Progress?

You know those weeks that just fly past, and you think you have achieved nothing? I felt like this over the last fortnight, but I actually still made some progress:

Block 14 - completed at the end of Feb but I don't think I have had it on the blog yet

Block 15: I had wanted to save on fabric for the top left block Forest Park, but in the end had to recut the triangles... Note to self: Measure twice, cut once... The rest went together very quickly.

One of the examples of how much material gets sucked up in the seams; from this...

... to that!

The #zenstudioqal has come along in leaps and bounds:

Week 4 asked for the blocks with furry friends... here you have one of our kittens and her 'furry' friend (Master 14 needs a haircut...)

Week 5 saw the 24 block centre pieced together...

... and the IG challenge required toes peeking out from under it - thanks Master 16y!

The cushion pattern had the first two fabrics chosen...

Amazing what one can find in the scraps box...

Thanks to my hunt through scraps (which I continue to cut down using the Scraptherapy approach) I rediscovered my #berninazenchicqal leftovers and started playing with triangles to cover the footstool to go with hubby's chair:

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Overshadowing everything is the absolute tragedy that has unfolded here in New Zealand since Friday afternoon when one gunman killed 50 people in two Christchurch mosques and injured another 50 - absolutely unprecedented in Aotearoa New Zealand. The outpouring of love and support for victims and their families from around the country and from overseas has been immense, and the one good thing that I hope will come from this is that Kiwis and other peoples will be closer and more united against hatred and racism. He tried to steal the innocence and the peace of Aotearoa New Zealand but he will not succeed.

Kia Kaha - Stay Strong!

Washing, washing and yet more washing again...

I had a very fruitful sewing time while the cat was away hubby and two boys were in Europe, but since their return my life seems to revolve around washing, washing and yet more washing every weekend... While spring has officially sprung, the weather is still too wet and / or not reliable enough to dry washing on the rotary line outside, so both clothe horses full of washing are the 'in' look in the Himmelgarten household...

That was just the first half of yesterday...

Not only did the boys bring back photos, souvenirs and memories, they also brought our teenage nephew with them who'll stay with us until the end of the year - yes, I am heavily outnumbered by boys.

My sewing room has become the youngest son's bedroom (nephew is in his old room), so for now I make do with a smaller sewing desk again, out in the family room - not quite as convenient as the sewing room but better than nothing. Purely by fluke I purchased an addition to my sewing gadgets:

A Singer 201K, from approx. 1948/49, after a good clean and lots of oil it's working just fine for piecing

So what have I been up to?

Finish Press Start (binding, bury threads)

Finish Giant Chevron - done and on my bed (in need of a wash already lol)

Pinned up against the bookshelf in the family room

details...

more details...

more details again...

• Finish Giant Chevron (quilting, binding, bury threads): 38 of 40 cubes quilted, and I have decided on large pebbles for the dark background:

Originally I had wanted to have it to look like a meandering river, but this didn't look right...

Better?

Might no be as clearly a river now, but the pebbles contrast well with the straight lines.

• Complete remaining Vintage Quilt Revival blocks: I have started piecing the blocks together, 6 rows of 7 blocks each, with 3 1/2" (cut) sashing, and the first two rows are joined. Following +Suz J's example, my horizontal sashing strips are cut to 12 1/2" (block size), with a 3 1/2" square cornerstone in the same colour to  help keep everything lined up and straight. So far so good (with the help of pins:D).

• Piece Metro Rings top 

• Plus Block project 

• 'Arty' Pohutukawa landscape - yet to make more progress

As I mentioned in my last post, variety keeps me interested and I started & finished two little projects:

This little triangle "Shades of Grey" (I think that's what I called it?) has winged its way over to Oz to the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild for an exhibition

A new little laptop pouch for my colleague & friend

Sometimes it's a bit frustrating to see such little progress; however, slowly but surely I'll get my resolution list done. How are you doing with any resolutions you made at the start of the year?

Happy Sewing!

