A write-off?

Happy New Year:) With all the 2016 reflection and 2017 resolution posts floating around the blogosphere, it is time for me to say 2016 has been a write-off for me in regards to blogging. All of 4 posts!!! I put a few things on Instagram and posted some into the BMQG Members Group on Facebook, but the number of posts is a reflection on how I felt about my year - nothing much worth sharing. Let's see what comes to mind as reflection:

At the end of January I had started in a new position, classroom teaching, and it has been hard work. I ended up getting sick at the end of the school year and sadly didn't have a chance to see the last few days of the school year out with my class. Work had a big impact on my quilting, and it's only now that my contract has finished that I feel creativity and a need to work on something and to make stuff have returned.

The boys have all settled in well at their high school, all received a price / certificate in some shape or form at their respective end of year assemblies, and the oldest has last week passed his Learner's Licence; now to persuade him to actually learn to drive a car... DH has had his contract for the next 6 months confirmed and he is enjoying his work (teaching for a tertiary institution).

With moving into our new-to-us home at the end of February 2016 we found the garden very overgrown and in need of serious TLC aka chainsaw pruning. DH and I have spent a lot of time as of late to weed and mulch, and it's starting to take shape:

   

While the rest of New Zealand seems to have a hard time getting sunshine and warm temperatures, Northland has been blessed with lots of good weather, to the point of a drought threatening. We have spent a lot of time relaxing at the pool, and with both my sister's family and my mum & partner living close by, my niece has learnt to bomb as well as her teenage cousins:

  

Kerikeri Stone Store and Mission House

We live in a beautiful part of the country, lots of historically significant places within walking distance or easy commute:

Kerikeri Inlet from Kororipo Pa (Stone Store and Mission House towards left)

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

Reflection: I actually did some sewing in 2016 (the following in no particular order)

Vintage Quilt Revival Block Exchange with +Suz J:

Back in April 2016 there were 11, now there are 23 blocks:

I laid out each pair of blocks side by side to show the similarities and differences between them. 

 7 more different blocks to go - we might get that done in 2017 :)

Giant Chevron

I've only just recently unfolded it again (it's been living in the corner on top of my sewing table) and I am still (!) quilting the background outside the chevron. Just about half way; by the time I am finished it will need a VERY serious wash owing to the cats that have been sleeping on it over time...

An old photo, but it hasn't changed all that much...

I have had less trouble with thread breaking since I started on this again, but I have noted, when I fmq a circle, clockwise, between 5 and 7 on the clock face my machine can skip stitches. It's not always possible to stitch anticlockwise, so I've been careful and slowing down to try and avoid this issue.

Press Start

This is now quilted, labeled, and I have started stitching down the binding. After some experimenting DS and I settled on invisible thread for the top and black for the bottom (I might live to regret this choice, but it quilted a treat and looks just like we wanted it to - blending in but not completely).

   

From Gunda's Hope Chest

Needs to be ironed...

My MiL gave me beautiful damask from her hope chest when we visited Germany 3 1/2y ago. Instead of making duvet covers, I turned it into a large quilt for our bed. There is one problem with California King Size beds, the quilts need to be ginormous! Now I can put this on first and smaller quilts on top :)

Opal Essence

Yep, still walking foot quilting the cubes. Enough said...

   

Aotearoa Quilt Challenges

Tree of Life

Winter Blossom

I entered a piece each for the Yellow and the Floral Challenge.

Totally Cactus

I made a couple of these as Christmas presents:

   

Whakapapa #1

I don't think I blogged about this one? I finished it last summer, it's a piece inspired by the landscape of where we grew up in Germany:

   

Resolution

To a certain degree the success (or otherwise) will be influenced by work (and I am still applying for jobs atm). What I would like to do (again in no particular order):

• Finish Press Start (binding, bury threads)
• Finish Giant Chevron (quilting, binding, bury threads)
• Finish Opal Essence (quilting, binding, bury threads)
• Complete remaining Vintage Quilt Revival blocks (anything else is a bonus)
• Piece Metro Rings top (anything else is a bonus) 

• I started a new little project, inspired by Christa Watson's Positive Direction, let's see where this one goes:

Great way to use up my gazillions of leftover 3" squares from the Tokyo Subway Map quilt

• Something 'arty' - it's been a long time since I made an 'art quilt' and I have various ideas floating around.

Well, now that it's written down, I'll have to do it, won't I? 

Happy Sewing!

The problem with blogging...

... is that you need to have something to blog about... This blog is about quilting, and it gets quite boring (at least to me) when I have nothing new to write about!

After our most recent move late February I set up my sewing room in Bedroom No. 4 (leaving only the small 'office' for youngest DS - sorry!) - you can see some pictures in this post. What I was missing was a design wall, and there wasn't really any space for it - except on the wardrobe doors:

I have since covered both doors.

Leftover cotton batting, a staple gun and lots of swear unkind words and I have an approx. 2x2m design wall! This is what it looks like right now:

Just one issue with it, you can't get into the wardrobe / cupboard while you have blocks going over the middle...

What you can see is the second half of middle DS' video game quilt I started earlier this year. I had run out of material, and it's not that easy to get a big range of Bella Solids locally. I had not been to Country Dawn in Whangarei before, but they were happy to order the majority of my fabrics in, and most, through not all, matched the old batches very well. The remaining half meters (or in this case half yards) came from the Fat Quarter Shop in the States, together with some 2 1/2" squares (which I can't show you because they are inside the cupboard!).

