Work on Wednesday16th April

Hi Everyone,
I think you all know by now that my blog is mainly dedicated to my work with Esther Aliu's  BOM group plus occassional bits about my life and what is happening around me.
I finished the stitching on my Love Entwined borders Tuesday morning and was competely up to date before part 11 was released

I am over the moon with how my borders have come together. Esther your measurements have been so exact and my zig zag  borders fitted perfectly.
My Hiccup with the bottom Pixies is barely noticeaable - at this stage - they are a quarter inch in from where they should be but so far so good.

Now for my decisions. I was NEVER going to make the complete Love Entwined Coverlet so didn't worry that I hadn't bought enough background fabric. I did buy all they had and had planned to use excess for other projects as I love its look.
Now that I want to complete LE I only have enough left for the last applique border so part 11 and 12 need a variation.

I am planning to use my narrow border fabric as my background for these borders but have no idea if it will work or not.
Have cut one border from across the fabric width, it has a cross grain line that shows as a faint stripe so with two joined strips I have enough length to mitre the corners same as my narrow border and keep the flow of the fabricm around the border.
These are my first audition fabrics for the oval braids. Have already decided my angels will be the light and dark blue of my zig zag borders. I feel the purple is right but the other is too dark so will have a look when I go to buy more fusible this morning. The dark may now become  my willow tree in the corners.

Am I happy or not. This taffeta fabric is the exact same fabric I used in my compass.  It is a gold shot with pink and I didn't think I would find it again. We have a Fabric Barn in Whangarei where I purchase most of my non traditional materials and hidden amongst rolls of taffeta's I stumbled on it. This was a huge WOW for me.

Braids and angels fused in place but no stitching. So far I am happy but my Angels are blending into the background, think it is the gold overlayon the fabric, they are not the main feature I so am continuing.

This photo shows that faint grain stripe I was talking about, which is why I want to mitre my corners.
Stitching started and my ovals are working and being nicely defined. The gold overlay on my Blues is definately making them merge into the background but I do not want to introduce more fabrics.

Not pinned against the correct border but if the camera doesn't lie too much, I think it might just work.
My fingers are crossed as once this border has all its's applique I will know, but not until then.
Would love to hear what you think.

Now too link with Esther,

But a PS for Glenda,
Have had strong winds and heavy rain overnight and through this morning, the tail end of Ita as a tropical low came to visit us and joined up with another low to give us a very wild and windy night. No damage and it has now carried on South

Work on wednesday 2nd April

Hi Everyone,
Yes it's April already and this afternoon I don't feel like sewing.
Last week I finished my 3rd border of Love Entwined so the time came when I could start adding my borders. Yes I should have waited until I finish my 4th but - like a child with a new toy - I had to play!!!!!

LE no  longer fits on my design wall but is pinned to the blank wall behind my machine, Wow it is growing!!
My side border is stitched along with my top border to within 2 inches of the edge of my center, bottom border only pinned in place. My DH will complain when he see's this as I am pinning into the wall and creating more work for him to repair  next year when we renovate this end of the house.

So what am I doing today?
We have another new to us computer, this time only 4 years old and it is working perfectly, OH what a change from all the problems of the last few months and how fast it works.
Steve does not want me to upload all my old files as they are mainly photo's so am learning how to work from my memory stick, plus with our computer crashes I  lost heaps of photo's from years ago that had not been backed up.
Feeling very nostalgic after taking photo's the other week of our very slow growing Cycads and Cordyline's - Roti's as I know them- outside my sewing room ( our token garden to our time in the Islands ) I decided  to try and find photo's of the home and garden we built in Rarotonga during our time there. 2000- 2006
I knew our home was now a Holiday Rental so after a google search I found it and how the gardens we planted  have grown. Escape to Muri Lodge the sub tropical paradise we built in Rarotonga.

Steve built the pool himself and created the rock feature in the far corner which when turned on creates 

the most wonderful waterfall into the pool. Can still remember the hours I spent grouting all those tiles both in the pool and out of it.!!!!   Grand old lady cycad towering in the background, they don't grow like that in  New Zealand.

The shrubs in the walkway are Gardenia's I grew from from a posy I was given, they rooted in the vase so I planted them and look at them now, their scent must be wonderful when they flower.

Pygmy date palm in front left corner, how I hated the task of pruning away it's spiky lower leaves when it was small.  WOW our Cordylines have grown at the far end of the pool. This photo must be earlier from the height of the Gardenia's and the sun shades over the pool in the photo above.

