Granny's garden top finished

Wowser. I have just finished stitching the top to my Granny's Garden quilt. I started the first flower on the 22nd of June 2014 and the final flower was done on the 1st of December 2014. The border took me from the 1st of December until the 22nd of March 2015. It has taken me a week to sew the border onto the quilt.

So from start to finish it has taken me 280 days.

The whole reason for wanting to do a granny's garden quilt apart from the fact that they are bright and friendly was to use up a whole lot of jelly rolls that I have collected over time. Many of them were presents and a gorgeous collection of colours. I think they have melded together quite well. As you can see with the border, I just made 4 cm by 8 cm blocks and plaited them together.

I still have about 6 more jelly rolls, so I will have to think of another quilt to use them up on. 

The next step will be to create a backing. I have some lovely floral fabric, which should be perfect. The only problem is that they are not as wide enough to be a backing without some creative intervention. I am going to be using a silk batting. This will be an new experience. The batting feels lovely, but, I will only know how it stitches later. I loved the feeling of bamboo batting, but found that it was quite 'sticky' on the needles.

Hope you are all having a marvelous day and getting some stitching in.

Have a good one! 

Border progress adjustments needed

Well today is Sunday,the outside world is grey and gloomy. What joy. I have spent the whole day stitching. I have managed to stitch the edge on the border. 

These are the corners all ready to be attached. What do you think of the butterflies that I have added?

I have now got to the point where serious calculations needed to be made to do the final adjustments to the design. I am adding some blocks to the border as well as a 1cm stripe to the top and the bottom. It sometimes is fun to do follow your nose designs. The whole point is not to have a freak out when you realize you still have 20 metres to stitch. 

The kittens have been keeping me company. The poor little boy spend a night at the vet. The mean Siamese cat from next door came over to our property and scratched his flank. The scratch formed an abscess and this needed to be drained. The poor boy went under anesthetic and while he was under he was neutered as well. I know it is the responsible thing to do, but, I do feel bad for the poor fella. Extra greenies for him. 

Hope you are having an amazing day and that stitching is part of your plans. I found this funny and it really does appeal to me. Do you think it is funny or do you have to have drunk this cold drink growing up.

Have a good one.

Autumn equinox

Oh hey, oh yay today is the Autumn equinox. At 22:45 the equinox will be achieved. The weather has been soo hot for us to be theoretically in the middle of Autumn. Our Peach tree has thrown a few yellow leaves on the driveway. Apart for this decorating not much else has turned yellow. All of the wild grasses are blooming. What a glorious site. I also do so love hay fever. Even trying to be so cool, every now and again the inner nerd will out.

On the 15th my daughter celebrated her wedding anniversary.  Life does go by so rapidly. Still no grandchildren. It will be amazing when it eventually does happen. They have only been married for a year, but, they have been together for 13 years. 

The picture below is used from Victoriana quilt design I asked permission to use this picture and she kindly said yes.

All four corners have been stitched together. Next step is putting the brown stripes around the edge and then I will join the border to the quilt. Once that is done I need to work out how I am going to put the back together. I bought some beautiful soft floral fabric to use on Dear Jane, but it was too sweet for the ragamuffin that is my interpretation of Dear Jane.

Hope you have an amazing spring or Autumn equinox. I hope that you get a respite from whatever weather system you are now bored with.

Have a good one

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's day to one and all. I did a quick check and eew  what we are celebrating is the death of a dude in the year 461. I find it amazing and amusing that people deaths' are celebrated in such a jolly way. 

Is that what tradition is? Do events start out all somber and then get high jacked and become a party. I enjoy seeing holidays for what they are. The worst is st valentines day. That is one holiday that gives me the willies. Celebrating a human being torn apart is just not nice. 

I like Christmas as that is actually a Roman feast. Nothing wrong with that.

Ok back to Happy st Patrick's day.  May you have a green beer and find a four leaved clover. May the genetic bits of you that were at some point Irish, have a jolly good time.

What do you think of the cute Irish quilts that I found. 

I am now busy on the corners of my border. I think this year, for the first time, I will be quilting during winter. It feels like I normally piece in winter and when the horrific heat appears, I start quilting the quilt. This normally takes about 3 months which take you through the hottest part of the year. I am looking forward to quilting my Granny's garden quilt.

Have an amazing day!

Happy Pi day

Happy pi day to one and all. You know how people always say that you never use anything you learnt in Math class in life, well I have used pi frequently to work out how much binding or bias I would need for cushions etc. So I celebrate pi, it has been useful. That is the great thing about quilting, you get to play with geometry.

In the news this week it was sad to see that Terry Pratchet died. He wrote the most amazing books of fiction. He created worlds that were not just a description of his neighborhood. His books were comics in written format. I hope he finds a new story to live.

And secondly. Naughty Jeremy. Young little boys should show some respect and feed old men. When the blood sugar gets low, grumpiness will appear. Hope the BBC chills out and gets over itself. I enjoy watching Jeremy and the other two are quite boring without him, Please sign the petition for the freedom to fracas.

Busy stitching more of the border. It is almost done and then onto the corners. 

It is implementation night at work tonight. So much stress. Hope it goes well.

Have an amazing day!

Happy women's Day

I know I am late in wishing all a happy women's day. I was too busy quilting to stop and type. All the women I know would have also been too busy.

I found this on facebook today and it really sums up my thoughts on my gender. It drives me nuts when I see women posting comments on other women's prettiness.. Women are worth more than pretty. All women a beautiful, and the beauty can be found on both the outside and on the inside. Make sure all of the beauty is just not external.

So now after all that seriousness here is a lovely tip for life. I know,I know...just call it a juxtaposition on attitude. It is all important to have one or the other or both. Go forth and find your  juxtaposition or your attitude. :D

Have a beautiful day.

March merriness

Two months of the year used up. We are getting rain almost every day. This helps as the last days of summer are trying to be the hottest. Work is hectic. Transporting my child is hectic and so is making the border. In fact February was a pretty hectic month. I was given another 6 month contract. That will make it 9 and half years that I have been needed for only another 6 months. I find this stressful as you can only make plans within the time frame given.

Thank goodness for quilting. At least that keep on going with a certain rhythm. I love each step, starting with the planning and culminating with the final stitch of the binding. I have been day-dreaming of a business with sewing being the central part. The trouble is that the ability to earn the same as a corporate job is almost impossible. The thing with work is that I thought that I would do this for a year after school and then go off to university and become a lawyer. Instead I have written programs for the last 37 years and gained a degree in computer science instead of something fun. So I can sit an dream about a delivery van with a cute logo on the side and a barn in which creation would be produced all the while being a cog in the Machine. I can't complain it really is not a bad way to make a living. It is just not fun.

I am now half way in making the borders. 
They are creeping along. I have added the centre portion and the image of the little bricks coming together in the centre is slowly emerging. Having done the math, I am going to have to do something creative on the top and bottom as there is a 3cm shortfall on the border. I think I will solve it when I eventually get there.

Om num num num 

The kittens are growing. They are no longer kept in their bedroom at night, and are now free to terrorize all the members of the family as they see fit.

A pouncing about to happen

They are quite good and only start running around at around four thirty. We are going into winter so this will become later as the sun rises later.

Enjoy the last three weeks of summer/winter.

Kitten sniffing Greenies. Love those treats.

Have an amazing day.