2012 finish - 'Fencing in' for Gavin

This is a quilt I made for my Dad in November 2012 (for his birthday in December), before I started blogging.  I spent some time with my parents recently so took the chance to get some photos of it.

 

It is a slightly adapted version of Denyse Schmidt's 'Basketweave' quilt from her book, 'Modern Quilts: Tradional Inspiration'.  The slight change I made was to cut each rail slightly smaller than recommended in the pattern (only I can't find the notes to see what size!), I did this to maximise the number of pieces I could cut from the secondhand shirt I was using (its the green and cream fabric).

The quilt started with the striped (cream, green, dark brown and mid blue) fabric that was purchased as a second hand man's shirt from an St Vincents Opportunity Shop in Melbourne.  I LOVE secondhand man's shirts - they come in great colours, are soft from some wear, pure cotton and you get heaps of fabric for a tiny price!

 

 

The dark blue fabric is from another secondhand shirt, and the brown is a lovely linen, from the new shirting remnants my girlfriend bought me in Singapore.  The rest of the fabrics are from Amitie in Melbourne, one of my very favourite fabric shops.

 

 

 

 

I quilted this myself.  First I ditch stitched the whole quilt, then I did some FMQ, but not much as I wanted it to stay soft and drape well.  My Dad is a man of plain tastes, so I didn't want to the quilt to get too fussy.  I used a stylised chain fence design on all the plain blue blocks, placed anywhere in the block that felt right, but continuing that same line across all blue blocks in that row or column....

 

...echo quilting around the circles and diamonds for the fabric below....

 

 

...and a stylised vine or tree design on the green and while dot fabric

 

I used an old doily for the label on the back, and carefully unpicked and attached the labels from the shirt that had been part of my inspiration.  (The labels from the navy shirt had already been included in a previous quilt that it was partially used for).

I had to include this last photo because of the lamb in the background, I guess spring is arriving in New Zealand!

 



Cross Currents for Kate quilt top finished!

I'm so pleased to finish this quilt top.   For all sorts of reasons, not least that I now have some chance of getting it to my niece in time for her birthday.  But it also means that it won't need to be all packed away, incomplete, in readiness for our move to Perth, and remain untouched for some months.

It's entirely my own design and I'm thrilled with how it has turned out....

The shape looks a little odd in this photo, and the light is not great (very overcast winter day here) - but I assure you it is my bad photography skills!  I know its squared up because darn it - it took me ages but it is close to perfect!

Boy getting those angled pieces set in was challenging, lots of Y seams, but the hardest part was getting all the right dimensions for the long rows of fabric (given my haphazard designing was almost completely by eye), and then getting everything sewn together, flat, in the centre.  (This doesn't really make sense but trust me, there was more than a few moments when I was ready to tear my hair out!).

Some details I am particularly proud of...the single yacht, sailing all by itself in the top centre (there's always one..),

...the lone seagull in the bottom left hand side (seem best in the top photo), and the dolphin in the bottom right, (you can't have a sea quilt without a dolphin!).

 

And finally - by complete luck - call it serendipity - the quilt has ended up with a large 'K' for Kate, in the centre bottom, created by the two (and a bit) scrappy trip blocks...I didn't even realise this until I looked at the photos.  Meant to be I think!

It's now away with Sue Burnett to be custom quilted. 

1937 Empire tabestry sampler for Wendy

This family treasure is a tabestry sampler done on linen by Gladys Sommerville between 1937 and 1945, for her great neice, my mother Wendy.

Gladys was a formidable woman!  She was briefly engaged in 1901 but the wedding did not proceed and family history does not relate why.  However, she went on to found a very sucessfully private boys preparatory school (which is still in operation today, celebrating 100 years in 2015).  She was a prolific needlewoman and we have a number of pieces she has made still in the family.

The sampler is big, measuring 51cm long by 40 cm wide.

The colours have faded considerably now, but were once very vibrant.

We are unsure whether she followed a pattern, or designed this piece herself.  The verse, which is very much of its time, reflecting the way New Zealanders saw themselves as a outpost of mother England, reads:

'For George VI our Emperor King,

the bells throughout the Empire ring,

In stitchery, we here record,

the crowning of our soverign lord

In his own realm he found his bride,

Beloved Queen, our country's pride,

Each daughter in her smiling face,

Shows childhoods most endearing grace.

Never since the world began

Came greater heritage to man

Empire and the motherland

In common cause together stand.

Peace from the cares of state

Once through the garden gate.

In camp the youths of Britain find,

the human touch, the kingly mind,

Good health unto their majesties

with honour, happiness and peace,

uncounted loyal subjects sing,

long may he reign, God Save the King!'

Images include Buckingham Palace, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and the gate that lead into their personal garden, boy scout tents, a septre and orb, a beefeater guard, and my personal favourite,
a range of animals representing the various countries of the Commonwealth; elephant, kiwi, lion, kangaroo, springbok and a playpus!

The border is repeated images of oak leaf and acorn.

