Merry Christmas

Hi everyone, 

Merry Christmas to you.  

Enjoy your day.

Blessings 

I Spy for No 2 Grandson

Hi everyone,

Something different today.  When our first grandson was born, our daughter-in-law‘s mother wanted to make his baby quilt.  I had just resumed working again.  My comment was, he will obtain many quilts over the years, we don’t need to fight over the first.  

However I did want to make a quilt for him so I made an I Spy quilt that he could use at our place. In those days our second bedroom had our son’s queen size bed in it. So now we also use that I Spy quilt on our bed. 

That bedroom has change and currently holds two single beds. So this one is a single bed quilt.

I started this one a year or two earlier. Grandson No 2 was a little younger and he loved Thomas The Tank, Paw Patrol, Cars, only to name a few. In two or three years his taste has changed.  So I don’t think this quilt is revered has much as previous quilts are.  He has one made with dinosaurs all over it, at home, oh well I cant get it right every time. 

I am confined to the house at moment.  I love his quilt and using it daily.  It has a polar fleece back so very warm on a cold day.

I hope you like something different today.

Blessings

Patchwork

Hi everyone,

I have been a bit slack lately.  While I have been making cards, I have also been quilting quilts.

This one is an example.  This one also has a story behind it. 

Some years ago I made this top and our son suggested making a doona out of it.  So I gave it a go.  Our son and his wife used it for a while.  However it started to come undone.  Yes, that made sense.  I can be a bit slow.  I usually need to have a go and see what happens. It is probably experience.  After all, at the time I couldn't see why not.

Anyway the quilt was returned to me and became one of those insidious UFO'S.  It sat and sat on a chest of drawers among other UFO's. 

Probably thanks to the COVID19 virus, I found time to quilt it. Woohooo. IT IS FINISHED. I need to practice at stipling and this was another practice.  Once I finished, I realised that I didn't fix the two seams that were coming undone.  A bit late now.  If you look closely you will find two names embroidered on the quilt.  I wanted to put 'Love You' but I didn't think our adult son would approve.  When I asked, he said I could have.

Anyway the smile, cuddle and glint in his eyes was worth all the thinking of how this was going to be finished.  Similar to his kid's quilts I backed it with polar fleece.  He fills the cold terribly so he will have something to snuggle into and be warm instantly.

I hope you like this story.  Something a bit different.

Blessing to you

Patchwork and sewing

Hi everyone,

We have had a busy time lately.  Our youngest two little ones have just turned two.  While I bought clothes and a big truck for Mr Two, Miss Two was a different story.

We still have our daughter's doll furniture that she used when she was a little girl.  Mrs C also kept her two cabbage patch dolls.  They are now in the hands of Miss Two.  Miss Two also received another cabbage patch doll when she was born.  So Miss Two has a family of them.

 
Well, Pop and I have been busy.  Pop made the cot using Mrs C’s original one as a guide.  Pop will eventually  restored the rest of Mrs C's furniture to their former glory so that Miss Two will use them  too.

Miss Two loves her Mickey and Mini Mouse that Mrs C bought in America several when she and I traveled to America. So I made her a fitted sheet, pillow, top sheet and matching quilt, to keep her cabbage patch dolls warm.

Mrs C's original cabbage patch doll’s clothes were looking a bit shabby.  Several weeks ago she asked to make more clothes. I searched for the patterns but could not find them.  I asked my friend if I could borrow hers.  I discovered that she had all my patterns too. 

So I have been busy making flannelette pyjamas for each doll, an assortment of dresses and matching pants, t-shirts and long pants. 

I hope you enjoyed this story.

Blessings.

Patchwork Quilt - Europe

Hi everyone,

This quilt is a blast from the past, however I have not quilted it yet. I tend to completed and quilt gifts, but the quilts I keep for myself seem to always stop at the bottom of the pile.

In 2005/2005 our daughter, Carren, lived in London, working as a nanny.  Carren had a wonderful time.  She travelled to many European countries, spent one Christmas with her cousin in Vancouver, and made some wonderful friends.  She will visit one of those friends soon in Adelaide.

Anyway, I visited Carren for two months in 2006. I cannot go anywhere without some patchwork.  It stems from going to WeightWatchers in my teens with my mum.  We were told to always have something for the hands to work with.  Whilst I have fabric in my hands, I don't have food.

Well, I took the makings for this quilt.  I used pansy fabrics in each square. Some are 12” squares whilst the little ones are 4” squares.  I made them all by hand.  I always had the makings of a square in my hand luggage.

