Finished - Ice Cream Soda Quilt

 

All pieced - waiting for borders to be attached

Meeka - my not very helpful assistant

My hand pieced Ice Cream Soda quilt started in May 2017, is actually finished. The pattern and templates were from Tales of Cloth.  Fabric for all the blossoms was from my stash.  It has been a long slow process for me, culminating in getting all the blossoms and joining pieces finished last May in our long lockdown.

After attaching the border pieces, I painstakingly removed all the papers (with help from Meeka, and a teen then telling me all the ones I had missed) and pressed hundreds of seams.  Then it sat, folded carefully away till I decided what I wanted to back it with and how to quilt.

After my holiday in February , I decided that I needed to get it finished and in a useable state. I sent it to  Leeanne of Quiltmekiwi for quilting, I also purchased the wideback backing fabric and batting from her.  I deliberated long and hard about not hand quilting it myself, and still feel as though I have cheated for not doing so, but I know that it would have sat there for unfinished for years.  This way I can use it and love it,  and I feel that the machine quilting probably reinforces my hand stitching a little more too.

A lot of emails and messages were toing and froing between Leeanne and myself, and eventually I decided on an e2e quilting specifying that I still wanted it to be wrapable and not too stiffly textured or heavily quilted, but something that would give interesting texture.  Gingersnap was the design I decided on in the end.  Quilting was not without drama either,  unfortunately even though we couldn't see it, my border was to big for the pieced top, which resulted in a terrible wavy look.  Leeanne unpicked, trimmed and reattached them before she could start quilting again.

Because I had quite a multipatterned and coloured backing, a patterned binding did not look right. When picking the blue background fabric, I always had in mind the idea of flowers floating in water, and after some consulation with Leeanne, I decided to match the binding to the border fabric to create this effect. 

I'm really proud of this quilt, it was a big commitment deciding to handpiece one, and too actually finish it.  Many times I thought about passing it on, I'm glad I persevered and I couldn't be more happy with it.

Staying Home - Week 3

Currently we have survived three weeks of New Zealand's national lockdown.   The teens and I have found this week hard, we are missing friends, routines, being able to go places and actual real people to talk to and work with.  Zoom meetings are not quite the same.

With one  week to go,  it's looking as though we will drop to Level 3 of the alert system.  This means that some students can return to school, though Miss B will be doing virtual university till at least July now. We're waiting to hear about high school for Mr J.  Some  hospitality type businesses will be allowed to operate, and we may be able to travel regionally.  Malls, movie theatres, libraries will still not be open to public, though it looks as though we should able to do more online shopping now.  Not sure if this is good or bad.

I have been compiling a little shopping list of essential to me items, should this happen again. It includes:  interfacing, sewing machine needles, thread to match all my garment fabrics, various widths of elastic, scented candles, hand creams and special teas. 

Over the past week I have been trying to keep relatively busy, walking, sewing and baking and successfully avoiding housework. 

• another top using a beautifully silky viscose from the stash.  This is the same pattern I made last week, with a little elastic in the sleeve cuff.  I love how this one has turned out and have already enjoyed wearing it. Only one more animal print fabric remains in the stash now too.

• Hot Cross Cookies - recipe from here.

• Chocolate espresso pudding with whisky caramel sauce.  From personal tastes, I'd double the sauce quantity next time.  Recipe here.

• I've prepped the fabric and assembled the pattern for the last top for my sister.  Hopefully sewing will commence on it this coming weekend.

• my biggest happy moment was adding the last stitches whilst joinging the blossoms in my ice cream soda quilt.  All I have to do now is add the edging then the borders.  I am loving how it looks so far.

Hoping you are all well in your bubbles.

Stay home, stay safe.  Kia kaha.

Staying Home - Week 1

While New Zealand is officially on Day 5 of the 4 week lockdown, I have been at home now for seven days.

I walk most days, and to be honest I don't think I have ever seen as many people out walking in my neighbourhood before.  We all give each other at least 2 metres space when walking past each other, call out hello or give each other a friendly wave.  I walk between 3-5 km a day, depending on how much time I want away from my family, and am very lucky my view includes some sea views.

