Tea Party part 3

I've been quietly working away on my Tea Party quilt in the background.  

I've now finished all 8 of the plainer blocks that will alternate with the tea and coffee cups.  

Next up is the centre block which I might start this week.  Strangely enough, I'm worried that I might stuff it up! I really want this quilt to be beautiful - I guess that's why it's taken me years to start it.  I think I'll just prepare some flowers and leave them on my "design floor" for a few days before I start stitching them on. 

I was the guest speaker at Rose City Quilters in Palmerston North on Monday night.  It was a fabulous meeting, because not only did I get to share my quilts with the guild, but I also got to present the certificates and prizes from their exhibition at the weekend.  

I'd gone to Palmerston North the previous Monday with Clare Smith and we had judged the Rose City Quilters Exhibition.  It was great to see all the quilts up close, and it was quite difficult to determine the winners in some categories.  Congratulations to everyone who won an award. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

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Labour Weekend

It's a long weekend in New Zealand, and I'm hoping to get quite a bit of quilting done.  

First I need to put away all the new fabric sitting on my kitchen bench! 

The Kaffe Fassett ones on the left were a birthday gift from my mum and dad.  I chose them, and ordered them, but they insisted on paying.  I also received Kaffe's latest book for my birthday, so I'm enjoying that at the moment.

The spots and stripes were from a quick trip to Palmerston North on Monday. I was invited to judge the Rose City Quilters exhibition, and I couldn't resist popping in to 3 quilts shops on the way back. 

And the Tula Pink pastels turned up this week, quite unexpectedly.  With USPS no longer accepting parcels to NZ and Australia, I wondered when they might ever arrive.  But a courier dropped them off last night, so that was a very pleasant surprise.  

This afternoon I'm going to pick up one of my quilts from my long arm quilter, and I'm delivering Raindrops are Falling on my Head.  In the end I went with a suggestion from my mum, and just sewed a patterned section of the fabric over the corners to hide the pink, and make the zig zag continue around the quilt.  Thank you for all your suggestions, but this is the one I thought worked the best.  

I'll be sure to show you once it's all quilted.  There's a lot of seam allowances on the back of this one, so I couldn't face hand quilting it.  And, I really want it finished before Christmas.    

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to share a recent blog post below.  

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Mitered corners

Mitered corners - they look so good, but they're not always easy.  

My first mitered corners were on my la Passacaglia quilt above, and they worked out well. 

My second attempt was on my Fireworks quilt (Ballet with Kaffe), and although the pattern didn't match perfectly, it wasn't too noticeable because the border is mainly black.

I also used mitered corners on my Trans-Tasman Bubble quilt (Aussies and Kiwis - remember the Trans-Tasman Bubble??). 

The navy and white striped border needed to be mitered in the corners to allow the pattern to flow. 

Now I'm ready to attach the borders to the Raindrops are Falling on my Head quilt, but the fabric isn't meeting nicely in the corners. 

The length of the sides doesn't match the pattern repeat on the fabric.  So I can either leave it as it is (top left corner), or insert cornerstones to avoid the issue.  

The three fabrics in the corners above are just me narrowing down my options.  I think if I do go for cornerstones, it will be the Kaffe spot in the bottom right corner above.  Of course I didn't have enough of it, so I went and bought more this morning, just in case I do decide to use it.  

I think I'll just walk around this quilt all weekend while I decide what I want to do.  Feel free to leave a comment below if you have a suggestion. 

(Gayle from Hamilton asked the other week where I got a grey spotted fabric from.  I'm sorry to say I bought the last piece of it, but send me an email because I might be able to spare some.  I bought a whole metre.  I can't reply to your comment because you're a No Reply Blogger.)

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Raindrops are Falling on my Head

 I'm so close to finishing the main body of this quilt.

Pattern = Raindrops are Falling on my Head from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.

There's just two long seams to hand stitch now, but they will be slow going because there's a lot of places where the points meeting along these seams. 

Once the body of the quilt is done, I can think about the borders.  I want to use more of the feature fabric in the borders, but I'm not sure how I'll do it yet.  

And then I need to think about the quilting! I'll be machine quilting this one because there are so many seams allowances on the back.  I've adopted Jinny Beyer's method of just pressing from the top.  It would be impossible to get all of these seam allowances sitting flat.  Maybe I'll post a photo of the back another day. It's not pretty!

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

 

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Hello October

Goodbye September, hello October. 

September was tough.  I know I have so much to be grateful for, but like many New Zealanders and Australians, I found September very tough.  While much of the world is moving on from COVID, we've been plunged back in some of the strictest lockdowns. 

The rules have eased slightly here in Wellington, but my parents and son in Auckland are still doing it tough in Level 3.  I'd love to go and see them, but we can't get in to Auckland and they can't get out at the moment. 

I finally ventured out to some local quilt shops this week.  I haven't been to a quilt shop since the beginning of June.  Can you believe that??

And I'm looking forward to some exhibitions.  Here's what's coming up:

I'm hoping to get to all three of these exhibitions.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter