Musings

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

June 18, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve just opened up the draft of a blog post I started at Auckland airport a week and a half ago.

I thought it might have been the second fastest blog post ever, but I didn’t manage to get it finished before boarding time for the flight to Melbourne. So I’ve decided to start over

I have had a good time in NZ since last I posted, I did manage to get that post done (plus a quick cuppa) before a short flight down to Palmerston North. There was a gap in the clouds just big enough to see Mt Ruapehu poking through and that’s all I saw of her for the whole seven days. Even when I drove right past her on the return trip she was completely hidden.

Mt Ruapehu, another month and she will be covered in snow, and frequently cloud unfortunately.

I was staying with my cousin Dawn this time.

We were great mates as kids and are great mates still.

We like the same things, isn’t that always nice to be related and friends.

Dawn at work in her studio. She makes fabulous clothes from Vintage fabrics and is very creative.

Dawn lives just a short walk from my Mum so I was able to spend lots of time with Mum too.

Mum’s got Alzheimers but is getting great care and attention. She still knows who I am and we have fun together so it was important to make memories (for me) while we can. Sadly she will have forgotten I was there last week, but ‘in the moment’ all is fine.

But now I am back from gadding about the place/s and it’s time to get back to normal,

I realised it’s 2 months today since I left for the US and I have also had ‘a wedding’, a trip to NZ (that’s always a busy one)

and four days at the Sydney Quilt Show so it’s no wonder I’m a little disorganised.

Plus the excitement of being a featured home in Quiltmania magazine

Quiltmania # 89

Quilt Station has a seven page spread plus the third and final instalment of my Mid 19th Century Star quilt pattern.

I was chuffed to see Ady, who has made (yes finished) the Maltaville quilt, being my neighbour in Quiltmania, that’s one of her beautiful quilts on the opposite page.

I'm thrilled with how Quilt Station looks

Merci beaucoup to Carol and Guy, it was a real pleasure to have you both visit my home for the day

and Guy, wow I love that photo of me

So all that excitement

Woohoo

calls for a

Give-away.

I would love to give away a couple of the John Hewson panels/fabrics which were reproduced by Andover last year.

I bought extra at Seventh Heaven Quilt Shop in New Braunfells, Texas anticipating I’d want to pass some on.

John Hewson panel from the Winterthur Museum collection

There will be two chances to get one of these large urn panels, above

and two chances to win eight birds as shown below.

John Hewson Birds

to have a chance just leave a comment on this post, oooh let’s say,

by the 13th July. That’s a Friday ~ Friday the 13th. What fun!

I will mail to anywhere in the world and no doubt between now and then I will have unearthed a couple other treasures to add to it.

To leave a comment you need to click on the title of the blog post. That will re-open the post with the option to comment visible at the bottom.

The Sydney Quilt Show came hot on the heels of returning from NZ,

five of us from the Goldfields Quilters (Alison, Chris, Jennifer, Kathryn and myself) flew up on Thursday morning and were joined on Friday by Irene so you can imagine the fun we had.

The six of us piled in to a taxi van straight after breakfast on Saturday morning and headed over to

Material Obsession.

We were not going to miss out this time, adding an extra day to the itinerary as last year Jenn and I just ran out of time.

It’s a beautiful shop, I follow Kathy Doughty’s blog and her shop is a great reflection of her style and flair.

Here’s just a little of what I bought

These aren’t Repro’s as such but they could be. It’s all about how you look at it I suppose.

The Blue (Prussian like) with the Brown, once cut up, could go in to a mid 19th century quilt quite well I think.

And the Brown and Red diamond print wouldn’t look out of place either.

And if you are familiar with Material Obsession quilts you may be surprised to know you will find 19th c repro’s at Material Obsession.

I wasn’t expecting to find any but was very pleasantly surprised.

It’s true, I found (and came home with) quite a few. It is a very diverse and friendly quilt shop.

After that we grabbed two taxis and made for Quiltsmith (but lunch in trendy Annandale shopping precint first)

We left a couple of hours later with bags bulging, this time catching the bus back to Darling Harbour.

I was so pleased Jenn was methodically going through the bargain boxes, I had completely missed this much needed fabric.

Beth Ann Bruske fabric.

