PatchworkDreams

A beautiful cloud formation early in the morning.

I’m going to stay with this lay out.

Having to remake most of these 1/4 circles as they are so out of shape and I would have to cut to much fabric off them to get a square, so unpicking realigning and sewing a much narrower seam to get them to end up finally at a  9inch   Square

Have marked my ironing board cloth so I make sure I’m ironing it in to a square.

My first of 35 wee snowball blocks.  I’m just over 1/2 way now.i

Slowly the wee squares are been made 1/2 way now.

Update at midday Wednesday.  Over 1/2 way?

My little companion is in the vets and hopefully will be home late this afternoon, she had a tummy upset.  I miss her so much. Just rang the vets and she has to stay on the drip another 24 hrs?  But hopefully home tomorrow.

Making plant holders out of LP music records?

My favourite yellow.

For my birthday hubby decided to vamp up my kitchen draws in the unit downstairs were I do all my sewing.  Every thing had to be moved so he could pull out the draws???  What a shambles?

But finally I ended up with a much better lay out for my work stations  for my machines.  Plus new pop-out draws that are so so much easier to use.

Red and Green quilt to be, I’m 1/2 way through my 2nd Centre Block

Local pigeon

Same bunch of berries but a Fig-tree bird he’s very very yellow and a bright red eye.

Still using my small sledge hammer and builders punch to make my washaway templates LOL  I can punch out 50 in a couple of minutes .

Jhnb

A stunning cheery red and bright yellow surrounded by green!!!!!

Grass if growing and so lovely to walk on after just dusty soil?

wonderful colours

And her wee babies are growing at the tips of her leaves. ?

I love the colour of this lichen.

a tiny wee knock in the garden.

New leaves on the stag plant

beautiful reflections in the water.

My new mothers day herb planter from Jon laure and Liam, now need the soil and plants will show them growing in a couple of weeks time?

My myoga ginger is growing like mad.

Garlic is over 8inchs high now its very happy

Soon these will be red berries and a feast for the birds.

A new bunch to be of berries just opened from its sheath.

Sadly these fellows some how get inside and I don’t find them till its to late?  such a beautiful creature and a stunning green colour.

Those white dots on the grass are all spiderwebs it’s an amazing site to see. When the sun comes out they all disappear?

Sun has burnt of the mist and it’s a beautiful day now 9.30am

My Abstract logcabin

During the week Adding the backing and wadding to my QAYG  -. First I machine stitched the final border to the quilt top added cotton batting folded border over it then thread basted the panel down for machine quilting.

Two sides finished ready for machine quilting.  Centre was done as quiltasyougo log-cabin blocks

Using a piece of fabric I bought from the USA 12 years ago from around 1930

3 down one to go?

All borders added now but need to thread baste the top and bottom they are just pinned at present then it will be in the machine quilting pile???

Playing with some 1930s tiny pieces of fabric I bought on E Bay about 15 years ago from the USA for a few dollars back then,  I came across them on Monday night when looking for some thing?????? And decided to play with them?

These are all just placed only some of the inner 1/4 circles are sewn. Nearly all  the 1/4 circles are 1930 fabrics.  Some shirting and well worn the rest I think dress scraps.y

I’ve just completed on Block it is 9 1/2 inch’s square, I had to unpick the 1/4 circles recut them resew them, then carefully sew them to the bow tie shape,  at the start of each seam it had to be 1/16th seam  then go to Under 1/4 inch seam around the rest to get the block to lye flat.  Now to do the same for the other 34 LOL.  I have almost redone all the 1/4 circles and can start making these blocks now.

Made from natural vanilla bean fibres and would be used to carry or hang a baby when sleeping or vegetables, it was  a special gift.

Natural vibes. It Was used as part of their ceremonial dress. Very special and my pride and joy as it was a very very special gift.

PNG bilum bag, these are made from yarn replyed on their thighs to make a much stronger yarn then hand woven using a stick to poke the thread through or a darning needle if they are lucky enough,  it is woven to look like knitting and it take months to make them, original ones were made from the vanilla  bean fiber.

PNG

PNG

PNG  love the greens in this bilum.

Hgggg

This is a close up so you can see the weaving?

Early mornings  over the river  have been so beautiful and misty this week, but ohhhh so cold too!!!!!.

Where I started placing 3 Roses and working from them?   I did not like how the grapes were coming from the centre rose so they went first!

Slowly  the vein grew till it reached the centre Rose and when I was happy I traced this pattern on to paper.

Tracing my pattern on to cooking paper its easy to see through and just the right width.

I flipped the paper over and now have the identical pattern for this side of the corner.

I did like how it was growing.

Completed corner?  None of those border circles or leaves are sewn down just placed to help me see how the design will look, I need to Finnish the other 3 centre blocks first.  Now working on my second block and still loving working those wee red circles .

I cut my triangle as triangles not squares to start as my fabric was not wide enough to make up as squares.  First I added my 1/2 circles using iron on fussing Inner circle is machine stitched down in Gold and the outer ring in deep cyclamen red using these two colours stops the circle been a heavy band to my eyes and it floats more.  .

I did a forward stitch one back one forward for my veins on my leaves.

Then a buttonwhole stitich around the edges of the leaves also in gold

After machine sewing down my 1/2 circle I added my flower and machine appliquéd it down.

Love these triangles

What it would ahve looked like if I had done them as a square first.

