Squares for a table cloth

The quiltmaker plans to use this as a tablecloth; therefore, no batting is used, just a flannel-type layer in between.

I went to the doctor yesterday and got cortisone tablets for 5 days.  This appears to help with the eczema, the inflammation in my middle ear (causing my deafness), and also my rheumatism in my thumbs.  Now I am living on hope, but the itching, redness and swelling started subsiding late yesterday.

As I type this, I am rather frustrated.  I, after having done a bunch of quilts lately, and now being up to date, had plans to clean every nook and cranny in this house.  I got up before 4 am to start my little robovac.  I prefer to have her do the vacuuming while all the pets are still asleep.  No luck this morning.  We had to update our cellular phones recently, so I am thinking this must have deleted the info on the app, as this is still on my phone, but not the layout of the house.  I will have to have her map the whole house again. Now I got up this early for nothing.  To do this, I will have to wait for everyone to be awake and try to get them all out of the house.

Instead of sitting here, drinking one cup of coffee after the other, I have started supper for tonight.  Eisbein, sauerkraut, baked potatoes and pearled barley with a beetroot salad on the side. Now, at least, the early morning has meaning.

Cat print quilt

Some people are so organised.  This quilt maker made this quilt for her son, who adores cats, for Christmas.  I have not even thought of Christmas, and I know it will end up being a matter of last-minute rush as it always does.

Having done a couple of edge-to-edge quilts recently, it was nice to get to do a little custom work again.

Shweshwe quilt

This vibrant fabric, with its distinct smell, originated in India but was introduced to South Africa in 1858 and is now produced locally.

The quilt maker decided to go bright and bold, making an all Shweshwe quilt. It does not show texture as she used flannel instead of batting, as she plans to use this as a tablecloth.

As for my ear, it turned out it was not wax as I thought, but severe sinus inflammation.  The nurse at the clinic gave me medication for 10 days. If my hearing does not return, I need to see a doctor.

Furthermore, my eczema has flared up again, this time really bad.  Previously, it was mostly my back and neck that took punishment; now I have rashes and itches all over my body. My hands are especially bad. I can barely work with water as it burns like hell.  I now know with certainty my eczema is not caused by products I use on my skin, but rather certain foods.  I had a deluxe (extra of everything) anchovies pizza on Friday, and obviously, anchovies contain sulphites. I seriously have to rethink my love for this.

There is no school for the little one today, so she will be coming over to spend the day with us.  I am not expecting to get too much quilting done.

Double bed colourwash quilt

I mentioned this quilt in about 2 prior posts, and I finally got around to doing this.  What made this quilt rather special is that the quilt maker’s husband was almost bragging about it and eager to have it on their own bed.  Sometimes I do think men/husbands think quilters are wasting their time with this hobby.

Planning to use it on their bed, the quilter did not want elaborate custom quilting, which would anyway have disappeared on a colourwash quilt.

Yesterday morning did not go as hectic as I anticipated. By the time we had to attend the dress rehearsal, I had everything and more done, even did the laundry.  The rehearsal was short and sweet, and when we got home just after 9 am, it was into a clean house with most everything done.

Granddaughter was just as mellow and not her extremely active self.  We saw her yawning at the rehearsal a couple of times, and after having lunch, she fell asleep until it was time for her weekly swimming lessons.  I pretended to go to the doctor when I had my pedicure, knowing she wouldn’t be interested in tagging along.

I therefore got to finish this quilt that was on the frame.

Wonky blocks

A wonderful example of how to use up all those remnants.  The maker just wanted edge to edge quilting but the more I looked at this, the more the linen-coloured sashing screamed at me for a little more attention.

Remembering the maker overpaid me for her previous quilting, I took law into my own hands and did just something different on the sashing and I don’t regret it.

As for news on my deaf ear, I’ve started with softening the wax last night, will continue this evening and go to a local clinic to have my ears rinsed out on Wednesday.  Hoping for a good outcome.

Today is one of those hectic days.  I’ve made an appointment a week ago for a pedicure, not knowing how this day will turn out.  Then we were informed the youngest grandchild has a dress rehearsal for their year end concert and grandparents may attend as we are not allowed the evening of the concert.  Trusting this will finish in time, so I can still have my pedicure done.

Then, the part that bowls me out totally, is that the little one can come home with us after the rehearsal.  I am not sure what other grandparents do while on a pension but hubby and I lead rather busy lives with always something to do.  Once this little one is here, everything comes to a halt.  So, I had to start my little auto vacuum machine just after 4 am this morning, just to feel as if I at least did something.  I’ve started dinner, planned lunch for the little one and will mop the floor once the autovac is done.

With me quilting, I guestimate how long it will take me to finish a quilt and then inform the next quilter on my waiting list when I will be ready for them to bring their quilt to me.  Some of them wait for days or a week and I am sure will not be too pleased if I phone them and say they should come later.  Oh well, let’s take it one day at a time or as my daughter says, we don’t have much of a choice, it is not as if one can say “okay, I’ll simply skip Tuesday”.

Left-over colourwash blocks

The quilt maker made a stunning colourwash quilt for their own bed.  I plan to start quilting that one soon, and she had a couple of blocks left and decided to use them to make this smaller colourwash quilt.

In my previous post, I talked about old age, and now it seems that with every new day, there is a new ailment.  I got home on Thursday after a Swedish back, neck and shoulder massage and constantly heard a fan running somewhere in the house.  With it not being that warm yet, we do not have fans switched on, but the sound persisted.  I walked through the house, checked everything that could make a similar sound, and I found nothing.

The next day, the fan sound disappeared, then it felt as if my ear closed up, like when you are near a coastal city or the sea.  That evening, trying to fall asleep, I turned on my left ear, with the TV timer set and the TV in the room still on and realised I couldn’t hear a thing.  My right ear was totally deaf.

A day later, while blow-drying my hair and when I got near my ear, I got the sound of a tree branch touching an electric fence.

Saturday, we went to a party. Whenever someone to my right would talk to me, the sound came from my left side.  I would look at the person to my left, just to realise they’re not even looking at me. All the while, the poor lady to my right waited for me to respond.

Hubby thinks it’s hilarious. When he realises I can’t hear him, he pretends to use sign language to communicate with me. I am not yet sure what to do about this. Wait a couple of days to see if anything changes, or start with the most basic and try to soften any possible wax in my ear, and have that removed before going to a doctor.  Nowadays, it seems as if one doctor just wants to send you off to another to make it his or her problem.

Chevron quilt

This was surely the hardest I’ve ever struggled with a quilt, and a clear indication that old age is creeping up on me.  Seeing black thread on black fabric was nearly impossible (for me).  I tried every trick in the book, bright sunlight, artificial light, very little light and after unpicking 4 days more than I actually quilted, I decided to simply do the best I could.  Spending almost 2 weeks only doing the parts in black thread was not my intention.  Luckily, with every advance, I knew it couldn’t get any worse.

This quilt maker also did something special with her backing, as the quilt will travel all the way to her kids in Australia.

Table topper

I guess this quilt-maker did this in her group or as part of a technique class.  Now finished, she has no real use or plan for it, but still wanted it quilted and opted not to spend too much money on custom quilting, but just edge-to-edge quilting to keep the layers together.

I think this would look nice as a table topper.

Squares only

 

After the death of her husband, this quilter moved to a retirement village but also gave up quilting for a couple of years.  In her new community, she met a lady with some fabric who wished to make her daughter a quilt for Christmas.  The quilter then helped her cut the squares, have her piece the blocks and then assisted in joining the rows.

I just had to do the easy part and stitch the 3 layers together.  I must admit, after doing the previous dense quilting, having this one on the frame was a breeze.

Sampler quilt

I don’t think I’ve ever worked this long on any other quilt, but being a sampler, I loved every moment of it.  The quilt is large, with blocks that are big and plentiful. Whenever I have decided on a motif in an area, I have had to repeat it over and over, and it often felt as if the end of this quilt would never come.

This quilt also posed a couple of problems in that I found lots of puckering in the blocks themselves, as if the sashing around the blocks was cut too small, or it could even have been the diagonal sashing between the blocks.  I had to make a decision between keeping the sashing flat when quilting, moving the puckers to the blocks or keeping the blocks flat and allowing the puckers to gather in the sashing.

I planned rather dense quilting in both sets of sashing, so I decided to do less quilting in the blocks to move the puckers and give the illusion of loft instead of puckering.

As much as I enjoyed working on this, I am glad to finally have it off the frame.  I think my machine now needs plenty of TLC and a new needle.

Shop or class wall quilt

One of our local quilters will be moving to a coastal city towards the end of the year and has one extra-large spare room in her new house.  She intends to use this not only to teach quilting but also to sell fabric.  How fortunate are those people?

One of her quilting friends made her this beautiful quilt to put up against a wall, not only to show how the same block in different colours looks, but also how shifting a little bit can make a huge difference.

The recipient asked for not too dense custom quilting.

Sage green quilt

 The daughter of this quilt maker asked for a sage green quilt, and mom had no other choice but to oblige.

Zig zag solid fabric

This is the second fabric sent to me by the same quilter as mentioned in my previous post.  Hopefully, she feels better about her need for quilts and can further concentrate on the quilt she is currently working on, using a pattern.

Sleep print solid fabric

 This quilt maker, currently busy with a pattern that is time-consuming as she wants it as neat as possible, realised she needed two quilts for everyday and everywhere use and decided to simply purchase fabric with an appealing print and have me stitch through these.

This was the first fabric.

Table centrepiece

This is from the same quilter who made the previous quilt for the beach house.  She found pre-cut charm squares and decided to join them to make a little table centre piece.

Beach house coach quilt

This quilt maker was invited to visit a friend in a coastal city and decided to make her a quilt for her couch in their beach house.  We opted for a water free-motion pattern seeing that we don’t have waves in our province.

Denim combined squares

The maker of this walks by a satellite house on her daily route.  In South Africa, this is an orphanage in a more family-oriented set-up.  Each home has house parents with a couple of kids living under their care.

The maker saw the kids outside on the lawn and, with the help of another quilter in her quilting group, the two decided to make them a picnic blanket to sit on, outside.

A rather heart-warming gesture.

(Bad) memory squares

These pieced blocks have a long history dating back to 1998. For a while, I thought of digging up old memories, but then it turned out way too much to type. Bottom line is, this friend (not a quilter) went to the USA as an exchange student and saw quilts for the first time there.  These were made by her host family.

After returning, getting married and with two children, she went through a bad spell and made these blocks, sewn by hand, over telephone message paper squares and finally finished them this year.  All but perfect, but she is very proud of her quilt.

This was also my first introduction to what I knew then, as patchwork. I only about two years later, heard the term “quilting” and with this, pieced squares, my hobby started.

Royal squares

One of my favourite patterns, and I already made two of these, but this one was not done by me.  It was, however, nice to see a familiar and, in this case, beautifully pieced quilt.

Heaps of squares in this quilt. The maker even added more squares in the border.

Then she went ahead and made 2 pillow cases to match.

Painted blocks

A new mom asked family members to each paint her a block for the baby.  Mother-in-law then took these and turned them into a cute quilt.

 

Photo birthday quilt

This quilter and her family are celebrating a 70th birthday and have decided to make a quilt for the recipient, featuring photos of all the family members printed as blocks. 

On-point blocks

I finally took time to spend at my computer, the first time in a couple of weeks.  Our little frizzle laid an egg, and this time decided to stay on it.  Of all the spaces and places in this house, she decided to do it behind one of my computer screens.  Now, whenever I try to work at the computer, she makes the most horrible screeching sounds, which really make me feel unwanted.  I’ve tried to avoid the computer, but one can only wait this long before some things need to be attended to.  Today, I decided to just ignore her noises and get up to date at the PC.

I have a hair appointment this morning and am really looking forward to it.  I do cut my hair regularly, but it is simply cut and not at all in any style. I’ve worn it long, medium, short and even shaved.  I searched for short haircuts for older women, and I think I might be satisfied with the latest one I found.  Hoping for the best.

This quilter made two similar quilts previously and had enough fabric and/or blocks left to make this for her domestic helper.  Wonder if I offer to clean her house, I too, would be rewarded so generously?

Printed circle fabric

Although not pieced, I loved this fabric and its colours, and decided to stick to the circular patterns printed when I did the free-motion quilting.

To refer back to my previous post, the payment was made, for which I was extremely grateful.

An urgent job

Last Thursday I was contacted by a local curtain parlour. They moved shop, and after the move, her quilting machine refused to work, and she urgently needed a quilt.  I could feel her pain, but was hesitant to accept, as I know they use either curtaining or upholstery fabric, but she was in a pickle.  After looking at the fabric and size, while she sent me thick upholstery batting too, I had to inform her that I would not be able to use her thick batting along with the fabric on my entrée-level quilt machine.  She then agreed to use quilting batting, then the size worried me.  The longer side was 136” with the shorter side just fitting on the width of my frame.  Hubby promised to help me advance the quilt as I neared the end.  It was extremely thick by then. The rheumatism in my wrists and thumbs did not allow me to roll this thick mass.

Luckily, I did not have another quilt on the frame, so I could finish this one the next day (Friday).  I don’t think she would like the lack of loft compared to the thicker batting, but that was the best I could do, and I got it finished so she would not disappoint her customer.

However, no good deed goes unpunished, and although they fetched the quilt on Monday, I have yet to receive payment.  I already sent the manager a message and she promised to find out what the problem was, but as of yet… nothing.

Duvet cover turned quilt

My daughter bought a duvet cover made from an extremely slippery fabric, which led to the inner sliding down to their feet at night, leaving them without a cover or heat for their bodies. No problem for her; mom can quilt, so the cover, as is, was simply dropped off by me.  Sides not unpicked or cut, no batting and somehow, I had to work with a backing the same size as the top.  Sadly, I had to cut her top smaller to accommodate my side clamps on the frame.

This quilt also does not have 90° corners, as the purchased cover was so skewed and I wanted to use most of the available fabric.  Luckily, on a bed, the corners will hang down the sides; hopefully, it will not be that obvious.

After putting it on her bed, she sent me a photo.

In my previous post, I mentioned cleaning house, and I decided to take it a step further by cleaning out my e-mail list too.  Often, over several years, I’d read a blog post talking about a new pattern, block or technique, and in an attempt to find out more, I had to join their mailing list.

I helped hubby in our business for several years. On my way to the office in the morning, I’d stop by the mail box to get the new mail.  Once at the office, I’d open these and stack them in a pile, starting from the top. I would work through all the mail, doing reconciliations where needed, paying what needed to be paid, or simply responding to questions. 

Then I took an eight-year break. When I returned post was almost non-existent, and e-mail took over.  I hated it!  I preferred my stacked-up pile, seeing how it gets smaller with every finish, but e-mail never stopped coming.  I would still attend to number 5 when 2 or 3 new emails would pop up.

After selling the business and going on pension, I deliberately cut down on my computer time, especially e-mails, but then when I eventually got to it, I had heaps of emails and mostly junk I had no interest in.  I unsubscribed from a bunch of sites.  Now it is almost fun getting behind the computer again, checking out what I want to; not having to work through all, mostly wasting time.

Big blocks for a little one

This grandmother is expecting a new granddaughter soon and decided to make her a quilt using only large blocks.  She is also not a fan of dense quilting and opted for the large-scale meander.

Wildflowers

I had no quilting for just a little more than 2 weeks, and decided to take a serious look at the cleanliness of our house.  I do clean once a week and try to do it as thoroughly as possible, but still some things are overlooked.  Treating the leather furniture and polishing the wood are two things I can immediately think of.

During the ‘no-quilting’ weeks, I continued with once-a-week cleaning but had to tackle at least one other task on the other days.  I did well; things look great. I’ve also changed my cleaning routine somewhat in that I express clean most every day, which then includes those previously neglected tasks.  Now I have shiny windows (I found a new recipe for cleaning these on TikTok), mirrors, wood, leather and even the insides of cupboards are wiped down.

I don’t think anyone likes cleaning, but there is no better feeling than looking at my clean house with no less than 7 pets living indoors, and knowing I cleaned it!

Then I got this quilt named Wildflowers by the quilter.  This will be a gift for a little one.

Group mystery quilt

This is the fourth quilt done as a group mystery in 2024 that I had the honour to quilt.  It is amazing how the use of different colours in the same pattern can make every one of these look individual.

This quilt maker has every intention to use this one on her bed and chose just an edge-to-edge design.

Quilt with no name

This is the 60^th quilt I’ve completed this year, and I am finally done with all the quilts that were piled up in one guest room. It very seldom happens that a quilt maker gives me the name of the quilt/technique or block, and I always forget to ask.  When I write my blog, I only worry about the heading and then scramble to find a suitable title.

With this one, though, I contacted the maker and asked her and guess what?  Along with her friend, they decided to design their own block pattern and make the quilt using that.  I am therefore none the wiser; this quilt sadly has no name.

With the high contrast between the border fabric and quilt body, the maker and I decided on an edge-to-edge in the middle and then a different motif (and thread colour) on the borders.

On this border, I got to use one of my newly purchased Sway rulers by Natalia Bonner after watching heaps of her videos.

Quilted runner

 I had absolutely no idea what to do, quilt-wise, with this runner when I got it.  Then again, I seldom have a full and final idea of what to do on any custom quilt.  I would have a rough idea for certain blocks or just the border, but the rest falls into place when I get to that area.  Some work out wonderfully and some not so much.

