Celebrate hand quilting blog hop day 7

It's day 7 of the celebrate hand quilting blog hop and I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting (sneaking a little late night reading time) each and every one of the featured blogs. What a wealth of talent!

So welcome to my little blog if you are visiting for the first time.

Nothing really new going on here...quilting and more quilting on my Jane Pizar interpretation.  I will be glad to have her finished and the finish line is now in sight!

Click on "Jane Pizar" in my word cloud in the sidebar for a history of the quilt's progress.  Or click on any photo in my sidebar to be taken to a little album of more photos of that quilt.

Two and a half weeks to go!

xx

k

do frogs quilt?

Certain friends have dubbed me "Kermitina" lately in reference to the croak issueing from where a normal voice should be.  Alas! I have succumbed to the lurgey that has hit Sydney - super sore throat - no voice - cold-in-the-head - croaks and coughs.

Call me Kermit, Kermitina, or call me misery-guts. I hate being unwell.


The fuzzy-headedness has, annoyingly, impeded progress on my quilting program, so now where previously there was confidence, there is a certain level of stress about getting this entry to the Sydney Quilt Show completed.

Serpentine border is done and the final border of Welsh Bent leaves and flowers commenced. I do like how the leaves are turning out.

Love looking at the back, although at this stage it is telling me just how much more quilting has to be done - look at all those blank bits...

Each of my quilts includes at least one piece of antique fabric.  This leaf uses a super old (c 1870 or 1890?) red and brown large scale floral. Looks like Passionfruit flowers.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Aussie mums for today!
I have been treated with a beautiful bright bunch of flowers, a quiet day for quilting and a favourite restaurant for dinner tonight.

Kermetina croaking signing off

quilt on
xx
k

lucky

This past weekend
I met a truly beautiful person
beautiful in the truest sense


I feel honoured
to be considered an acquaintance
perhaps now a friend?

Amidst uproar to personal space and
home invasion by out of state visitors

and burnt toast

Handling it all

With calm
and grace
warmth and welcome
humour, wit and generosity

and laughter, so much laughter

Thankyou.
I'm so lucky.


xox
k

red and white

New additions to the stash...

 Partly quilted and in need of a good bath. Circa 1900

 Nice hand quilting in an unusual circular pattern. I will finish this and bind.

 Not familiar with the pattern name so I'll have to research with Barbara.

 No 2 is a Broken Dishes top

 Lovely shirtings and a bright red/white print

enjoy your day...nearly Friday!
xx

k

The ether bunny made me do it

They kept reproducing and laying eggs, those pesky wabbits...there goes the "no chocolate" plan out the window.

Easter usually heralds rain for Sydney, with the mandatory deluge spoiling fun for campers all along the east coast, not so this year, when NSW at least was totally spoiled with lovely late summer weather. Unusually, I was organised enough to secure a beachside shack for 5 days at a secret location.

Australian sense of humour can be unfathomable to some, even our flora is unfathomable.

Pelicans are a tidy bunch ...the strong resemblance to traditional quilt block patterns is clear to see in their orderly synchronised flight.

Many projects were transported to the shack but the madder six-point stars won out.
More quilty photos after Saturday class...promise.


Enjoy your Friday!!
xox
k

news from the quilt front

What's news? 
It seems like forever since I last rabbited on posted.
Quilting is progressing ahead of plan.... Centre medallion is finished...The surrounding 20 blocks are finished.

Ready to start on the chintz reverse appliqué border with not much of a clue how to quilt it.

There was a minor hiccough in the program causing a moment of concern last week when I thought my trusty quilt hoop had "died". Turned out to just need a replacement wing nut.

Tell me, have you seen how many millionty seven different sizes of wing nuts are in existence? I was elbow deep in wing nuts at not one but two different Bunnings Hardware stores before a replacement of the correct size was located.

Just in case, I bought 4. Probably never need another wing nut. Ever. In my life. You know who to call if your hoop needs one, or three. Wing nut expert, that's me.

I love to buy flowers for Chez empty field. Look at these mad things...not a clue what they are.

And these. Affectionately known in my household as "Brain Flowers" they are Celosia cristata or...Cockscomb...love the limey green....in a new grungy white jug/vase.

Stitcherhood Saturday this afternoon. Yippie. We are all fans of Brigitte's gorgeous hexie bags.

I did a bit of procrastabaking yesterday in preparation.

One person who shall remain nameless will be absent, and what a paltry excuse. I would rather quilt with my peeps than be schussing down the slopes in Italy wouldn't you? Her loss really. Don't worry B we will talk about you. A lot.

