Friday, January 29, 2021

Elvis panel

This little panel kept me busy for a whole week, not because of the intricate quilting done but outlining the words just seemed to take forever.  I also changed thread colour constantly to match the colour of the fabric.

I’ve known this quilter for a couple of years but this is the first quilt done for her but I do recall many years ago, she said she wanted an Elvis quilt.

From what I understood a friend bought it for her in England and another friend brought it back to South Africa but be it as it may, she now has her Elvis wall-hanging.






The big picture:



Wednesday, January 20, 2021

A different request

A year or so ago I quilted a top for a customer and it turned out pretty.

She however recently contacted me saying her daughter wants fleece at the back of the quilt.  Now by this time, the quilt already had a binding on.  The customer then unpicked the binding, purchased fleece and brought it back to me to somehow secure the fleece to the quilt.

There was no way I was going to unpick the quilting or try to go over my previous stitching lines so the best solution I could think of was to simply stitch grid lines in the ditch of the piecing and this I did on my domestic machine which I felt would be much faster than trying to load the stretchy fleece onto the frame.

Not too shabby, I think.

Now the quilter will have to put the binding on again.


Sunday, January 17, 2021

Farm implements quilt

This year started so different with so many ‘stuff’ to do.  Things I didn’t always feel like doing but simply had to.  We had an offer from someone to buy our business and with hubby turning 65 next week, it was about time that he started thinking of going on pension. However, those who sold a business, will know it is not simply a matter of taking money, handing over the keys and off you go.  There are so much nitty gritty to think about. 

For one, after I stop working, I obviously still have to continue with the current company to end off certain matters, so new computer needed for the house.  That’s done but not without hiccups, for now hoping that’s sorted.  Still need to buy the accounting program, find a space to bring all the archived box files home and store these and I am sure I haven’t even thought of everything involved.

For a week or so I couldn’t even think about quilting and then out of the blue a quilter phoned wanting to bring in a quilt.  It was such a welcome break but I also felt I had so little time.  Popped it on the frame to work whenever I get the opportunity and it was all printed pictures, making working on sections at a time possible and fun.

The border had printed horse pictures and I simply outlined the horses and then did micro stippling around it to make the horse pop somewhat.

The larger pictures were simply outlined.

Around the large pictures were printed tyre tracks and I could follow these lines to stabilise the squares.

The sashing was also pre-printed and I did a medium meandering in these.

Thinking I was done, I took the panel off the frame to pictures and then had that miserable feeling when I noticed one horse in the border was not quilted.  Back to the drawing board or in this case frame.

It took 5 days to complete, not because it was large or had plenty of quilting but because I didn’t have time to start and get on with it.



Wednesday, January 06, 2021

When not quilting

Even when not actively quilting, having a long arm does not necessarily mean, doing nothing.  There is always space for improvement or just getting the everyday stuff neat and tidy again.

When I so suddenly decided to try my hand at pantographs and couldn’t find foam sheets at any nearby office supply or craft shop, daughter-in-law suggested I use a yoga mat.  This was gifted to me by my daughter but I found it too flimsy and not stable enough to keep my papers flat and in a straight line.  Pondering to go to a sports shop to find a more expensive (firmer) yoga mat, hubby and I went to the office on Tuesday and there he found a piece of left-over sports flooring from a gym floor we fitted a year or so ago.  This would be ideal!  He trimmed this to size and now I’m hopefully set for these pantographs.

Then I took the leaders on the frame off to give these a proper wash and then the huge task to iron these to the exact width all over using spray starch has to follow.  This is such a pain in the butt job but it is either that or buying new canvas to make new leaders.  So for now, I went with washing and will tackle the ironing later.

With the leaders off of the frame, I secured the ends of my Velcro tape, something I should have done from the start but I kept putting it off until after the next quilt!
I also made a file to keep the pantographs already printed in neatly and added to that a flip file for a quick search when having to decide on a motif.
Outside our kitchen we have a granite table build around a tree many moons ago.  The tree was taken out and replaced with a roof, leaving us with a big hole in the centre of the table.  Not a big problem.  I bought a lazy Suzan to cover the hole and it was ideal when eating outside and moving the dishes from one person to another.

Then I phoned our interior decorator one day and asked him how I can make this table pretty when not eating.  He suggested painting the wood a charcoal colour and then he’d search for a nice flat dish to put in the centre.  He recently had the dish delivered to me.

He also added decorative goodies with the dish to allow me to play with different options.  This was my first attempt.


Now for the bad news… those leaders (zippers attached) that I so neatly washed and ironed shrunk extremely, the canvas and not the zipper.  Thus leaving me, with terribly wobbly leaders, definitely not suitable for accurate loading of a quilt.  So as I am about to start working again tomorrow, I’ll also have to go shopping for new canvas.  Darn!  Why didn’t I do the washing earlier when I had time to go to the shops?

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Party Poppers – Clue 3

Now did this one turn out to be a nightmare!  Before I eventually got it, I had a couple of “I give up, I’m stumped” moments and plenty of glasses of wine when I finally figured out that many written instructions were simply replaced with pictures.  Luckily others too complained, leaving me not to feel like a total dummy.  I can’t remember when last my sewing room table looked like this.


