last 5 mins max.

Then it was back to full sun, Large Brom still flowering.

A Bromalaide with a very strong colour .

Colour and more colour.

Nature tells you what colours you can use together.

Believe it or not there is a birds nest in the middle of the roll of wire netting right in the middle of the photo how they built it in there is amazing, you can just see her tail one side and her beak the other side ???????

My LE Centre  STILL waiting for that 4th vase??????   It is months since I worked on my LE as it is all silk it can not be washed ever as it would shrink all out of portion as the silks are all different weaves and weights.  So it only comes out when I’m home alone!!!!!

Still I have not started my 4th vase???? why am I procrastinating over this vase???????

75% of the zig zags on the outer panels need to be appliquéd down still so hours and hours of sewing here still.

I would really like to finish sewing on the wee dutch fairies as I call them before putting it away again, they are pinned just waiting to be appliquéd on.  I have appliquéd about 50% of them so far.

Our little Sunbirds have come back this year again so I’m very very happy. They mate for life and usually come back to the old nest every year and repair it

They added these 3 cotton balls this year. These 3 cotton balls are hanging below their nest how they kept them in place while they wove the thread around them is incredible.

This year they are also building a little thatched awning over the entrance of their wee nest!!!!

I have been hand quilting a small bed quilt this week

Up close of the hand quilting difficult to photograph though.

Sopotae fruit turns a deep black and has a flavour similar to chocolate it is very very high in vitamin  C and there is a huge crop this year.  Used in pies, cakes, scones, deserts,  and eaten as a raw fruit on its own. I have it with yohget on my cereal

Last of my lilies but I have some orchids in there place now.

close up of those orchids.

While cleaning up part of the garden this morning I felt some thing wet on my knee looked down to see this tiny wee tree frog there. Rushed to get my phone and managed to get this photo before he hopped away. My goodness he was beautiful.

I’m playing with my Shannon Rose blocks again!!!!!!!

This was meant to be a cot blanket????? but the baby is a little girl now!!!! so I will have to add borders LOL.

Finally finished doing the buttonhole stitch around all the teddy bears???????

These were a thank you gift and came with only one lilly open a week ago.

Lilies in all there glory up close.

This came in to the shop and was black I have soaked it for 24 hrs in a strong washing powder solution and then a good hard scrub with the floor scrubbing brush it looks like this????   I thought it was brass but much to my surprise under the top layer of grim it is copper and it would have been made for the English market as it has the remands of what was a  hook on the back which is broken but would have been used to hang it on the wall. It is about 15″ across.   I have an oval copper tray that was my great grandmothers which came from Prague of all places.  When polished it almost looks like a mirror.  I’ve always treasured it.

Now I’m giving it the salt and vinegar treatment and you can see how it is removing yet more grim.

Notice the dark stain in the middle, well I have used a old tooth brush to gently rub at this area.

adde  With a little coaching the stain is coming away and I can see the pattern stamped clearly in tot he copper now.

Copper tray now cleaned just needs polishing and that dark mark will disappear.  Lots of elbow grease now required to bring it up lovely and shinny.

A forgotten part of the the garden, Hubby placed the waterball there for safe keeping and I decided I liked it there and would build a garden around it, will plenty of soil available as post holes were been dug I raised the bed up a good 12″ and used left over rocks for the back and front retainer walls.

I have spent the last 10 days working on this area while hubby was putting in a new fence.

Now needs a few big rocks and it will be OK the birds like it!!!!!

This is a prolific grower and throws lots of flowers

Masses of blooms

Patio entrance looks a lot nicer with the new stone bed at the end of it. We use stone beds a lot so that the turkeys don’t dig gut eplants up so easy plus it makes it easy to remove the weeds and seedlings a lot easier.

Desert Rose

Brom rather difficult to take a photo of so added a sheet of white cardboard so you can see the flower.

Even the new leaves look lovely so soft and delicate. These are beside the house.

I have completed 5 panels now but sadly have missed placed the 6th panel so I will have to set this aside for now till I find it. 

It took me ages to clean the dolls and hours to get the hair to look like hair again, I had to clean their faces, carefully wash their eyes clean  and re-glue their eye lashes back on.