If doing as a triangle make sure you add that seam allowance cut bigger, its easier to cut some off but very difficult but not impossible to add!!!! LOL

Back of one of the triangles I’m using a very light weight iron interfacing.  I find it so much easier to machine applqiue with it there.

Those tiny circles but we have had 1/2 this size in other designs of Esther’s!!!!!

My abstract logcabin quilt as you go blocks partly sewn together last Friday when I pulled them out yet again to work on?????

Left hand two panels joined and i have pinned right hand side ready to sew after cutting back the wadding by 1/4 of an inch to make those seams lie nice and flat.

On Sunday after working on it for 3 days?  But I felt the black was a little too stark and may be I should add some applique??????

Then on Tuesday I was gifted these lovely cotton Kimonos by a friend who knows I love to use these fabric s for my patchwork. As soon as I saw the black one I knew where it should be used and I spent a day unpicking it.

So here is my kimono now??????  I love it the dusky pinks mauves and greens which are the same tones that are in the log-cabin blocks.  I hope to have those borders sewn on and the quilt top finished by next Wednesday.

Hubby has been cutting back the bulk and Im now cleaning up the small stuff!!!!

the 3 Palms on the left of the photo looked like the one on the right the morning I took this photo, yesterday I finished the one on the right .

One on the right is cleaned up now? You can see the light coming in now.

Tree ants nest all woven leaves when they are green.

1  1/2 metres of one of the palms that had become over grown and was blocking out all the sun and light.

Early this morning after the mist had lifted

I lost a pair of my glasses last week?????  when walking around the garden this morning taking photos for my blog I found them LOL

A mothers day gift that is very happy and growing fast????

My piles of rubbish from the last two days??????

To days project is to prune these piles of Brom’s that were on the trunks of the palm trees and replant them, they are easy to replant you just throw them on the ground here and they grow LOL  Hard work is cutting them all in to pieces.

Project completed and area all cleaned till next year.  Just needs some deck chairs and grass LOL.

Road   frontage this morning after palm trees were removed a very bare garden.

Same place 2hrs later!!!  I’ve stolen Broms from around the garden I have so many now you can not see where I took them from, all these. Will be flowering next year or the following but for now they all colour with their leaves.

My sky above me right now as I write my blog!

Sitting at my machine early this morning .

Update:- What I woke up to day Thursday in OZ but still Wednesday up In the Northen Hemisphere!

This is where I was up to on the weekend

Then I dreamt about my border as I was not comfortable with how they had done the original one. I had to start working on it straight away or I’d forget itLOL.   So I grabbed the first blank paper I could find and started drawing or drafting may be? Note the centre area on the side of the border???

one needs a good pencil and rubber and stronger paper than I used in my hurry?

to get a feel of it I’ve added unturned circles so they are very big over large circles!!!

I sat and needle turned circles and yet more circles every night and afternoon this week 165 up to last night!

I wasn’t happy with the centre area on the side of the border, so extened the vine from the corner rather than the vine coming from the centre side Rose?

That to me looks more flowing and softer.  I sat up till late last night needle turning red circles but just could not manage the last 29 to finish this area.  But I do like how it will look one dayLOL. I need to add more paper and extend the vine on the other side of the border and I have my border pattern complete.  A great week for me.  Now I have my Red and Green quilt top designed how I want it?

I managed to make the last 29 circles this evening to finish this side, now I need to make 60 more for the other side to finish it?  But not this week LOL this shows me how it’s going to look.

USing deep red for the body and head and a lovely aqua for the wings, we have a Dragonfly in these colours who flies around the swimming pool each summer in these colours.

IM so enjoying seeing my Dragonflies evolve on my Dragon Tree Quilt.

They just glow.

As I walked out the door to take some garden photos the tourist train went past

Two trains come up here to our village each day.

A unusual plant that grows wild here like a weed.

airroots that need lopping back!

My giant Dragonfly you can see I like them LOL.

old faithful that gives a beautiful new gem every day.

with out the self sewn cosmo some days I would have very little colour around me.

Spotted thi s fellow yesterday he did not want his photo taken kept moving a round the pipe. LOL.

I’m now sitting finishing off my blog on the front patio, this is my beautiful sky now at 11.30am.  How lucky I am.

Here you can see how I have sliced up the leaf , I place this over my fabric I want to use for a leaf and use a pencil to draw the outer shape then gently lift the pieces of paper I have partly sliced through and mark the veins in to.

Leaf  shape is ironed down on to my backing fabric if you are needle turning same principle applied but it is stitched down.

I stitch draw in the veins with my sewing machine. This stitch is one stitch forward one back one forward so really shows the veins.

Then I use my buttonhole applqiue stitch around the leaf shape.

6 more Dragonflies just waiting for me to bring them to life?

Red grapes and more red grapes LOL.

These a little local weed that just keeps popping up and giving good ground coverage and tiny splashes of colour .

Airroots hanging down which I cut off two metres every month.

Plucked my ginger during the week and have a lovely wee crop.

My cat is having a hard life, termites found her and started eating her, have moved her and hope she survives?

Self sewn and all ways gives a lovely splash of colour.

Beautiful.

My fishermen have both lost their fishing rods will have to make them new ones LOL

So lovely to see green grass at the base of the steps and not dry weeds?

IF I look hard enough I will find some colour in the garden

THis cactus is throwing babies on the end of all the old leaves nature is so cleaver, before these old leaves die they give birth to new life?

