Flower Gardens Show and Tell

Hi Everyone, and a special welcome to those who have found my Blog through the Quilting Gallery website.
I have spelt my blog address correctly this week after leaving out the l in blog last week LOL.
Thanks  Karen for letting me know, and thanks everyone who voted for Mum's special quilt Peaceful Pathways. Mum is so thrilled it won but says she always knew it would!!!

Thanks for wanting to view closeups of my entry this week.

Forget Me Not is a now finished 12 month BOM for Esther Aliu's  group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/estheraliubom/

Two blocks were released each month and we had the choice of which one to make.
I, like a couple of others made all 24 blocks so we have 2 beautiful wall hangings.
This one is my peaceful version, the block backgrounds are a semi sheer curtain fabric which I stabilised with iron on interfacing to keep the stripes straight and the trims are satin also stabilised with interfacing.
the "wallpaper" background is a fabric of my late Aunt's circa 70's / 80's

I am a beginner at FMQ and this has been my first attempt at a quilt this size so I kept it as simple as I could.
Here are closeups of my blocks. I have not done any quilting within the blocks themselves at this stage as my flowers were all padded before being machine appliqued and the blocks have "popped" beautifully from the frames and may not need anything extra.

Iris

Magnolia

Peony

Bleeding Hearts and Daisies

Fuchsia

Forget Me Not

Cosmos

Pansies and Violets

Carnation

Snowdrop

Morning Glory

Wild Rose and Lilac

Have just added my binding, same fabric as frames, still to be hand stitched.

This quilt has been a joy to make and I would so love your vote

For those who might be wondering about my second set of blocks, I wanted a quite different feel and went for a retro 70's  in your face quilt. Again my late Aunt's background fabric was my inspiration.

I am about to start the quilting on this one.

These 12  flowers are  Calla Lily, Hibiscus, Banksia, Columbine, Scotch Thistle, Tulip, Sunflower, Poppy,

Sweet Pea, Jacob's Ladder, Crown of Thorns and Daffodil.

The patterns for these blocks are available for purchase at http://www.estheraliu.com/shop.php
Block sets are available at the moment, but in a few weeks you will be able to purchase the entire pattern set.

Cheer's Everyone, enjoy your day whatever you might be doing and please remember to vote.

Jenny

Work on Wed 10th April

Hi Everyone,
Easter has come and gone and I had so much fun watching the voting at quilting gallery, for Bunny and myself to both end up at the top just says how great Esther's designs are.
Go back to work tomorrow for 4 days but have spent much of the last 3 starting the quilting of my Blue Forget Me Not

This is the largest I have attempted, I thought my work table was huge but soon discovered it wasn't big enough to prep on, but now that I am stitching it is great 

My free motion is not great , in fact it is awful so am not really sure what I am going to do. To date I have ditch stitched all the inner frame edges and this morning have stitched most of the outer frame edges, center 2 done in this photo.

Practice has improved my rolling of the quilt through the machine throat.

More of my Aunt's fabric has become my backing.

I have made some sandwich's to practice free motion on as I have stippled before, but not on anything this size. I am wondering  about stippling the sashings but around the flowers not over them.

For the frames I am thinking of straight lines that either give the corners a mitered effect or a cross hatched square in each corner, I like the idea of an medallion in each corner but that might be beyond me.

Also maybe nothing would be better as they are becoming puffed frames and I might be better to stipple the block backgrounds.

Please if you comment, give me your suggestions because right now I am a total beginner and a little confused as to what step next.

Cheers everyone Jenny

Work over Two Wednesdays

What a marathon to even access my blog this week, but finally I'm  up and running. 

Had problems uploading photo's last week and ran out of time to figure it out so left it.

Read about Esther's problem and thought - oh same problem as me so I downloaded Firefox, thinking all set for this week, but NO, couldn't even sign in to blogger, error kept saying redirecting and cannot complete.

Steve is away again this week so it was up to me to solve it and hopefully not crash the computer!!! 

