We seem to be past the worst of winter - which admittedly isn't very bad at all with daily high temps 15+degC and no night time frosts. Here in Northland, our climate is classed as oceanic/subtropical, which means winters are pretty wet so nature is very green (most of the native vegetation are evergreens). The magnolias are more or less finished blooming, as are the invasive Taiwanese cherries. I am looking forward to the temperatures just rising a little more so I can get the veggie garden started.
On COVID-19, after 102 days without any cases in New Zealand (bar some citizens returning from overseas who were tested in managed isolation), August saw a new outbreak in Auckland which brought with it a swift Level 3 lockdown for Auckland, and Level 2 restrictions for the rest of the country. Locking Auckland down (1.5 Mio people - or there abouts) has had considerable impact on other parts of the country, especially up here in Northland, the only region north of Auckland. Some people described Northland as an island, and while the economic impact is hard for many businesses, the swift action also means that our communities up here are kept safe. The restrictions were partially lifted as of Monday, and we have had many travellers return to Northland, so I am checking the news daily, hoping no cases are being exported out of Auckland into the regions. Sadly there were two more deaths this week, a total toll of 24 cases for a country of just over 5 Million.
Masks are now 'a thing': They are compulsory on public transport - except there is very little public transport in our region. For other places, they are recommended when you can't socially distance. Just prior to the official announcement coming out, I started a bit of mask-making, just in case, and I have since added a few more to the collection:
The Apple + Fig pattern seems to work quite well for wearing glasses when you include the wire (in this case pipe cleaner).
Neither the younger boys nor I have needed to wear masks just yet, but oldest DS apparently wears his away at uni, I'm rather relieved about this as he has T1D therefore is immunocompromised.
It's officially winter, time to hibernate - and sew :) I have now been back at work for 3 weeks, so slowly the home office is converting back to a sewing room. I have to say I miss my cosy little office, I enjoy the company at work but I feel I get distracted more easily sharing the office with up to 5 others.
First, let's catch up with the goals I had set for May:
Metrorings: Quilt 20 of the diamond shapes on the white background - I always thought this might be a stretch, but at least I quilted 14 of 27 in total
Patchworkcity: Add row 4 - DONE
One more row to add before borders
Rainbow at Sea: Piece approx. half of the yellow blocks - I pieced all four corner blocks
They always seem relatively fiddly but they aren't really, especially as fpp
Linedried: Piece section 4A - DONE
While a mystery to me, the designer probably had a reason to call this section 4A rather than 5?
Summer Sampler 2017: Piece weeks 4 & 5 - DONE
Still in two minds about the centre fabric; I'll see what it looks like surrounded by other blocks.
This is one is quite pretty
Venus: Continue (leader/ender) - continuing Mini Sparkler: Complete another 4 blocks - DONE
Another four blocks, and still using random scraps. Not really sure on the use of the stripes...
Eight blocks so far
I'm still not really sure where this is going, but these blocks are quick to make and are solely using up scraps.
Celebration: Design part / all of the ruler quilting, then trial one area / section - DONE
There aren't all that many examples of this particular top out there in blogosphere or on IG, and the printed top is no longer available from Honest Fabrics. I used Aurifil 50wt for the SID so I will continue with the same weight and brand of thread (and I somehow can't imagine adding more polyester to the feel of the top). While I wait for the order of matching coloured thread from my LQS, I have used Judi Madsen's example as a starting point for filling in the white spaces:
I made a start and I like it :) won't ask the teenager lol
Recently I noticed in the Fabrics by Three newsletter their 'retirement sale'. I bought a few things:
Metrorings: Quilt the remaining 13 white diamond shapes
Patchworkcity: Add remaining row of blocks
Rainbow at Sea: Finish all yellow block parts
Linedried: Piece Section 4B
Summer Sampler 2017: Week 6 Marine Star (6")
Venus: Continue (leader/ender)
Mini Sparkler: Piece four more blocks
Celebration: FMQ the rest of this section
EPP: This is really a 'tv watching activity' so I will just set myself a minimum of completing the Stairway to Heaven top
In other news the younger children are back at school, and the oldest child has secured accommodation on campus to return to his NZ university in July. DH is starting back teaching next week also. While New Zealand got away rather lightly so far, COVID-19 is having a lasting impact on everyone - from more vigilance regarding hygiene to 'signing into places' via the optional Covid Tracker app to keeping your distance from friends and acquaintances (no handshakes, hugs, hongis) to loss of jobs due to the financial impact, especially in tourism (which my work place belongs to). It is a sad process we have gone through and we are continuing to go through at work, saying good-bye to colleagues and friends.
However, COVID has also provided some unexpected opportunities: Our joint Raranga Matihiko teams from four museums around the North Islands have written and filmed #RarangaMatihikoTV - 16 episodes weaving together museum taonga (treasures) and digital as well as non-digital making activities. Currently available on Home Learning | Pāpa Kainga TV and TVNZ on demand, and in the future through our website rarangamatihiko.com (the site is being redeveloped right now, feel free to check it out now or wait a few days for things to settle into the new look). Here is one of the episodes featuring the Whare Rūnanga on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/home-learning-tv/episodes/sage-9-11-e118
And last night I signed up to an online workshop with Jenny Haynes, "Thistles Cogs & Caterpillar Wheels" through the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild; I couldn't have attended the actual workshop in Brisbane in person, so the forced move to online is really working in my favour :)
I spent the end of March and all of April working from home, and I expect to continue to do so for at least another fortnight. Our family are lucky to be healthy and happy, both of us have been able to move to working from home pretty seamlessly, and all three boys are engaged in some shape of online learning. Spending 40h every week in front of my work computer, I haven't really felt like blogging, but I have posted some of my pictures on Instagram - about time I catch up on my March and my April goals here!
Not entirely surprising with everything else that was going on, I did not complete all my March goals, and some of them moved into April. For the first time in history (I think) I can say I achieved all my goals!
Metrorings: Ghost quilt the melon shapes incl. feathers (9 in total) - COMPLETED IN APRIL Patchworkcity: Sew first couple of rows together to check on size, then add next row - DONE
After consulting IG friends, I settled on 3 1/2" wide sashing
This shot was to check the quilt will be large enough for my bed :)
Rainbow at Sea: Finish the orange blocks, then cut fabric for the yellow blocks - COMPLETED IN APRIL
Officially half-way!
This project is dragging along, but seeing the blocks laid out on my bed in this picture will keep me going :)
I will wait until I have all blocks pieced before I put the sections together. For the smallest star blocks, I will substitute every second one with a 3" square - who would want to match all those teeny-tiny points?
Section 3
Section 4
Summer Sampler 2017: Piece blocks for weeks 1 & 2, then week 3 - DONE
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3 - my favourite block yet.
Venus:Continue as leader / ender project - CONTINUING
This started from a project Suz had shared with me on IG, I cut out a gazillion curved shapes and pinned them to a flat sheet. Hubby has stepped on pins that poke out the sheet, pieces have lost their place, I have pieced the wrong blocks together - but when I see it come together, slowly, leader-ender style, the issues seem insignificant :) I won't rush it, but I look forward to the finished top (baby quilt size) which I will quilt to death eventually.
We are officially halfway!
Sparkler:My March goal was to piece another 4 blocks, but I ended up finishing it at 12 blocks and gifting it to a young couple at work who have now had their first baby girl, so this is DONE.
There is some pink ;)
I hope they get lots of use out of this :)
I liked the pattern enough to start a mini version with just 1 1/2" wide strips; for a change I am using black as the background with a jumble of scraps. We will see where this goes:
Celebration: SID around the 'in between' blocks, then around the outside blocks - COMPLETED IN APRIL
Generous on a double bed
I laid it out on one of my sons' bed to check size on a double bed; it sits nicely with plenty of overhang, just the way I like it. After seeing it there, youngest DS has now claimed this for himself; he would have been happy with no further quilting on it at all, but once I showed him a few examples of custom quilting, I am now allowed to do some more on it :)
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That leaves me to commit to my May goals: Metrorings: Quilt 20 of the diamond shapes on the white background Patchworkcity: Add row 4 Rainbow at Sea: Piece approx. half of the yellow blocks Linedried: Piece section 4A Summer Sampler 2017: Piece weeks 4 & 5 Venus: Continue (leader/ender) Mini Sparkler: Complete another 4 blocks Celebration: Design part / all of the ruler quilting, then trial one area / section
To quote our Prime Minister "stay safe and be kind!"
Despite the short month, I managed to achieve most of my February goals:
Metrorings: Finish quilting the feathers between the melon shapes DONE
Patchworkcity: Prepare the sashing strips - have prepared enough for 2 or 3 rows
Rainbow at Sea: Finish piecing the six 'orange' blocks - not quite there yet, still the middle SiaS to go, then piece the parts together
Linedried: Piece the three larger blocks for Section 2; make a decision on the smallest blocks (follow pattern or substitute?) - DONE
Summer Sampler 2017: Decide on fabrics / colours - DONE
Venus: Keep on working away on this, 1 block per 'sewing session' - first column DONE
Sparkler: Cut enough white 2 1/2" strips to piece another 3 blocks (which will bring total to 10) - DONE
Celebration / Perseverance: SID around all centre blocks - DONE
After years of hit and miss goals I had finally picked some achievable goals 😍. Let's see if I can do this for March, too.
March goals:
Metrorings: Ghost quilt the melon shapes incl. feathers (9 in total)
Patchworkcity: Sew first couple of rows together to check on size
Rainbow at Sea: Finish the orange blocks, then cut fabric for the yellow blocks
Linedried: Piece Section 3 blocks.
Summer Sampler 2017: Piece blocks for weeks 1 & 2
Venus: Continue as leader / ender project
Sparkler: Piece 4 blocks
Celebration: SID around the 'in between' blocks
In other 'news', while today marks the official start of autumn, the endless summer seems to continue, and still no rain on the horizon. Parts of the region are on Level 4 water restrictions, we are still on Level 3 but I have basically given up watering the veggie garden now, the tomatoes and capsicums are still going, some small courgettes are still appearing but that's basically the end of it. One positive is that the grass doesn't need much mowing lol and the temperature of our pool, which is luckily still full enough to operate, is still at 29 degC.
Sometimes I surprise myself by how much progress I can make. It’s taken several years to get the mixture of projects and the breakdown of steps refined, and this month it seems just right!
Linedriedquilt: The blocks for section 2 are completed - even the teeny-tiny ones! Don’t worry, though, I’ll alternate them with 3 1/2” blocks so I won’t have to match the points. On track for #monikasuzchallenge2020!
Venusquilt: The first column is done :) The pieces go together better than I had feared though I can foresee some seams matching better than others - so far so good.
Sparklerquilt: The blocks go together so quickly, even more so when pre-cutting the strips. One more block to go to meet my 10/20 blocks goal for February.
Patchworkcity2020: I have started cutting the sashing strips (after much deliberation I have cut 5 1/2” wide after all). I won’t cut all just yet, I want to see the first couple of rows pieced together first.
Metrorings: The feathers are done (TG, I really want to get this finished...). March goal will be to finish the 9 corresponding ghost blocks
This gives me time to finish the centre SID on Celebration / Perseverance next weekend.
Rainbow at Sea Quilt: 2 more parts to piece before I can piece my 9 ‘orange ‘ blocks together. I need to think carefully how I break this project down so it doesn’t still hang around as WIP in 2025...
Summer Sampler 2017: I’ll make up my mind on the fabric choices by next weekend. I want to use my Alison Glass Rainbow FQ pack that also makes Linedried but the colours don’t quite match the pattern so I need to do a bit of juggling.
While work has been no less busy than a couple of weeks ago, some of the stress has lessened and I have been able to do some ‘other stuff’, too. With the very dry summer (officially in drought) the peaches and tomatoes have been plentiful so I got back into some of my past homemade pursuits: Bottled peaches, frozen tomatoe paste and soap :)
Having been back at work for 3 weeks I do feel like I need another holiday, and that is despite two Public Holidays thrown in! A week of hui (meetings) with the nationwide Raranga Matihiko team, followed by our annual Waitangi Day festivities at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds PLUS the opening of our new museum Te Rau Aroha have taken their toll already - and we have barely started teaching...
Luckily, life is not just about work and we have enjoyed two weekends of camping over the last month. This summer seems endless at this stage, and while the lack of rain is starting to cause serious problems for many communities, thankfully we are still fine at this stage. The pool is a balmy 30degC (without any form of heating), so we are really enjoying ourselves at the moment. Our oldest DS has settled into the Finnish weather and his uni routine, and the two younger ones have returned to high school, so things are getting back into some resemblance of normal.
I hadn't quite gotten to the point of setting monthly goals in my Happy New Year post. I can see from January that I will need to include small, achievable goals, especially as work gets busier. These are my February goals:
Metrorings: Finish quilting the feathers between the melon shapes (14 to go) Patchworkcity: Prepare the sashing strips Rainbow at Sea: Finish piecing the six 'orange' blocks Linedried: Piece the three larger blocks for Section 2; make a decision on the smallest blocks (follow pattern or substitute?) Summer Sampler 2017: Decide on fabrics / colours Venus: Keep on working away on this, 1 block per 'sewing session' Sparkler: Cut enough white 2 1/2" strips to piece another 3 blocks (which will bring total to 10) Celebration / Perseverance: SID around all centre blocks
The Scraptherapy top and the Footstool keep on getting put off, but I will keep them on my list so they are on my radar.
Some of my progress to date: Linedried
Section 1 is pieced but not sewn together as I want to be able to swap blocks across the top.
The larger blocks for Section 2 are prepared. Missing are two of the smallest size blocks: At 3" finished I'm not sure yet if I am up for the challenge or if I will substitute them
I feel I am starting to get better at piecing the hourglass blocks: I had struggled getting them to fit and sit flat when I realised that my 1/4" seams were too generous. I have since corrected my needle position, have started starching the fabric before cutting and changed my method. Rather than cutting triangles, I make two HSTs by putting two squares on top of each other, I mark a diagonal with my Hera marker and then stitch to either side. Cut along the diagonal to end with two HSTs, press seams to the darker side, put both squares back together, right sides facing but one square rotated by 90º and voila! you get beautiful hourglass blocks:) Thanks as usual goes to Suz who always has a solution to my sewing conundrums :)
Sparkler
Seven blocks so far
It's almost too easy to put this together; I'll stick with light blue, dark blue and aqua for this quilt and work on distributing the colours when all 20 blocks are pieced. There are many beautiful examples of this online, but the limited colour way works with my goal of reducing stash and scraps. One of the few patterns I could well imagine repeating...
Celebration / Perseverance:
So far just some SID
I have to keep on reminding myself that I don't need to love every project: At this stage I don't love this one. I'm not in love with the feel of the material or with the colours, and this is the second quilt I'm using the new to me cotton-poly batting which, after years of 100% cotton or cotton-bamboo mixes, I struggle with. Just looking at it now I could imagine leaving it as a simple SID, but I will try to get push through that and make this my ruler quilting practice.
Hope you have your monthly goals sorted? Happy Sewing!
Some projects just take FOREVER, and my Metro Rings quilt is one of those projects... I first mentioned it in a post on 12 May 2015 while we were living in Brisbane, I have posted about it a few times and it's been languishing next to my Sweet Sixteen for months now (it's be a favourite sleeping place for our cats, some of the stains on it are from kitty cats that are no longer with us...). Yesterday I picked it up again and added some more quilting.
After some more work on it this afternoon I decided to assess where I am at for now (that left me rather frustrated...).
I found a new place to hang up quilts - on the pergola
To put it on record (after all, it doesn't count if you don't blog about it, aye?), this is what quilting is still left to do:
Giant 8s in the pieced rings: 15 blocks
Feather inners: 19 blocks
Orange peel & micro-stippling in corner stones: 11 blocks + 3 blocks that need un-picking and re-doing
Above quilting in HSTs: 9 blocks + 3 blocks to unpick & re-do
Above quilting in quarter-triangle (is this a word??): 2 blocks
Ghost rings: 9 blocks
Secondary pattern (white on white): 25 full blocks, 16 half blocks, 2 quarter blocks
Rather a lot left to do still but I am hopeful I will still like it - let's see if I can get this done before the 4y anniversary :)
I like the texture in the late afternoon sun...
... and I think this looks very cool (even if I say so myself)
I learnt so much through the mistakes I made in this quilt, incl. piecing of circles, using rulers for quilting, suitable motifs to distract from mistakes, using S16 to quilt etc. etc. that I decided to call the quilt "Learning through Mistakes". Let's hope I won't have to learn too much about removing the stains from this top...
Term 1 was bound to be a busy term workwise, and with the convenience and ease of posting to IG there is nothing to show for on my blog :( I actually got quite a bit done, here is my progress against my New Year's resolutions:
Quilt and finish Vintage Quilt Revival - nope, done nothing with it yet.
Quilt and finish Metro Rings: I'm toying with the idea of calling this Learning from Mistakes because by all means it is certainly not perfect. However, it is starting to take shape with custom quilting (who would have guessed lol):
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I have since changed the design for the green squares, but that needs some further work still. I still need inspiration to strike for the large white background spaces.
Complete, quilt and finish Improv Pohutukawa - just in the last stages of quilting this piece. I am waiting for more variegated green for the Kikuyu grass at the bottom, and I'm a bit stuck on how to quilt the Pohutukawa blossoms. Any suggestions?
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Ruler quilting on my Pfaff: This has continued to frustrate me, despite buying the Pfaff extension table; somehow I thought this would help. However, at the end of March I was offered a Sweet Sixteen demo machine with very low stitch count. More to this below...
Use left-over blocks for a new project: I don't know what it is, but at the moment plus blocks keep on calling me. Here is one I finished earlier; again I used the piped binding to finish this quilt. I cut it much narrower this time, 1 1/2" for the green piping, and just 1 1/4" for the grey binding. While I still want to practise to get it perfect, I'm much happier with this result.
