Blocks in blue

 I used last Friday and the weekend to cook for the freezer.  I struggle with quilts awaiting to be done, yet I still have to cook meals too.  I have a husband, as skinny as a broomstick, who believes in 3 meals a day (two containing meat if bacon and eggs are not served as breakfast) and snacking in between, with cookies as his favourite.  As is, I already cook chicken and rice for our elderly dogs once a week, I boil veggies for the chickens, and I still have to prepare our normal meals.  At this stage, I refuse to bake cookies.  Hubby shares these with the dogs and chickens, donating my hard-baked attempt to animals.  If he needs cookies, he can buy them himself.

To get back to my story, when I have quilts awaiting, I need to prioritise what to do first.  I hate working on a quilt; having to walk back and forth to check on food, and I would hate my work to reek of onions or garlic once done.  If I get going on a quilt first, meals will end up somewhat shabby, nothing special, just something to serve to make me feel better.  If I choose cooking first, the quilt is loaded late in the day, so I may not make the best motif design choices, so it waits for the next day.

Having frozen veggies, cooked meat or full meals in the freezer makes my decision-making life easier.  Enough about my cooking rituals.

This quilt maker’s daughter-in-law lives abroad and was gifted the blue fabric.  She really could not get herself to like the fabric, but, feeling guilty, decided to make something of it.  When done, her own daughter came to visit and loved it.  It would be perfect for a couch in her house, so Mom got motivated to finish it.

Once done and having it over at my place for a while, she ended up not disliking the fabric all that much anymore, but already gifted it, so her daughter will get the “not so ugly” quilt after all.

Bargello heart table runner

This was the third of the quilts I dropped off from the ‘out of town’ quilter.  Because of all the different fabric colours in the bargello wave, I knew full custom quilting would not show up much.  I spoke to the maker, and we decided to use a combination of edge-to-edge bargello with simple straight lines in the background.

I had this quilt loaded on the frame during Easter, and so badly wanted to start on Monday, but at 18:30 on Sunday evening, the electricity in large parts of our city went out due to a fault.  Monday, therefore, was hell, sitting around unable to do anything.  By lunch, the electricity was back on, but with my tummy full (eating was most of what I did during this time), I was simply too lazy and unmotivated to start.  The quilt had to stand over until Tuesday.

Kaffet Fasset squares

Another quilt with squares to be used as a tablecloth, so no batting in this one, only flannel in the middle.  This is my customer preferring large-scale meandering. After doing all the tedious straight lines in the previous quilt, I welcomed something light and loose.

Postage stamp quilt

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to keep my blog updated. This led me to decide not to share quilts on Facebook, but rather to have them written about on my blog.

This quilt came to me via a local quilt teacher who presented a class in a town some 200 kilometres from us.  The teacher would return the next week, and I had to finish the quilt before then.  The quilt maker only requested diagonal lines over the centre of the quilt and left the choice of what to do on the border to me.

The border had massive waves, and the best I could do was quilt it to death so the sides would lie as flat as possible.  The maker seemed satisfied after seeing a photo I sent her.

ABC quilt alphabet blocks

I haven’t seen one of these in ages, and the worst part is, I can not remember the name of a single block starting with that letter of the alphabet.

Old age is not for sissies. I often use AI just to help refresh my memory.  This one took forever to finish, or so it felt.  My feet, knees, hips and lower back knew I was at the frame most of the day.  Thus, going to bed at 19:30 was nothing strange.  Not because I was all that tired, but I just needed to get my body in a different position.

Quilt for a soon to be born granddaughter

This quilter is expecting her first granddaughter soon, and they are leaving our city for the coast towards the end of the month.  She, therefore, wanted this to be quilted ASAP, I guess, so they could get packing for this huge move.

Squares as a gift

We are having the kids over for lunch today.  I usually make pickled fish for either Easter Friday or Sunday, but this year I simply didn’t feel like it.  They were informed to bring a loaf of bread (unsliced) per couple, and I will supply the curried beef to make our own bunny chows.  Guess we will have to get some Easter eggs for the little ones as well.