Jenn kindly shared the last of the bolt so I have *Plenty* to do *Whatever* on the Cradle Quilt. It had come to a stand still as quilts sometimes do.

Cradle Quilt, no excuse not to get a wriggle on with this now is there?

And these found their way in to my arms as well

Bits and bobs as they say, just for the stash

It is lovely to be home again. It’s winter and it’s cold.

I like to hibernate just a little, well sometimes a lot and I have plenty of work to do ~ both quilt designing and quilting on Violet.

It’s a good time to be at home and in the studio.

We have an elderly dog and she’s all of a sudden showing her age.

She’s given us a few scares in the last few months and she seems to want one of us around more during the day,

so it’s another reason to be not too far from home for too long. We’re watching and taking it as it comes if you know what I mean.

The other day I was measuring and photographing my quilts for showcase and she was trying very hard to be noticed

Rollo

I’ve just realised I have no sewing prepped for tonight,

oh well, I shall sit by the fire and look at a quilt book or two instead.

Keep warm (or cool) and happy stitching

til soon

Margaret

28 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Cradle Quilt 1826, Design, Musings, Travel

Gorgeous basket blocks

February 19, 2012 by Margaret

for a gorgeous lady.

Work in progress, a Smithsonian fabric basket block

My friend Irene whom I mentioned a couple of posts back is having a special birthday this year.

Irene decided to plan her own birthday quilt project, how organised is she!!

So a request was sent to me to please make a 6″ basket block and write a message on it.

Of course I wanted to give Irene a block made out of my Smithsonian fabrics, cos they’re special and so is she.

I had fun making up this basket block, choosing the fabrics and stitching it by hand.

I was worried the message wouldn’t show on the background fabric so I appliqued a leaf on to it, what you see is the wrong side of the background fabric and wrote my message on that

Smithsonian fabric basket block

As well as our trip to the U.S.A this year, Irene and I are involved in a few projects together so I felt this Maori proverb was perfect.

Like all good proverbs the literal translation is only hinting at the deeper meaning of the words,

With my basket and your basket the people will live

or let’s combine our ideas and resources, good things will happen.

After I had made this block, I realised I still had something important to tell Irene so I made her another block.

"you can't go past a good paisley"

That’s a message that needs no explaination

happy stitching

Margaret

2 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Musings, Paisleys, Smithsonian Fabrics

I’m a day late but…

February 7, 2012 by Margaret

I have just popped over to Fiona’s blog this morning to see yesterday’s good wishes to NZers everywhere because it was Waitangi Day and also news that it is (well yesterday was) the 60th Anniversary of the death of King George the VIth, which of course means that it is 60 years since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been Queen.

I noticed today that a few bloggers have marked the anniversary with posts about Her Majesty so decided to follow the trend, just a day late.

I spent all day yesterday in Melbourne but, as I said to Fiona, I spent the 100km or so drive each way listening to a healthy dose of Kiwi rock on my Ipod as celebration of the first event. And a nice drop of NZ Savignon Blanc to aid relaxation when I got home.

So today I’m showing off the talents of my clever Father which plays into a celebration of yesterday’s second event.

Princess Elizabeth (and friend) 1936

So of course this picture pre dates yesterday’s anniversary of the Queen becoming Queen, this is from the time when the world learned that she would be Queen… the abdication of King Edward the VIIIth in 1936.

At the time my very talented and artistic Dad was a schoolboy of 17 and he decided to enter a NZ wide competition run by one of the national newspapers.

The brief was to create a ‘picture’ of the Princess Elizabeth and it was open to all NZ school students, no doubt with assorted age appropriate categories. The above is Dad’s entry.

It isn’t a photograph, it is a pencil sketch.

Unfortunately the silverfish had a field day when it was in storage during house renovations. I am filled with shame whenever I look at the damage to this picture, but when I look past the damage I am so very proud of my Father’s talents.

I have done a bit of a trawl around the interweb this morning and found this

image of Princess Elizabeth Life magazine

Princess Elizabeth Life.com

I’m assuming this photo, or another taken at the same ‘shoot’, would have been the one the appearing in the newspaper for the kids to copy.

I have no idea who won the competition, I do know it wasn’t my Dad as his entry was disqualified because it was deemed by the judges to have not been done by a student, despite protestations from his teachers.

That’s right, all competitions have the clause ‘no correspondence will be entered into’.