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Arty quilt for DH: Well, he still hasn't made up his mind on that one, but after I kept on complaining about the very ugly interesting armchair he bought second-hand, he suggested I could make a quilt to cover it. He liked the combination of fabrics in Shades of Grey, so I pulled out my considerable collection of grey, black, white and reds and joined the #berninazenchicqal:
Inspired by the Throwing pattern I wanted my colours to move from dark to light. With the help of Ombre and Hatch both by Timeless Treasures as backgrounds I might even manage to tie in the odd stray cream that snuck into the mix.
What else have I been doing?
I had a small collection of mini-charms, started with a pack I won at retreat with the Brisbane MQG. They had been pulled out, drooled over, sorted, put away again multiple times (no mini-charms were hurt during this process lol). In January I finally jumped in and turned them into a runner for the bottom of my bed - or alternatively the (extended) dining table. To my mind it looks like a cityscape, with different height houses and towers next to each other - quite different to how we live. The colours are more subdued than what I normally use, the whole process of 'put it together and see what happens' is so different to what I normally do (just ask Suz, I'm sure I must drive her nuts with my planning sizes etc. all out beforehand), and I use Madeira Polyneon to quilt (organic straight lines) - hence the working title Unlike me or maybe even Not at all like me! I still like it, and eventually it will get finished and used :)
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On this photo it almost looks like a traffic light, or a flower?
Criss Cross Applesauce is a pattern by Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting. It immediately appealed to me, and with two babies due at work before the end of the year, a few of these blocks should work nicely and tame the stash. Originally I hoped for 6 blocks (per quilt), but I don't have enough of the background for one of them, so 4 blocks and some extra rows top and / or bottom should work. I'm left with a whole lot of cut off triangles, so I'm incorporating them into a row of zig zag as well. Looks much better in real life than on the photo:)
And then there is the Sweet Sixteen!!! When oldest DS moved to university in February, youngest DS was moved out of the Sewing Room into oldest DS' room. The uni student now has the smallest bedroom in the house, but then he is only here for a few months a year now. Therefore the Sewing Room (and hubby's office) got rearranged:
Unnamed as yet... The table is a little higher than both the bookshelf on the left and the table on the right, but I will eventually rectify this. Obviously also used as dumping ground when needed lol
My current setup: S16 on the left, Pfaff QE 4.0 on the right, with the butcher block in the middle acting as cutting station and/or holding the small ironing board. The Singer 201K is currently at the other end of the house in the hallway for 'decoration'.
The Sweet Sixteen works very well for me. It had only 66000 stitches, so was barely used. As per the recommendation from the shop, I got practising with a real quilt (Always has my back - further up). While it feels a little counter-intuitive when you come from fmq on a DSM, fast stitches and slowing moving of the quilt result in very nice stitches. However, the machine itself doesn't make one a good quilter; years of practise on my DSM have helped immensely, otherwise I doubt I could just sit down and complete a single quilt in a couple of hours like I did (admittedly it was a simple, generous stipple). There are a few things I have to get used to, the wheel is hard to reach, so where normally I would have reversed the needle back onto the line manually, it took me a couple of week to realise there was a wheel, where it was and how to reach it (a struggle even with my long arms). I absolutely love that the machine will go in any direction and not skip stitches!
The shop also gave me the HandiVersa tool as I told them I wanted to get into ruler quilting. Interestingly, this is harder than I had expected. For some reason, some machines (incl. mine) don't sit flush in their table. According to other quilters on FB, HandiQuilter supplies alternative rubber feet for under the machine free of charge. I have contacted the shop owner and she will find out how to get these for me.
About 3/16" between the top of the table and the top of the stitchplate.
You can clearly see the large gap between the ruler and the table.
Lastly, here is a very different artwork, on display at my work, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. In New Zealand, the 25th April is Anzac Day, commemorating soldiers and veterans on the anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli. It is very common to wear poppies for this occasion, and as many school classes do, we wanted children in our Holiday Programme to create their own poppies. During our discussions, the idea was born to incorporate a korowai, a particular Māori cloak worn by rangatira (chiefs or persons of high rank), to incorporate a reference to the 28th Māori Battalion which fought in WWII and has a special connection to the Treaty Grounds. One of our staff, known as Ocean Pearl, created the korowai from harakeke (flax, belonging to the corduline family), dyed it and mounted it on decorated canvas. The children (and their families) crafted and attached poppies to the canvas on the side. You can see Under the cloak to Tūmatauenga in Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.
Staying with the Anzac Day them, middle DS just performed in his first public play "Billy goes to War". Here he is with a group of his co-actors behind the scenes:
The tall young man in the last row on the left... Image Source
