Expect the Unexpected

Talk about a holiday treat designed for a textile lover - over the long weekend we headed down to Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes area for a fabulous time away with friends to celebrate a significant birthday. There was sunshine, there was no wind (very important when you live in Wellington!), there was fun, laughter and relaxation.... and in the house I stayed, there were wonderful textile hangings.... One of my friends was able to authoritatively tell me that this one was from Nepal - she had bought a similar one herself many years ago. The owners had painted the wall behind it the perfect tone to accentuate it. I just loved the camels....

This one was more of a puzzle for me - Indian I think, but more research required to be definite. It had wonderful stitched hunting scenes all over it. Hunters, horses and even the hunted animals all look so happy. Great foliage. I can easily see why the purchaser found it irresistible and had to bring it home.

But almost the best thing of all over the last couple of weeks is that I have actually been behind the sewing machine - after months of neglect I am pleased to report that it still works and I still know how to drive it. This was certainly unexpected!

And as you might be able to see I've been doing one of my favourite quilt tasks - sewing on bindings. Every year the Guild I belong to makes quilts for the Wellington Women's refuge and Te Whare Rokiroki, which is the Maori Women's Refuge. We give them around 80 quilts each year so that each women who goes through the refuge is able to choose a quilt to take with them when they leave. There are a very dedicated group of women in the Guild who work hard all year to achieve this - I take my hat off to them.

Stitching on a few bindings is the least I can do!

Promises Are Made to Keep

Many, many moons ago I promised that I'd tell the story of Friday Morning Coffee, the second quilt I made with lots of embroidered pieces and with tatting to boot. Just like In My Grandfather's Den it is based on a Kaffe Fassett pattern and features lots of wonderful florals that I'd been collecting up for a special something.

It all started off with an idea that I wrote about at the time and called What If. I had the idea of using the embroideries that had belonged to my mother's dearest friend, my Auntie Dorothy, to create a quilt that honoured friendship and the central role that it plays in my life, my mother's life and, I am sure, the life of most people. It is also a memorial quilt.

At the time of having my "what if" thoughts I had very recently lost a close friend of mine, Denys, who had died after 5 years of living with breast cancer. She was a friend that was loved by many, many people and who, two years after her death, is still greatly missed by her friends but especially, by her family.

I met her through the local kindergarten where our eldest children were friends. They are still friends and were recently discussing the possibility of flatting together when at University. That would have made her smile. She was part of the special group of friends that I meet with and have coffee with every Friday morning, hence the name of the quilt which was the idea of my daughter.

My quilt recently hung in the Wellington Quilters' Guild exhibition and was hanging there on the second anniversary of both her death and funeral. This felt right and was my tribute to her. Losing friends is awful, infact it is 1000 times worse than that - but it has also helped me to really confront what is important in life.

For me that is love, friendship and laughter - without those life would be truly impoverished.

New Pathways

Something strange happened today - I wandered down a few roads arond town, doing chores that needed to be done, and I found myself thinking about this blog and taking a couple of photos. It was a grey day, but the promise of spring was around. Colour, line and form - so pleased it can still catch my eye!
I've had a full on year and blogging, stitching and quilting has all taken a back seat. My focus instead has been on museums, heritage and how that's able to be expressed through textiles. It has really absorbed me and I have loved it. New pathways running ahead....
I'm itching to get back to the sewing room, my sewing machine and the ideas that are running... Can't ask for more than that! I promise there will be more - very soon!

Failure and Success

I'm simultaneously feeling like I'm failing and succeeding - rather an odd combination. On the one hand regular blogging just seems to be completely beyond me at the moment, or maybe it always has been looking at the frequency I've added to this over time. The reason I do keep going is that I rather like having the record of what I've been making. It's a really easy way of keeping track of it all, especially as much of my output seems to leave my house relatively rapidly on completion. It's also nice hearing from those few people who do look in on the blog - so I figure that I'll keep at it, even if it is sporadic and rather 'failure feeling' inducing.

On the upside I have another completed quilt to show off, which definitely makes me feel successful. Tomorrow I'll be jumping on a plane to head for Brisbane for an Easter with far flung family members and this quilt is a birthday gift made especially for the gathering.Late last night I finished off hand stitching down the binding and now have only the label to go - nothing like cutting it fine! I'm very pleased with the mix of Dutch and Japanese fabrics. I think they work well together and I hope will please the unknowing recipient. I've held onto the Dutch fabrics with this person in mind for almost 15 years, so its certainly been a long time coming!

There's really nothing like a binding to make you feel a success.

Have a marvellous Easter - I'm hoping to pay a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition of hats that has just opened at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. Who knows what I'll come back inspired to make next! Rest assured, I'll keep you informed, in due course....

There's Nothing Like a Deadline

It focuses the mind, gets the foot to the sewing machine pedal and before I know it I am almost half way through the blocks for the birthday quilt. Well, it's either the deadline or just plain avoidance of the work I need to get finished up! Only yesterday I told a friend that I was focused on finishing a report I need to write for work and that there'd be no blocks made until it was finished. And here I am a mere day later - and I seem to have finished 16 blocks.... Either way it seems to be working - I'm clearly going to make the quilt deadline.

I also keep pondering this little pile of trimmings. Normally I would toss these without a second thought, but they look so appealing I've been wondering just what I could find to do with them.

These thoughts, I willingly concede, are pure report writing avoidance. So easy to spot the life time habits of a procrastinator!

And onto the new

Such a fun day today as I was able to give my finished quilt to my friend - I'm pleased to say that she loved it and is thrilled to have something to wrap herself up in. Of course the other marvellous thing about binding, that I didn't mention yesterday, is it means that you are able to get onto the next new thing. And get onto it I have.

For me the next new thing is a quilt for a family member to mark her 70th birthday. I have long thought about making this quilt and was quietly confident I would have enough time as I had a clear two months to get it made - that was until I discovered that we are meeting a month early to celebrate her birthday! So here I sit with only a month ahead - as you can see from the photo I am at a somewhat preliminary stage.

Thank goodness for quilting friends! I confessed to them last week that I wanted to make something featuring the dutch wax batik fabrics that I have hoarded for almost 15 years - and they came up with the design you see. It has an elegant simplicity about it - and I'm eternally hopefully that it will be achievable in the time remaining to me. What more could one ask?

The Beauty of Binding

Quilting is all about working through the process - designing, choosing fabric, cutting, stitching, choosing more fabric, moving blocks around, rejecting pieces, choosing more fabric, stitching it all together and standing back and mulling on it all until it finally settles and you decide that the top is done.

At this point a whole new process begins - finding fabric for the back, piecing it together and then making the quilt sandwich, stretching, smoothing and pinning. Then the quilting, which of course requires more decisions - hand or machine, gridded or free form. You get the idea.

Much as I love all these processes (except for putting the sandwich together - that is torture!) and the time that each part takes, I think that one of my favourite parts of the process is actually the binding. It marks the final stages of the quilt - the beginning of the end of all those processes. Hand stitching down the binding provides time to spend with the quilt before moving on. Time to think about what has been achieved and the intent behind it.

Today I finished stitching down the binding on the quilt for my friend - I'm hoping I'll be able to give it to her tomorrow.
I'm hoping that she will like it and that it will bring comfort to her and her family.
And I'm also hoping that it will bring a wide smile to her face as she admires the quilt and its beautiful binding.