I don’t think he was ever disappointed about not winning, for him the enjoyment (and challenge) was creating something beautiful with simple tools, pencil and paper in this case.

Sometimes when I am working blissfully in the zone, hand stitching,

I think of Dad and am very thankful that the gift he passed on to me was the love of doing the painstakingly slow, the tinier the detail the better.

Haven’t we all had a non quilter say to us, I’d love to be able to do that but I wouldn’t have the patience.

I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t have one iota of patience, my kids would be the second ones to tell you.

Quiltmaking is something I love to spend time doing, ergo no patience required.

I’m sure you feel exactly the same.

til soon

Margaret

Thank you for sticking with a non quilty post today.

For Dad Arohanui

4 Comments

Filed Under: Musings

A real post at last

January 17, 2012 by Margaret

Thank you all very much for bearing with me yesterday, and with Jennifer more importantly, as we gave Quilt Station a much needed new operating framework.

It was quite an overhaul and, even though the changes may look only cosmetic, what I have now is a website that will grow with me.

I’m so pleased and relieved about that.

It was a busy day and a half, but we both worked late into the night and I’m not ready to tally up what it really took, suffice to say we’re both a little tired.

There is still some tweaking to do, some of it minor ~ some of it more time consuming, but I think we have done all the things that were up the top of the priority list.

I really want to apologise wholeheartedly to those of you who were flooded ~ monsooned even, with emails about posts, pages, pings and goodness knows what else, I’m very embarrassed. We were so sure we had disabled notifications on all the pages. And thank you to everyone who wrote to let me know that things were amiss and where it wasn’t working.

It’s good to have the feedback so promptly, Jennifer was straight on to it where possible.

I don't mind if you sit on my quilts

I’m very grateful to all of you who subscribe to the posts, it’s really rewarding to know that you follow along and stay long enough to look at what I’m working on. Jenn has asked me to tell you though that if you’ve saved your emails with notifications for posts that look like this

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/1658

with numbers after the /

they won’t go anywhere anymore, you’ll get an error page.

If everything works the way it should when I hit publish, your email notifications will have for instance

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/red-white-pine-trees-quilt

or whatever the title of the post is.

Beautiful roses, David Austin's Tradescant, outside my studio.

There’s a reason I’m plopping in pretty photo’s and it’s this.

I’m trying to sweeten you up because I’ve got something I’d like you to do for me.

If you are one of those fabulous bloggers or websites who link to me, and I know there are lots of you…

… I would be really grateful if you could change the link to me from http://www.quiltstation.com.au/

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/mewsings

That way the link will send visitors to this, the blog page, and not just the home page.

Not that I’m not proud of the home page, I love it.

But visitors might get bored after the first couple of times.

I haven’t become bored with the Home page yet, I keep gazing at that slide show of quilts and thinking, “by golly we’re clever”. LOL

Jenn and I tore around yesterday afternoon for an impromptu photo shoot, up ladders (me) and wiping tables (Jenn). We’re pretty chuffed with the results.

Getting back to Mewsings, it’s a play on my name I’ve tried to use for a while now, you might remember it in my blog title by-line way back. I never could get it in a sentence the way I wanted but I’m hoping it’s going to work here.

La Gare and more roses.

My intention for Mewsings this year is that I will post more often, but less long.

And what do I do! Start with an enormously long post ~ but this one is an exception I think.

I’m going to try to stick to only one topic or quilt per post.

Pull me up if I start getting off track won’t you.

til soon

Margaret

6 Comments

Filed Under: Musings

Happy Holidays

December 28, 2011 by Margaret

Season's greetings from my house to yours

My wish is to have time to relax on that sofa with some hand sewing, and something festive to eat and drink.

I know that won’t happen on ‘the day’ but Boxing day will do.

The studio is taking shape and I have been over there doing some work, but I’m still in that transition stage, where whatever it is I need to put my hands on…it’s in the *other* building.

I’ve noticed a few of us are enjoying new spaces at the moment…

Sue from I Sew Quilts

And Sally from Feather on a Wire

I’ve not yet moved my fabrics over, I need to work out where I want my shelves. And I just know I’ll change the furniture around a couple of times before I settle…and even then I’m likely to change it again.

Maybe it’s a Libra thing.

