Finally Flowers ..

10 maybe 15 years ago we went through a "Let's Grow Orchids" phase.

Some are still lurking around the garden in various stages of neglect - except One.

I planted it on a hollow log that was put under the Japanese Maples and forgotten, but each time we weeded the Violets from around it we were surprised that it was actually flourishing.

Today I walked past and noticed its First Ever Flower Spike!

I was doing all sorts of excited 'Happy Dances' 

and DH said 'Oh yeah I saw that last week....'

- Good Grief-

Anyway I was happy...

And keen to watch the buds opening

Are they Green..

Or Yellow?

No - Cream

With Purple Spots in it's Throat.

It has long since lost it's label so I can't tell you what it is - 

(Any Ideas? 

Let me know in the comments!)

Hexagon Mystery - Finished

 Well, I am feeling pretty pleased with myself!

I started the Mystery Hexagon Quilt as a distraction to all things that were happening at our place back in September - and 5 clues behind everyone else.  

It took me 37 weeks and several lockdowns to finish what was scheduled as a 35 week project.

In the end, I did stray from the original pattern and changed the final corner instructions from straight lines to continuing the pattern to the edges.

The next job was to Appliqué the borders on and they didn't take as long as I thought they would. 
(A quick Click and Collect to GJ's for some Roxanne Glue helped) and reminded me that I actually like Applique!

It was very satisfying to put in the Last Stitch.  

Under normal conditions it would call for a Celebratory 'Coffee and Cake' down the Local Cafe - But sadly not this time!

So here it is.  Not a terribly Good Photo as it was attached to the Garage Door with Magnets!

I will leave the 'Glamour Shots' for when it has been Quilted.

For the moment it is now as finished as it can be and waiting for this Lockdown - (Are we still in #6 ?) to be over so I can hand it over to be Quilted.

Mystery Quilt - Another Catch up

The last Progress report on my Mystery Quilt from Jemima's Creative Quilting was back in March where I had just finished Part 10.

Part 11 involved making 24 Rosettes which were to begin the rows that Square up the Quilt.

They were all finished by the 11th June.

The quilt is getting much bigger and I can no longer work on my knee while watching TV.

The hexagons were also getting damaged requiring some repairs. 

So moving to the sewing table was the best place for stitching them to the growing quilt. 

However - At that time we were also Cat Sitting for our Son. 

Doogal apparently, is an undercover member of the Quilt Police and decided I needed to be observed intently!

In the meantime I have been unsettled with working on this project.  I remember that I started this to take me out of my 'comfort zone' in Colour and Fabrics but there was just something that wasn't right.

DH came to the conclusion that the Centre was "Too Light and Unbalanced" and suggested replacing the centre Hexagon 
(Yes - the First piece of the Quilt) 
with a darker fabric.

It took a bit of work to reinsert all the papers carefully back into the Second row before unpicking the Central Light hexagon and replacing it with a Dark Blue. 

His idea, was that this will now draw your eye to the Centre and not be overwhelmed by a lot of Lights.

It is better but in hindsight I would choose different Light Tones for the Quilt. 

There was just not enough definition between my lights and mediums for the Centre.

Part 11 is now complete.

I am working on Part 12.  

Now that The Quilt is no longer a Mystery, I can choose to work on each row or complete a Corner at a time.

Something to Contemplate!

Still Plodding On ...

My last post for Jemima's Mystery Hexi Quilt I had just realised that sewing blocks around the Quilt without referring to the instructions was not a good idea! 

The block marked with the arrow was not supposed to go on what will become the sides of the quilt.

Fortunately I was able to remove One Hexi on each of the incorrect pieces. 

Replacing them with a Dark Blue and extending the block to create a Part 10 section.

I have now remade all the replacements.  

Finished Part 10 and I am Good to Sew!

I must admit the couple of cooler Autumn evenings we have had have been perfect for stitching this project.

One of THOSE days..

Well, it has been one of THOSE months!
The only thing I can say in my defence is....

By the time I have dealt with what is on the calendar, there have been several other things that weren't on the calendar that weaselled their way into my week.

All very necessary of course.

And none of them was "Do a Blog Post about Today".

When I look back for my "Year in Review" post I am going to say "Whatever happened in March?"

March has been spent making these - lots of these!

and of course sewing them all together into the required "Flowers".

12 Blue and White

6 Pink and White

And I also worked on the next section

Which were these Part 9 Fillers.

Things were going along beautifully - I even started to stitching them onto the main Quilt

Until . . . I ran out of  "Filler" blocks.

A Classic Case of "When all else fails - Read the Instructions!"

Fortunately I have only TWO of the blocks to modify and get myself back on track.

Just hope I have enough of the Blue Floral Print!

Jemima's Mystery Update

 I haven't given up on Quilting!  I have actually been quite busy since I last did a Quilt related Post, so time to do an Update.

Jemima's Quilt Part 1 took me out of my comfort zone with both fabric choice and committing to a large EPP project and was completed back in December.

Part 2 was an easy Six piece block turning Part 1 into a Star. 

Part 3 was a bit more interesting with another different shaped block.