My mother remembers that during the war years, she would often read through the verses with her grandmother (Glady's sister) like a prayer. 

For much of my childhood it was on the wall in one of our toilets (away from the light)!  As a result, my sister and I memorised it in the many hours we spent hiding from doing the dishes, and as a result, could recite the verses from memory!

A companion piece, showing a map of the British Empire, was also made by Gladys, for Peter, my mother's twin brother.

Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase by Louise Walters

I really enjoyed this book.

For starters it is another book set in a bookshop (head start in the good reading stakes).  But it is also well written, some lovely descriptive passages, interesting characters and avoids (most of) the clichéd plot twists of a novel with a romance.

Roberta works in the Old and New bookshop, owned by Phillip, along with a couple of other woman.  She is particularly fond of the notes and letters that people hide in their books and forget to remove.  Whenever a note is found in a book bought in for sale, she collects the note up and takes it home.  Then one day her father, John, brings in some of her grandmother's books.  One of them includes a letter to her grandmother, from 1941, from Jan Pietrykowski, Roberta's grandfather.  However the contents of the letter do not marry with family history.  The plot follows Roberta's attempts to solve the mystery, interspersed with flashbacks to her grandmothers life as a young married woman, whose husband is away fighting in WW2.

I read this quickly, carried along wanting to know how the story would end.

Recommended.

WIP Cross Currents for Kate

This is (one of !) my current machine sewn WIP projects.

I've been slowly making quilts for each of my nieces and nephews.  It's taking me a long time because I want to make a quilt that is designed specifically for the person, collect up the right combination of fabrics, and then fit the sewing time around work and family.

My niece Kate is an outstanding sailor.  So this quilt is about water, wind and waves.  The design is entirely my own, so its taking more time than usual as I am designing it as I go, up on my design wall!  Not a particularly efficient process but it works for me!

I started it some eight months ago, but ran out of creative energy so it paused for awhile.  However when making my daughters Scrappy Trip quilt I wondered whether I could use a couple of scrappy trip blocks in this quilt, where the 'currents' intersect, and this got me going again.

Here's the top on my design wall, definitely a WIP...

 

 

I'm using a variety of silk scarps in the quilt, (the green/yellow in the centre below and the bright blue to the right are both silk).  I'm a little concerned about how well these will stand up to robust use but time will tell.  I love the sheen and texture they add.  In some cases I am leaving the silk selvedge showing on the quilt top as I like the texture of the wavy edge, almost like a cresting wave, and the slight colour difference at the selvedge

I'd love to get this quilt top finished within the month if I can...we'll see...

 

WIP Grandmother's Mexican Day of the Dead Garden

Back in 2011, I signed up for Material Obsession's Starting Block year long program.

It is a great program with interesting and varied blocks and I loved getting my parcel in the mail each month.  But work demands meant I started (and did not finish) only one of them in 2011.  And I only managed to complete two in 2013 (perhaps I'll share these another time).

I started the Grandmothers Garden block in 2012.  It is a hand piecing project with 3/4 inch hexagons.  The kit came with a great combination of 1930s fabrics.

This is what it is supposed to look like....

However, as is so often the case, I got a little carried away....as I was working on the flowers the fabrics kept reminding me of Mexican Day of the Dead skull decorations....so I whipped out some white cotton, found an image of a skull and .....

Look what appeared in the middle of my garden!  The eyes are purchased iron on (left over from dresses I made for my daughters) but the rest is all my own work!

Inserting the skull meant I needed rather more flowers to ensure it was surrounded.  Back to my stash and another three whole and four half flowers have been included.

It's not finished yet.  I need to finish surrounding the garden with black hexagons, then add borders.  I plan to use the black lattice provided in the kit for two of the borders and I'm hoping to use this...

for the remaining two borders.  These lovely scraps were begged from a great friend who has recently discovered her sewing mojo and made the coolest dress for her teenager from this fabric.  Lucky girl!

I get strong reactions from the few friends and family I've shown this work in progress to. Most are 'What! Why?'...my mother was plain horrified ...lost for words. But I love it! What do you think?

I suspect its going to be awhile longer in the making, at my current pace it should be finished sometime in 2015!

'The Collected Works of A.J.Fikry' by Gabrielle Zevin

An excellent and reasonably quick read.

I love books about bookshops, both fiction and non-fiction and this lived up to the promise of its reviews.  (Although I hate that Amazon know enough about me to create a recommended reading list, at the same time I have to admit that with this book they got it right).

Characterisation is excellent.  Well rounded quirky characters complete with some less attractive personality traits making them both more believable and in most cases more likeable.  Not that I have to like the characters to like the book, but It is less irritating if I can like some of the people I read about!

A.J Fikry is the owner of a small bookshop on Alice Island, and after the tragic death of his wife in a senseless car accident is deeply mourning, when he has to deal with both the theft of a highly valuable first edition Poe, and a young toddler abandoned in his shop.

Fikry has well described reading preferences of his own (he hates young adult and dystopian fiction, a most unattractive character flaw in my eyes!).  Chapters are broken up with short descriptions of books he is recommending his daughter read as a adult, his suggestions include pithy comments that make me want to read all he recommends.