Updated IE and set it back as default browser, yes I had access but NO I still couldn't  upload photo's.

Last resort, I am using Google Chrome as my browser and finally photo's Hooray!!

Last week we managed a day for ourselves, they don't come often at present.

This hidden paradise is well known in Whangarei, only 100 meters from our home as the crow flies.
We should go there more often, especially for the exercise as the first walkway is only a couple of hundred meters circular loop, down hill for one half and uphill the other - great for the calf muscles.

At the lowest point a bridge crosses this idyllic stream and looking back 

The Whangarei Falls

only 4km's from the center of town

on the climb back to the carpark you meet these ancient giants.

On Christmas Eve we sold our old car and bought a new "toy"

so it was Happy Christmas to us

Not brand new of course but we now have three of these Rover Tomcat's as they are nicknamed.

The first is Steve's restoration project, the second the "donor" and this,the one I will drive to work until the restoration is finished, then this  becomes Steve's and I get the red one sitting in the garage.

Think I am getting past a sports car - but!!

So after the Falls it was Steve's time to enjoy a 30 minute drive north to this gorgeous spot.

Church Bay, very secluded on the Tutukaka Coast, not suitable for holiday makers to camp so a lovely quiet place for a stroll on the beach.

Back home this Hibiscus is stiill in it's pot waiting for a home in the garden

This is the second of the old standard roses that Steve rescued now flowering happily in the garden

Flower's somwhat damaged by recent winds this magnificent Jacaranda is the view from our lounge.

And this week I have been making Esther's wonderful Forget me Not Block's

 This was a very fiddly block to make but I love how it finished up and seeing it now in a photo image of the framing fabric's I am very happy with it.

Much simpler in design, but how stunning it is in real life. this shows the centers beaded .

I have lost count of the layers in very center but I broke two needles and  my thumbs ached but it was worth it.

Cheers everyone, enjoy your Wednesday.

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

Work on Wednesday 19th Sept

Have had busy days off, but NOT in my sewing room.
Last week my DH finally convinced me it was time to part with some of my "treasures" from over the years.
Went through the cupboards and brought back to daylight items I have had for years and never see or use.
So my first venture on to Trade Me, and I didn't realise how time consuming it is.
Spent enough time spent answering questions, but they all closed on Sunday night, so my planned 3 days of sewing Esther's blocks turned into emails, packaging, and trips to the post shop!!!!
However all sold and we have extra funds for the house and for some FABRIC SHOPPING FOR ME!!!

So what have I achieved in my Sewing Room.

Esther  gave me a real problem this month, I love both the blocks but which to go where.

For the first time I have worked backwards ( for me) and made my hibiscus flowers first, before deciding my background fabric.

When we lived in Rarotanga we had the most beautiful mixed hibiscus hedges, withan enormous yellow/orange Hibiscus so decided to fussy cut each petal to try and get the yellow centre and deeper petal edges of that flower.
These have the vein and stamen stitching done and are padded ready to go on my background, which this morning was still undecided.
I really wanted to add this colour to my white striped background blocks as most are in varying pinks and blues, but when I sat the flowers on the fabric along with my leaves - it didn't work.
But on my Lavender Background - WOW

It was one last trip to the post shop this morning, and now my leaves are sewn on and first flower is in place. Once I link to Esther's Blog will decide what thread to stitch the flowers with.

Hope you are all enjoying your Wednesday and Esther's beautiful blocks.
Cheers, Jenny

Work on Wednesday

This week has flown by. Worked Thursday to Sunday, just doing a little each day on my Magnolia Block for Esther's Forget Me Not BOM.

Made sure I didn't have flash for this photo and I think it is truer colours than the one I put on the group site.
Still convincing myself I have done this block justice, if there is one block I may redo this is it!!!
I LOVE the design but I ony LIKE my block.

Still convincing myself I have put my edging and frame fabric around it, and I am liking it more.