Not sure who these girls are but they seem happy enjoying our 3/4 acre garden. The planting behind them was we thought well established at about 6-8 feet  high when we left,  but look at it now.
My nostalgia is over, our former home is obviously being lovingly cared for and I am happy.

So Thursday morning I am back in my sewing room well aware that tomorrow I go back to work for 4 days and I really want to be caught up with my LE before the 15th and the start of the next VERY intensive borders. OH yes I keep studying Esther's drawings of LE  and this next border is going to be a marathon.
I have stitched half my last border including my vase and have just fused the second half in place so I can stitch whenever I have time. Had to pin it it in place to see if my corners will match.

They do and I am so happy with how it is looking. I will have a problem with the last two corner blocks because my bottom pixie's area quarter inch off but will deal with that on my next days off as I do my corner's.
Tuesday, my day was made when this fabric arrived from Glenda.
Glenda had sent some of this fabric to me just before a cyclone  hit her area, unfortunately it has never arrived  but her second posting arrived within 10 days.

 Colors are perfect and I am hoping I can incorporate  it into the next border. Thank you so much Glenda, I love it.
I don't feel like stitching right now so am going back to contemplate my next problem. I never thought I would want to go so far with Love Entwined. The center was all I was going to make, BUT I can't stop!!!!
Like everyone I have been caught up in the magic of this Marriage Coverlet.
My problem is I only have enough background fabric for one more border, either the next or the one following. I am wondering about using my narrow border fabric as the background fabric for my next border, quilting friends have said it won't work as will be too busy but am off now to cut the border lengths and see how I feel about them. Otherwise I will be searching the net for fabric
Cheers Everyone, enjoy your stitching time.
Jenny

Work on Wed 19th March

Hi Everyone,

Cyclone Lusi passed us by last weekend with some strong winds and some welcome rain. I had to work on Saturday and it was one of the quietest days we have ever had. Would have loved to have been at home sewing but I probably wouldn't have as we had had a power cut overnight and I would have been worried of another with power on to my machine.
Our internet server went down as well so it was Sunday night before I could download the corner blocks for Love Entwined. Some of Esther's group have had problems downloading but even with my older versions of programs I have never had a problem, I always save each month to my Love Entwined file and open and print from there, maybe that is why.
I worked Monday but Tuesday Morning I was up early and straight into my sewing room.
By 2pm my first two block centers were done.

I cut my blocks at 11 inches square, the pencil line is my cutting line not my seam line.
The last piece of the green from my borders was just big enough for all my dark leaves in my 4 blocks, thank goodness as I had saved it for use in these corners. A bronze fabric from my curtain samples has now been introduced  for my other leaves, This block lent itself to flowers from one of my inspiration fabrics and I love how it looks. Top flower not fully fused as I need to put my blue fabric under it for the inner corner.

Again my dark pink is not fully fused  but the rest is stitched. I wanted a touch of my inspiration fabrics and those little leaves seemed the ideal place.
The larger leaves have been a real pleasure to stitch after all the tiny elements of the border, I am sure those who are hand stitching will enjoy these leaves as well.
I just had to carry on today with these blocks and attach them to my completed top border

Red line would be my cutting line for my border but I do not cut off my excess yet.
I have cut my corner block on this edge along my cutting line and the line in gold is my quarter inch stitching line drawn on wrong side of fabric.
I align my raw edge of block with the red line and using my walking foot to travel over the underneath applique stitch along my gold line. Turn and have a look.

Happy with my stitching I trim my excess border fabric away from underneath.

The opposite corner, prepared the same way and with my "Pixies" in place and my blue corner piece added
I won't stitch the bottom Pixie of the side border or my blue corner until my side border is in place - just in case!!!! I love these calm corners Esther, Thank you so much for Love Entwined.
Enjoy your sewing everyone,
Jenny

WOW on Wed 12th March

Hi Everyone,
My metallic thread arrived yesterday and I raced into town and got it BUT when I arrived home I had no enthusiasm to start sewing!!!!  With a week without stitching and a production line of pieces now just waiting to be used, what has happened?
There is an old saying, measure twice and cut once, in my case it is measure twice then draw your placement line - Then check it again before you sew!!!!
On Sunday I fused the pieces for my flower vase and dots on my second border of part 8 and was having trouble getting them to position properly as space seemed cramped.