Generally I enjoy being home and pottering around, doing a bit of gardening, cooking or sewing, all the while knowing if I need to pop to the supermarket, craft store or mall I can.  Suddenly knowing I can't is hard.  Point in question.  I've run out of cotton to match the shirt I'm sewing, so I can't make button holes.  Do I make them anyway using another navy thread or if I was really brave something totally contrasting, or do I leave it unfinished until life returns to normal? At this point I'm leaving it and will start another project from the pattern and fabric stash.

Evenings are spent inside reading or hand sewing.  I have completed and joined another row onto my ice cream soda quilt. last night the family discovered the Sherlock Holmes series on TVNZ on Demand.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, so think this will be a family event each night till we finish series 4.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives!
Kia Kaha

Stitching, Sewing, Planning

Life has been quite busy lately,  Miss B has started university, and Mr J has just obtained his learners driver licence as well as spraining a ligment in his knee one week, and injuring ribs in another.  So between work, giving driving lessons to both teens, playing chauffeur to sports activities and physiotherapists, the pick ups and deliveries to and from train stations at odd times, I am finding that my sewing room and sewing time is much neglected.

Work is still continuing slowly on my ice cream soda quilt, and I figure that while I am so enjoying the making of it, I shall continue stitching and joining blossoms together. Other quilty projects can wait.

Now that the intense heat of summer has passed, and we are getting cooler mornings and evenings, I feel inspired to add some new clothes to my work wardrobe.  I am quite lucky that I am able to dress in a smart casual style, so I am planning on making some new shirts to see me through the autumnal and spring months.  I haven't made a shirt with buttons for over 20 years, however I love the look of linen shirts or boho inspired shirts with jeans, so am planning on making the Bonn Shirt in a sky blue linen/cotton and hopefully if it turns out all right, another one in the dandelion printed navy voile.  I have buttons ready to go with them too, bought in a moment of planning for self isolation activities.

Should I have to self isolate, I have no shortage of fabrics to play with, whether it be for quilting or making clothes. I am planning a few changes to my gardens for next year also, so am enjoying seeing the bees on my sedums as I am outside writing down ideas and plant moves.

Stay happy and healthy everyone. 

Ice Cream Soda Quilt Happenings

My ice cream soda quilt is demanding all my time at present.  I have shirts I want to make, gardens that need working on, and housework that should be done.  But you see,  I have reached an exciting stage of this quilt, I have attached all the joining pieces and am now actually joining the blossoms.

I laid out all the blossoms, shuffled some around, then shuffled more around until I was happy with colour placement.  Each row was labeled, so hopefully they all get sewn in the right order now.

I have two rows made and am attempting to join these now.  Boy, is this a fiddly twisty thing to do. Hopefully I work out a better way of doing this for the remaining rows.

Once it is all joined, and borders have been added, I have plans to send it to my friend Leeanne for either basting, so I can hand quilt it or quilting if I cant be bothered.

Lets see how long it take me to get to that point though.

Things Here Lately

Track up to the trig

View towards Pokeno

• Searching back on my blog I see I made my first blossom in May 2017, some 2 years and 4 months later, I have finally finished all 68 of them.  I have even made one of the half blossoms, so only have seven of those to go now.  Pictured are some of my favourite  blocks.

• My retaining wall garden has been overhauled.  Last Thursday, I cut back and dug out all my Star Jasmine plants.  Much as I love the scent and flowers, it was too much maintenance for me and starting to ruin our fence.  Mr J has fixed the loose fence panels, and I have completed Phase 1 of my garden renovation, planting Lomandra Lime Tuff.  Still a little bit of work required to to properly finish this off.

• The Scout and I attempted to go hiking this morning.  Mt William walkway is a short 2.5km track, however when we got to the fence line (about a kilometre from the start) on the farm it is on, we discovered that the track to the trig was closed due to lambing season.  It was still nice to get out in some lovely weather and enjoy the morning.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, let me know what you have been up to lately.