CLose up of the baby plant.

same plant but younger ones but still giving life to new plants.

Very  peaceful and quiet.  Well it was LOL some one has started chainsawing and they have started up a chipper LOL. So it’s no longer quiet!

My take on the Locust Grove quilt published in Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and quilts 1985  There are 4 of these blocks in the centre .

life among the gum trees not rainforest trees?

ENjoying the early morning dawn and what it brings?

mum and babies.

EVen the dogs enjoy watching and not chasing out here. A giant fruit from the passion fruit gen

A giant passion fruit but not the kind we know in the shops comes from Sou5h America if I remember right?

coffee beans are aboundent this year.

yes it is a deer!

A Very happy deer.

I went down to take some photos of the horses and this beautiful lady came for a scratch and pat.

SHe wanted to know what my camera was?

NO it’s not eatable LOL

so beautiful

WHats mum doing I’d better go and see pony coming up behind?

Hbbb

Hggv

ALl most  finished managed to appliqué down 50 plus circles

WHen I walked out this morning to take my garden photos the local tourist train went past below our home!

First two engines needed  to haul the 13 carriages up the range!

Last carriage

my bonsai leaves have change its new leaves from pink to green this week.

Same tree as my bonsai but left to grow will reach 15 metres in a few years mine is over 25 years old and a metre high.

A month ago we had to cut a sapling from here, it has sent up 6 new saplings from its base?   Things  are so hardy and grow like weeds if it rains which it is doing now?

THis wee flower is about 3/4 of an inch across?

OOld steps removed and new  turf laid where entrance to swimming pool use to be.

Hbvv

Hbvv

IF we didn’t chop back hard we would disappear under the Under growth ?

AGain trying to get the road frontage to look nice with grass, turf has been down 6 days and looking good second 1/2 will go down this weekend all been good.

A Leaf caught on a stick, leaves with holes in them fasanate me.

Ginger is a lovely orange this week.

A great splash of colour?

Old faithful throws me a new gem every day?

SStunning colour!

Shells and more shells under my table where I’m writing my blog this morning but now afternoon LOL

4 more Grapes to add and this block is finished 3 more to go for my centre  !!!

Left bottom block is finished now.  

Dragonfly Tree nothing sewn down yet, tree is ironed down but not the Dragonflies.

I removed all my Dragonflies and put them inside a book one per page, great way to store something like this but make sure you tie the book closed with a ribbon or big rubber band so they don’t fall out!

I appliqued one side of all the branches and trunk in cherry red, and the other side in silky gold it makes them not look so heavy.

difficult to photograph the two different threads

Slowly I managed to appliqué the tree down, its so humid that the fabric kept lifting and the stabiliser kept lifting on the back to, so I was constantly ironing after machine appliquéing down a branch.   I’ve ironed on stabiliser all over the back of this rayon panel to make it possible to machine appliqué.

Here is a close up in day light and you can see the threads much easier.

MY first Dragonfly machine appliqued down using a aqua thread for his wings and a bright cherry red thread for his body, these are the colours of the Dragonflies  that live around our swimming pool in the summer

Taken in the day time truer colours.

love how he looks like he is hoovering above the flower.

Bamboo from next door smothering my frangipani tree

neighbours bamboo grove 30  metres plus tall some of them ????

A little native plant that adds such a lovely splash of colour this time of the year when theres not much else in the way of colour.

This wee bonsai I pruned right back last week look at the growth in one week ??????  see who’s peeping through from behind it, reminds me of Esther’s cat block in The Secret Garden

On lonely Brom flowering!

My faithful water Lilly after 10 years now still gives me a fresh bloom each day.

Ginger is slowly turning orange.

New growth of the Tree Fern This will turn in to a giant fern branch.

My lady buddha needs to be relocated in amongst the ferns.

I have a giant caterpillar hiding some where close by, that was a giant taro leaf two days ago, its a moth to be  actually and only comes out at night time to feed.

I did finish the Black and Red sampler top, now it sits waiting to be quilted???

My first 3 blocks completed of Esther Aliu’s free BOM this year Queens  Garden . *

On Tuesday a friend passed on to me some beautiful quality cottons that were been used for men’s shirts, they will be wondeful for the back of some of my quilts.

Hbbv

1st a drew my tree in pencil

then with a black marking pen

paper taped with masking tape it quick and does the job well.

starting to cut out my tree!

Moved my cut out to the black cotton fabric I want to use and started pinning it in place

It slowly evolves.

and THERE it is . Now to trace all around my tree edges

remove template and there is my tree shape. now to cut it out. I used a rotary cutter to do this it gives nice sharp edges.

one big jumble of a mess but there is a tree there some where.?

There is my tree!!!!

I lay a huge woollen blanket down with a thick cotton sheet on top as my ironing board for the next stage.

This was my black fabric with iron on fussing behind it .

A rayon cloth was given to me a few years ago, not sure if it was for a sarong or a sofa cover????? But Im going to use it now. Ive ironed on a light weight interfacing to the back

Smoothed out and ready to go?

I started from the bottom of the tree and gently ironed it down first.

slowly the tree uncurls!

And a new birth has happened.

I keep playing till it lies as it should.

Im happy with it.

I culd have put it on a white back ground?????

But choose some thing more radical!!!!

Then thought about butterflies and dragon flies,  Dragonflies demanded the whole quilt to them selves

So the Dragonfly Tree was found

These colours are the true colours taken in day light not night lights.

