Jelly Roll twist

What a week this was!  Daughter-in-law had a back operation but got up and going so fast afterwards, however, she may still not drive a car which is rather frustrating for her little ones as no one wants to sit at home all day during school holidays.

She asked me if I would take her to have the staples in her back removed and the day before I had to take her to the hospital, our youngest was admitted with an unknown fewer.  We’ve had our fair share of hospital visits.

This poor quilt, therefore, was on the frame for days as once we got from the hospital we would have load-shedding and with that done, I had to do whatever needed electricity, such as cooking, before I could even think of quilting.

Friday morning, I decided that come hell or high water, this quilt needed to be finished and I got going.

The quilt will be used as a beach blanket and will still be fitted with waterproof backing.  I chose a motif called ‘water’ for this one.

Off-centre square in a square quilt

I got so busy this week I almost forgot to post about the last quilt I did.

Many moons ago I made something similar except that my centre squares were not all the same size, therefore I used a different technique than the quilter who made this.  Seeing this quilt, reminded me of the one I made, and this is the second time since I stopped piecing that I had the urge to just make one more.  The technique I used is especially helpful when you want to make a quilt for a child, using pictures (different sizes) from a panel or maybe pictures from different fabrics. Maybe once this house is fixed, I will get there again.

This quilt was however truly beautiful, and this was also the first time I got the request for the geometric design to be quilted.  This motif was taught in my third course by Adria Good and can be somewhat tricky in trying to keep the lines straight.  When quilting, you do not look at where you are quilting but always somewhere ahead and this is when crooked lines happen, but it is after all free-motion quilting and not done with any rulers.

Just look at all these fun colours.

No quilting week

After having to visit a physiotherapist two weeks in a row with a stern warning to give my shoulder, back, neck, wrists and thumbs a decent rest, I had a whole week of no quilting.  I even resisted the urge to put a practice sample on the frame on which to play with new, different, combinations or deviations of designs.

However, when we bought this house in April 2022, it had 2 additional flats, to rent out, on the same property.  This made sense to us, as we saw it as an additional monthly income.  Now the bachelor flat will not be available for the foreseeing future as we still use this to store all the ‘stuff’ we do not have space for.  The two-bedroom flat was, with our take-over, rented by a couple and we decided to allow them to stay.

This turned out bad but thanks to our other neighbours who laid a complaint of theft against the man, we kindly had to ask them to leave as the other neighbours did not like a criminal in their midst.  I luckily had other people interested even before the commotion of the theft started, so I told them when the flat would be ready.

This left us exactly 10 days to finally be able to walk through the flat as owners and prepare it for the new occupants. A surprise about the condition of the flat……………. That is putting it softly, it was a hot mess.

I felt so sorry for poor hubby, as he meant to fix one thing, another would fall off or break and one task led to another doing it in 10 days were almost impossible, but the new occupants moved in yesterday, so hopefully, his life would be a little easier going forward.

A couple of before and after photos.

Carpets with what looks like oil stains, replaced with new ones

The filter inside of the extractor fan above the stove with what seems to be years of oil spills caught in this

Cracked glass and glass with stickers on, replaced with new

On/Off switch above the stove, surely you have to see this daily?

The condition of the stove plates after claiming it was cleaned by the previous occupants

Well now that all of this (and much more) is done, we can concentrate on our own house again.

Floral burst

I forgot to ask the quilter whether she had a name for this quilt, so I decided to name it myself.  Most of the fabric had flowers printed on it and she chose a floral edge-to-edge as well.

This is the last quilt I have done (for an extended period anyway) with fleece as backing.  It works much harder than ordinary fabric and one must roll back and forth constantly to make sure the fleece does not stretch too much compared to the top.  This caused me to suffer from overworked thumb muscles and did not help much for my already weak shoulder. I had a frozen shoulder in 2017 and it never really returned to normal afterwards.

The physiotherapist suggested two weeks of total rest, but I think I might just go crazy if I cannot quilt for two weeks long.

I just noticed that this was my 53^rd quilt for this year, so more than a quilt for every week of the year.  No wonder my body is starting to act up.

This is however the latest completion.

Chevrons in subtle greys

How lucky was I to have this quilt to work on this week?  I told the quilter that I did not really have time, money, or space to make more quilts but seeing this one made me seriously reconsider my decision.

I took some time to finish this one up as my shoulder and thumbs are acting up terribly and sometimes, I could hardly advance a quilt on the frame, but it got done and here is the fleece back.