In short bursts

It's been harder to leave work at work over the last few weeks, but this weekend I made a big effort to do 'normal' stuff. On Saturday hubby and I worked together in the garden, but on Sunday I got my sew on :)

Blocks 17 & 18 - just two more to go!

A few weekends ago, Suz and I went to our LQS (a good hour 's drive south of us). Amongst a few other things, I bought pattern & materials for Annie's Carry all Tote - perfect for the beautiful music inspired material Suz gave me for a past birthday:

It now carries my lunch, tablet, papers, charging cable etc. between work & home. I still LOVE work, but I could do with more time in my sewing room...

Happy Sewing!!!

MiA from blogger land...

As Chris H rightly pointed out recently, I've once again gone MiA from blogger land... Things have been a bit stressful lately, work starting going into a different direction from what I had in mind, so I ended up giving my notice at the end October. The company decided to make it effective immediately, so in effect I finished work 3 weeks ago.

We had decided from the outset that we would go for at least 1 or at least 3 years to allow our oldest son to complete the last two years of his secondary schooling in one place, and I have been missing friends and family a lot over the last two months, so in a fortnight we will be heading back home to New Zealand for good:) We'll be missing the weather, the shopping, the new friends we made, esp. the girls from the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild!

I have been sewing, though, and enough so to wear our the knee lift on my Pfaff machine :0 With encouragement of the BMQG girls I have given Instagram another shot, here are some of my recent posts:

#puddlejump all finished, washed repeatedly to get rid of #clover chalk - no mean feat. Now to add writing on the label in German - yikes #neverdonethisbefore @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 3, 2015 at 12:08am PST

my version of #opalessence all in one piece and hangs surprisingly straight lol #basting and then #howtoquiltit ? @brisbanemqg @lorena_in_syd

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 10, 2015 at 6:11pm PST

This was a Community Quilt I made from some donated orphan blocks, backed with Minky:

#communityquilt @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Oct 31, 2015 at 4:15pm PDT

I also had fun with some smaller projects:

Have a little assembly line going on here #circlezipperpouch #xmaspressies? All @myriamquilts 's fault lol @dogundermydesk @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 6, 2015 at 5:59pm PST

#matchingclips tempting to leave but probably not very practical!

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 7, 2015 at 2:12pm PST

Look what the clever @fiberlosophy taught us today! #zippypouch @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 15, 2015 at 4:25am PST

Number 2 #zippypouch @fiberlosophy @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 16, 2015 at 11:14pm PST

Even the Giant Chevron is getting some much needed attention:

#giantchevron #quiltingthesnotoutofit inspired by @leahdayquilting @angelafmq @judiakagreenfairy @brisbanemqg

A photo posted by Monika Kern (@belchick1) on Nov 19, 2015 at 12:09am PST

With my machine due to disappear into the container soon for the next 5-7 weeks, I better get my sew on while I can - amidst trying to find a rental, applying for jobs, sorting out, packing, selling the cars etc. etc. Wish me luck!

Happy Sewing!

I had forgotten...

... how heavy a full size quilt is - jeepers! As I need a little rest, I thought I finally update the blog. I have become a very boring blogger, with far too big gaps between posts, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.

Remember this?

25 blocks, each 12 1/2" 

with sashing and keystones

with the first border

as this is for a built-in bedroom suite (bed same size as ours), the side borders have to finish short of the top.

pin basted - I had Mst15 help me move the dining table to have enough space

Crystal is showing where the border finishes - just before she started biting the white pinmoor...

instead of SID I follow Ms Lottie's advice and quilt diagonals

I have now stitched three of the diagonal lines (only about 35 to go...), hard work! This thing is heavy on my small sewing table! Still, I am pleased that the polyester batting I chose gives plenty of 'puff'. I tentatively have in mind to fill the large squares with fmq, I was contemplating feathers, but I'm not sure yet. I recently treated myself to a Westalee quilting ruler foot (plus ruler), and I am considering to use one of their rulers - what do you think?