One last bit of sillyness.
Someone has drawn a comic about my cat

(not really!)
Does your cat party on your head at night like mine does? Sheesh, no wonder I wake up tired. And disturbingly furry.

Actually she's probably the best puddy I've ever had...

Have a fabulous weekend
Sew lots

xox
k

quilting my fingers to the bone

After a cranky-pants week at the workplace last week my weekend thankfully arrived and all became calm again.

I adore Fridays - they are full to the brim with kate-things, a prelude to lazy weekends, buy flowers for the house day, catch up with the daughter day, and first Friday of the month is pamper day (a Christmas gift to myself) for a manicure and pedi once a month - bliss bliss heaven and bliss and some nicely dressed fingers and toes!

LAST Friday was even better than most because it also included a trip to Avalon Quilters Exhibition to view the antique American quilts, enjoy lunch with a great girlfriend at The Armchair Collective at Mona Vale beach, a wee bit of homewares shopping, then a speedy trip to the lovely quilt shop in Warriewood, Cottage Quiltworks. Despite the torrential rain we managed the navigate to the northern beaches, broke two umbrellas in the roaring winds, got drenched several times going from car to wherever and had a really fun time.

Badkate took a few photos of the antique quilts before I saw a sign asking visitors not to ...why is that???  The quilts were from collections owned by well know Aussie quilt historian Annette Gero and Trish Bloomfield.
As always click the pic to embiggen.

 Gor-jus triple line quilting c1840

 Funny tiny berries and a crinkly ruched viney bias stem also c 1840

 Who says flower centres must be symmetrical?

Totally drooly string pieced organised chaos stars c1900

We also sketched up a block layout for a new project for Ms B from a lovely old "cross and crown" quilt with leetle 8 point stars which we think would be 1.5 to 1.75" along the side of the diamond. Tiny stars are just so nice don't you think??

An antique (circa 1890-1920) indigo quilt top stuck to our fingers and made it home...don't scream we plan to cannibalise it for its fabrics split the loot and repurpose it...in its current incarnation it is totally ugly, but was a bargain price and we both need true indigos to repair or finish other antique quilts in our collections.

What news on the quilting front? A program has been mapped out on the calendar for my quilting project and I'm pretty confident I can fulfil the requirements to have Miss Jane quilted by June 3... The centre is almost completed ....

 I often have a few needles going at once when I quilt - do you?

 a wee little bird, now with wing

 ..hearts, hearts and more hearts...

...and I have started on the 20 blocks which surround the central medallion. I have then allowed to complete 3 blocks per week, 2 weeks to quilt the chintz border and 5 weeks to quilt the outermost border, bind and do the hanging sleeve!! Easy! Already ahead of schedule.

the back...

..still scope to do more but I can go back if there's time..

Sent this mad ecard to some quilty friends this week...

...a little bad taste, but it appealed to me.


Hope you are filling your days with fun (and quilts)
xx
k

quilting "the beast"

Today I collected my JP interpretation from Kaye Brown in Camden who wrangled the beast and machine basted it into submission.

I chose a wide back of cream cotton sateen and quilters dream batting.

Tonight the hand quilting commences... 96" x 96" to quilt and bind by the first week of June. Woo Hoo don't you just LOVE an insane deadline?

Have a wonderful quilty weekend. My left index finger hurts already!

xox
k

purses!

...as opposed to "curses!"

'Tho I could have been saying that all day, $%#@**^ computer at work decided to go on a go-slow so consequently little was accomplished apart from an increase in user blood pressure.

Forget about that I am talking purses and perses

Broderie Perse Wikipedia says (French for "Persian Embroidery") is a style of applique embroidery which uses printed elements to create a scene on the background fabric.
Broderie Perse can be done with any printed fabric on any ground, but it originally was worked with Chintz type fabrics which were cut out and invisibly applied onto the ground fabric. The typical intention was to create a scene from the motifs, but the decoration could also be random.

 

 My bird now has a candy cane embedded in its wing. sigh.

 

...it's easy, fun and can be quick, that is except if you insist on cutting away most of any offending background fabric then it is not quick, but it is still fun. My interpretation of random...
I have done somewhat less random too. A while back.

I am trying to fill the centre of the orange peel to overflowing abundance.

A purse on the other hand as we girls all know, is a small bag that may refer to:

• Coin purse, in British English, currency notes, credit card, and other ID cards
• Handbag, in American English, as a modern article of fashion
• and various other definitions.

At the Farmers Markets weekend before last I spied this most comely of purses. It stuck to my fingers. It's my new favourite thing. Lerve it.

What else?
This past Saturday was Stitcherhood Saturday. My lame name. The girls came to mine for lunch and sewing and typical me I got caught up in coffee making, lunch preparing, and general faffing about and didn't take too many photos.

