Friday, May 31, 2013

New Zealand Maori designs for a quilt.







Ileen has made this quilt for one of her grandsons. Made using Kiwiana ( New Zealand ) fabrics. Ileen went onto Google and found The artist is Miri Te Ahi Puia designs to be just what she wanted for the applique blocks. This quilt measures 98 " x 108",  Maderia poly neon threads over bamboo batting.
Ileen wanted me to quilt the Tiki's on the plain cream blocks, so I made a stencil. I used a variegated thread for the Tiki's eyes, like on did on the last quilt I did for Ileen, see here.
Because the borders & pieced blocks are made up of busy fabrics I simply stippled using a variegated thread also.





I have two more quilts to share with you, but need to wait until they are picked up by their owners.
Leaving you with a lovely saying.........................

"People may forget what you say or do, but they won't forget   how you make them feel."

Saturday, May 25, 2013

A sharing & swaping quilt......& 1 xmas item



Cat said I could go ahead & blog about her quilt that she just received back from me. I did the quilting for her, plus some of the centre block, which was part of Helen Stubbings 'Stitchin' Round the Block'. There were four of us in the group, Cat, myself, Kerry & Kerryn . Cat is the only one to make a quilt, the rest of us made cushions, to see mine click here.  So fun to see this 'round robin' finished. Cat was also involved in a block swap, these have been stitched around the centre block, to create a fun quilt.


 
 
Knowing Cat loves the modern/ Tilda- ish look I did a few smooth fancy moves!
Celtic Bubbles, inspiration from Diane Guadyski
 
iconic New Zealand bird, the Kiwi ( they aren't usually pink )
 
do the clicky thing for a better look!

 
gotta pop a few feathers in!

 
 
aren't some of these blocks fun?

 
inspiration from Angela Walters book

 
Can you see the backing fabric? Cat gave me a vintage flannel sheet for the backing & I used cotton batting, Madeira, Gunold & Mettler threads. I'm sure I had a sheet just like that when I was a kid?
 
the backing.....roll on the 70's!!




 
 
My 1 xmas item finished......well two of them, but I won't win any " wow Leeanne you have done so much for your 1 xmas item " will I ? These are pretty quick & easy to do!!
I'm sure the other SAL girls are putting way more effort in then me!
Pop over to Narelle's for a peek at what everyone else's efforts are like.
 
I have another quilt finished ( you might have seen it in my Puddling post ) but I will have to wait a couple of weeks as the owner is away.
 
It is a bleak, wet, wintery day here in Whangarei, I have put a big bacon hock in the crockpot for the day, then I will make a big pot of warming winter vegetable soup.
 
Thanks for taking the time to stop by, enjoy your weekend, I will leave you with the following sentence I found.....................
 
"Happiness is a thing you have to find for yourself, but dog hair ( in my case cat hair!) is something that finds you." 






Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Puddling & dolls



Hello bloggy friends & readers! With our first fire of the season, I thought it would a good time to sit next to the fire & share puddling with you.

Puddling????? You ask, have you lost your marbles Leeanne???................................
I get asked from time to time how I manage queen & king size quilts on my domestic machine. Today while working on a customers large quilt, I jumped up & grabbed the camera.

So here I have 'puddled' the quilt, see it looks loose, rippled, like a puddle. This is needed to prevent any drag on the quilt as you are quilting. After each section is quilted you will need to adjust the quilt to create that looseness, so you don't get drag. Sometimes the quilt can fall off the side or back of the table surface. Sometimes the space between you & the needle can have drag too, all this drag makes it very difficult to do free motion quilting.
I have a large Horn sewing table to accommodate the bulk of the quilt, plus I don't have my machine sitting up on the table, my machine sit down in the table so the arm of the machine sits flush with the top of the table. I hope this helps those of you struggling with your own quilting.

Remember Miss Alice? today she got a friend, Miss Ruby. All the way from Threadbear Cottage. When Julie posted last week of her new makes, I just fell in love with Miss Ruby! I said to Julie please can I buy her?? Julie really makes a lovely job of her dolls, all their clothes are overlocked, every seam is neat & tidy & they always come wrapped up in pretty tissue paper.


I'm wondering if I have a thing for dolls as, my sweet friend Megan made me this pretty doll that I have named 'Miss Megs'


Isn't she sweet holding her spool of thread, her wings & rusty bells for her hair?
So while I was photographing these girls, I thought I should get a better photo of Miss Alice.