That's as far as I had gotten back in April

While the design wall is not wide enough to have all blocks up, I had a little play with photos to get an idea of how it might look all put together:

Some of you might be aware that digital technology and e-learning are an important part of my day job. Moving photos from iPhone or iPad to the laptop to insert into blog posts can be a pain. I use a free app called Flick (available here) to move photos between devices, which makes things much easier.

So what else have I been up to:

Aotearoa Quilters have organised two challenges for this spring - Yellow and Floral challenge. I have entered a quilt for each:

Winter Blossoms on the left, and Tree of Life on the right.

With a bit of luck I might make it to the Festival of Quilts in Auckland this weekend and get to see them again.

While the damask whole cloth quilt is still unnamed, it has been on my bed for several weeks now:

Damask wrinkles...

Pastellation would just be a little too small for my 2x2m bed without the damask one underneath.

I am still on and off  quilting Opal Essence, I think I might have about a third of the boxes done now:

Still quite a bit to go, though it isn't 'hard' work (except burying threads, I've fallen behind again!)

Suz and I have been working on our Vintage Quilt Revival Sampler Block Exchange (what a mouth full)! My blocks are safely inside the cupboard, so I am sneakily copying some of her photos from her blog:

Suz' version...

... and mine

Suz' version...

... and mine

I'm not exactly sure what our current count is, but somewhere in the 20s, definitely beyond half-way :)

Other than my sewing our family are enjoying spring, DH had done lots of chainsaw pruning through the overgrown garden that came with the house and we have started planting and mulching - I'll have to get some of his before and after photos for another post. My BiL made a start at acid-washing the concrete around the pool which makes a huge difference, and I have water blasted the majority of the decks. DH and our youngest DS have built a chicken run and last weekend these cuties moved in:

4 lavender and one black Araucana, hopefully all hens and no roosters! They will probably be joined soon by another hen and her chicks.

'Shady dude' aka youngest DS and one of his new friends

DH has been working since August now which is not only a great help financially, he enjoys being out and about again. Unfortunately last week on the way home from work someone crashed into the back of his car. He was fine, but the car has been at the panelbeater's since and we will hopefully today hear the verdict (looks like a write-off...).

My work situation has changed, sadly my school has decided not to employ me again next year... Onwards and upwards, as usual for this time of year it seems I am back hunting for jobs... well, there's always tonight's Lotto jackpot of course! My body seems to tell me that I have worked too hard lately, I was off work on Friday and then took my back out! I have a couple of days off again as well as enough painkillers to supply have a village. The upside is that I managed to complete this and an e-learning blog post.

The boys are doing well, oldest DS has turned 16 and has agreed to try and get his Learner's Licence as well as practising to drive! His last day at school is this Friday, he will still have 4 exams to complete but that is all until February. If it was up to him that would mean staying at home for the next 3 months playing computer but we'll see what we can do. The other two still have school until early December.

That's about all I can think off for now. Happy Sewing!

The trouble with the day job...

... is that it really eats up my 'me time'! As I have mentioned previously, I have returned into the classroom, teaching 6-8y olds - a challenge in itself you could say, and especially so when it's my first time teaching at this level. There are many things I enjoy - letters and pictures that say "you're the best teacher", hugs from students when they race into the classroom in the morning, an "ohh" when you tell them you'll be away the next day - it really is all about relationships. The learning happens when relationships are in place, and I am very proud of the progress they have made. However, it does come at a price, it impacts on time with family, on time spending online in my area of passion, teacher PLD, and especially it affects the time I have to be creative myself - and to blog about it! Every now and then I have put an image up on Instagram, feel free to check out my posts here.

Over the last few months I have mainly worked on our Vintage Quilt Revival Sampler, right now I have 14 blocks sitting here. Suz and I are not following a schedule religiously but we generally aim at one block a month; at the rate we are going, we should have our 40 blocks each together by the end of 2017 :)

While we have learnt a lot about what NOT to do when deciding on a feature fabric for a block exchange sampler quilt (wow, there's a mouthful!) as Suz has written about here, I am really pleased how it is all starting to go together. I can see though that I'm starting to run out of sizeable pieces in some colours, so when budget allows I will have to go back and by more yellows and reds I think. 

I have had a really good play with my Moda Solids and so far ended up with this:

Next step will be to buy another half meter of each of the colours plus a dark blue to border it with. This will allow me to turn it into a double size quilt (a certain 13y old does not seem to stop growing...)

I have also sandwiched the damask whole cloth quilt (damask from MiL's hope chest) and started the straight-line quilting. It's been sitting there for a little while, would be great to get it completed these school holidays.

DH has complained for quite some time that I haven't been making any 'arty' quilts but I wasn't in the right headspace. The inspirational Charlotte got a group of us together to encourage each other with entering Aotearoa Quilters challenges, so this might get me back into it? I am interested in entering both the yellow and the floral challenges,  but I haven't found the right inspiration(s) just yet.

Should I play with silks?

There's also quite a few yellow scraps...

I'm glad there are two weeks of holidays to help me get my creative fix - might keep me going for the next 9 weeks of term time? How do you keep yourself going when time is scarce?

Happy Sewing