I do know it’s a DH thing to want to put shelves up just the once

So here’s a pic of the studio looking a bit more lived in.

Ahem,

That was all written last week…and I’ve only just sat down to blog again.

And the first thing I did was pop a new header photo up top…it’s a fabric I got on ebay.

Never saw this Margo Krager Dargate on our shores, at least not at any quilt shops I frequent.

However I don’t think it really ‘goes’ with the other colours and unfortunately I can’t find the previous blog header photo. It’s possibly in the folder that Jenn made, it has sub folders and each one she has marked *don’t touch* mmmmm

When she comes out next I’ll smile and ask her to put it back how it was…please.

I hope you all had a super Christmas, I have to do secret shots of my family because we’re all a bit camera shy.

I managed to snap this one of them relaxing after making short work of the antipasto platter.

Christmas 2011

DH has his back to the camera and I have caught my two kiddies chatting away like the happiest of siblings that they are.

Christmas was a small affair this year, which was very nice for the cook, moi.

Since then, I have been catching up with hand sewing so my Christmas wish did come true

I had a few Maltaville blocks earmarked to F.i.n.i.s.h., they had been hanging around way too long in various stages of completed-ness, so they went to the top of the ‘to do’ list.

Block A5

Block A5 was pretty straight forward… four small stars and eight little hearts. Tick

Block H2 in progress

Block H2 was another matter entirely. I had in fact progressed beyond this photo and months ago had sewn the centre shape…

but horror of horrors, the middle bit of it where the blades come together looked lopsided, even tho it looked perfectly symmetrical on the pattern sheet.

Well that was how it has stayed all that time but this week was the week to get it off the wall and deal with it.

Back to the drawing board, making sure the centre was a circle.

Start again

And while I was at it, I decided to sew the star using Barbara Brackman’s method of a star from a circle which I mentioned a while ago, here’s Barbara’s method here

I had made a couple of hasty trials (with bad results) in the past but for this one I calculated I needed a 4″ star with 1″ cuts. That should give me the star shape I wanted. I know I’m missing the point of this being a ‘free-form’ star aren’t I!

Free form star

Nope…I can’t live with that. I know it’s a satisfactory replica of the stars on the original quilt but I just am not happy with the way it looks. I know they are supposed to be ‘imperfect’ and template free and I know I am missing the point of it all completely but it’s not how I want my quilt to look…not my Maltaville anyway, maybe on another quilt it’d work for me.

I think the ladies of the 19th Century were just plain better at doing it sans template than I am.

So for this quilt I’ve gone back to the other way ~ an eight pointed star cut from a template.

Block H2, last star being sewn down

This block is now finished, so H2 done. Tick

C3 The Iris… this was a block that required only four Dark Blue pieces and a clayx added to it.

Of course, the reason I procrastinate over a block (and I’m sure we’re all the same) is that I’m just not happy with it and I’m not sure why yet…but it will come to me if I leave it long enough LOL

As I added each of the last four Dark Blue pieces, The Brown became less and less Okay until it just had to go.

I know the block would have originally been much stronger tones and probably a purple, but I liked the way it has faded to a warm brown. But it wasn’t looking right in my version. So now it is Purple.

Off with the old, on with the new!!

And while I was at it, that free form star is going too cos I’m not doing them like that now.

I love that Smithsonian fabric but it’s just a bit ‘flat’,

Out

C2 finished. Tick

Block C2

And one more block to show, truly all this done since Boxing Day.

Block C3

This one has been drafted for a while but I hadn’t had a chance to do any more with it, but now finished. Tick.

I’d like to get a little more quilting done on the Welsh Quilt too but someone has other ideas.

In our house a cat can sleep peacefully knowing they will never be moved.

til soon

5 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Musings, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics

All I want for Christmas is a new studio

December 17, 2011 by Margaret

And that’s what I’ve got, well one room of a studio anyway.

DH had to fit in the painting around the day job and other chores, and of course it takes so long when it’s all DIY.

So one room is complete and I have spent the last few days sorting & moving stuff and then sorting it and moving it some more.

Of course I up-ended two rooms in the house in the process, so there was a lot to sort.

Works in Progress

I started with the unfinished quilts/UFO’s/ Works in Progress

Call ‘em what we will, we’ve all got ‘em haven’t we… haven’t we??

