In Rainbow Scrap Challenge land, a new month means a new colour. And blue it is. I looked through my small bag of 2.5in squares and selected some with blue tones to make more framed four patch blocks. That bag doesn't seem to be going down at all, but it must be, ever so slowly. I know I've said it before, but I really don't like working with 2.5in squares, they just seem so small to me. And yes, I know, some bloggers delight in working with even tinier 1.5in squares, how do they do it, I wonder? I found enough squares to make seven small blocks, so I'm pleased with that. The idea is to use up the squares I have, and not cut any new ones. Last year I stitched quite a few hollow nine patches from this bag, with plenty still left to start this new project of framed four patches.
Romany Quilting
Patchwork, quilting, stitcheries - I love them all.
Saturday, February 1, 2025
RSC - Blue for February, and Out to Lunch
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Chookshed Challenge, Wheels on the Bus
The Wheels on the Bus, my Chookshed Challenge for January, is done. Number 6 was chosen for January, and it was tucked away in this plastic crate, numbered and ready to go. My number 6 was a rescued duvet cover featuring transportation and I thought it would make a great donation quilt for a boy.
Challenges for the year, all numbered and waiting their turn
The cover needed a red border, I decided. Once that was done it was all ready for pinning the layers together. This was achieved one sunny afternoon sitting at the patio table outside in the fresh air.
"I'm so comfy".
Our weather has been wonderful, just a little too hot some days, so I decided to sit outside and stitch down the quilt binding. It was much too hot on the patio so I took a chair to the back of the house and sat in the shade to do my stitching. Gemma came too, and her way of beating the heat was to hunker down in the rhubarb patch.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
A little more Pink
Call me crazy but I've decided on another RSC project - it's not as if I don't have enough from previous years waiting to be completed. I had found a small bag of selvedges sitting and looking rather lonely. "Don't forget about us", they cried. I used to collect these but over the years had used quite a few up. So why didn't I just discard the last remaining handful? Probably because I thought it would be a good idea to stitch up a few double handed oven mitts to make use of them. My daughter and granddaughters are keen cooks so they will make useful gifts. And I'm sure I'll need another new one sooner or later. There's certainly not all the colours of the rainbow in the bag, and I found a few in pink for January.
First I stitched the hand pockets and that used up my pink selvedges. I construct these oven mitts with hessian (sacking) on the back, then a layer of Insulbrite, a layer of toweling, then the top fabric, in this case a very bright pink. There is quite a bit of heavy stitching through all the layers so of course I use my walking foot. Here it is with the binding stitched on the front, and folded over to the back, ready to hand stitch down. I love those little binding clips, just right for this job.
All finished, and the pink selvedges are finally used up
The other selvedge colours I've found is a handful of green, yellow, brown, red, blue, and blacks, all sorted and clipped together. Wonder what group I'll get to work with next?
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Changing Quilts, and a Movie
It's taken me a while, but at long last, I've taken the Christmas quilts down. With such gorgeous weather, what better to display than "My New Zealand Bird Quilt", made back in I'm very proud of this one, especially as it is hand appliqued and hand quilted, and was designed by NZ designer Mary Fletcher. I'll let you into a little secret. The design had a creepy crawly weta together with the iconic tuatara (lizard) block, but there was no way I was going to have one of those on my quilt!
New Zealand Birds
Of course, the quilt ladder needed changing too. On the top is the Tee Shirt quilt I made for Robin's 60th birthday. He passed away in late November and this quilt was on display during his memorial service, and I decided I will leave it out on permanent display on top of the ladder. On rung two and four is my own work, and hanging on rung three is a row by row quilt made for me some years ago for a big birthday. It's good to ring the changes and get to see some quilts which have been hidden away for a while.
Quilt ladder, made by Robin
So what else have I been up to? I went and filled my car up, not such a big deal for most of you, but Robin used to do this for me. A couple of weeks ago my friend Dot came along to the petrol station at the supermarket with me, to run through all the steps I needed to take. The first one was to pull up at the pump on the side where the filling cap was! Then she showed me what I needed to do, read the instructions which guided the customer through, and how to enter the discount code from the supermarket into the machine. And most important to remember, my little car takes diesel, not petrol. So now I can be trusted to do this job for myself!