Finally in place, a couple of flowers had to go missing off my silk fabric as I had positioned and stitched my Oak leaves on both sides too close to the center. Not the major issue though.
I drew my placement line for my Pixie border a quarter inch further in than it should have been so on one border the points will be on the seam line and on this one a quarter inch in
I don't have enough background fabric to remake this border so will have to make adjustments when both making the corner blocks and adding the next borders to bring everything back into alignment.
Now that I have aired my frustration maybe I can start stitching again. LOL

Went back to my sewing room and it still felt like my room was so dull and uninspiring, then I had a good look at my window.

From the door

From where I sew

From outside

We planted this area with sub tropicals only a couple of years ago, the Cabbage tree in the foreground is loving it's position as it was a real baby when planted it. the Cycads and Roti's we fell in love with while living in Rarotonga but they just do not grow the same in NZ.

However the bush covering my sewing room window was there when we bought the house and has been cut back every couple of years to a trunk below window height. I had just not noticed how it had grown this summer, blocking out all my natural light.

At 9am this morning the bush is back to it's trunk and sunlight is streaming into my sewing room once again.

maybe my quilting mojo will come back today!!!

I have my vase for the first of my 2 part 9 borders completed and I am very happy with how it has turned out.
The polystyrene board I have been using for LE is now becoming to small and with the sun streaming into my sewing room this photo is not quite what I had hoped for.

Still lots of stitching to do but with the second half elements in place for first border 9  I can see the final picture for this round. Borders are very different but my colors do work together so my enthusiasm is back!!!

I hope to finish stitching these borders  before the 15th and only be one border behind when Esther releases part 10 of this sooo beautiful  Marriage Coverlet.

One last photo.

Kelly loves our front deck and wants on it from the time we get up in the morning. Here she is enjoying the last of the late afternoon sun.

Enjoy your stitching everyone,

Cheers Jenny.

Work In Progress 5th March

Hi Everyone,
Of course my work in progress is still my Love Entwined.
Work has been busy and my alarm clock hasn't been working properly so I have been sleeping in - NO sewing time before I have to leave in the morning - so progress has been slow.
Then, Sunday morning I ran out of my metallic thread, thought I had plenty on my backup reel but obviously I had used more than I thought. LOL
Phone call on Monday to my local quilting shop. Sorry, out of stock but we can have some for you later in the week!!!  So I have just been planning, fusing and cutting for the last two days.
Last week after starting the second borders, I felt my first borders were not quite right.

Have added extra hearts around my end medallions, which fills in the design, and my flowers each side of the vase are now stitched. Still thinking about adding Esther's extra circles by the Oak leaves, with the extra hearts I think I need them after all.

Second border is taking shape. I completed a lot of the stitching and have now been working on my vase.
It is the fact that this border is looking much fuller with the applique that made me revisit my first borders.

Only the main stems are stitched at this stage. It is brighter and bolder than my first border vases but it seems to be what this border needs.

Very happy now with how my borders are looking and I have plenty of stitching to do when I get my thread.
Now to link with Esther', WOW before heading to work.
Cheers everyone, Jenny

WOW 26th Feb, up and running

Hi Everyone,
Finally, I can access my blog again and hopefully upload some photo's.
Computer problems started a couple of weeks ago after Glenda letting me know I  may have been hacked.
I had had 2 messages from Yahoo saying they had noticed unauthorized attempts to access my yahoo account  from the US, the first said to please change my password which I ignored, Lol
The second locked me out of Yahoo until I changed my password, which of course I then did.
A few days later, Glenda's message and another change of password.
Next Day, our computer crashed!! Coincidence or not I don't know, but it had been working fine up until my last password change. Just maybe those messages were not from Yahoo after all!!!!
Anyway, Steve had bought a second hand laptop to set up for me in my sewing room, so no problem, we would just use that one.
However discovered it was running a very early version of XP so we had to find a service pack to update it as it could not download either Google chrome or Firefox.
Even with service pack 3 installed, Google ran so slow and would crash just after it finished loading a page, lack of virtual memory which I have now increased, it is working better unless I try and look too far back on any page and then it runs out of memory again and closes.
As I am not very computer literate trying to fix these problems really slowed down my progress on Love Entwined but with Steve working  it was up to me if  I wanted to visit the group.

I managed to download Part 9 of LE between problems and just had to make a start even though my second part 8 border is only half finished.
I was going to use the same green fabric for the Oak Leaves in this border as I had used in the first borders, until - whoops I need 16 of them and I don't have enough fabric as this is one of my curtain samples and I want some for the corner blocks as well, that was the first rethink.
So this is what I came up with.