I sorted but I didn’t count LOL

I only brought over a little at a time

Mostly I huffed things across in my arms but my Smithsonian fabrics came in one hit on a trolley

Four tubs of Smithsonian

of course I could have just bunged them in their slots on the shelves,

but nooooo…

I decided to sort those too.

Well it’s just that they get mucked up all the time as they come out of the box for quilt possibilities.

RJR Smithsonian fabric...The Groom's Quilt

RJR Smithsonian Fabric...The Little Sister's Quilt

RJR Smithsonian Fabric...The Copp Quilt

it’s actually better the way I have them now, I can see what I’ve got.

RJR Smithsonian Fabric...The Rising Sun Quilt

The room is looking a lot more lived in now (these photo’s were taken on Wednesday)

I have my office desk under the window

It (like a quilt) is still a work in progress and I will take some more photo’s to show you tomorrow.

On Friday I moved the books over, lots of huffing and puffing I can tell you.

So my plan for the holiday break, after the next Maltaville mail-out that is, is to start on a couple of those tubs of UFO’s,

first is the Red & White Pine Tree Quilt

Pine Tree Block

I’ve also been chipping away at the hand quilting of the Welsh Quilt

Welsh Quilt

I got some done when Jenn came over last week for a sewing day, but those borders are going to take a while…sigh.

We were pretty productive

Sewing Day

I aim to get another blog post in during the week so I won’t wish you happy hol’s just yet.

Take a look at Fiona’s Country Threads blog if you get a chance, she’s recently been in the States and has been quilt museum-ing.

There is quilt eye candy galore over several posts.

6 Comments

Filed Under: Musings, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics

Aren’t Birthdays Grand!!

November 13, 2011 by Margaret

especially when you can string them out for a few more weeks hehe.

Last month I had a particularly special birthday and some of my friends made special things for me, I’m very lucky to have such fantastic women in my life.

I wish I had taken a photo when they presented me with a box of quilt blocks yesterday, it looked gorgeous all tied up with ribbon, but of course I forgot…

But I did photograph the blocks today as I was ‘playing’ with them.

12 House blocks

Rose from my little Love and Friendship group organised the others to each make a block from the Le Rouvray free pattern.

A few of the members from my LQG also wanted to join in, and so yesterday I was given a dozen gorgeous blocks.

Big thanks (and hugs and kisses) to Rose (for planning it all) and to Lyn, Lynn, Denise, Irene, Jean, Wendy and Tracey from Love and Friendship and Alison, Jennifer, Fay and Heather from GQ

To show you how much I love them…

Look

finished!!

This will be a great quilt for my new studio space, which DH is prepping while I’ve been sewing

Yes I know there’s something not really right about that scenario

And how cute is this too!!

gorgeous red fabrics and selvages...what fun!!

Bev made this especially for me

Yes I am a lucky girl.

14 Comments

Filed Under: Design, Musings

Sunday morning…

October 16, 2011 by Margaret

I walked in to my workroom this morning to a table strewn with stuff…

May I have a bigger table please?

My best friend popped in about 4.30 yesterday to see what I’d been up to.

It was great to see her as we’ve both been so busy lately.

So I downed tools…I was doing the above…and we headed down to Kyneton for a coffee (I did turn the iron off)

then we came back here and DH cooked dinner while BF and I chatted and had a few drinks.

Then we all watched a movie and she went home about 11.30

t’was lovely to just chill.

So this morning I went in to the workroom to start the day and to try to remember where I was up to.

But then I remembered I had to leave that for the day because I was going to post the Maltaville blocks on to the other blog today,

so I went in to the ‘other’ workroom…

There's the blocks I had selected the other day...

and found more half done stuff.

Now of course it’s perfectly fine to have lots of half done stuff,

but I’m just not good at packing up after myself.

I’m a visual person,

if I can’t see it then I’m scared I’ll forget to do something.

I need constant visual reminders that I have things that need my attention.

If you turn 90 degrees to the left in this room you will see this

More 'in progress' stuff

I’m bringing patterns ‘up to date’,

LOL, I’ve lowered the ironing board to give myself another work surface.

I’ll leave that where it is even though it’s in my way…it will take longer to pack it away than it will to finish the job.

I can walk sideways for the day.

So, what’s that quilt in the first photo?