Another book finish from me, that I wanted to share. This is the last book in the trilogy.


Jenny Bontrager tells herself she should be happy: she has converted to the Amish faith, married her true love, Matthew Bontrager, and is mother to his three children. But she longs for a child – just one child – of her own. Her unhappiness as months pass and she doesn’t become pregnant are affecting her marriage. And when one day she finds that her grandmother and Matthew have kept a secret from her, she is devastated. Can she forgive them and the God who she feels isn’t listening to her prayers for a child?

See here & here for the blurb about the first two books.

Some of you have been asking how my great nephew is doing. Thanks for your concern & kindness. He is doing well, he is now over 1kg! Still very small, but he sounds like a real little fighter.


Friday, May 17, 2013

My great nephew




This sweet little man was born two weeks ago at only 25weeks gestation. He was sooooo tiny, weighing only 850gms! My niece was very emotional when I went visit her, in shock & understandably worried.
I had a real urge to make this little fighter a small, soft warm quilt....................I looked through my fabric finding some warm flannels. I figured a raggy quilt would be the quickest & survive a thrashing in the washing machine.




Washed with lavender wool wash, then put in the dryer to soften up ready for use. This quilt is approximately 24" square.
My sister ( baby's nana ) said she held his little hand & from that moment he had captured her heart.

Love & best wishes to my new great nephew & my niece.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

Retreat was a real treat !!!



I am home from a lovely weekend with friends sewing, what more could a gal ask for on Mothers day?

Friday afternoon, set up, that can take a bit of sorting to fit 16 keen patchworkers into a hall, but we did it. So many SewEzi tables & Bernina sewing machines, extension cords, ironing boards ..............................and soooooo much fabric!!!!!


There seemed to be a theme of scrap quilts in the making.................................





The quilt on the left is what I pieced. Called Urban Birthday pattern by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful. Using Jenny's unique Quick Curve Ruler.


This was my little nook of scrappiness! Another project I managed to work on as well.
 1.5" squares, some 'borrowing' went on, all for the purposes of scrappy variety.



We had a suitcase sale, not selling suitcases, but unwanted, pre loved patterns, kits, books & fabrics.

                                                        Look at our inspirational view!!!!

I received lovely Mothers Day texts from 3 of my kids, then when I got home look what my son made for me!!!!!


What a lovely end to a fabulous weekend!
 
 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Jelly roll quilt, hussif & Miss Alice!



104" x 87" one big quilt!





 Elizabeth is fast becoming a regular customer of mine. Although this is Elizabeth's first quilt, I have quilted two other quilts for her. Using 2 jelly rolls & some soft buttery cream fabric for borders & sashing this is a soft pretty quilt. Bamboo batting, Madeira Poly Neon threads. The inner part of the quilt was quilted with an all over looping design.
 I was very keen to quilt swooping feathers on the lovely 9" borders but I came up against a wee problem..................

This was unpicked!

Wavy borders!....................................
Usually I notice if any borders are going to cause problems at the point of tacking the quilts up. Unfortunately I didn't realize how wavy the borders were until I was on them! I phoned Elizabeth to make a time to meet up so I could show her the problem. The best thing to do is remove the borders, measure, cut & reattach. But Elizabeth wasn't keen to do that. So we came up with plan B............... Only do the swooping feathers on the corners & quilt a loose open stipple on the remaining parts of the borders. This seems to have solved the problem, but no nice swooping feathers on those lovely wide borders.
The moral of the story is.........ALWAYS measure your border fabric.

I have finished this months Sewing Essentials Project an arm chair hussif.



Nice little pockets to hold scissors, threads, a pincushion.
 
Some weeks back I went on a road trip with some friends to visit Julie at Threadbear Cottage, there Julie had for sale some lovely dolls. I asked Julie if she could custom make a doll in the fabric leftover from my Buggy Barn quilt. Julie did just that & Miss Alice came home today!!!!
 
 
Maybe I should have waited until it was daylight to get a better photo, but I was so happy with her & wanted to share her with you!
Julie is so amazing at making dolls, well making just about anything! She did just as I requested. I think she is perfect.
Did you notice the lovely vintage buttons & a Parisian dyed doily??
Here's Miss Alice sitting on my bed waiting for her quilt to come home!
 
 
Tomorrow brings work in my most favourite quilt shop, then off for an annual retreat!!! Yippie, sew, sew & more sew!!!
Thanks so much for stopping by, have a fabulous weekend!