I brought home two display dolls from the Op Shop a few weeks ago, sadly they had been given to a children to play outside in the dirt and vegetation and it was all through their hair.

Another clean faced wee girl with new lace added to her underskirt also plus a new hairdo????

Looking down to the river

I have been cleaning up this area and adding Bromeliads

A HUGE cloud of pink it was breath taking to look at. Taken out of the car when I went down to the city yesterday.

I have Finally finished appliquéing the circle’s on to the background centre fabric of Sara Jeans quilt now to add the top blocks and finish machine appliquéing the sheep to the bottom panel.  Just have to find time LOL

Yesterday I trimmed the blue-work blocks to 10 1/2 “s then joined then adding the green borders and then attached them to the main part of the quilt this morning , finally the top part of Sara’s quilt  is complete.

Last night I sat and did herringbone stitch around each of the patches on one of the crazy patchwork blocks I find this very very relaxing, pulling coloured threads randomly and watching the blocks come a live.  Its like they are been framed and the fabric pops out in all its glory even if it is simple fabric.

Flowers from the Jade vine a local forest creeper

When you first  see theses flowers your mind finds it difficult to believe they are natural

Photo taken down at he beach this morning. These spiky plants take about 17 to 20 years to flower then they die, this one has flowered and is slowly dying, you can see a young plant may be 10 years old at the base of it; they love the harsh dry conditions, the ones behind are flowering and you can see their tall tall flower stalks, from a distance they look like tall bamboo.

When they do finally flower the flower stalk can reach up to  6 to 8 metres high this one is covered in baby plants and it is soooooo heavy it has fallen over with the weight of the baby plants 100s and 100s of them.

Here we have one of the little plants fallen to the ground and has every chance it will grow, bulb is about the size of a pingpong ball.

One of our local orchids, it has a heavenly smell and is growing in our garden.

Stunning colour

Miniature cymbidian orchid

Bromeliad.

Bromalaide

It was much more beautiful than this but by the time I found my camera the best was gone.

Looking North this morning around 7.30am It is a 30 mins drive from my home to here a lovely drive down the range we are about 1000 feet above here????

Now turning around and looking South, my friend and I walk to the end of this beach and back it takes roughly an hour.

Looking back from the Southern end of the beach, it was a picture perfect morning.

How gogouse are these lovely old vintage sports cars, what a joy it was to be able to walk right up to them and admire them. They were parked in the village car park this morning.

Just look at that stunning YELLOW Lotus what fun it must be to drive around in the tropics in this beauty!!!!!

Yesterday this was covered in 1/2 dead ferns DH cleaned them out for me, so this morning I have been out in the garden instead of sewing!!!   This is getting a make over

First wheelbarrow full of dead leaves Ive plucked from the  Bromeliads  before I throw them on to the garden!!!  Broms in the wheelbarrow from down in front of the house, then I have ended up with

THIS!!!!  Start of a survival garden in our extreme climate;  it now needs lots of rocks and more Bromeliads

This is an area where I used to like sitting quietly in the winter after-noon sun but has become over grown over the least two years, I removed all the hanging down Broms and used them to the garden bed above.

2 hours later we now have a quiet place again, it needs to be water-blasted to get rid of the mould,  a  splashed of paint  here and there,  some coloured bromeliads added here and there, a umbrella  and it will be  a peaceful place again.

Couldn’t help myself, after coming inside and having a shower I went back in to the garden and added more Broms here, a frame for the creeper to climb over and a screen door to cover up all the water pipes on the wall.

I did manage to hem my darling Annabelle blocks this week ready to be appliquéd on now.  I brought the gerbera’s home this morning they are beautiful and bring spring in to my lounge.

I found time this morning to pin the circle blocks on to the background fabric

Then pined on the hearts so to night I will be able to start appliquéing them  on if I can stay awake??????

What wonderful fabrics she was able to choose for this quilt they were not left over scraps.

Every stitch I make to finish this quilt for the unknown quilt Im thinking about her. What was her life like, she had enough money to be able to buy all these different fabrics they are not just scraps or old shirts been recycled.  she planned this beautiful quilt

I’m adding 12 more hexagons this week they have taken me 10 hours so far and I still have  6 to quilt then hem around the outer edge of them all.