Flowers were spaced out in the garden, son brought over his lawnmower to see if dad could fix it, grandson refused to go home with him but in between and after the little one left, I got working on this clue.

My large blocks absolutely sucked, to say the least.  Points didn’t line up at all and I am sure I cut correctly, stitched as I did with all the previous blocks but they just looked awful.  After finishing the first of the large blocks, I already felt like not going on and simply dumping it.  There is just no way that I’d proudly display this in my house or give it as a gift to someone.

Whatever may happen to it in the end, I am done with clue 3.


Monday, January 04, 2021

Party Poppers – Clue 2

Woke up to a soft drizzle of rain that started somewhere during the night and the temperature fell too.  I think the ideal weather to stay indoors and get sewing.

While I worked on Clue 1 hubby literally moved mountains in the garden, getting rid of overgrown plants, spacing these properly again and just making the entire garden neat.  While doing Clue 2 he visited the nursery to get some new plants.  This was done after thoroughly searching the internet for perennials and checking the heights these may grow to.  Then a layout sketch of sections of the garden was done and all planned to perfection.  Luckily with all the rain, the soil is soft and I’m sure planting won’t be as tedious as trying to do it in dry flower beds. After taking a photo of the new plants hubby thought it a good idea if I help him decide what should go where.  O, dear, the man must be growing old, I have no interest in gardening whatsoever and would much rather stay indoors and sew.

Clue 2 luckily went without any unpicking.


Sunday, January 03, 2021

Party Poppers – Clue 1 done

Mystery Quilts Anonymous on Facebook releases a mystery quilt every New Years’ eve.  The fabric requirements are given a couple of months ahead and then on New Years’ Eve clue one is shown with a couple of hours in between to give you time to cut and sew before the next clue is revealed and if you keep up, you should have a completed top at the start of the New Year.  I don’t even try to do this as I love my early sleep way too much but that does not prevent me from saving the clues and making the quilt when I am good and ready.  I should also say that Debi has a video on her website and Youtu. be to follow along with every clue.

With no customer quilts lying around, I read through the fabric requirements got what I needed and started.

Clue 1 cut and then I had to clean and oil my poor domestic machine which sadly does not get used as much as the long arm machine.


I only realised late afternoon that it was the first day since 16 December that hubby and I were all alone at home, no guests, and no kids just us and the pets.

Crap, even though alone I did not focus and made exactly the same mistake I made in Debi’s previous mystery….. Read the instructions and never looked at the picture.  Opposite sides do not necessarily mean the opposites I select, nope I had to look carefully, which I didn’t and had a good date with Jack the Ripper.

Finally done with 4 blocks going one way and 4 the other.  On to clue 2.



Saturday, January 02, 2021

Half square triangles with green

I actually finished this quilt on 1 January but having had the older grandkids over for the evening and them only leaving late morning with the youngest grandbaby coming to visit for the day, shortly afterwards, I never got to take a photo or write about this.  With all the high days and holidays over now, life should gradually return to normal although the schools only reopen late January and I suspect us to still have the grandkids over on several occasions.

For this quilt, I used one of Urban elements’ free pantographs called Lisa’s raindrops and this is ideal for those who prefer not too dense quilting.  I had one placement issue but this happened at the beginning of a row, I immediately saw it, could unpick and rectify the problem.




Friday, January 01, 2021

The last day of 2020

We woke up this yesterday morning to find, Mayday, a parrot that stays with us over the festive season every year has laid an egg.  She is already 45 years old and on Mothersday this year laid her very first egg.  One is not supposed to remove the egg but let it be until she loses interest, so I place a piece of fleece at the bottom of the cage with the egg on top but as friendly as she usually is, she is now rather feisty and protective about her egg.

With the abundance of rain, we’ve been blessed with latterly, mushrooms are popping up all over the garden.  Not edible though but reminds me of the fairy tales we heard about as kids.


Wednesday my only male client brought me a stunning quilt top and jokingly said: “I’ll fetch it tomorrow morning”.  No, I didn’t take him seriously but got up at 3:30 and with my late lunch carnivore platter not needing much other than a quick trip to the air fryer, I thought I might as well get this quilt loaded.

The recipient does not like fancy frilly stuff so the quilter requested my trusted 3’s and E’s.  While doing this I thought I could do this all day long on every quilt.  It goes fast, uses very little thread and I think the ideal motif for toppers starting to feel guilty about their tops not being turned into quilts.  It is also the cheapest (as is meandering) when being charged for quilting.

The word toppers were introduced to me by a quilter from Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  They refer to people making quilt tops and never finishing it as “toppers” and I found it rather neat.



The big kids with 2 grandchildren came over late afternoon for our snack platter and left 8pm as our curfew is 9pm.  Curfew or not South Africans just don’t listen and at midnight fireworks could clearly be heard.  The grandkids stayed over and will be starting their New Year by us.

Wishing all a wonderful 2021 and may we not repeat the mistakes of the previous year!