I particularly liked the unexpected turns in the plots that ensure this is not a clichéd 'village love story'.

A great book, I'll be going back to read some of the earlier novels by Ms Zevin.

Cloth baskets finished

As I am slowly (pretending to) sort through things we might sell/re-home/discard before we move house I'm finding lovely pieces of fabric and linen that I had forgotten I have.  (Both the disadvantage and the wonderful rediscovery that occurs when I have no workroom so my stash lives in boxes).

In June 2012 my inspiring mother (who taught me to love anything individually crafted) and I, attended HANDMADE in Wellington and did a class with Angela Young of Craft Me Up making fabric baskets.  We both finished our baskets and gifted them to family members.

As I was cleaning up last week I found Angela's original instructions and the NZ Your Home and Garden magazine (unfortunately I forgot to record which magazine but I think it was August 2012) that also gave the instructions.

So what better thing to do... (when you are supposed to be clearing out the garage).

Cloth Bag One:  Allowed me to re-purpose two beautifully embroidered vintage hand towels.  Both were perfectly usable as a hand towel but I couldn't bring myself to allow my family to wipe their (once washed but still) grubby mitts on such beautiful handwork. 

Each side features the embroidery from a different towel.

The pretty blue crochet edging I carefully unpicked off one of the towels and hand stitched onto the bag.  This edging is so fine I am in awe of the unknown woman who made it.

The lining is more of the silky soft cotton shirting my lovely friend found for me in Singapore.

Cloth Bag Two:  Uses some of the newly released Elizabeth Owen Grey Abbey fabric, English Garden in Pearl.   I love both the colours and the graphic design of this fabric, so I picked out a few elements with hand embroidery, buttons and beading.  Again lined with Singapore men's shirting fabric remnants.

Selfishly I am keeping both these two for myself, to personalise the one bedroom apartment I'll be occupying in Perth until my family can join me.

But I have since made another two, one for my sister in law and the other for a friend in Christchurch, only sadly I forgot to photograph them!

 

Have you repurposed vintage hand towels or doilies?

Autumn Vege Garden - a 2013 finish

I wanted to share a quilt I made some months ago, finished November 2013 to be exact. I love this quilt. The pattern is Jane Brocket's  Allotment quilt featured in both her books 'The Gentle Art of Domesticity' and 'The Gentle Art of Quilt Making' (where it is called Tulip Field). It is also included in Kaffe Fassetts 'Country Garden Quilts'.  If you've never picked up one of Jane Brocket's books I strongly encourage you to do so. She writes beautifully and bakes, knits, quilts and embroiders. And she is a great reader.

My fabric choices started with a radish fabric I picked up in a sale, in colours I don't normally work with. Then several years later on a trip to Amitie in Melbourne, with the help of the great bunch of women who make up the Amitie team, I gathered some others to go with it including a beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabric (brown background with blue roses). I loved the material so much I didn't want to cut the pieces up too much hence the wide strips of the Potager pattern.

It's a huge quilt.

The size felt too overwhelming for me to machine quilt at home, so I took it to Sue Burnett,  at Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Rongotai Wellington and she did an outstanding job. Each row features a different fruit or vegetable, with the occasional row of butterflies (since all good vege gardens have their share of butterflies).  You can see this best on the back (sorry it's not a great photo!)

The back is pieced from various bits I had in the stash including an old sarong from Bali given to me by a dear friend. These fit around an old tablecloth that I picked up in an Op shop featuring Autumn fruits.

And as I often do, the label is an old doily, rescued from a family stash, with embroidery in colours that match the front

I like to include washing instructions on the label, knowing that whoever ends up owing the quilt may not be a quilter and therefore at a loss as to how to launder it. Do you do this?

My Autumn Vege Garden is used by the family to keep warm as we watch TV on winter nights.

A finish - Scrappy trip in Lilac and Lime

Well this must be the fastest quilt I've ever made!  Scrappy Trip in Lilac and Lime, which I've made for my younger daughter, is finished and we're both really pleased with it.

The back is minky.  The quilt width was wider than the minky so I managed to join an extra strip of another colour down the side.  I thought the nap might then go in different directions but it seems fine.  It did make a slightly bulky seam to quilt over.  My daughter is particularly happy with the minky.  Like me she is very tactile and the minky reminds her of a cuddly she had as a child.

As with other quilts I have used an old doily as a quilt label.  This one came from my husband's family.  I love the white on white elegant grape leaves.  It had a couple of very small holes so perfect for re-use as a quilt label

It helps that making this quilt has coincided with a very quiet time as I finish up at one job, take some leave and get ready for a new job in a new county. 

We're moving to Perth.  We've lived in Australia twice before, in Sydney and Melbourne.  But Perth is a new city for us and one we're really looking forward to.

So Scrappy Trip in Lime and Lilac will be part of my daughters move from one stage of our life to the next, and the fabrics will carry special memories of people and places we love.