Sorting Scraps

I finally got to make a start on sorting out those fabric scraps. Thanks to Wanda's suggestion I gave myself a half hour which turned into almost an hour and made a good start. So far I have strips 1.5" and squares 2.5", 3.5", 4.5" and 6.5" Yesterday I purchased some small containers to fit each size and hey presto; containers of neatly cut uniform squares ready for a project.

The actual pressing and cutting was quite therapudic and the end result is very satisfying. Can't wait to get some more done. At the moment I'm busy trying to finish my kaleidoscope quilts for September 4. Thanks to the wet weather I've been kept indoors and had plenty of opportunity to work on them.

Also thanks to the wet weather, I'll have plenty of weeding in the gardens to do.
My girls have taken advantage of the cooler weather to curl up. My son left his quilt on the lounge and it didn't take them long to make a cosy spot for themselves. Fleur is on the left and Jayne on the right. Luckily they're on the back of the quilt. I read a little quote one day that said "Dogs have owners and cats have slaves". These two have got that right but I love their company.

Blessing In Disguise

Sometimes things happen for a reason and I look at my sewing maching breaking down as one of those times. I had hoped to get the binding on my kaleidoscope quilt but the maching had other ideas. Actually it was the feed dogs that wouldn't co-operate. They were staying down and no amount of pleading on my part was going to change their mind. So after the initial frustration of it all, I spread out the first of the two narrow quilts for sandwiching and I am 7/8's finished. I also done some hand embroidery on another project, which reminded me of why I enjoy hand sewing. It's relaxing and nothing can break down.

While home on holidays from Uni, my daughter decided she'd like to make her own lap quilt. I'm proud to say that it's all her work, from design to completion. I forgot to take a picture so she sent me a photo when she got back.

I would like to include a photo of one of the quilts my mother has made. She prefers to hand sew, so Dorothy Clark's 'Cottage Gardens Wall-Hanging' was just the one. Here it awaits being sandwiched and bound. It now has pride of place on one of her beds.

It also goes to show that a love of sewing, patchworking and quilting runs in our family as in many families, passed down from mother to daughter. I might add that my grandmother is an avid hand embroiderer, knitter and crocheter and her hands are never idle at the age of 90.

The weather man forcasts rain for today and tomorrow. It's getting bleaker by the minute so I hope he's right. A lovely day for staying indoors and ... quilting.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

Here's a sneak preview of the quilt I've been working on since attending a kaleidoscope workshop. This is before I sandwiched and I am currently in the process of quilting. I've gone with a jungle leaf repeated 8 times over the quilt in free motion. I'll fill any large spaces with perhaps a hibiscus outline.

This is only half of the hexagons that were made from the fabric. These are all the ones that had any blue in them. The other half I sorted again into orange/green and red/white/green and am making two longer narrow wall hangings.

Here is the original fabric.

No Red Yet

I'm still waiting for the red rose to open up but here are the next two.

A friend of mine who grows beautiful roses suggested I buy a 'Peter Frankenfeld'. I'm very happy that I did. I didn't have a pink rose.

I also decided to try a different yellow this time and found 'King's Ransom'. Another satisfied sigh.

This is the view from our verandah last Thursday morning at 6.30am. Yesterday visibility while driving to work was almost nil and again this morning there was a heavy fog.

I'm hoping to get the borders sewn around three wall hangings today so that I can be sandwiching them tomorrow when our small quilters group get together. Fingers crossed.