Preparing for a New Year.

The tree has been packed away for another year.

Next year the youngest of my GC's will be 18 mo. Old and into everything. They change sooooo quickly.


One of the good things about being a quilter there is always a quilt to work on.

Tumblers cut for an eye spy sort of tumbler quilt.

All the tumblers are from the stash. A mish mash of novelty fabric assembled over 14 years . Note the classic Flying Toasters by Debbie Mum.

The quilt is for a beautiful little boy born in early December.  His grandparents will be in Australia at the end of January and I'd like to send it back with them.

The sky is blue
The sun is shinning  ( hot)
Tomorrow is the begining of a new year.

Nothing more to ask for so have a great year.
Terry

Suprised

Saturday morning was lovely.  Not too cold and not too hot but just right for coffee with a couple of friends.  We sat outside and shared our plans for the holidays. It is always nice to spend time with friends.

I arrived home to

DH  spent the morning decorati g the tree. It reminds me of the Nutcracker. The traditional red and green with all the toys waiting for the magic.

My contribution is a vintage jug with sparkling  twigs decorated with embelished patchwork hearts and crocheted baubles.

Under my needle is binding this signature quilt. Started in 1997  I am close to completion.  Christmas is a time for family and all 9 of us will be together.  So looking forward to happy grandies in the pool and laughing lots over prawns on the barbie.

Do you have long standing traditions for the holiday season?

Enjoy your week. Terry

Back Home

I am home and back in the swing of everyday life.

The trip cruising up the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea was both relaxing and full of daily excursions ashore.

Everywhere we were greeted with song and dance from one of the 800 different groups of people who make up PNG. No age restrictions on dancing.

The first village stop. We were greeted by the school principal and the students who had been studying under the trees assembled for the official part of the afternoon.

Someone had brought Frisbees and Wayne spent the afternoon teaching them how to throw the things while I played catch with a group of munchkins and big sisters.

The days passed with welcomes from villages along the coast throughout the trip. Almost always in their tradition dress. The ship is small only the size of " half a gridiron field and the end zone " according to DH. The smaller size enables it to go places a larger ship could not access. Most of the  villages we stoped we were the only group that does so and it has been over 2 years since that has occurred.

More variation in headdresses but the dancing was always  accompanied by the drummers and a elder called the moves, similar to a Caller in Square Dancing.

Other activities included several excursions out to the coral reefs in the glass bottom boat,
snorkelling and a couple dives for those who wished.


Like I said life is returning to the activities of everyday. BUT the Place Time Forgot still has a post or two to go yet.


Enjoy the week what ever it brings. 

Terry  

Ready Set Go

Bags are packed, well all but early morning bits for our trip. We are cruising along the coast of Papua NewGuinea.  Wayne has been facinated by primative art since we arrived in Australia 40 some odd years ago. The carving on the wall is a Story Board from the Sepic River region. We'll be cruising along the coast on a ship the size of half a football field and the end zone.

For down time when we are not visiting villages, walking through rain forests  and doing whatever you do while cruising. I've kitted up the last 5 blocks for PPC quilt.

I don't  expect to have WiFi so there will be lots of pictures on my return.

Meanwhile enjoy your stitching

Terry

Fabric Stories

Quilts are dated by all the individual fabrics . Sample books give us information on style, colors and printing information.

STOP the presses!

All that formal language at the start of this post was written just before bed. While it is true and accurate it isn't the story I wanted to tell.

I wanted to share the story of these.  The circles were stitched into pom poms . The pom poms were strung together to make a clown doll with a sock head.  I remember making at least one for a younger brother sometime in the mid 50s.

My mother "bless her cotton socks" had kept the doll for over 50 years (give or take a bit)  said "it's yours take it".

As a rag doll it had seen better days but the pom poms as fabric was interesting so they traveled back to Sydney.

I cut a tumbler from each different pom pom. Still more circles to use in other projects. I don't remember any of the fabrics from sewing projects so they must have even more of a story.

I like that the fabrics in my quilts have stories of their own. Not just a one printers range.

Black and white tumblers are cut from rescued scraps being cut into circles. No not pom poms but to cover milk bottle tops for Christmas tree decorations.

One man's trash.

Mid week here and I'm off to have a hair cut .  Enjoy your day.

Terry

Time Flies

It has been a whole month since my last post and I looked back to see what I'd been doing.

Not much sewing of any sort but hopefully that will change. I have graduated from both out patient rehab and physio this week. The significance of which is twofold.  First the medicos are happy with my progress and Secondly I have a big chunk of my life back. No more driving through morning rush hour traffic and returning home worn out for the afternoons.

DD#1 and family spent the 2 weeks of school holidays with us while their house was being painted.

The most frequent quilt activity was  morning technology use. The Grandchildren  were not the only ones keeping warm while viewing. The Rugby World Cup started at 5am and no Kiwi would miss the All Blacks.  I didn't rise to watch the games but did find quilts on the lounge afterwards.


Fabrics were auditioned for the next border on this quilt.

The strong bright colors reinforce the my inspration for this quilt. More to come as I enjoy the journey.

Spring is sprinting toward summer and I have more visitors.

Hi Grama !!! The waters fine.

A busy month spent with family is a treasure.

