Harikuyo 2014 and lots of applique

Once again it is time for the Festival of Needles, a Japanese tradition, where stitchers give thanks for their needles.
On February 8th each year broken needles are honored by laying them at rest.
I collect my broken and worn needles in the back of my needlebook.

I have placed my needles in some soft batting, placed them in a container to be buried in my rose garden.

My needles have been used for machine and hand piecing, applique, quilting and embroidery. Hours of meditation, improving my skills and creating useful and decorative objects for myself and others.

To learn lots more about Hari-Kuyo click here.  Susan also has lots more about the Festival on her blog here.


In the last few days I have managed to finish 3 different hand applique blocks.

Firstly Block 18 of CCCQ, Mary Mc Kissick.

I have started stitching the 2nd set of Noah and Matilda blocks. This one is Red Leaf Bouquet.

Lastly is the block that took the longest. My first completed corner block for Roseville Album.

Some close ups..

Keep safe everyone! Here it is very hot and windy with high fire danger. We can see and smell smoke. Don't worry we are safe!! The high winds are bringing smoke from fires away from us.
We are looking forward to a cool change later today.

New projects for 2014 and a WIP

The new year always begins with a flurry of new projects appearing in blogland. Lots of them are tempting, however there are never enough hours in the day to do them all!! Lol

I have chosen 2 new quilts, both in BOM format.

The first is the Noah and Matilda Album Quilt from Dawn. Dawn owns the original quilt and, together with her DD, they have drawn up patterns for the quilt. Each month a set of four patterns is available for purchase.
Here is my first block completed.

I chose to piece the flower pot, then applique it down. The blocks finish at 8 inches.

These are the fabrics I have chosen for this quilt.

The solid green, far right, is actually the back of a print, which I may use both ways around. I hope to not have to buy any fabrics to finish this quilt (except for the backing).

The 2nd project appears as a mystery BOM in Quiltmania magazine.  The edition with the first set of instructions arrived here on Friday.

Di Ford's mystery quilt, Mountmellick, began with the centre medallion instructions. There is also a great video of Di making the first block on Quiltmania's Facebook page.

(I am having trouble getting on to Quiltmania's web page at the moment. I will add links later. There is a photo of the first block on Threadbear's page....link below)

Even though I will be getting my BOM fabrics from Threadbear, I had a play with my fabrics here yesterday (all French General) :)

I may not make the block with these fabrics, but it was fun to play.

Another very tempting project is the Benjamin Biggs Quilt. There is a blog for this quilt here. This is another (mostly) red and green album quilt, free to download, but the blocks finish at 16 inches! It will be a huge quilt! My first idea was to maybe shrink the patterns down to make smaller blocks. At the moment I have chosen to print out the patterns while they are available, and keep them for another day.

I'm not ignoring all those WIPs I have here!!! This is my progress so far on my latest Roseville Album block.

Lots of stitching to keep me busy while watching the Australian Open tennis on TV.

With expected temperatures forecast to be around 40  degrees C (104F) for the next 4 days, I will be spending lots of time inside in front of the TV!

If you are in Australia, keep cool, if you are in the Northern Hemishere, keep warm. Stay safe everyone!

Roseville Album centre blocks completed

It has taken quite a while, but I finally have all 9 centre blocks complete!!
They are not stitched together yet, so I may alter the layout.

Can you spot the single repro fabric in amongst all those brights?

My 9th block completed.

The pineapple in this block is from Josephine by Petra Prins. (Thank you Sue J for the inspiration!)

Now on to the 4 corner blocks.

Lovely bright azalea, "Gretel" flowering in my garden this week.

A little Sojourn

I'm back home after a few days in Sydney visiting family.

I also got my first (hopefully not my last!) visit to Material Obsession. What a treasure trove of fabric! Because I was restricted by luggage allowance and time, I headed straight for the sale section for my fabric purchases. My non quilting companions wandered the shop and even they were impressed by what they saw!
I found 2 lovely French General fabrics and a couple of others.

After a quick scan of the rest of the shop (wish I could have stayed longer!!!), we did some more sight seeing.

On the quilting front the Swoon quilt has been basted....

.....and machine quilting has begun.

Last night I finished the last of the 9 centre blocks of Roseville Album. Photos next post.

A little more stitching has been happening for Jane Pizar too.

Back soon with stitching photos.

Have a great weekend!!

Swooning Southern Belles top finished and more...

Tada...

 

Swooning Southern Belles.

I finished the top this morning and this afternoon the rain stoppped long enough for me to get a quick photo. Lots of Liberty and Liberty Lifestyle fabrics in this quilt.
I named the quilt after the blocks I used in the quilt.

Now to baste, quilt and bind it!

On the hand applique front I have a Roseville Album block completed.

