Eclipse

What am I doing cutting a Halloween quilt?

I have been making progress on this quilt, which I call "eclipse" because the dark circles make me think of an eclipse of the  moon.

The circles were cut with a ruler I was given at Christmas. I tried several methods of making circles but in the end went with raw edge appliqué. I had to get out my modern machine to sew around the edge as I only have the straight and zigzag options on my Nina. I still hope to find more discs one day.

I made strip sets from left over fabric and expected they would go in the border but when I put them on the design board I really liked what happened .

I 

Then I got distracted! 

Design wall Monday

I am on two week's leave so it is a great time to start a new quilt. I rustled through my stash and decided to use a set of fat quarters that I have had for years. It is called Hunky Dory by Moda. Pretty pink and teal, but somehow I could not think of what to do with it. 

I had an inspiration to add beautiful dark batik fabric and it started to look more interesting. 

I want to use some circles in this quilt so I think the diamonds in the middle of each block will be cut and appliquéd into place. I am also toying with triangle like snowball blacks for a secondary desig. 

A finish! The lantern quilt

Finished today. My daughter will enjoy having this quilt on her bed. 

 

This (above) is the back of the quilt. 

 The quilt is a large single bed size. To get a photo I spread it on my queen size. Hmmm it looks pretty good here too!

I loved working with these fabrics. Some of them were gifted to me and others I had in my stash for a while. I decided that beautiful fabrics are for using not for storing, and this is the result. 

Winter! What have we been up to?

It has been a busy couple of months. Grandchildren to visit -great fun. 

 Stunning winter days in Perth, and the walks along the beach are cold and crisp and beautiful. Thankfully we have also had some wet, wet, wet days, as this is supposed to be the season which brings the rain for the whole year. DH and I feel very spoilt because we get to walk on Mondays when others are at work-the joys of the part-time worker.

Nina, my 1954 vintage Singer 306K has been working hard on my Chinese lantern quilt. Thanks to https://www.facebook.com/groups/VintageSewingMachines/?fref=nf I have been able to source some accessories which make free motion quilting easy on the old girl. I absolutely love using this machine.

Table set for company. Our Friday night group has been back at our place. 

I greatly enjoyed reading Naomi Klein's book "This changes everything". Read it if you can!

DH has been enjoying making these bottled pears. He did a batch a couple of months ago, but he couldn't resist pears at $0.99 per kilo, so spent today making them with lots of yummy spices in the syrup. 

We actually managed a couple of days away at our favourite spiritual retreat -the guest house in the New Norcia monastery grounds.

One last look at the beach!

Sewing with my new BFF Nina-and how to enjoy quilting by giving perfectionism the flick

This is Nina, named after Nina Simone, another famous Singer. My DH brought her home from church when they were doing a clean-out. Her box has lost its key, and she was a bit grubby and unloved, -well she was made in 1954 and I guess her former owner thought "modern is best". She came with a power cord that was fraying and decidedly unsafe-looking. I didn't know anything about her. I was so ignorant I sent DH back to church with the cams which belonged to this machine, as I thought they must have been in the wrong box!

I read up on her, I got brave and with the help of some online buddies I oiled and cleaned her. The local sewing machine repair shop had a cam for straight and zig zag stitches.  DH got me a new power cord for Mother's Day. I sent away for a walking foot. DH went back to the sewing repair shop for a new globe for her light.

This weekend the stars aligned for Nina. We have had the BEST time together as I have been quilting my "women's lib" quilt- the one in the feminist colours of purple, green and white.

Nina is a happy sewer. She is taller than the modern Bernina so I have more ROOM for the quilt to fit in the harp as I sew. She can do AMAZING things and has a wide variety of feet -including the famous Singer Ruffler foot which I am eager to try.