With this one and the pattern making such an impact, I didn’t want to distract from the picture done by the runner itself.  So, no fancy curls, feathers or pebbles to move the attention away from the overall look.

I decided less is more and kept this all-straight-line quilting with the help of rulers.

Picnic quilt

This quilt maker went through a difficult period with her health and lost her quilting mojo.  Now, somewhat better, she looked through her fabric stash when her daughter noticed these fabrics and said the granddaughter would love a picnic quilt from those.

I trust this marks the beginning of her improved health and many more quilts to come.

 

Beginner squares

This was made by a self-taught newbie quilter who used YouTube to learn.  She was very apologetic about her first attempt and here I thought she did very well without formal classes.

Very befitting, when I showed her a selection of edge-to-edge designs, she opted for the meander. All of us used this on our first quilts.

Second floral coral print

This one not only used the same pattern and fabric, but was also done by the same quilter.  She was gifted fabric and decided to use it all.

The only change here from the previous one was the quilting motif.

A quilt with birds

I never asked the quilter the name of this pattern, so it simply turned out to be a quilt with birds. It felt like I would never finish this small wall-hanging, not due to bad piecing or problems with the quilt, but rather due to personal circumstances.  The people fitting the new windows and doors finally arrived, three weeks after we had paid the deposit.  Our house was a freezer with all the old windows and doors removed.  This took them 3 days to finish.

Then it is school holidays for our little ones, and the youngest grandchild is with us full days and finally my own addiction…. Wimbledon.  It feels like the quilting never happened, and if it happened, it was in tiny increments before being interrupted. 

I promised myself that I would not be glued to the TV in the first week as I have way too many quilts waiting, but I just “quickly” check on who is playing and then time simply slips by me.

Then on Wednesday, the little one went with granddad to run errands, and I finally had time to finish this.

Coral floral prints

After completing the previous colourwash quilt, I realised I had enough time, before my husband returns from golf, to load another small edge-to-edge.  I managed to finish this one on the same day, as well.

Another colourwash quilt

I welcomed this quilt, although it was almost identical to the one I finished on 3 June, as an edge-to-edge design was just what I needed after spending nearly a full week on the previous chevron custom quilt.  This quilter had the quilt already quilted by someone else, was not satisfied, decided to unpick, for me to redo.

With hubby playing golf on Sunday mornings (in this bitterly cold weather we now have), I cleaned and oiled my machine and decided to spend a quiet morning by myself (and the pets) and do this one.

Queen-sized Chevron quilt

 I had a great deal of fun working on this one.  I recently joined Susan Smith from Stitched by Susan on one of her podcasts, and as usual with any new online class, video, or podcast, I learned something new.

Susan discussed many topics, but one thing stuck with me……” deliberate practice”.  She talked about how we won't all get some shapes or motifs correct and then get disheartened and give up, and she challenged us to do what we struggle with on an actual quilt and deliberately practise.

Now I was never satisfied with my pebbles in a straight line, random pebbles I manage perfectly, but oh dear, don’t have these lined up in a row.

With this quilt, it was now or never, and I chose to do heaps of pebbles, and I must admit it did get better.  Still not perfect, but way better than I used to do it.

Somehow, I also chose the perfect combination of motifs; it went fast, filled the spaces in the quilt and gave a pleasing end result.  However, in the border, I had a motif that I hated midway through the quilt and then simply had to plough on, which is never fun.  The rest of the quilt was a breeze.

No good deed goes unpunished

I’ve heard this saying so many times and didn’t quite get it until this quilt arrived.  This, along with the previous one, came when I already had enough quilts to keep me busy for a couple of weeks.  The quilter, leaving for Australia at the beginning of July, asked if I could quilt these, and initially, I refused, but later felt guilty, thinking how neatly she made them, how eager she was to gift them, and I agreed.

I did the previous one for her brother with no problems whatsoever, BUT instead of laying my 3 layers out, as I always do, I simply assumed this quilt could be loaded exactly as the previous one.  Big mistake!!  I got to roughly 2 inches of the bottom edge and realised the backing was too small.  I know backings can be joined on the longarm, but I didn’t want a seam in the backing.

I therefore spent a whole weekend and a day just unpicking.  No more feeling sorry for or pushing someone up in my quilting line-up.  I’ve learnt my lesson.