A little close-up of some of the fabrics used.

Finally, the stunning finish.

Teal runner

This week seemed calmer, with hubby back in the garden still trying to figure out the irrigation pipes.

Friend Karin attended a sew-away hosted by our local Pfaff dealer and as tradition has it between the two of us, we have breakfast on our way there.  I was her driver and although just 11 minutes out of town, we still did the breakfast.

Now, apart from having no sense of direction, I do not know the difference between cars.  To me, they all look the same…. Slightly rectangular with 4 wheels.  Whenever I parked anywhere, I try to remember the spot and once back out of the shop of wherever I was, I would look for my registration.  Big was my surprise when I got out of Karin’s accommodation to see this.

For a moment there, I was rather confused.

Next up on the frame was a teal runner with only an edge-to-edge motif and this went fast.

Gotta dance panel

Last week went by in the blink of an eye and I never got to post on my blog.  Our youngest grandchild had a dental procedure scheduled for Tuesday and Monday morning her parents phoned, worried as they thought she had a fever and did not want to take her to school, risking her getting sicker and having to postpone the theatre booking.  We were asked to take care of her.  Once she got to us and realised she was not going to school, there was no sign of any fever!

Apart from being extremely grumpy due to hunger, the procedure went well, and she was up and about later the same day.

The next day she tried her hand (or body??) at pole dancing and this little one was a real show off.

Hubby started fixing the guest bedroom some time ago and as with all the renovations we have done thus far, it turned out far more work than initially anticipated.

However, now that it is done, it looks so good.  He chipped out the tiles, replaced them with a carpet, fixed the cupboards, painted everything, and also fixed the ceiling fan, as this too, as with most everything in this house, did not work properly.

I received the little panel in between all of this and the hilarious part about it: the quilter started this 14 years ago for her granddaughter but will now be gifted to a needy child.

Seasons quilt…. Not in nature but in life and friendship

I ask quilters to name their quilts, mainly as a title to my blog and told this quilter to get creative and I think the name suits the quilt.  Most quilters simply give me the name of the pattern or technique, which is fine too.

This quilt got to me during load shedding and there it was on my dining room table staring at me with my hands being tied without electricity.  Once that was over, it was time to prepare hubby’s lunch, put the parrot to bed for her afternoon nap and then the kids had load shedding in their area and came over.

This poor quilt had to wait for another day which did not go much better than the first, but I got it loaded and whenever I could, quilted a couple of straight lines I love the texture these wider lines gave the quilt.

I do not have any quilts coming in this week, as far as I know, and occasionally that is good too.  It gives me time to focus on other areas in the house that needs my attention.

Disappearing 9-patch

Another rather busy week behind us, starting with our youngest grandchild turning 3 but holding her birthday party for 3 days.  If this is established as a family tradition, I can have my birthday next year for the whole of June and July.  Sadly, I do not have a mother who would organise and pay for the venue and treats and I do not think my family and friends would appreciate bringing me gifts for two months.

On Wednesday we had a day loaded with appointments and just when I got home, thinking I could start working, it would be interrupted by load shedding.  These are killing me and if only our municipality/government would stick to the routine, it be one thing but to shut all electrical appliances off, just to see that there is no load shedding, is frustrating.  Can the peace be trusted or will someone after a while realise their mistake and switch it off then?

I had yet another disappearing 9-patch to quilt and I think this must have been the third one this year.  The quilter wanted edge-to-edge quilting and I dug up an older motif I frequently did on my own quilts, just on a much smaller scale as back then I quilted on my domestic machine.

Table runner

Next on my frame was a rather long table runner.  Different fabrics were used and then the quilter used embroidery floss to make large-scale patterns with thread on some of the material.  I am sure this technique has a name I sadly cannot remember now.

Not to kill the hand stitches with quilting I only stitched in the ditch of some of the fabric touching each other.

Disappearing 9-patch

This lovely batik in Autumn colours kept me busy for the first part of the week and what a week it was.

One of the first friends I made when we moved to Bloemfontein in 1987 went to visit her kids in Mauritius, contracted gastro, and thought it was over when she, one morning, couldn’t move properly and had double vision.  She is now still in ICU over there diagnosed with Guillain Barré syndrome.  The doctors took her cellular phone away, her husband could only get a flight for tomorrow and it is absolutely frustrating to sit on this side having no means of finding out how she’s doing.

I find quilting distracts me from constantly worrying and wondering about her.  Quilting this beauty did just that.