One night Carren and I flew from Heathrow to Salzburg.  We had a 4:00am flight. I couldn’t sleep in the chair at the airport, so I hand sewed all night.  Carren slept though. When we eventually got on the plane, apparently I was asleep before the plane left the airport and Carren needed to wake me as we landed. I was great company that flight.

 

We stayed in Avignon for several days.  One of those days, we intended hiring motor bikes but they were all gone.  So we hired push bikes.   We rode 15 miles out to a perfumery.  I remember that it was a beautiful day. Carren played ‘Mum’ that day. She rode behind me and continually reminded me that I had to stay on the right side of the road.  In Australia, we are used to driving on the left side of the road.  Anyway, I kept riding to the middle.  Carren would say, ‘over to the right, Mum.’

At lunchtime we stopped at a little village for a break.  It was so different to something that I was used too.  A little pond or well in the middle, the small square surrounded by houses and a street.  I have just finished reading a novel about Italy.  This image of this little village stayed with me during the book. On the way back we saw a country wedding. Such lovely memories.

 

This is Carren and I in Lucerne, Switzerland.  The above photos are also the surrounds of Lucerne.  A beautiful place.  We both grew up with 'Sound of Music.'  So Austria was a must.  We visited Salsburg and did the 'Sound of Music' tour.  We then worked our way back to England, on the fast train, stopping a few days here and there. 

 

This the Arc of Triumph in Paris.  Such a busy roundabout.  Carren and I climbed to the top.  I stood and watched, fascinated by the lack of road rules as car after car got on and somehow got off the roundabout in one piece or without too many scratches on their cars.  

Here is Carren in front of Cartier's.  

Such wonderful memories.  Many photos were taken but they weren't digital.  So it seems I must scan them onto my Ipad.  Above is a taste which has brought my memories to the front of my mind.  Such a lovely holiday and such a precious time I spent with our daughter. 

 

I have several pictures in my mind, when I remember make this quilt.  I tried to finish a 12' square every few days.  On afternoon I remember sitting on my bed, at Carren's employer's place, trying to catch up.  I patch-worked whenever I sat in the train, fast or just local and bus rides.  Having this quilt to work on, allowed me to have some down time quietly, on my own.  It allowed myself to process all the wonderful sites that I saw.  

I hope you enjoy reading about these memories.  I have enjoyed sharing them with you.

Blessings 

Leanne

Patchwork Retreat.

Hi everyone,

I have recently returned from a weekend of my favourite creative hobby.  I just love quilting and patchwork. Twice a year I go away for the weekend and sew, sew, and sew.  Very restoring and relaxing. A friend took this photo whilst away.  Lots of people, lots of quilts and lots of fun had by all.

Whilst I cannot show you the quilt that I was working on, as it is not completed and not gifted yet, I can show you the two wedding quilts I made for our son and his wife and our daughter and her husband.  

The green one was gifted nearly 13 years ago when our son Kerry and his wife Steph got married.   If you zoom in, you might be able to notice that every melon has a music piece included.  Kerry is a musician.  Steph's favourite colour is green. These circle were quite large.

When Carren announced she was getting married, I asked her which quilt pattern she would like me to make.  The Double Wedding Ring was her choice too.  Carren's favourite colour is blue and John's, her husband, favourite colour is purple. I used a different pattern this time, hence the circles were smaller and I required more.

These squares were started a couple of months ago at another quilt retreat.  I added some more.  I don't know what will happen with them yet.  I am just using up some scraps. 

I hope you have a great day,

Blessings.

Ian and Leanne’s Quilt

Hi,

For those of you who read my blog regularly, do you remember me blogging about a quilt that was doing my head in.  Well it is finished and gifted.

I asked my brother several years ago, what colours did he and his wife like.  Ian stated neutrals.  So I started collecting neutrals which translated to me as being different versions of cream. Well, I have quite a selection now.  However when I put the fabrics together I couldn’t do anything with them.  There did not seem to be anything different. Whilst there were patterns within the fabric, there was no anything else.

So I started sourcing more fabric.  I went to a huge patchwork shop. I knew if I could not find anything in this shop, there was nothing to be found.  Well I came away with a story of fabrics.  Different shades of blues, greys, fawns with a cream as the sashing between each diamond.

I always wanted to create this quilt.  I have always called this The Jane Austin Quilt.  I'm not sure if that is the correct name though. So Ian and Leanne’s quilt was always going to be this one.

This first photo shows my incorrect placing of the diamonds.  As shown below the quilt is suppose to be a square.  The photo above shows a diamond.  Not Happy.  My mum used to say that you have not made a garment unless you have unpicked it.  Well there was a lot of unpicking on this quilt.

Well the quilt has been given to Ian and Leanne.  They like it, that is the main thing.  I can start another quilt now, with some colour in it.