This is the only corner not completed yet , some one has unpicked the edges of all the outer hexagons I still have not worked out why??? may be they were going to cut the edges straight to hem and never had the chance or did they find they were going to flute like I did and had not got around to solving the problem????

Opposite corner finished and quilted, this quilt is a gem and I will find it hard to part with.

small local Dendobium orchid it’s so lovely to have these flowering in the garden.

A pretty small cattleya

Would you believe all this came out of my top draw?????? only about 1/10th should have been in there. there were there were 22 screws in there and only one of them for a sewing machine LOL. 10 empty plastic bags!!!!  even a china knob from a brass bed?????  1/2 a butterfly metal belt !!!

This is all that should have been in there???????  now I can place items that should be in there like my bobbins and machine needles which sit on top of my sewing area!!!!!!!

My delightful Annabelle every time I look at this wee creature she makes me smile. She is designed by Michele at A Simple Thread

Right hand block turned under ready to be appliquéd .

For you Karen. This is where I put the lounge sofa yesterday, I just need to find time to use it now LOL

All the white paint of our front parch was covered in mould and yesterday I attacked it with exit mould the only thing that will get rid of it, it has to be sprayed on and left and it kills the bug till the next wet season comes and a new one grows.

I’m about 1/2 way through cleaning off the mould on the front of the house.  If you are able to zoom in on the photos you can see in the right and left hand corner at the top of the photo the mould is still there, this is not as bad as what the rest was like yesterday morning.  I have cleaned the walls and the middle section in the photo. 

First I have cut off 1/4″  of the wadding this has to be done around all the blocks but I’m only cutting away the wadding for the seams I’m about to sew.

Resewing the seams I had to unpick to be able to trim the 1/4″off the wadding.

Close up of the seams I unpicked.

Joining seam pined and ready to be sewn

Front seam sewn looking at it from the back

Seam needs to be pressed flat to the right

Close up of the seam laying flat under the wadding.

Wadding whipped together.

Right top fabric pressed over whipped wadding

Left fabric raw edge turned under and pinned ready for sewing by hand will use a slip stitch and you should not see it,  doing the join this way is taking time but there will be NO bulky seams.

Using the dark fabric to start the quilt design in the centre

Now start with the pale pink a very different feel to the look.  I’m going with the dark look!!!!!

Update  wed 6pm frustrating as it is to dark with out the flash but the flash leaches the colour out????  But you can see the design of the full quilt now!!!! 

Update Wednesday 5th Aug 2015 6pm

A baby sling from overseas I can not find out where it came from, it looks similar to the ones in Nepal and Peru.  All and from tiny tiny strips of fabric fold then stitched down, some strips are as small as 16th of an inch ????

By cutting the bag shape side ways the design looks very different now.

These little patchwork strips are 1/8 and 16th inch wide?????

showing both sides of the bag here.

I nearly have the back and front made. I need to add the pockets now on the inside .

To make the gusset choose 2 mens ties that are the same size and will complement the bag you are making.  Make sure the ties are not narrow ones or the inside of the bag will be shallow and not hold a great deal.

Over lap the ties at the wide end of ties and pin in place then sew them together front and back.

Here you can see where I joined the two ties then quilted them.  I have also quilted the brown tie on the right, this stops the tie from rolling when it is you tie the ties together  and also adds body tot he straps. Remember different companies make up their ties differently, some use wool felt, some some  thick wool fabric  and other a synthetic so this means you have different weights in the ties so try and get two ties of the same density.

I have pinned the gusset to the front of the bag and the back ready to hand sew the 3 pieces together. I take very tiny stitches and use a glove stitch when doing this.  It takes time but gives a lovely smooth finish.

Here you can see the gusset clearly

I have turned the bag inside out but it is still only pinned, this is just to show you what it will look like when I have finished it.

Here you can see the strap from the baby sling I used for the gusset instead of the mens ties I showed you above. I felt it was a shame to not use  it and I will use the ties another time.

Opposite side of shoulder bag, beautifully made patchwork from Nepal or may be Peru.

Dawn breaking over the farm land 6.30am Tuesday morning.

I drove on but this dawn was to lovely to not stop and enjoy and the air balloons were still there in the distance.