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.

More Ice Cream Soda Blossoms

Welcome to the Red series, the latest installment in my blossoms,  I decided my blocks were lacking  pops of red in them, so my lovely friend Linda very kindly sent me lots of red toned fabrics.  Who would have thought, that with all the quilting fabrics I have, I was short that colour.

I have calculated that I only need to make another 8 full blossoms and 8 half blossoms (12 blossoms in total) to complete that part of the Ice Cream Soda Quilt.  Plans on making it bigger are evaporating too, so I am going to set myself a goal of having all the blossoms complete by the end of this year.

Next year my mission will be the joining pieces, I just need to find the perfect colour to make them all POP.

Ice Cream Soda Blossoms

Since I last posted, I have been busy making up Ice Cream Soda Blossoms.

At the time of writing this I only have 15 full blossoms and 8 half blossoms left to make, if I make the quilt the size of the kit.  Of course I am considering making it bigger, and then there are still hundreds of tiny diamonds and triangles joiner pieces to add. My next dilemma is what colour to make the joining pieces.  White would probably make the blossoms POP, but I don't like to use plain white in my quilts. 

There is still lots to keep me busy, it's definitely not going to be a quick finish.  

Things Here Lately

• Recently I have been very inspired by the prolific and very beautiful dahlia posts from https://www.instagram.com/littleislandquilting. So much so, that I have completely cleared a smallish garden by my driveway and started the maybe addictive and hopefully bountiful purchase of about a dozen different dahlia tubers.  This beautiful book from the library is also making me want to plant more.  I purchased tubers from NZ Bulbs and Bulbs Direct., and am now waiting for the garden to warm up a little and dry out before planting them.  Fingers crossed for lots flowers this summer. Watch this space!

• The Scout and I went away for a weekend sans children.  We stayed at Matakana in an Airbnb property, Matakana Fantail Retreat, a tiny house, which overlooked a lovely native bush setting.Yes there were lots of little fantails flitting and chittering among the trees. We visited the Farmers Market, had lunch at our favourite pub/café and walked on the beach at Omaha.

• I have some beautiful fabric sitting in my sewing room intended for garments, unfortunately I can not motivate myself to cut out the patterns (my least favourite part of sewing), and I think my machine has to go back to the service centre, it is still squeaking when I sew and drives me mad. So I have been pulling out some old wips lately with the intention of finishing them,  Currently I am working on my Ice Cream Soda epp blocks,which I have worked out I haven't touched since January 2018. I think I only have to make about 20 more blocks before I can start joining them.

• Wet winter weather always means lots of reading, gardening books, cook books and craft books, some,old favourites and new finds for inspiration, and two recent good reads from the fiction pile.

What are you reading and creating at present?

Still Life Pillow

My Still life Pillow is finished.  I really enjoyed making this, choosing the fabrics, the felt colours and combinations, and embellishing with embroidery. In fact it was hard to tell myself to stop embellishing the flowers.   It was a nice little break from garment sewing and quilting (not that there has been much of that this year).  The pattern is from the book, Wild Blooms and Colourful Creatures, written by  Wendy Williams of Flying Fish Kits.  There are lots of lovely colourful patterns to inspire in this book.

The back of the pillow is made of the same textured fabric as the front with an covered zip. I need to invest in some new pillow inners which will give all my pillows  better shape and stop them looking so lopsided.

Currently this is on my sofa in the family room, but I'm wondering how long before I tell the family not to use it.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.