Blessings

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Hi,

Today I thought I would share some of my other love, making quilts.  Creating a quilt is a more time-consuming task than making cards. 

These two quilts were wedding presents.   The green one was for my son and daughter-in-law.  If you zoom in and look at a melon, you will see there is a piece of music fabric in each melon.  Our son is a musician.  Green is Steph’s favourite colour and music is Kerry’s passion.   Our daughter and son-in-law chose the same quilt but in their favourite colours.  Carren chose blue, and John chose purple. 

These quilts are called The Double Wedding Ring quilt.  As you can see there are rings intertwining, with no end.  This pattern was a very popular quilt pattern in the Depression.  It was first publishd in 1928.  It continues to be a very popular pattern.  

If you zoom in, you will see each melon has 8 pieces on each side, with pieces at the join.  Lots and lots of curves. 

I hope you enjoy seeing my other crafts.

Blessings.

South Pacific Islands 2017

Hi,

We have returned from our cruise around the South Pacific Islands.  I spent two weeks of patchwork, patchwork, patchwork, a little reading, talking and sharing with others.  We sailed on the Golden Princess with friends and another 2588 passengers and 1100 crew members.  This was our 6th cruise and second time visiting the south Pacific Islands.

We visited Mare, Noumea, Mystery Island, Port Vila, Champagne Bay and Luganville.

The above photos were taken from the ship in Noumea.  We visited about 6 years ago.  I remembered  Noumea as being a pretty 

place.  However I took a tour around the sites.  The immediate sites 

this time were lots of concrete and concrete buildings. I visited the 

market, bought some fridge magnets and returned to the ship. It was very warm and very humid.  I returned and appreciated the air conditioned ship.

The following photos were taking during a tour of Mystery Island.  Mystery Island is only a very small uninhabited island.  The locals bring their wares over on their boats and ferry.

I did a tour of a village on the main island. Here are some photos. 

The following photo was taken in Luganville.  The group were singing Christmas carols.  It was such an unexpected site. 

Our friend and I played Skipbo during the evenings. 

I spent most of my time during the cruise working on the golliwogs 

quilt.  My husband found splenty if peopleto talk too. Our friends attend trivia games. 

We arrived back in Melbourne. The cruise ship in moored at the dock in Melbourne.  We left the ship about 10:00.  Princess Cruises certainly knows how to unload the passengers from the previous cruise and load new passengers for the next with limitless hassle. 

Golliwog quilt

Several years ago I bought a patchwork ‘block of the month’ pattern for a quilt.  ‘Block of the month’ quilt  patterns are quite popular amongst the patchwork and quilting community.  Well I bought one about golliwogs.  Golliwogs were an important memory of my childhood.  Since the grandboys arrived I’ve collected the Noddy books.  We have some here. Others are at their place.  My sister-in-law also bought me a Noddy that sticks on the window in the car when she went to England several years ago.  Much loved Noddy helps the boys to find Nana’s car in the shopping carpark.  I guess I wanted to create something of my childhood memories for the grandboys.

The picture above is the quilt.  It is all appliquéd which means that each piece is sewn on individually.  So the news boy at the bottom of the picture below has about 20 pieces to make him. Am I mad, or what. 

The above picture shows what I have done.  No much.  It seems that I only work on the quilt while on a cruise with lots of time to myself.  So I have three months of appliqué to prepare and place on the quilt before we leave in a couple of weeks.  

The above picture shows only one month.  So there is a bit of work to complete between working, looking after the grand boys and general everyday chores. 

Our faithful D isn’t far away. 

After we return from the cruise I will include some photos from the South Pacific Islands and I’ll show you my progress on the quilt.

Blessings

Adelaide trip

Hi everyone
Our daughter and I had a lovely time in Adelaide. We enjoy quality mother/daughter time whilst driving to and from Adelaide.  Our daughter is pregnant so questions asked brought back memories of my own pregnancies.

We stayed on the 17th floor of the Stamoford Hotel in the centre of the city.  Something was happening at the footy oval our first night.  It stands out in our night photos.

We walked along the Torrens River

On the way home, we drove through Coonalpyn and saw the silos that were painted. 

Most importantly though, Master V received his quilt.  It is an I Spy quilt that consisted of all things with wheels.  So there are cars, buses, fire engines, trucks, caravans, planes only to name a few. I quilted it with two circles inside  one another, which looked like a wheel.  Our dog, Dash, likes to try the quilt out first. He only has his head on it in this photo, usually it is his whole body, 

 

Here the quilt is proudly placed on Master V’s bed.  I think he loves it. 

 

We are home again now.  The girls are coming over on the weekend for a day of Christmas card making.  So I must make a few examples. 

 

Blessings