I have been wondering why sewing with Nina gives me so much pleasure:

• she is well made -in our world of planned obsolence, it is rare to come across a piece of machinery built to last. I can do some of the maintenance work MYSELF because she is simply made. 
• she was useless in some people's eyes -that is why they threw her out of the cupboards at church. I feel like I have 'rescued" her
• she links me to women of the past who did amazing things without a lot of technological helps
• Hey, she just works WELL- good design is good design in any age

So Nina and I might get our "women's lib" quilt finished this weekend.

I want to leave you with some important words from the website of one of my favourite inspirations in the quilting word - Bonnie Hunter. After studying vintage quilts she wrote this :

"Other things I learn from antique quilts:

Things don’t have to be perfect to be perfectly beautiful.

Quilts don’t have to hang straight to be perfectly wonderful.

Points don’t always have to match to be perfectly acceptable.

Border corners don’t have to be perfectly square.

Bindings don’t have to be full and straight.

Nor do they have to have perfectly mitered corners --or be mitered at all! 

Blocks don’t all have to be the same size.

Quilting motifs don’t have to be perfectly centered.

Borders don’t have to turn the corners all the same way.

Bonnie continues: 

When I look at antique quilts, I just feel the love of the maker and the joy of fabric, needle and thread.

Bonnie asks: Is “the pursuit of perfection” killing your love of quilting?  It’s crazy-making!  STOP IT RIGHT NOW! Create to make something beautiful.  Create to buoy your spirit and fill your soul.  Do not quilt for perfection.  Don’t suck the joy out of something we love so much!  Yes, give it your best shot ---but try to relax at the same time". You can read the whole blog post here

http://quiltville.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/lessons-learned-from-antique-quilts.html

Autumn activities

The days are getting shorter. It is dark when we wake up at 6, but gets light about twenty minutes later. We are still getting a lot of sunshine -some lovely days but cooler than summer. I really enjoyed taking the ferry over to the Zoo recently. It was a magic day.

At this time of the year we turn to Autumn activities.

We do a tidy up, feed up and make over in the garden.

Summer in Perth is a time to get your plants to survive in the hot dry conditions, but the autumn cooler weather and some welcome rain brings them to life. I have been spending about 6 hours each weekend for about a month now, working in the garden. I tidy up by pruning and cutting back. I feed plants which are now entering a growth phase. I plant seedlings like lettuce, broccoli and peas.

My DH did a make-over. We had a scraggly line of Iris bulbs which were not doing well, but which had expanded to fill the space available to them. We decided to break them up and gave most of them away on Freegle to other nothern suburbs gardeners. In their place has gone a trellis which will be the support for two passionfruit vines - and I am hoping to plant thyme underneath them to bring the bees to the vine above.

Harvesting

We have ALL the Citrus at the moment! We have frozen limes for my Gin and Tonics (smile). I made a BIG jar of preserved lemons.

DH preserved some pears he found at the shop for $0.99c and made four jars for $3.

Eating

This is the kind of lunch I like:
Home grown mandarin, pomegranate, and rocket salad with feta and homemade rosemary bread croutons. (I have just realised that you can add croutons to many salads to give them a tasty twist -and use up some stale bread as well. As I make our bread, this is a good thing)

We are enjoying sleeping under COVERS at last -first the sheet was enough, then we added the quilt. It hasn't been cold enough yet for a doona, but that will come.

Today we have had some rain (hooray) and it is cloudy and cool. I have put the bread to prove in my north-facing bedroom window in the hope it will be warm enough to help it to rise.

Just the kind of seasonal activities we enjoy in this simple life.

I hope you are the same.

A finish! Disappearing pinwheel quilt

I finished the disappearing pinwheel quilt that I mentioned in my last blog. Here it is hanging up in the entry to our house. After I washed it the quilt took on that lovely crinkly appearance that I love, so please forgive its slightly wrinkled appearance.

I also made a short clip to show it off. Actually I am learning how to make such clips -and needed one to practice on! 

I have two more quilt tops to complete, now my walking foot is back. 

That should get another finish to report soon.