Another work in progress,

this one based on an 1826 quilt which will evolve in to something, something bigger than the original which is a cradle quilt.

For starters I’ve noted what I’ve done and the fabrics I’ve used my work book

this time I remembered to note the start date

The working title is The Cradle Quilt but it won’t be a cradle quilt.

This is how it looked a couple of nights ago on the design wall

Cradle Quilt 1826

Now I’m off to do that Maltaville post.

8 Comments

Filed Under: Cradle Quilt 1826, Design, Musings, Reproduction Quilts

I’ve been just a little bit preoccupied…

October 11, 2011 by Margaret

I have had several posts swimming around in my head and two have even made it to drafts.

And now a month has got behind me.

At least it wasn’t ten years that got behind me like the Pink Floyd song ‘Time’

but I have felt like their lyrics

…and you run and you run

to catch up with the sun

but it’s sinking,

racing around

to come up behind you again…

could have been written for me these last weeks.

Yes, I just wish there were more hours in the day, or that I could function on four hours sleep a night…that’d do it.

One of the posts that made it to drafts was a sort of ‘Ten things you may not know about me’

But then I thought if I told you those things you might wish you still didn’t know those things about me and it might ruin a beautiful friendship.

So I will tell you just one… I think this one’s safe.

Here’s a clue.

Love it !

I know it’s not fashionable but I’m a bit of a Train Spotter

Out of respect and admiration for all the dedicated Train Spotters around the world I will say that I am not as totally commited as they are…Basically it’s got to come right past my door, but when it does…I’m excited.

Over the years I’ve lived in a train station I’ve seen lots of these come through, but I still rush out and wave like a lunatic (much to DH’s embarrasment but I don’t care) when I hear that whistle blow, and the distinctive sound of a steam engine.

I'm taking a photo of you taking a photo of me taking a photo of...

She’s got to make it up Tunnel Hill so she’s under full steam, the sound is awesome.

My Dad was a truly dedicated Train Spotter, his dad was an engine driver (naturally in the age of steam) so what can I say…it’s in the blood.

I think of you Dad every time I see one of these and I’m waving feverishly on your behalf.

So, what have I been doing other than waving at Trains?

The last week I was at the computer…for the entire working week.

I had set aside some time to convert one of my patterns to a digital format. I think that’s the correct term these days.

(And ended up basically re-writing it in the process, cos you know…things can always be improved)

It was just part of my Business plan/forward planning, waaaay too boring to go into.

By midday Monday (yep only four hours in) it became blatantly obvious that I didn’t have the skills to pull this off all by myself.

I think I wasted a couple of valuable hours muttering under my breath and getting extremely angry a little bit frustrated with myself.

Hasty phone call to techy Jennifer who dropped everything and came to my aid…She knew I was on a time limit with this one.

I have learnt *So Much* in that week.

One little sentence that doesn’t even come close to expressing what I (we) have accomplished.

Total immersion…that’s the only way. Like learning French.

Thanks more than I can say Jenn, you’re a totally brilliant teacher.

I’ve also been to Linda Collins’ Quilts in the Barn…Always a fabulous display.

There’s a nice group photo in Linda’s post, part of the joy is meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones.

I caught up with Linda again just week before last and she happily OK’ed me posting some close up photo’s of her old quilts along with the reproductions of the fabrics in them. As you know, the fabrics are my special interest. I’m always the one with the camera about two inches above the quilt, people must think I’m incredibly short sighted (or long sighted, never quite sure which is which)

So I promise I will post about those old and new/old fabrics very soon.

As well as enjoying the day, I bought some fabric from the Quilted Crow while they were at QitB.

I bought these for a quilt I have been planning since my last post.

This one … click here to see it

I have decided to progress with that quilt and develop it in to a Strippy, probably, unless I come up with another idea.

I probably should have broken this in to several posts because it’s getting very long, but…well I might as well keep going or another month might get behind me

Next.

As I am not in the least bit sporting minded…

“yawn, boring…why would anyone want to watch people chasing around after a ball, often in the rain“

…I am astounding myself by watching (and enjoying) the World Cup Rugby that is being hosted in my home country across the Tasman.

I check the RWC website and the TV guide, prep some applique in readiness and sit down in front of the Telly on Saturday and/or Sunday for a few hours of sewing and rugby watching.