This wee tree is one metre tall and about 25 years old I trim in twice a year to keep it as a bonsai tree! Yesterday  morning!

2 hrs later?

Overnight Mr spider moved in and Mrs spider laid eggs?

this is my light that hangs over my cutting table?  They are now in my vacuum cleaner?????

THis stone as my mother’s she had it from when

Where I was up to last week with my blocks laid out and sashing strips placed  with those red circles been played with. I ended up staying with this lay out then feel sick and nothing happened!!!!

WHile putting them away to keep them clean and safe I laid my strips and circles together and what I saw was What if!!!! I added those circles first on to the strips  it would be so much easier to machine applqiue them than on a full quilt top?

So I needle turned the seams as I did not want to use iron on for these circles and have a raw edge.

I wanted a little 3D effect so ironed on some thick pellon at the back for my stabaliser

As I’m not using any on I have basted all these circles down first to the back ground to stop any movement that will distort the circle.  It takes time but very quick to sew down as there are no needles in the way and you get that perfect circle or near perfect LOL After machine appliqueing them I’m cutting away access and getting a soft 3D look.

Why is there no centre circle?  it is to big and nestles over the seam allowances so ahs to be added when those seams are sewn.

You can see the edges  over lapping those seams here.

Finally one row of blocks joined

This morning I’ve managed to add another set of rows, these are waiting for the large circles to be hand basted down before machine appliqued

setting up the last row of blocks for joining cross ways.

My tiny houses are on hold but machine still set up waiting for number 17!!!!!

Queens Garden block 3

My centre and first 3 blocks

Even the sleeping cat is mouldie?

Surfboard seat does not care about the long wet.

It does not care either if its wet or dry all ways looks the same.

A tiny bit of colour

Stag plant loves the wet.

Ginger is growing well

Was so happy to finish machine appliqueing those stems down I kept worrying I would loose some of them before Id machined them down.  Thats the story of my life having to put part finished blocks away and then loosing pieces and not having any more fabric?   So now I have all the leaves ironed down also, so I can not loose those LOL  Now to machine applqiue them down, I did buy some thread online to do this but it is tooooo dark, thats the trouble buying online, it looked a lot lighter than it is.  So will ahve to wait and see if I can buy some next time I’m in the city?

Placed my centres to get a feel of the design.

When I add the borders around these centres I will add the extra leaves to give the pattern this circle look of the leaves.  For now it has to sit waiting for the aqua thread I need.

Ive set up my Janome just so I can work on my Red and Green when ever I can get the time.  Its sitting on a glass computer desk but works perfectly for a portable table for the Janome.

Loved making these 3inch square Tiny houses Thanks Nancy LOL  Yes they really are only 3inches square when finsihed!!!!!!

Close to finishing

First 16 completed!

I wanted a light background for my Tiny houses but it just did not jell.

I will use these lovely lovely threads when doing sashiko quilting. what a gift my mum just gave me.  Every time I use them she will be beside me.  I wonder what else is in the attic from her????

To make my joining strips and 1/2 inch corner stones???  I cut a 3 1/2 inch strip of dark mauve fabric joined the light mauve to it, cut the light mauve back to 3/4 of an inch then cut across this every 1inch to give me the perfect strips for those 1/2 inch corner stones ! Nancy reminded me to do it this way, was so quick and much more accurate.

Putting these tiny houses together.

First two rows joined

Slowly the block grows!

Nearly there, it took ages as I have used silk fabrics for these joining borders???? and I have to pin each strip 4 times to stop the fabrics sliding and shifting?  Yep I do it the hard way some times but I had the fabric and did not want to buy any more fabric.

One completed block of Tiny houses Thank you Tiffany.  Click on Tiffanys name to see other Tiny houses!

MY Bernina set up with lots of tin6 fabric scraps and some not so small so I can sew any time I want to make a Tiny house, I have my cutting mat one side and iron the other side of me as I’m constantly pressing and cutting

Hand quilting an antique very fine woven woollen fabric panel.

I’m using a thick synthetic wadding to get a deep 3D effect on th falcons and the cloud shapes. But the backing was a big mistake, it’s 100% cotton but a kimono lining and is so tightly woven that I can not take a quilting stitch as the needle pings back out of the backing fabric so I’m haveing to do what my mum called the push and poke stitch that one does when doing tapestry,  So I rescued her Fanny hoop which I’ve never used and I’m 1/2 way through quilting this panel now.

Mums Fanny hoop, these have been around for a long long time and are still made, they are quick and easy to use and free up both hands to be able to sew with.

Cobble stones been put down to stop slipping on the smooth concrete in the long wet seasons.

Last of these heliconia for this flowering.

its been so wet the fungi is growing every where. Latrge

LArge bush snail I just uncovered ,  this one is alive and about 2inches across.

One of the last of these heliconia too. 

THis is one of my  favourites

STunning colour

A strange place for a frond, lucky those windows  are surcutiyy   glass

The start of my Tiny houses

MY first completed tiny house that took me 3hrs to complete?

Then my first tiny house had a neighbor.

Then they became Little terrace houses?

You need at least a 5inch square of fabric, out of the size of fabric right roughly 5inch square I only had those small pieces left on the left.