All the pieces are prepared for the next block; the last of the nine centre blocks.

No photos of Jane Pizar progress this time, but I have the circle appliqued to the background square now.


This stack of delicious fabric from Green Fairy came in the mail this week.

Josephine by French General.  

Many of these fabrics will be used in Jane Pizar.

Here are some of my favourites:

 Look at the bees!!!!

Today I had a wonderful day with Cathy, Deb, Merran and Wendy (Instagramers) and a quick hello from Emma and Sarah.   We met at Amitie where, after lots of chatting and admiring lots and lots of fabrics, I chose these fabrics to come home with.

 I plan to make a quilt for my son (hence no floral fabrics! Lol) The quilt I will be making is pictured in the header of Cathy's blog.

After working up an appetite over fabrics we had lunch before going home.

We have been blessed with some wonderful weather earlier this week.
Here is another peek of spring time in my garden.

PS.  I am now in Instagram. Look for mjnorindr. Drop by and say hello! :)

Jane Pizar progress and the return of Roseville Album.

I finally have the centre stitched in!! So far, the choice of fabrics for this section has been the most difficult for me. I tried four different fabric combinations, none of which worked. Finally I reread the notes I took while Marg Sampson George was speaking about fabric choices for the quilt. Her suggestion of having a pale centre sent me back to my fabrics and my final choice.

This combination works much better!  Later I may applique 5-petal daisies onto the pentagon shapes.

Yesterday I basted the circle onto its background, so now I am ready applique it down and prepare the applique for each of the corners.

It has been a very long time since I worked on Roseville Album. I have 7 of the 9 centre blocks completed. Below is my progress on the 8th block.

The basket was my first attempt at a woven basket. There was lots of spray starch, glue and plenty of pins involved in getting it down! Lots more stitching to do yet. 
I am in the process of choosing fabrics for the last centre block, so that one won't be far away. :)

At the moment I am working on 4 projects. The other 2 are machine stitching projects and I will share them in my next post.

We are less than a week away from Spring and already there are lots of signs in the garden.

The Bendigo Wax is blooming and, below the plum tree is covered in blossom.

In other news I have taken the Sarah Morrell quilt to a long arm quilter. I believe this quilt deserves a standard of quilting that is far beyond my skills, so I have left it in the very capable hands of Katrina. I am really looking forward to seeing Sarah Morrell quilted!

Nearly Insane

I have stitched the Nearly Insane inspired block into the little sewing bag. Here is how it looks now.

Almost 5 years ago (goodness time flies!!!) I started making the Nearly Insane quilt. I didn't get very far before I was distracted by several other quilts! hehe...
 I dug out my blocks last night. Here are my favourite blocks. These blocks are 6 inches finished.

The fabrics are all from various Dargate lines by Margo Krager.

I discovered one block cut out ready to sew, so I stitched it last night. Here are all the blocks I have completed so far.

Some time ago I found this little badge.  In 1870 Salinda Rupp made the quilt which inspired Liz Lois to make her Nearly Insane quilt and then publish her book.

This week I have brought  out 2 WIP to start working on again.

Looove those bright fabrics!!!

I have only 2 more centre blocks to make for Roseville Album, so I am going to make them together.

Josephs Coat has been put away for a looong time!!! I have been searching for just the right fabrics to finish off the last few blocks. Its time to get it done!

 No, I am not making any more Nearly Insane blocks....yet!  I have been challenged to make block 18  which has 229 pieces!!! (yes, in a tiny 6 inch block!!) Block 18 will be my next NI block and I may just stop there because I will have 12 blocks which can be made into a small quilt.

The cool change has arrived here in Melbourne. What a relief!! Let the Hot Cross Bun baking begin!! :)

A catch up post and more photos

Before I left I had some photos ready to post but I ran out of time to get them on my blog.

I finished another block for the Roseville Album quilt.

I love the 2 flowers in the top corners of this block.
Next I plan to start one of the larger side panels.

I made some fabric purchases.

This one just because its quirky and cute, and I can see lots of fussy cutting opportunities.

I managed to find a fat quarter pack of Mary Koval's Baltimore Album fabric collection.
The quilt on which these fabrics were based was made in around 1847. The Chester Country Criswell Quilt was made only 5 years later. so I will be using some of the reds and greens in my blocks.

I have plans for several of the other fabrics also.

I have been looking at chintz fabrics in several places and found some when Purl Soho had a sale. The strips are 4 inches by 60 inches.

Each of the patterned strips has small, medium and large patterns.

Here are a few more photos from our holiday. First some colourful shots from Singapore. The first 2 were taken from the window of a moving bus!

Paris from the Montmatre Hill.

St Malo.

Honfleur.

Next post will be books and fabric I found while we were away.