I took myself to the movies today, to see "A Complete Unknown", which tells the story of 19 year old Bob Dylan arriving in New York with his guitar. I'm not really a Bob Dylan fan, but this film was very interesting and I found out such a lot about his early song writing life, and some of his really early songs are still so well known today. The film touched on the Kennedy, Cuba, Khrushchev, and the Cuba blockade. Even down here in far away New Zealand, we feared for a nuclear war, and held our collective breaths, as did the rest of the world. I was 17 at the time, working for an insurance company in Wellington, the capitol city of New Zealand, and remember attending a lunch time church service held to pray for world peace. Scary times indeed.
Another part of the film that I particularly remember was when "Dylan went Electric". In 1965 he teamed up with different band members and started recording and performing with electric instruments. The folk music community and audiences were appalled, accused him of turning his back on the genre, booed on stage and pelted him and his band mates with bottles and cans! My favourite Bob Dylan song was not written till 1975 so didn't appear in this film. It is "Shelter from the Storm" full of dark lyrics of love and loss. I hear it occasionly on the radio station.
Another part of the film which
Friday, January 17, 2025
Mid Month Chookshed Challenge
Here we are half way through the month - let's see how I'm doing on my Chookshed Challenge for January. The number chosen was 6, Wheels on the Bus whole cloth quilt, a boy's donation quilt . I'm making this from a rescued duvet cover I found in an Op Shop (thrift store).
Duvet Cover
The first thing I did was to stitch a red border around the edges, that was easily done. Then find some backing and batting. The backing I had planned to use was much too small, so I decided to use a single sized sheet I had tucked away in the linen cupboard. It was a nice colourful yellow, so toned in with the front of the quilt.
Then it was pinned up. I usually start this inside on the floor, then carefully carry the quilt outside to the patio table and finish up the job there.
Pinning up the quilt
I've made a start on the machine quilting, and of course Gemma likes helping too. Her idea of helping is cuddling up on top of the quilt when I'm finished for the day. That's fine by me, it's always a nice soft spot for her to rest and relax.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Bollywood on Horseback
Both my granddaughters and their dad are keen horse riders. There was a competition taking place during the weekend, not too far away, and the family invited me to come and see them. It was a lovely warm sunny day, so I did. "Don't bring food" I was told, "there will be plenty to share". So I packed my folding camping seat, a sun hat, a cardigan in case it turned cold, and set off to Foxton.
My daughter Nicky met me at the gate, showed me where to go and I parked up by Robert's horse truck. I wouldn't have found it by myself, they all look the same to me. And here is is. He always says he is the favourite son in law.
Robert and one of his horses
The two granddaughters were part of a four person team and were taking part in a quadrille. The teams dress up in a theme, work out a routine, put together some suitable music, and practise, practise with their mounts for months on end. This year they chose Bollywood. The girls had sourced saris through OP Shops and online, and altered them to suit their needs, and of the horses too. They were certainly very colourful indeed, and even had henna transfers on their hands.
Bollywood on horseback
We had lunch beside the horse truck, and I'm pleased I took my own seat as all the horse club members were there. As advised there was plenty of food to share, so no one went hungry. Then it was Robert's turn in the quadrille, he was the only man with three ladies. Their costumes were rather fancy looking highwaymen, dressed in black outfits with lace ruffles, they certainly looked very smart indeed. A couple of the ladies had done a lot of work getting these costumes ready.
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Just a little Pink for RSC
A new year, and some more stitching for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've been taking part in this for several years, and the idea is to use your scraps "one colour at a time". As I have more RSC UFOs than I care to admit to, which have built up over the years, I've decided to limit my block sets severely this year. That way, I hope I can also get some of those previous block sets finished - that's the plan anyway. Pink is the chosen colour for January.
So what have I stitched so far this month? You may remember that in 2024 I started making hollow nines in an effort to use up some of my 2.5in squares I had accumulated. I probably have enough for a small cot quilt now, but there are still plenty of those squares left in the bag to be used up. And...... they are not my favourite thing to work with. So what I'm making this year are some framed four patches, in a final effort to deal with those pesky squares. Nice and simple.
Framed four patches
I also have a bunch of framed four patches I stitched up last year, but these used slightly larger 3inch blocks, and are yet to be made into a quilt top. So you can appreciate my problem, RSC blocks may well be quick and simple to stitch, but they do seem to hang around for a while!
I've got an idea for another simple RSC block as well, this one for a boy. I do like to ensure that I do stitch boys donation quilts too. After all, there always seems to be plenty of floral blocks suitable for girls on the go, and it hardly seems fair that the boys should miss out. Hopefully this will get stitched shortly.