Enjoy thoes around you.  Terry

Finally Finished

Scrappy Trip Around the World

I started this about 18 months ago when the craze hit the blogging world.  It returned from the long arm quilter last week and the binding went on yesterday.

The 2 1/2"strips are all from the stash. I'd cut myself a scrappy jelly roll and these were some leftovers.

1. 

My stash is bordering on vintage or perhaps that's just a way of saying I save (hoard) any scrap that comes my way.

Whatever..... my first memory of a quilt is a scrappy split 4patch. My mother and I lived with Grandma while my father was in the Korean War.  Instead of sleeping for nap time I would trace my fingers along the quilting lines.

  I know nothing more about the quilt or what happened to it. All that remaines are a three year old's memories of colored triangles. Lots and lots of colors.

Just love the unexpected results of "scrappy".

Spring has arrived in a big way. Enjoy

Terry 

Round and Round

Wrapping and wrapping
                                              Then stitching round and round to make the base.

More of the same and I have sides to my shape.
The 15 meter  coil of clothes line is almost at an end. But I am not finished going round and round so more cord will be spliced in and I will continue.

Lots more repetation in the cleaning  sorting and moving of fabric.  The upside of which is finding lots more small bits of various colors ( like red). I really really didn't think I had so many bits of red or blue or purple!

No plan but interesting to see a snap shot of my fabric and color choices.

Happy Mid-week  Terry

Under my Needle

It has been 4 weeks since my last post. That seems like " a long time between drinks " but there hasn't been much happening. Well nothing new to "write home about ". I am slowly. Oh ever so slowly sorting the stash , re organizing the stash and cutting up bits along the way when I need a sit down.

But all that changed when I found this bundle of cotton clothes line on Monday morning. I had purchased it a while back.  Truth be told quite a while back  to make a bag. You know the fabric wrapped coil bags. I looked at it thinking well it won't "go off" and put it away in the soon to be sewing room.

Monday night happened and a dear friend came to quilting stitching the beginings of a wrapped coil bag.  That was all the prompting required and on Tuesday morning I arrived at quilting with some orphaned fabric and my rotary cutter.

After cutting bias strips and wrapping rope I was ready to start.

All set up with walking foot and zig zag set I have started a project that has deffinately reached it's use by date.

I was so happy on Monday night that I resisted the initial urge to toss the clothes line. 

The stash sorting might be taking a detour but there will be less to put away. 

Looking forward to tomorrow.  Rehab in the morning and stitching in the arvo.

Enjoy your Friday  Terry. 

Stash & Scraps

The end of a quilt always has some left overs to tidy up. Kind of like the refrigerator

leftovers that make great meals.

Scraps make great quilts.

I started making 4 patch blocks from the undersized swapped blocks.  I searched for the Addicted to Scraps column in Quiltmaker which I purchased during the visit with family in April.

Wow that was a long time ago.

Thought I'd try a couple Idaho Square Dance  blocks featured in Bonnie's  column. There are 28  1 1/2" squares in the finished 7" block. 32 pieces in total.

Yikes *!*!    Oh well I guess just a couple .     So cutting commenced ......

I remembered all the leftover  delicacies from Archer's Quilt.

and ..... continued  cutting 1 1/2" squares  and 2" squares and 2 1/2" tumblers.

The cutting was over a couple of days as you can see from the change in the tiny tiny off cut pile.

Don't ever think husband's don't know what we're up too. Mine walked by almost at the end of this cutting session and asked "What are you up to? All so small must be Doll Quilts. "

I never cut pieces this small and he knows it. All I can say in my defense
is " Bonnie made me do it"

If your a scrap saver wishing to reduce the size of your stash check out her blog ( see link above).

So much eye candy.

Enjoy Terry

Waiting for Borders

The center of the ninepatch swaps quilt is together.

Really happy with the results. Neutrals are not my normal "go to " for setting or sashing but it really makes this jumble sale come together.

The brights pop while the older "uglies" are cut small enough to just be colour.

There are a few contemporary fabrics that would give away the age of the quilt but it also has some oldies. Just yesterday I spotted a green version of a print I had in cream. It was from my early ,early 90's stash

The center measures 80 "× 60".  The quilt will go to the waiting to be sashed pile. I bought the neutral on sale so there is plenty for the borders and binding. My goal is to keep the colors dancing across the quilt.

Still on crutches so ironing the top and cutting yardage is on the back burner. 

Moving on to cutting scraps . Small projects for a while.

Have a happy day.

Terry 

Stitched to the Nines

The nine patch blocks are going together well.

The saying that the whole is greater than the parts certainly applies to this quilt. The pinapple in the bottom left is from my stash and it's reeeally ugly as yardage but nestled in with the soft blue and pink it just reads as yellow. Spots,stripes,civil war
and little florals all play happily together.

A completed corner makes me happy.  It is lots of fun to see a scrappy quilt come together. All thoes fabrics loved or unloved it doesn't matter; it's just a visual feast of colour.

More strips ready to add to the fun. The neutral is a tonal grey (with just a hint of light, light purple ) and I do mean light. The grey is sitting in the background letting all the little 1 1 /2 " gems sparkle.

I am feeling better and stronger.  The walking from the sewing machine to the ironing board has been good rehab for both the hip and me. Wayne took me out for a drive this afternoon.  We went up the back road into the Blue Mountains a nice ride in the bush. Good to be out of the house.

Enjoy your weekend.  Terry