Yesterday when I stopped sewing for coffee I thought YES a photo for my blog that is not quilting, and ran for my camera, still there when I got back.

You can just see our native Tui in the branches of our neighbours rather old and straggly shrub.
His bell of white feathers on his throat stands out.
They are a very timid bird and we hear more of them than we see as their call is very distinctive, once you know it

Here he is taking the first spring nectar.
Think the shrub is some form of Leucodendren, that has grown tall and straggly.
We thought originally it was a Rhododendren from it's leaves, but the flowers are not, they are more like a Protea's. If anyone can tell me what it actually is please do so.
Whangarei has a lot of native bush  areas throughout the town as we are almost a city but not quite.
The Tui is the most prolific of our Native birds and the iridescent sheen on the black feathers along with their bell is truly beautiful. We have the Whangarei Falls, a nature reserve approx half mile from our house and the Tui's are there in numbers, finding us as the end of winter sends them searching for food.

This morning was finishing my Crown of Thorns block, and this I feel I have done justice too.
My DH comments are, why would Esther choose such an ugly plant, but your flowers do help it !!!

The other thing that happened this week is I came home to a light box for my sewing room.
No photo as everyone knows what they areand mine is rather rough but it works well.
 DH found a light socket, switch, thick glass and left overs from my cutting desk in the garage so surprised me with a lightbox.
I had been complaining while tracing my Bamboo pattern that it wasn't sticking to the window very well,
Winter damp!!!

The prevous week he raised my cutting bench and added 3 drawers so extra storage close at hand.

Please leave a comment if you view.
Cheers everyone Jenny

Work on Wednesday

A double good day. WOW and the 15th of the month so wonderful new blocks from Esther to work on.
Have been working away at my bamboo hanging during the week.

All the leaves are in place, yesterday I worked on the calligraphy which I decided was going to be too hard to stitch directly onto the top.
Thinking about my oriental bed quilt, which is the reason for making this wallhanging ( we are going to redo our bedroom in an oriental theme) I came up with this.

Being able to work with small squares was so much easier.
Still tricky to stitch the smallest areas, but found my default satin stitch worked perfectly.
I was going to frame them individually but when I decided to run them horizontally instead of vertically as in the original, a panel seemed a better option.

In approximate position, adjusted and sewn down this morning, but I forgot to take photo.

Monday morning I relaxed watching the closing ceremony of the Olympic's, a wonderful few hours, but part way through I thought I know what I could be doing.
When my sewing room shifted I found a quilt I made a few years ago with it's binding  attached but not sewn down. My thumbs hated it, but it is now on my sewing room wall.

My first and so far only Bargello quilt. Pattern was from an APQ magazine but this is nothing like the original. It was a comedy of errors!!!

I was meant to make 16 identical blocks, the 3rd one I made in mirror image!!
Had not enough spare fabric and didn't want to unpick, so made 8 originals and 8 mirror image, played with the placement and this looked good - until I sewed them together.
My first 4 blocks ended up in the center and so did my lack of understanding of the art to bargello pressing and stitching at the beginning, it was all I could see.
Practise makes perfect - or at least better - so they say.

The final layout reminded me of butterflies and I had a pattern for a mosaic one and thought now is the time.

I had fabric scraps from the quilt and with a slight size adjustment it covered my sins.
But it didn't look right on it's own, so I found 2 other butterflies, 1 foundation pieced and 1 applique.

I now had butterflies everywhere, I had looked at hydrangeas for my original colour palette so the butterflies seem in keeping. Borders added and I was happy, but the final act was still to come.
My border is synthetic silk and my iron was too hot!!!
A hole in my border - so one more butterfly - escaping!!
You can just see it in the top right corner.

And this morning, Esther's new blocks
Magnolia is one of my favorite flowers and I couln't wait to start.

This is as far as I have got this morning, back to work tomorrow so will be slow progress till next week.
Cheers everyone, Jenny
PS. I am viewing your blogs, but am finding it very difficult to post comments.
I write them, but most won't publish!!