Maltaville Centre

During last weekend’s matches I nearly finished the Maltaville Centre

I would have finished it except I mucked up the second to last calyx and didn’t want to miss any action by cutting out a new one.

So I went on to finish this block instead

Block G2

But there’s still more I’ve been doing…

On Friday night,

when I probably should have been resting my eyes after five full days of staring at a computer screen

and stretching my brain to the limit,

I started this

Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt mark II

On my ‘to do’ list for a while has been to make another Banyan Tree Medallion quilt as the last one was raffled and I didn’t win it.

As I have produced a pattern for it, I decided I needed to have my own quilt.

A little while ago I had bought some very lovely cream sateen which I thought would be perfect.

I hope it won’t be a you know what to sew.

And by Sunday I had it looking like this, but I will still add a bit more to it I think…not too much

Banyan Tree Medallion

Here’s what the first one looks like…

Banyan Tree Medallion mark I

…and the new one will be pretty much the same.

But of course the centre has been revamped because of the fabric choices I’ve made this time round.

So that’s what I’ve been doing…

There is actually more, but my fingers are just about bleeding LOL, so I will leave that for another day.

Not a day too far away.

Later this week I’ll choose the next four blocks for the Maltaville BOM and show what I’ll be sending out.

Thanks to the Rugby there’s a few to choose from.

6 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt, Broderie Perse, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Musings

I have not started a new quilt…it’s just a block.

September 6, 2011 by Margaret

image of 19th century Rising Sun Album Quilt

Truly.

Rising Sun Album block

Speaking of new, I’ve got a new blog friend too and that is how this new quilt block came about.

Please let me introduce you to Marsha, she has very recently started a quilt blog which I’ve been enjoying reading.

Marsha’s blog is called On The Go Quilting and she wrote to me a couple of weeks ago as she was searching for any info about a quilt she had seen in the Weathersfield Historical Society in Vermont, in particular the name of the quilt.

Of course Marsha had googled Rising Sun Quilt and because I blather on so much about the Smithsonian Fabrics, including the Rising Sun fabrics, my name monopolised the first page of searches.

Here’s a portion of the quilt from Marsha’s Blog (thanks Marsha)

detail of c. 1850 Rising Sun Album Quilt, in the collection of the Weathersfield Historical Society, Vermont.

And below is the link which will take you to the post where Marsha talks about her visit to the Weathersfield Historical Society

(you’ll see more lovely old quilts in the post, click here)

She (and then in turn I) was interested in the pattern name attributed to the quilt ‘The Rising Sun Album Quilt’.

We have both been on a bit of a search since then, looking for an alternative name. I have ‘yet’ to find that block anywhere under any name, and in all my reference material the name ‘Rising Sun’ will show blocks that don’t bear any resemblence to the above at all.

As I was in the mood for a little diversion I decided to quickly (huh) run up a block.

For eight pointed stars I pretty much always use the Easy Eight and Companion Angle rulers, so choosing a size and rotary cutting the diamonds and set in triangles was done in a flash.

That was the end of quick, I then decided to draw on the seam allowance and hand piece the block, well the machine wasn’t ‘out’ and I just couldn’t be bothered getting it out.

The original quilt does have signatures in the little triangle, it’s hard to know if I’ve made my block too big or too small but I do like the scale of it so I’m happy with it. I made it 8 1/2″ finished. I also appliqued the triangle for the signatures, though it does appear to have been pieced in when I look closely.

When time allows I will draft a block properly with a pieced signature triangle.

Marsha has also made a block, you can see it here, where she also talks more about the mystery, and a great quilting tip too.

So, what fun…

Has anyone out there seen this block/quilt pattern? In the flesh or in a book even?

I really love the colours of this quilt, I know I won’t be able to help myself…I’ll be making this quilt.

Just not this week.

4 Comments

Filed Under: Antique Quilts, Design, Musings, Reproduction Quilts

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

Gorgeous basket blocks

I’m a day late but…

A real post at last

Margaret

Happy Holidays

All I want for Christmas is a new studio

Aren’t Birthdays Grand!!

Sunday morning…

I’ve been just a little bit preoccupied…

I have not started a new quilt…it’s just a block.

Comments

Subscribe to my blog

I'm on Instagram and Facebook

My other blog

Blogs, Designers, Magazines and Shops

Archives