Here is my paltry photo essay.

 Action shot of a quilt flapp

 Jean's gorgeous pinwheels with dainty aqua shoe

 More of Jean's "in progress"

I am so sorry to my other guests for not photographing any thing else. I am a terrible friend.

Note the abundance of food photos 'tho...wonder where my head is at.

Duck and mango salad - my other new best friend

 

Passionfruit melting moments- OMG - no these are def my newest bestest friend.

Time to go run off those melting moments.

Have a happy week
xox
k

High Tea, holiday update and colour filled fun

Happy weekend everyone!!

I had returned home from vacation 2 weeks ago but have been hiding, hugging my wonderful holiday memories jealously to myself...hoping to keep a hold of those restful, relaxed and fun filled days in super super New Zealand.

Last week was my first week returning to work and already the overtime hours number onto my second hand. :-( any tips on how to find that wonderfully elusive thing called work-life balance I'd love to hear them!

Enough of that...here's my news for this week... Friday saw Ms empty field and I attend High Tea at the Boronia Tea Rooms in Mosman. We each invited a friend and the four girls enjoyed a delightfully indulgent morning tea which featured finger sandwiches, sophisticated savouries, warm scones with jam and clotted cream, passionfruit macaroons, chocolate dipped strawberries...the list goes on! The younger girls (both of whom are early 20's) are not tea or coffee drinkers so settled on a glass of fizz and an iced chocolate...

There was frivolous discussion as to their dyslexic age...12 or 21? The grown-ups' tea was served in pretty vintage blue floral tea cups and we all felt thoroughly posh taking tea on the verandah of the restored 1840's sandstone mansion. What a lovely way to start a weekend!!

Our recent holiday was a 2 week+ trip to New Zealand. Week one saw us on the North Island travelling the length of the island from Auckland to Wellington with a four day stop in Lake Taupo for some serious fly fishing for Mr empty field and all sorts of fun things for me...zip lining 40m above the ground through pristine New Zealand beech forests in Rotorua....wandering through volcanic gardens with steam vents and geysers...experiencing a totally realistic reenactment of a massive 1876 volcanic eruption at the Rotorua museum...jet boating over 2 inches of water at Huka Falls doing 360's which had you thrown out of your seat and laughing maniacally for the sheer silly fun of it all....sharing my morning tea atop Taranaki Falls on a day hike in the Tongarirro National Park with a rare New Zealand falcon....chatting with a master weaver who explained her craft of weaving the traditional puipui skirts made from the leaves of the flax plant or discussing traditional Maori designs with an apprentice Pounamu (NZ jade) carver and wandering through Cuba Street in Wellington soaking up the urban vibe and the aromas of awesome coffee...

The second week saw us on a 6 day hike along the Greenstone and Routeburn tracks. Leaving Queenstown we were driven to the head of the track outside Glenorchy and then hit the track by 9am. We were blessed with crystal clear skies for the entire time and the wonderful company of our four fellow hikers and two guides.

We crossed the range twice hiking around 18km a day walking through magnificent glacial valleys...brooding moss laden beech forest...alongside a multitude of streams, waterfalls and lakes...though tussock grass plains...amongst delicate alpine orchid gardens...climbing to above the tree line on day 4,5 and 6 and culminating in a rocky scramble along what can only be described as a goat track to the top of Conical Hill at 1515m on the fifth day...a particular challenge for this one, who has a somewhat catatonic fear of edges and heights. Making the top was something very special...actually New Zealand is really someplace special.

We finished the hike on Jan 26 and enjoyed our last night in NZ at buzzy, crazy Queenstown celebrating Australia Day with the pubs and bars still booming out music at 4am...what a party town!!

More fun this morning saw me completing my very first fun run!! The Swisse Color Run came to Sydney to aid HeartKids, a charity aimed at assisting little ones with heart disorders...a cause worthy of throwing off my dislike of crowds....so today I ran, along with 21,000 other Sydneysiders, and had the pleasure of being plastered from head to toe with paint! At each kilometre mark we passed through a colour zone and were sprayed, squirted and daubed with powdered paint, pink then yellow, blue, orange and purple. It was totally fun and totally messy. Mostly it's scrubbed off but there are a few wee stubborn blue stains remaining on face and neck...and the iPhone case has a few green smudges! Ha ha. It was hot, sweaty and very entertaining...by run start at 9am the temperature had climbed to 28 and by finish 40 mins later it was around 30.

Sewing-wise the focus is back to orange peels. Here's an update shot with part of the border set around the centre...slow but steady progress.

Wishing you all a happy start to 2013...my resolution for this year is more fun, how about you?
xx

k