By the way, do you know how hard it is to get polyester batting in Brisbane? Everyone carries cotton and bamboo which is great, but in this case I wanted loft and less weight as I will have to post it. Saying that, the whole thing is very heavy, and it won't get lighter with quilting...

The cubes are put together and are waiting to be appliquéd onto the middle strip:

The Metro Rings quilt (aka Double Wedding Ring Cheater?) has been sorely neglected, I have pieced these blocks and they have patiently been waiting for me...

Suz and I have started our trans-Tasman block swap for our Vintage Quilt Revival Samplers. This little block winged its way over to NZ last month

I am obviously a slow learner, it's taken me all these years to realise you get much nicer points when you open the seams...

and this is what was left over after making block 2. My first proper attempt at Foundation Piecing and I liked it, though I missed the memo on trimming the seam allowances after adding each piece so I had to cut some of the surplus out by hand ;)

Middle DS needed a new pencil case:

to be perfectly honest, the left end of the zip where it meets the seam on the side is a bit dodgy but I haven't had complaints about it :)

Lastly, a quick little community quilt / baby throw made from gorgeous orphan blocks. A very nice collection of fabrics, I just had too add one block and then piece it all together with plenty of borders. The back is a minkey I found on special at one of the LQS, add a generous stipple, and now I just have to finish stitching on the binding:

Life has been interesting... the boys are doing ok at school, they have just enjoyed the first week of school holidays which I had taken leave for, too - my first proper break since January, it was long overdue. We have travelled a little, at short notice we went inland to Toowoomba to watch the flower parade, took the boys to the Gold Coast to Ripley's Believe or Not and the beach. On Thursday the lovely Ms Lottie and kids came to visit which was lovely.
Next week I'm back at work and need to get ready for my trip home to NZ for a conference - can't wait to meet up with everyone! While I enjoy living in Brisbane, I have really been missing home over the last few weeks - the weather is much warmer over here though, so they better order some sunshine for when I come over!

As always I'll endeavour to make the gaps between posts shorter... Happy Sewing!

Spring Fling on a grey winter's day

Spring Fling is completed - enjoy:

Rain, rain, go away...

Term break and the weather in the first week has been atrocious! We've had a massive storm that has left roads and country side flooded (just google "Northland storm flooding 2014" to see some of the pictures...). We ended up with no power for 72h from Tuesday night to Friday night. Thank goodness it wasn't too cold (though we ended up borrowing a gas heater on Friday - that's what you get when you build a house with heat pumps and no fire place lol). Our freezer had a sleepover at Suz' place who got power back before us, our oldest son had a sleepover at Oma's (who had power and wifi ;D) and the rest of the time we just got on with things. We had access to plenty of water with 10,000 gallons in the water tanks but carrying it inside in buckets is not that much fun (incl. water for flushing the toilet...). In the aftermath of the storm we are dealing with road closures and detours, but overall our family are just fine, much better off than some other people.

As I am not a friend of handwork I didn't get much done last week - I seriously got tempted to take it up I can tell you! I have made up a little since, let's hope the power stays on :)

Here are some pics of Fireworks which I finished and washed at the end of June; as this is a UFO from 2012 (??) I will share this also on Sew It's Finished:

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Subway is getting there, still quilting endless echo spirals... I won't bore you with pictures that are just more of the same. I think I might have about 2/3rds done now.

I am getting a bit restless with quilting this big beast, so I have basted and SIDed Spring Fling. Using some polyester batting for the loft (and because I still had it on hand lol) it is waiting to be quilted further now. I might try to imitate the quilting on the original.

It's fairly puffy looking as you can see :)

My apologies, I had pinned it upside down so I flipped the photo which looks a bit strange now (at least to me!)

Weekend before last I needed some instant gratification type - combine that with a colleague leaving at the end of the month this will be heading her way:

Remember the lovely coaster Suz gave me for Christmas? I used the same pattern :)

Here is my coaster for Di :) Hope she'll like it :)

So that's me all caught up - I think? What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Happy Sewing!