Waiting In The Wings

Monday, June 30, 2014

ScrapHappy Saturday - last of the Yellow Cats!

Just made it as it's the 30th June here in New Zealand!


Four more yellow felines to add to my box of kitties - now have a total of 60 with another 66  to complete by the end of the year to finish a quilt at 70" x 81". I won't be adding borders to this but could add more cats if I wanted a larger size, at this stage I don't I am quite happy with the size above. Later in the year I will have to start thinking about how I need to quilt it.

Linking up now to
Angela and RSC2014
and looking to find out the colour for July in the next day or so.


Saturday, June 28, 2014

HSTeria and Haori


A few more blocks completed this week and the finish line for the HSTeria Quilt Along is now in sight!


The one below is my favourite of the newer blocks



I have four full blocks to try and finish up in the coming week and these ones will be a challenge  blending the colours.
After having the problems with Blogger last week along with many other bloggers, I am now in full working mode again thank goodness. Not in working mode is my camera which is around 8 years old, colours are just not showing true at all and I am still resorting to my iPhone. Priced up newer cameras during the week and probably looking at NZ$1300 - may have to think about that for a little while!

 The other subject of the week along with HSTeria is Haori, do any of you follow a blog 
written by Lis Harwood? One of her posts recently showed three Haori from Japan, absolutely beautiful! I had a look at the site  
what an experience, they have all sorts of Japanese clothing some which are antique and other newer items, I bought a few Haori with the intention of cutting up the fabric for using in collage work, it's noted in the description if they are stained or badly worn and only suitable for handcrafts but the two I particularly had in mind for cutting are hardly marked at all. They are silk and Shibori dyed 


this is a detail above of the Pine Tree pattern on one intended for cutting and the other is below, these are close up shots  to get a photo of the haori I need to thread  a rod through the sleeves and probably hang it on the side of the large garden shed  but as it's raining here that's out for the moment!


Going to link up now with 
and the HSTeria Quilt Along gang


Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Cats and Blogger problems

Yellow cats this month - mine are a little late in arriving!


I intend to make another four before the end of the week, two of them will be ultimate favourite fabric -   Brassica by Philip Jacobs.

Two issues have held me up this week, first and foremost I am having problems with Blogger. I have my Reading List with all the blogs which I follow and normally as soon as I get onto my dashboard all the posts from the blogs come up for me - all I'm getting now is one random post seems to be just the latest one, go down to View More and usually more do come up, especially if I have two days posts to read, but now nothing is coming  up at all,  can't find anything in blogger Help to assist so would anyone know or have had experience of this problem? If you have I would love to hear from you as I am in withdrawal with regard to all your posts!!!

Second issue - we are having our laundry and bathroom painted which means in the laundry the washing machine, tub, dryer and attendant bits and pieces have all had to be taken out and are presently sitting in the hallway. We did a store visit yesterday and decided to buy a new machine and dryer - lovely - but we can't take delivery until Monday next week as the room won't be ready. I absolutely hate this sort of disruption - cuts into quilting time.

Actually there is a third problem - my sewing studio presently being re-organised. Trying to fit everything in is a nightmare. I really need my computer in there but honestly I do not know where to place it. I have two Bernina machines which take up quite a bit of table top room and I am now seriously wondering whether I just keep one of them, probably the Bernina QE, to make more room. Problem there is it's so handy to be using one all threaded up for sewing a particular quilt and if I start working on another, or machine quilt then the second machine comes into play. How many of you out there actually feel that you need two machines? I would be interested to know. 

Linking up with 
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
and hoping that the link works out
If you have any ideas re my Blogger issues PLEASE do get in touch
Hope you're having a good week

Sunday, June 22, 2014

HSTeria and Accuquilt

Thank goodness for Accuquilt!!!
I have lost track of the number of triangles - half square - cut on this machine in order to make my Ocean Waves quilt, I am so pleased I decided to buy one.

This week has really only been spent playing around with colours  and trying to decide how to grade down towards the bottom of the piece so sadly no more finished blocks to show.  I was asked by a fellow blogger last week whether I sewed two HSTs together then placed them or placed individually - the latter,  which means I can blend from one colour to another even though time taken is an issue.










I have a series of trays and try and use one for each colour, they start off life all neat and tidy, well reasonably neat and tidy as on the trays on the left, but usually end up after an hour or two in the state of the one below right! So when I need just one piece to fit in I start rummaging through

















 During the week the pieces on the tray and board on the left were cut plus a blue tray and another teal/turquoise tray to join the ones I was already working with, reason for this was that I had forgotten a new basket of batiks from a few weeks ago which  hadn't  been "filed"  away in their new colour homes! Lesson learnt there.

Linking up now with Vicki hosting our HST Quilt Along
and back to sewing blocks ready for the next link up.


Monday, June 16, 2014

HSTeria Quilt Along - next instalment

Lots more half square triangles cut, lots of fabrics to put away in baskets and lots more to sort for scrap drawers but only three further blocks to show for it all, and one in progress. Go along and visit Vicki and friends to see more HSTeria!


Today is very wet and gloomy not good light  for photographing fabric, but a few weeks ago I bought an Ottlite Task Lamp which is a reasonable height and moveable, I do have a small one with the flip up lid  but it's no good for lighting up a wide area. This is the first time I have used the floor light to take a photo - it's worked out pretty well I think although the blues at the bottom have a slightly psychedelic look to them, they're not so vivid as this.

We are now into Winter in NZ and it is pretty cold today, the garden beds are wet and soggy with everything drooping all over the place. Misty mornings quite often which I love, the one below was last week


back to the sewing machine, I still have to sew yellow cats ready to post tomorrow so I need to get busy. 

Monday, June 9, 2014

HSTeria Quilt Along and The White Rabbit

Having read the post title you could be forgiven for assuming I have added a white rabbit into our household, but I haven't, I just feel like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who rushed around shouting "I'm late, I'm late" repeatedly!

The HSTeria part of the post title is also appropriate!!
We seem to have had such a very, very busy time dealing with health issues and personal matters within the family and friends and now catching up with all the accumulated jobs which have built up.

I have made some progress, but not much, with the HSTeria part of things and one or two blocks need adjusting. I apologise for the blocks being placed roughly on the design wall but my studio is a disaster area and I have had enough of it so I am renovating the whole thing - starting this week when I have put together a few more blocks and cut out a few yellow cats!


I can see that one of my triangles along the top edge has done a curl over, sorry.

Regarding renovating my studio I'm going to go back to The Real Studio Tour which was organised by
Vicki and try and get together a few ideas - hope no-one minds! Wish we had an IKEA store here in New Zealand but we don't, sadly the nearest ones are in Aussie and I fear it would be pretty expensive to try and ship anything over to NZ.

Brief post I know but I'm pretty hungry right now and need to eat!! I'll catch up again when I have some cats to show you.

Joining up now with everyone at taking part in HSTeria.