THat 5inch square of fabric on the right cut up in to a triangle and two 1 3/4 inch strips.  I need two blue triangles .(I cut a 4inch square and cut in to 4 triangles .  Blue strips need to be just over 1inch strips.  My templates are inked behind too.  I find it difficult to get my head around the back to front sewing, plus I can change  which side the chimney is on the roof by sewing from the front instead of the back???

All my pieces except for the windows and chimney

first I make my windows up.

I start on the roof first, for no reason I just like making them up those little facings on the front of the roof they are a challenge.

now that small template which is a challenge too.

add my second triangle of sky

Add my chimney keep the tiny cut of sky piece

add it back on to the side of the red chimney and this template is complete. Cheers

Starting  my house with a window piece.

All houses pieces across are added now to add the top part of the house. I follow the pattern numbers that are on the pattern.

top added now all it needs is the sky each side.

skyieces pines ready for sewing down

2 Completed pieces

2 pieces become one tiny house!!!  And that’s how I make one tiny houseLOL.

One  house became a village in a week?

Finished one just after midnight around 10past 12!  So counts for what I’m doing on WednesdayLOL.

What greeted me this morning at dawn, it only lasted around 40 seconds but it was sooooo beautiful.

OK I finally finished my centre of Morning Glory A BOM for 2018 by Esther Aliu this was all machine appliquéd except for the cherries which I added padding too and hand appliquéd down to add a little 3D effect

Close up of the machine applqiue.

2nd block for Queens Garden a free BOM from Esther Aliu for 2018

Flowers are made of silk.  Leaves cotton, my main stem looked to heavy for the rest of the delicate block so I added a fancy stitch down the middle of it and it made it look much softer.

How my block will look, none of these berries were appliquéd down at this point.  I was just looking to see what it would look like, there are around 200 berries for each block.

For my veins I added a embroidery stitch taken down to 1/4 size I’m very happy with how it looks.  I’ve been  learning so much about my machine the last 12 months since I started to teach my self machine applqiue.

I made a 1/2 leave so I could quickly draw my vein line on the 240 leaves I will be making?

On the right the normal size embroidery stitch and the left what I took it down to for my veins.

By adding leaves on the seams my leaves form a circle!

Centre Shannon roses are not ironed down just placed so I can see what it will look like. back right hand block leaves are also just placed. Waiting to machine applique  those stems down.

Trying to get my brain to work back to front is a real challenge????

First wee house that took only 3 hrs to make LOL

Then tiny house 2 just over 2hrs!!!!!

Hbgg

Jhhh

Jnbbb

Jhbb

Nbbb

Stunning work!!!!

These falls are a 15min walk from our home. What the falls normally look like after rain?????

Barronfalls in Flood yesterday Tuesday 27th March 2018 I took tis photo around 1pm Tuesday 27th 2018

Shamed in to working on a UFO LOL This is a antique very fine wool panel woven for the lining of a mans Kimono jacket. I was lucky enough to find several yards not cut!

I’ve made up a backing from some very tightly woven navy kimono cotton also for lining a KimonoI just hope I can quilt through it? Now ready to pin

One finished UFO to the stage I wanted it to be, now to find time to hand quilt it?

I hand quilted around the Fallcon at 1am this morning ? !

Barronfalls in Flood yesterday Tuesday 27th March 2018

What the falls normally look like after rain!  ?????

Paper piecing the first part  of the tiny wee house

One complete wee house 3 inchs square finsihed

Making tiny tiny wee houses to forget the storm raging out side. My machine, My lamp, behind machine my scraps, to my right my ironing spot and iron, in front of it my round cutting board and rotary cutter  ALL set to go and I don’t have to get up at all for ironing, scraps  or cutting.

Now there are two!!!!!

Incrediable beadwork and embroidery  done on this bag.

SO sew perfect?

Love this area

How perfect is this wwheat head made of beads?

Made of velvets and satin Bottom brown piece is a pocket?

exquisite!!!!

I think this was were I was up to last week?

This is how the original lay out of leaves were but I have added 4 more leaves

By just adding 4 more leaves I now have a circle forming in my lay out and I like it.

I made up another block

I DO like how those circles form!!!!!

Made up another block with stems and another one waiting to be machine appliquéd down.  I’m appliqueing  all the stems down first.

Slowly we have an idea of what it will look like?

Testing fabrics for contrast?

and this is what it looks like when I choose it?

Now we have 4 Shannon rose centres for my Red and Green centre

I’m having so much fun making this centre.

Here I have 3 completed blocks with there stems appliquéd down and the leaves ironed down waiting to be appliquéd down.

Here I have placed  lots more berries just to see how it will look one day!

Love how the different coloured and sizes of the berries are working.

How beautiful is this piece of art.  I think I will make it in to a carry bag as a gift for some one I knows who will love it.

This drain had to be dug up in the pouring rain as it was blocks with roots from the fig tree?????  all 4 metres.

Roots came out like a long snake.

This is meant to be a sand pit around the fish pond???????  lots of work to get this back for the Grandies to play in?

Berries fermenting as I was not able to pick them up the last 4 days?

Front patio covered in black mould!!!!!

Only flower that is happy with all the rain is the water Lilly LOL

Even in side we see the results of the storm, fine particles of forest dust pieces on the shelves?

This is the tiniest frog I have ever seen, he’s not quiet a 1/4 inch long! He is So perfect and not at all worried that my iPad is withen inches of him?

wet and drab day this morning

Giant palm is dropping it’s fruit, in a few days there will be 100s of them and in the wet and high temperatures they ferment quickly and it’s a dreadful smell.