In the lead up to Christmas
we were given an easy Block for Part 4

It was good to see the Quilt taking shape once all the parts were stitched in place.

Part 5 was a familiar flower design but came with a whole lot of problems starting with running out of Fabric.

I needed to wait until the Shop opened after the Christmas break before I could get more to continue with the required blocks.

And then while happily stitching the flowers in place, alternating fabric patterns in the light centre hexies, I discovered I had stitched TWO blocks in the wrong order!

Once these were carefully unstitched and repositioned the next section was completed.

Looking forward to Part 6.

If you are interested in this Mystery
Check out the Clues at www.jemimascreativequilting.com/blog Hexagon Quilt Along

So along came a Mystery

A bit of background to the story.

Way back in September, when Lockdown 4 was a thing... I decided I needed a distraction from all things COVID and Wedding and Babies.

And what should land in my inbox but "Jemima's Quilt Mystery".  I like Mysteries - they take me out of my comfort zone and challenge me to do new things.

I have pondered about and dabbled with EPP/Hexies for a bit over the years and never settled on something "Serious".   

So here I go, dive in and commit to "Not quite your Grandmother's Flower Garden" project.

First hurdle that I stumbled at was that None of my fabrics met the brief! 

I could not find any fabric that looked good together in 'Colour' and also met the Light, Med-Light, Med-Dark, Dark values when looked at in Grey scale.

I even refolded and colour sorted the ENTIRE fabric stash.

 
DH helping with some extra shelves in the cupboards to "Make look Good". 

It all looks lovely but no joy on the brief.

I sent out an SOS to an online Quilt shop for help and unfortunately the fabric still hasn't turned up. 

So when lockdown ended I went shopping at a (B&M) Quilt Shop where we spent 2 hours choosing the right Value fabrics.

Here I am, 

Starting 5 Clues behind 

and questioning my sanity once again.

Temperature Quilt Update

My opening line for this post was to be
"My Temperature Quilt is Plodding along - slowly..."

But then I realised how daft that sounded for, by it's very nature, this is actually a Mystery Quilt that will take all year to complete!

And this project is to be a Quilt for the bed - my walls are warm enough!

I am faithfully recording the Top and Overnight Low temperatures each day and making up my blocks when I get a chance to - usually each week/fortnight....month...
OK well, I have done a month and a half!


The weather has been Beautiful - which means there is not a lot of variation in my blocks and I Have been praying for rain.  Not just for the Water Catchments, or the Bushfires, or even my own Garden..

I am also including an "Atmospheric" component as my background fabric and unless we get 92 days of rain (defined as "Did I get wet today?") I am going to run out of my "Dry Day" background fabric!

I do have a backup plan of "Dreich" a Scottish term for Dull and Miserable for those truly terrible days.
This fabric could add a Windswept element  to the quilt.

It is looking interesting so far - but I am debating with myself...

Should I sew them together in long strips of 22 patches - OR perhaps make up Blocks of 9 patches and sew these together in big chunks?

Decisions...decisions!

SCQuilters Mystery BOM - 2016

UFO # 3

Finished!

My post from last week was left with a dilemma - I had a pile of fabric squares and no instructions.

I spent a LOT of time playing in EQ7 with these 9 patches

Should I make them up like this?

Or like this?

I thought this looked better.
Is it what the designer had in mind?

No idea!
But after 'wasting' so much valuable sewing time I settled on this design

And so now I can happily place this UFO into the "Quilt when you have the time - or when it is needed" pile.

Maybe I will use it to showcase (practice) using my Westalee Rulers - then it can be a true sample Quilt!

Shooting Down UFO's

- almost...

I pulled this one out from last year.

It was a Mystery BOTW

Block of the Week?
or maybe it was a Block of the Whenever

Anyway it was a mystery

It was started and put aside
and started again

And then I got a set of Block Loc rulers and it came out to play again...

(BTW -
They are awesome and worth their place in my "Tool for a job" box.)

And then I got to Block 9

Um - looks like I will be 'winging it' from here as I do not have any more instructions.

Oh well - It remains a Mystery right to the very end!

Now THAT is scary. . .

I think I am Up to Date!

Allietare is at the Quilters, 

the binding on Istanbul is done 

and I have caught up with Jinny Beyer's Casablanca Mystery.  

Which leaves me peering in boxes for a UFO to tackle... because it is either that or start something new!

Ahhh - decisions, decisions!

Just a little side-track

I just LOVE Moroccan spices and when I got a newsletter from Jinny Beyer advising that her 2017 BOM is going to be called Moroccan Mystery - I just HAD to revisit my self imposed "Don't do anything new this year" ban and change it to "You can do it if you can shop from your stash".

First thing to do was to see what colourway I wanted - Moroccan Mystery just cried out for the Warm colours of the spices I love so much.

I was rather pleased to be able to "almost" get all the fabric from my stash - I only had to buy one fabric and that is because I didn't have enough of it and I only needed a meter. [We will talk about the border fabric later ;) ]

So here we are - Clue one
or rather Technique One
"Sewing a straight line"

Finished.






Information on Jinny Beyer Moroccan Mystery BOM can be found at Jinny's Blog (click the link)