This was the quilt mentioned in my previous post to be finished within a week, as it was meant as a gift for a friend who planned to go on a beach vacation during our first school holidays.

The quilter booked in advance, so I didn’t mind taking the sampler off the frame to finish this quilt in time, and then later popped the sampler back to continue on it.

Sampler quilt

It has been more than a month since I last did a customer quilt, but I do believe everything happens at the right time.  Firstly, a PC board had to be replaced on my frame, which left me more than 5,000 South African rand poorer.  This was not available in our city, and I had to order it. Secondly, the heaps of cricket on TV kept me so busy, I was kind of grateful for the break. When a quilter from out of town came to the city earlier last week, she dropped off 3 quilts; by then I already had a booking for Friday, and the latter had to be finished within a week as it is meant as a gift.  With the PC board replaced and the cricket not on every day, I welcomed the change.

This sampler was the first of the three “out of town” quilts I took from the parcel, and I started with it and tried to get as far as I could before the Friday quilt arrived. I did a couple of variations of old favourites by simply using them in a different setting.  This is what makes a sampler such a fun quilt to work on. 

A quilt for a stork party

This ever-so-organised quilter made this for a stork party somewhere in March.  This one must definitely be for a soon-to-be newborn baby girl.

A quilt for Ava Rose

I think I spoke too soon when I initially thought 2026 would be the year of newborn boys, as just after posting about it, I got this girly quilt.  I do believe this is not for a newborn, as it is a single-bed quilt.

I have another girly quilt on the frame intended for a newborn.

Another baby boy quilt

The massive number of sports on TV is mostly done, and I believed I would be grateful, but on Sunday, I found myself bitterly bored.  Even hubby didn’t quite know what to do with himself.  The World Cup 20/20, however, will start soon, and I suppose our lives will get back to their new normal.

Many people have asked why we opted for another 5-bedroom house after going on pension, but we realised that if we had chosen a two-bedroom house with a small garden, we would have gone bonkers by now.  At least now we still have something to keep us busy in those quiet times.

It appears, from what I get from my quilt customers, 2026 might be a year for baby boys.  This was the second baby boy quilt I got to do, and in the first month of the year.

Elephants for a baby boy

 A quilt client brought in this little quilt made by her daughter for one of her pregnant friends, and apparently insisted on making the quilt herself.  Mom booked a space while the daughter was still in the process of making this.  The day she brought it to me, she said, she thinks this was the first and last quilt her daughter will ever make.  I am not sure whether mom interfered too much or whether the hobby just wasn’t for her. Whatever the case may be, the quilt turned out lovely.

Sampler with embroidery

This was the second quilt I received this year and the first from out of town.  Normally, quilts from out of town only get to me towards the second part of the year, so this was something new.

I almost forgot to post about this, as we have plenty of sports on South African TV, and I seem to be working on my new posture, which will include a flat butt and square eyes.  Some days I start watching the Australian Open tennis at 02:30 in the morning, this will be followed by U19 cricket, women’s cricket and then the SA20 2026 cricket.  We also had a couple of days with 7’s rugby.  If these do not follow each other and overlap, I’d be channel hopping like crazy, and last night only got to bed at 11 pm, but we had fellow cricket fans over, so the visit went on long after the cricket ended.

This quilter claims it took her almost 17 years to finish this, but I think it was worth keeping it and eventually finishing it.

Strips turned chevron quilt

We’ve entered another year; however, our old year ended devastatingly when we had to put our African grey parrot to sleep due to organ failure.  We have a huge vacuum in our house and lives, and hubby and I take turns crying when one of us suddenly remembers or sees a memory.

On to a more pleasant subject.  How clever is this quilt?  This couple made this very innovative quilt as a joint venture to be given as a wedding gift.  I love this idea; whether I’d attempt it myself is another question.  They used fleece as backing, and although I am not keen on working with fleece, it does give a quilt a soft drape.