SO I lay sheets of plastic to make it easy to scop them up and dispose of them.

Even the swimming pool looks sad this morning.

But the water Lillie’s are happy.

I tried 2 different fabrics for my stems to be, one on the right  bleed in to the background to much so went for the batik on the left. I have enough of that fabric for all the stems to be. These are all going to be cut on the bias and have iron on fusing behind them.

First half of the stems machine appliquéd down.   To get a mirrow imagine I fold the block in half over a light box and drew with a pencil where these stems were, a perfect imagine .  My light box is my small round glass top table with a light shinning up from the floor LOL

Threads I used on the stems, I want light in the centre of my blocks so using a bright gold thread on all the left hand side of the stems , if I add it to the other side of the stems it looks chunky see top of right stem, so I have used a violet thread that blends in and makes the stem softer.

First stems all appliquéd down, centre flower is just lying there not appliquéd down.

Finally all stems appliquéd down/

Now to iron down my leaves, I had to place ALL the berries so I could place my leaves and not over lap the berries or the berries over lap the leaves?

Appliqueing those leaves down using a aqua fine dress makers sewing machine thread top,   It was chewing the thread and making birds nest at the back till I used the same thread top and bottom, why am I using a dressing making thread instead of applqiue thread?  because it was all I had in aqua LOL

Slowly it grows

For some reason I thought there were leaves on each seam of the blocks also, so added them to see what it was going to look like and to my surprise I see a lovely circle of leaves?   have since checked the original pattern and there are NO leaves on those seams but mine is going to have them LOL   SO not only are my leaves different shape, my circles different sizes, I’m adding more leaves now LOL

All done waiting for the berries, there will be  all most 200 on this block!

Close up on the stitch I used on the veins

To make sure I had the same vein shape I made up 1/2 a leaf in cardboard then it was so quick to mark those veins.

Stitch I used for the veins, on the right is the stitch as programmed in my machine, on the left is the same stitch but only 1/4 of the size it made a wonderful vein stitch

Where I’m up to now, two bunches of needle turned berries hand appliquéd down next bunch waiting to be pinned, and second block has its stems fused down and 1/2 have been machine appliquéd down.

BLock on the right waiting for leaves  to be ironed down?

New leaves such a fragile leaf at this stage .

This heliconia grows wild here now.

Ants love the honey so if you pick them you have to plung the heads in a bucket of water for a while before taking them inside.

This is the strangest plant in my garden, never seen another one any where here?

love this colour.

heres another stunning colour combination?

These are chive flowers so so dainty around 1/8th of and inch across each flower?

All most completed centre of Morning Glory on Monday night 12th March 2018

where do I start?  usually with making my flowers up in to a complete unit on my Teflon   sheet.

making making up my stems and appliqueing them down first, then adding the flowers

My black back ground was showing through my flowers to much, so I cut out roughly a shape in light weight  iron on interfacing and placed it behind the flower and it was the answer.

I was not happy with my main stem it looked to heavy for the flowers so added a decorative stitch down the middle of it and it changed it completely.

Coming together love this design so simple but oh so elegant.

Love it!!!!

In this close up you can see the stitch I did around the yellow centre makes it look like pollen? Plus the stitch I did in the stem.

Close up of the stitches.

Showing that the back ground is not black but a very dark navy with a teal influence.

My bird was made up of fine silk to fine in the end to use as is, so I have ironed it on to some fine iron on interfacing?

Then ironed that interfacing and the bird to some iron on fusing and then cut the wee bird out and she is now quiet stable and should wear well.

There she is waiting to be appliqued down.

a small flower left side machine appliquéd down and the right waiting to be down, showing this so you can see the stitch I’m using and the difference once appliquéd?

White petals appliquéd  in pale pale mauve and the coloured petals on this one in a light mauve.

My wee bird is finally finished, my machine played up no end with  the new top thread I was using, then remembered what Wendy at the Bernina shop said to me Saturday morning use the same thread top and bottom if you are having a problem with a new thread????? it worked a treat.

Finally all most completed, I’m not going to add the rest of the the BOM blocks to this centre I’m stopping here as I want this to hang as a small quilt .

Hhbbb

Look closely and you will see tiny dots on the back of the fern leaves, they are the seeds about to be dropped .

As I had used 3 different fabrics with the leaves I thought I’d have to use different threads for each fabric change but no the same blue green variegated thread worked on them all.  Was a big surprise and a good lesson in test first.   I should have machine appliquéd the stems down first before adding the leaves it would of saved a lot of starting and stopping but i was so excited to get it moving I forgot LOL

Thinking I needed to change the threads for this leave fabric but no I used the darker fabric not these lighter ones and it worked well.

Most of the leaves down and the gold thread appliququed to the left of all the stems only.

trying out that light but bright pink to make my blooms more cup like, they looked to flat and bleed in to the dark fabric on the top petal?  I think it will work?

So have added one to each of the blooms.

Right hand bloom completely appliquéd down not 2 more to g and I’m finsihed !Taken in day light, difficult to photograph as it is raining out side during the day so dark and over caste and when the sun comes out lots of glare!!!!!and night light changes the silks

Block finished. Interesting how it looks so different with a ddifferent back ground around the finished block?  

My centre and first block of Queens Garden.