Just enough green to carry  through into these borders and leave me some for the corner blocks plus a more open motif from my inspiration fabric.
The second problem I nearly had was my dark clogs. I sailed ahead and traced the 24 I needed for these two borders onto my fusible with room for easy cutting and yes it fitted onto my fabric, again a curtain sample so not able to get any more!!! Pressed my fusible on and at the last minute before I starting cutting, lightning struck - HOW MANY do I need for the corner blocks? OOPS 4 per block that's 16, no way do I have enough fabric with how I had traced my 24.
So I cut another piece of fusible to the size of my fabric and traced  in any direction, however I could fit them in as I needed 40 in total.

Just made it, 42 so have 2 to spare in case of too hot an iron. This fabric is synthetic so grain is not an issue, once it's fused it just sets and has little fraying.

The next thing before I go too far is to see if my borders will work together.

I think they do but I sort of wish I had been further behind and could have worked on both borders at once.
Remember that all of you who are late starters, you have a big advantage as you know what comes next!!!
I am glad I didn't rush in and add the flowers each side of the first vases as I now know what colors they should be and yes they are needed.

Added these this morning and yes much better I think. Never would have used these colors if I had done them earlier.
My medallions at each end of the first borders I now wish I had cut apart and made more open but it may only need an addition not an unpick, only time will tell.

Now to see if I can link to Esther's WOW this this.
Happy stitching everyone, Cheers Jenny

Work on Love Entwined Wed 5th Feb

Hi Everyone.
Have had 3 days off and working on my second border has been my top priority now that my first border is finished and am  happy with it. The 15th is going to be here before we know it and I would like to have my second border completed by then as well.

On Monday I pressed the seam allowances away and positioned my border close to how it should sit onto the center.

You can see why I am happy with how it turned out, but the more I have looked while working on border two something has jumped out at me.

There is a new floral shape forming, at least it is in my mind!!!!

If I had seen this earlier maybe my flower basket wouldn't have my kimono flowers, but be stronger. 

I am glad I didn't pick it as I love them, but will now be looking for the right accent for each side of the vase as to me it is becoming another corner and will need Esther's detail. 

The original maker of our coverlet had to be a master designer, Esther I thank you  for your wonderful interpretation which I am loving more with each stage. 

I know most people are hand stitching, but if you are new to the group and machine stitching like me you might find the following useful as I have taken photo's of how I prepared my second border.
I do it very differently from hand sewers.

After joining  my paper pattern together and checking the measurements were correct I marked and cut it with a quarter inch seam allowance. Also marked on the pattern my placement line for my fused borders, as you can see the border will cover them completely.

Pressed the center line of my fabric in both directions and also the pattern center.

Line these up and pin the pattern onto the fabric which has been cut with excess all around.

I have used photo editing to enhance the lines on my fabric for clarity and they are slightly off.

The grey line will be my final cutting line with seam allowance. IF there is any shrinkage from the applique it will still be inside my seam allowance.

The red line is my marking line for the applique border placement and becomes completely covered by the border.

I start fusing outwards from the center, only touching a top or bottom corner with the iron to hold them at this stage until I have a perfect fit. Then I can ensure the center line is perfect as I fuse each piece into place.

Zigzag border stitched into place.

I never usually think about how long it takes me to stitch by machine but this time I decided to see how long a border like this takes. My fabric was marked out and my zigzags were precut weeks ago so the paper backing's fell off easily.  Half an hour to fuse the applique pieces into place.

Another half hour to stitch the 35" inner side, then 45 mins to stitch the outer side as had to straight stitch in and zigzag back out at every join. Border complete in one and three quarter hours.

Exactly the same for my .Dutch Pixies. I love this name for them, it is so fitting.
I start at the center and just touch the tip of each cone with the iron to hold it while I position it, then work back adding their clogs and fusing each in place as I go. Can't use full heat as my gold frays and my dark burgundy melts with a hot iron. So I need to stitch this as soon as possible.

I thought for a while before stitching this border as I really HATE Start, Stop and tie off, and I could see this happening if I stitched each "Pixie" individually.
So a bit like chain piecing, I stitch along one side and then the other. It has taken me an hour to stitch one side, those clogs are very slow going as I have to move my fabric every couple of stitches.
I am never watching machine time again, Lol.
But, I would love to know how long it takes a hand sewer to stitch this border.You have far more patience than me, I am sure of that.
I need to go back and spend another hour at my machine to stitch the other side, so am linking to Esther's blog now.
Enjoy your Wednesday everyone.
Cheers Jenny.