WOW on 28th Nov

Have had a wonderful couple of weeks working on Esther's Nov blocks.
It was so hard to decide which flower on what background, which is why I made my banksia flower first.
Knew the yellow would work on either but it was not until I went with the blue based green for my leaves that I made the decision, witth help from BOM members.

The leaves were very strong on my striped background but this feels more like looking at the flower against the sky. I had also felt that this was a more stylised block - until I googled images  and found that the leaves are really as serrated as the design shows.

 Beeding Hearts and Daisies, I  knew I couldn't do white daises but I had a of very very pale yellow Fairy Frost fabric which I really wanted to use.
My first magnolia block now looks very sad as I used the background fabric for several attempts to make it work - waste not - want not, as if I need to remake a block I only have one piece of striped fabric to spare!!! However it would not work but I am thrilled with the how my final choice worked.
It was also my base fabric for the Banksia Flower.

I put my daisy on stabiliser and  marked the center circle, straight stitched all the petals out and back from inside the center, then trimmed the stabiliser and padded the Daisy. Satin stitched the edges then did one cicle of stitching to flatten the center and added the beads.

The Bleeding Hearts look a little more orange/red in this photo but it is a blue/red which works well with my border fabric. I now have both red and yellow flowers in mainly pink based blocks so am very happy.
Slight errors in fabric movement when satin stitching the "teardrops" frustrated me but had always planned on adding at least one bead. When I opened my bead packet I found many had not seperated into singles.They looked so good in two's and three's I used them as was, but did seperate and catch each one down as  I stitched them.

This was my inspiration photo.

Knew there was a myth  linked to Bleeding Heart's and have always thought of the throat as Teardrops. Think the pearl beads express this, may even add an extra couple of falling teardrops after quilting!!!

And now.

My DH came home last night with the  most winderful Pelergonium,
Almost Black I have never seen anything like it.

repotted it this morning and it will be wonderful on our deck.
Also bought home a Fucshia cutting and I really hope this survives.

What a beauty. Almost cried when I stripped it's flowers this morning and planted stem into pumice.
Hopefully we will enjoyi t's beauty for years to come.
Enjoy you wednesday.
Jenny

WOW for Nov 14th

Only Tuesday but working tomorrow, missed linking to Esther's Blog last week for same reason so decided to start early.
Quick addition on Wed. Got a wonderful view of the eclipse this morning, only about 91% in Whangarei but just before 10.30am soft cloud covered the sun and you could safely look and see the complete moon and  a cresent of pale sun on the edge. Our manager totally convinced because of the shape that the sun was the moon!!!
A few minutes later full cloud moved across and no view at all.

Summer is slowly arriving in Whangarei and my favorite rose is already in full bloom.

Roses don't grow as well here as they do in Christchurch as our winters are not really get cold enough.
This is Crepescule, a old fashioned climber and we have planted two  to hopefully eventually cover our very uninspiring boundary fence

My DH and I just love the wonderful apricot tones as the buds  first open, then the changing shades as the flowers mature.

They are repeat  flowerers so we will have their blooms well into Autumn
Our Agapanthus are just coming into flower and in another couple of weeks will be spectacular.

And  I will be picking this and a few others later today, summer is here!!!

On my last post I said we had found a wonderful wallpaper for the kitchen / dining room that worked so well with our stainless appliances. This is it, metallic silver squares on a white/grey marbled background.

That 70's lime green has finally gone.

Unfortunately ---- we are going to be one roll short to finish the room as we bought all they had but the match was bigger than DH thought!!!

Means the other end wall  which has a sliding door to our Laundry will have to be painted, not a major as most of that wall is the door.

Was a major though that when we moved the fridge freezer to wallpaper behind it - it stopped working!!!

Needs a new electronic's board - and it's only six years old.  $260-00 I can't spend on fabric.

We are watching one on TradeMe that closes next Sunday, it has a damaged door and may be a cheaper option as we can just swap doors.  At present have a friends fridge sitting on other side of kitchen.

And I can't blog without quilting so have looked back to show you an almost totally original design from a couple of years ago.

This is Drumbeat, a quilters group challenge. It now hangs inside our front door
We were given a 5" Fabric square that had to be used within the design, with the Challenge theme of Celebration and it had to be within 36" square.
A very tribal looking  fabric, my DH drew me the main drum pattern,-- to call the tribes for a celebration--and he made me the fabric padded drumsticks for hanging it. I just love his 3D drawing skills.
I bought an extra metre of the challenge fabric so I could fussy cut as I had a secondhand book called Angle Antic's by Mary Hickery and I resized and used various pattern segments from a pattern also called Drumbeat for the foundation pieced areas, then applipieced them to my background fabrics.
The feather fabric horizontal banding is raw edged and hangs loose from the quilt.

You can see the original 5" square I was given on the backing of the quilt as I got concerned I hadn't used the original piece of fabric so designed this variation of a Mariners Compass for the backing, using the 5" square and incorporating my drum fabric scraps.
I was very pleased to be awarded the prize for Best Use of Fabric at our biannual exhibition.

Will post this tomorrow then the following day we will have Esther's wonderful new blocks for November.
Happy Wednesday everyone
Jenny

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