New sewing cabinet! It has drop down sides and 3 large shelves, wonderful.  

I’m using a bolt of Kimono fabric for my backing but it is only just over 15 inchs wide so had to come up with a plan to make my centre square larger?  I ended up using a yellow spacer.  None of this is sewn down the first border is just lying against my centre.

all waiting to be ironed down.

I used two rulers to get a perfect1/4 inch either side of my petals befor eironing them down.

All ironed down waiting to be machine appliquéd down.

How I make my black back ground fabric, I slice through my template fold one side abck and mark with a fine chalk pen, then retape the template and do another stem the same way till they are all marked.

Same thing, I find this a quick and easy way to mark simple designs like this.

you can see the lines here, they brush off easy.

stems ironed down

leaves added

Making up the flowers on my teflon sheet.   Id be lost with out it, it saves me so much time and you can see the pattern so clearly under it.

Flowers not ironed down will add these after I have machine appliquéd down the stems and flowers.

SO far so good LOL.

Close up of the centre flower. I have added a piece of blue silk to the dark blue centre petal as it was to dark!

I’m happy with that!

what a difference a few wee dots make?  Nothing is ironed down except the stems.

Machine appliquéd the stems down first.

Close up, right hand sid eof the stems are red and the left yellow it gives a round look to the stems I think?????  Plus gives more light to the centre of the block.

Adding my first flower.

Fabric I used for the flowers was some light weight upholstery fabric but it was not a good choice it frayed even with the irononfussing, to over come this problem I machine appliquéd it down twice to get rid of the fuzzy edges!

finally finished the big flower head but had to machine appliqué the other two flowers twice also.

Its turned out to be so pretty in blue, well I like it LOL

All completed except to applqiue the wee dots down.

Using some kimono fabric for this block, this is from the same fabric just fussy cut one circle from the green part and a yellow one from the yellow area.

Using silk fabric from the blouse I never wear???? for the stems

Start of the last block of 4

My first machine applqiue flowers on my Morning Glory quilt by Esther.

I made a silk female Bluebird  but the silk is far to fragile and won’t  last so it’s back to the drawing board, may be a combination of this silk and cotton?

Ive started to add tiny flowers on the left hand side of the centre here.

then another leaf and a trailing end flower.  Plus a tiny bunch of flowers above them.

Close up of those tiny flowers.

Such beautiful blooms!

My first big bloom all machine appliquéd down.

My second big bloom irondown early this morning and still waiting to be machine appliqué down! but it is 37C today so no machine sewing at present?  Slowly adding the cherries love hand appliqueing these cherries on.

I have been playing around with my Queens Garden centre as my centre is to small due to using 15inch wide Kimono fabric so  I trying out different ideas to enlarge it so the first border will fit.  This border is not released yet but I’m just playing with roughly what it will look like?  I want to solve this problem now  so I can work on the next 4 parts been released over the next 4 months.

Yesterday cut out my next 5 backings for Morning Glory and ironed on the interfacing so I know I have enough fabric for all these blocks that will come out over the next 5 months !

Yesterday I scored big time for me?  roughly 120 10inch blocks 40 Blocks in each pile and all small prints which I’m very j very short on. Specially the lights.  I’m in quilting heaven LOL SO I have a light, medium, and dark pile what more can you want LOL

I woke up to these this morning, what a great way to start a day. Happy Valentines every one!

Its so hot to day, they are having a heat wave down south and we must be getting some of it 37C out side so I’m not going there!!!!

In the very centre of the photo peeping up through the frangipani  is what we call a Koru in NZ its the young fern leaf coming up and will uncurl in to one very large  beautiful tree fern branches.

Fruit from one of the giant palms I will have to pick these all up before they start to ferment??????

wild native lilly.

Hubby’s modern art for the garden?

And his sense of humour? We just put in a new toilet seat and look where the old one is?????

First time I have ever seen this cactus flower????

look closely and you will see a cicada tucked up under a leaf?

My new ants are happy in their new garden LOL

Vanilla beans ready to harvest!

I ended up with a large lump of Himalayan pink rock salt, I’ve been trying to smash it to use, I sure admire those Himalayan men who use to carry sack fulls down from the mountains to sell, they must have been as strong as Oxe’s this small rock was SO heavy.

Last Wednesday I had  just printed off my centre pattern for Morning Glory

I was tossing up about cutting all those stems out in one go?????? In the mean time I started making up some leaves out of fabric that had irononfussing Nancy sent me some scraps of green fabric for another quilt top and these scraps are still been used after 2 tops !!!!!  I just love these fabrics she sent its wonderful to have so many scraps to play with.

Lets try those stems first I cut out the stem that runs behind all the other stems folds around and down to the front of the vase on the right hand side .

and here is my tangled mass of stems all cut out of the one piece of fabric?

Lots of patience was needed to slowly place each stem and make sure it was in the right place, I was so glad I had needle tacked lines to show me were all the centre points are this made it easy to see where they each had to lye.

Fabric was a brown and gold mottled shading  from gold through to browns, I cut it so my lights were mostly in the centre and the browns out on the ends of the stems.

Light greens near the bottom and the browner tones near the top but they are all in the green tones.

Couldnt wait to finish the leaves just had to make my first Blue Bird f Happiness LOL  he’s the male bird! will add some birdofparadise feathers soon?

I was culling and folding up children’s fabrics and this piece of silk was amongst them, light bulb went off MY morning Glory vase fabric.