Shwe-shwe circles and squares

 Word underlined the word Shwe-shwe as incorrectly spelt but this is the name of 100% South African cotton and I am in love with the vibrant colours.  I got this one earlier in the week but with it being the school holidays the little ones spent quite some time with us.

On Tuesday my daughter took me to the local art festival where we shopped way too much but also got some divine traditional South African food.

Thursday, I went with the two moms, all the grandkids, and a friend to Jumpers Lane where the little ones could spend the day on the trampolines and in the water.

Got another quilt this week but the backing was too small and now I am waiting for a new backing from the quilter.  I however got to finish this quilt

Checkerboard quilt

Having deliberately decided not to quilt on Monday and Tuesday last week, I got up to date with cleaning and even cooked suppers ahead.  The only quilt expected arrived after hours on Wednesday thus I had the whole day all to myself with no urgent matters to attend to, I decided to make the most of this day off, prepared myself a plate of Jalapeno poppers, poured some wine and read a rather disturbing book suggested by my daughter.

Got the quilt but being hubby and my time didn’t load or started it.  Thursday DIL taught her last class at school for the term and invited me to celebrate it with her with cocktails and yes, more Jalapeno poppers.

Friday evening SIL phoned to say he had a lambs’ rib and wants to come over if I can prepare something to go with it, which I obviously did.  How can one refuse rib?

I decided to add a hint of blue to the guest bathroom, no painting but just in the décor with towels, bath fizzers, gel, lotions and whatnot but I simply could find a blue plate that suited my needs.  All I could find were plates with definite patterns on them and I get bored with them.  I wanted something abstract.  My dearest daughter said, if I give her a glass plate, she will decorate it for me.  The plate I gave looked like this.

Once done, just what I imagined.

We had the grandkids over the whole weekend, not all of them together but in sessions but somewhere in between I got the edge-to-edge quilting done on this quilt.

 

Staggered bricks

I received this quilt on Saturday requesting that it be done by Tuesday. Thinking hubby would play his usual golf on Sunday morning, I loaded it planning a quiet Sunday morning quilting alas hubby did not play golf but entertained himself by starting to redo the guest bedroom.  I, in between serving him coffee, could finish the quilt.

This is another quilt made as a gift for someone who has to undergo a bone marrow transplant.  The quilter used brick shapes in a mood-lifting colour (this is what blue says to me) and asked their friends to write their names on some of the bricks.

Again, I did the ribbon design, not only being a gift but bone marrow transplant being the gift of new life.

Once the quilter fetched the quilt, we treated ourselves to a fish braai at a local restaurant, along with friends and the food was worth every cent of the asking price.

Another quilter sent a message on Sunday but I explained to her that I simply needed a break and will take two days off, not even going into my frame room which is exactly what I did.  Now, I am well rested and ready to go again.

Scrappy tiles in a window

By the time I got this quilt I was totally exhausted.  I’ve had continuous quilts to do for more than 3 weeks in a row.  As the one got off the frame, the next had to be put up. I don’t have domestic help, cooking and cleaning is all on me.  We’ve moved to a new house with its own set of pitfalls.  Hubby got a temporary job as a quality controller at the largest hospital in our country and his PA (which turned out to be me!!) has to type his weekly reports.  Then, our sold business is still not deregistered and also needs my attention as well as our trust account and personal finances.  In between all of this, I still have kids, grandkids and pets and all want their equal share of attention.

When this quilter, therefore, called for stitch in the ditch, it was a welcome change. 

Esther’s comfort

 The quilter made this quilt for a friend who recently lost her mom and used jelly rolls.  It was massive and towards the end, I had a hard time advancing it as my wrists do not seem to want to handle the heavy weight anymore.

I decided on a large-scale ribbon edge-to-edge because of the size of the quilt.

City Slicker

This turned out to be one of those quilts which attracted the attention of everyone passing my frame room.  The bold contrast between the black and bright colours excites most people.

The quilter will add another backing to this quilt to turn it into a duvet cover, so the backing colour need not match the top.

We selected the bubbles edge-to-edge motif to finish it up.

Sunset Sky

I think the fabric chosen for this quilt, represents the name perfectly.  A pity we have so many artificial lights in neighbourhoods, that one forgets to look at the natural sunset or it isn’t even visible.

With the densely printed fabric, dense quilting would have been a waste of time and money as it would hardly show up.  I basically selected 2 main areas for a bit of custom quilting and only did ditch stitching in the rest.