It is fine silk so backed it with iron on interfacing, the orange strips were from the same fabric just enough to cut out the top and bottom pieces.

I appliquéd my stems down with a sulky gold thread on one side of the stem and a deep pink on the other side I wanted to get the look of light coming across from the left

Here you can see that it looks like the sun is hitting the top of the stem the bird is standing on?

agan the light is coming from the left.

I was thinking of making my flowers up but I kept thinking full fussy cut blooms, then I remembered  these large Chrissies I was using to make up my cut and slash blocks there would be  enough so added some irononfussing and cut one out I loved it!.

Heres the fabric and 4 more flowers ready to fussy cut.

Loved how they looked but felt the top centre one needed more so put two together up there!

I liked all those little chrissies in the fabric to and thought I could build them up on the bottom two stems

and this is how I ahve put them together.

Right hand side arrangment

and left hand side, I just played around placing the wee flowers and leaves till I liked the look

Two more stems to go?

I wanted another medium flower so fussy cut off some of the bottom petals  of the big bloom to make it smaller then added a few tiny chrisses on my final stem, so all finsihed except for the other Blue Bird and cherries.

Have removed all the flowers and vase to machine applqiue down the leaves.

Appliqueing down my first leaves using a green sulky thread as a contrast and blanket stitch.

Just had to add a couple of cherries, made from fine silk backed with a iron on fussing.

Close to finishing all those leaves

Used a fancy stitch for my cherry stems here.

cherry stems are a double straight stitch so it stands out clearer.

About to applqiue my first tiny chrisses down.

All applqiued down by machine except for the top and bottom flower so you can see the difference.

using a pale pink  thread on the top and a bottom-line grey in the bobbin.  Flower second from the bottom fits in to a 1 inch square so you can work out the size of these wee flowers.

Taken about 4 inches from the flowers! so you can see the stitches.

Has stopped raining but forecasters is for more storms.  Power off from 7am till after 9am this morning

6.30am  River in flood a very dirty brown

Council starting on clearing the road in front of our house

Another wheel barrow full of Rain from yesterday and last night!!!!

Hope he does not scare my tiny tiny green frogs LOL

I love dragon flies!

And who does not have ants in their garden????

No garden is a garden with out a butterfly?

A huge lilly just popped up and has the tiniest flower LOL

Glorious yellow  Brom.

and some tiny deep pink ones

Palms are in full berries at the moment so lots of birds, bats, and rats visiting them??????

Sun came out around 9.15 for 10 mins ????

Centre for Morning Glory one of Esther Aliu beautiful BOMS for 2018

TThis morning I downloaded part 2 of Morning Glory and I was so happy to see it was the appliqué centre. I spent the morning printing, cutting, glueing and taping it in to my te mplate. How beautiful it looks Thank you Esther so much.

Started my big flower and saw such a difference from my machine quilting from 10 months ago I redid some of my big flower head!!! LOL

All the flower heads need machine appliquéing so glad now I never got to finish this back 10 months ago asI have a new to me Janomi which has lots more choices for machine applqiue and gives a much neater finish than my 50 years old Bernina.

Great to see this lovely block design completed.

Plus the 4th block so now all blocks are appliquéd down.

joining those flan corners.

Unpick bottom black strip just far enough to slip pink flan under it.

Pink flan under the bottom black strip now add your top piece of fabric.

Black added and sewn down and pressed back

So Diamond Hill has grown All blocks are now at this stage next is adding the diamonds around each square!!!!

I made up a resting or storage block out of an old cardboard box, covered it with some cotton fabric I will never use and  felt on top to stop the pieces from moving or sliding off.

My last QAYG hankie Block so happy to have these all finished this month also, just need to machine applqiue as well around the turned edge on this one and all blocks are done.  . .

All blocks near completion and waiting to be joined but not this month or next!

EAch  evening I try to add some hand quilting stitches to my 1930s GMFG.  Some one asked me how many flower?  So this morning I counted them, I think it is 56 and I have completed 35 so still along way to stitch  Each flower has  roughly 48 hexagons so that’s roughly 2688 hexagons I need to quilt inside of LOL.

I found a beautiful old lawn table cloth in an Opp shop it was badly stained but I was able to cut out these 4 blocks from the centre.

Set them this way and I have the centre for the start of a lovely quilt top!!!!!  May be a new quilt for this year !!!!!!

I started to watch a U tube on tips for machine quilters first one was make up a sample cloth of all your stitches on your machine,  so glad I listened as many of the stitches look quiet different to what they look like on the side of the machine !!!!! So Ive learnt a lot more about what I can do now.  Next exercise is to shorten and lengthen each of those stitches but thats another weeks sewing LOL  These took 2 hrs to do.

These black silver pieces came in tot he shop last week.  Ive dipped them twice in a  boiling water bath of Baking soda, salt, and tinfoil.

All the years of tarnish are gone but they need cleaning with silvo and buffing now but my hands are not strong enough any more so one of the other ladies is going to do that. May be next week I can show you them in all their glory back to life for another 20 years?

3 days rain here? This wheel barrow was under the trees so much more rain fell than this.

Just as I was going to bed a few nights ago this giant centipede ran across the floor, there was not way I could catch him and no way I could sleep with him in the room, I was lucky enough to stop him but had to kill it which was sad. Other 1/2 slid under the wooden floor.

A very dead but big grass hopper.