Friday, March 24, 2017

Butterflies, again

A few days ago I wrote about a butterfly block that was new to me.

Today I decided to revisit the butterfly block and make a small bound quilted project for a small table in our guest lounge.

This room has a touch of yellow in the decor and so I make a yellow butterfly surrounded by a dusty pink.

A few hours later it was complete - so nice to do small projects sometimes.

Yes, there it is, in the corner of our guest lounge adding a touch of colour that harmonises with the other colours of the room.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

The herd is complete


Having completed my skulk of foxes for my Fancy Forest quilt, it was time to complete on my herd of rabbits.

I had to make 16 of the fox blocks but the rabbit challenge was easier as I only had to complete 8.

Oh no!  There's only 7 in this image.  One of my rabbits has run away.

It turned out to be the grey rabbit with the white ears.  He had decided to stay behind at the sewing machine but he has now returned to the herd.








I don't usually give names to blocks but this rabbit was made from a fabric with an overall floral design and so I have called her Rosie Rabbit - she may well be the herd leader.

Rabbits completed, I am taking a break from this project until next month when I will be doing the owl blocks - probably the most complex of all the blocks so I will be glad when I have completed.




Monday, March 13, 2017

Butterfly Blocks


With my daily musings on the internet it never seems hard to find quilty things that inspire, in fact, much more than I could ever contemplate completing in my lifetime.

The butterfly blocks featured here came my way via a swap group It Seams Unlimited on Facebook.

All the piecing (except for the yellow centres) is oversized so that the components can be trimmed back.  This makes for better accuracy in the completed block and makes them look quite sharp, at least I think so.

The butterfly blocks are 9" square when complete.

The current swap (block pattern included in this link) is for the butterfly block if you are interested in participating.  You would need to join the It Seams Unlimited group first to tag along.

Georjah is looking for swaps of a minimum of 4 blocks.  This is a centralised swap with Georjah receiving and mailing all blocks so return postage needs to be considered if you live outside the USA.

I have decided to give it a go, so it will be interesting to see what comes back to me as a result of the swap.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Gifts for Wwoofers

This April it will be two years since we first welcomed Wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) into our home and hearts.

They come to us to help maintain our property and in return we provide accommodation and meals.

Through this organisation we have met people from Japan, Switzerland, England, Austria, Germany, Sweden, USA, Canada and France.  It has always proven to be an exercise greatly appreciated on both sides, if return visits are anything to go by.

At the end of this month we have two German girls coming who were with us a while back.  They have travelled the South Island and on their return have requested to come back to us.  We will gladly receive them.  They, among others, have proved to be very willing workers at our place.

In appreciation of their time with us we like to send Wwoofers away with a small gift that won't take up too much room in their baggage but will provide a memory of their time in New Zealand.

We make them mug rugs - something to have their coffee or tea on with a snack.


We like to think that when they return to their home country and resume their work or study life they will use these and remember their experiences in New Zealand.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Op Shop Fabric

You never know when some fabric might come in handy.

I bought some yardage of this pink cat fabric from an op shop more than 12 months ago at the right price.

There was no purpose in mind when it was purchased but I felt sure there would be a use for it one day.









Recently Linda had the opportunity to make a couple of community quilts.

The pink fabric has found a home at last.

I framed the panel for her with orange fabric and when she finished the machine quilting I finished it with magic binding.

The cat fabric is brushed cotton.  Along with the batting it has become a soft cuddly quilt.

Some of the pink fabric remained and Linda thought it would be a nice idea to make it into a dolly blanket - so that is what I did.

Not a bad use for some fabric that had been sitting in our stash for a while.












Linda still had some time to make a second community quilt and so I used the rest of the orange fabric to border the panel.

We had some grey polar fleece for the backing.
Cotton batting was used and again we have another snuggly quilt for a young person.


When using the orange fabric I had to resort to adding some 4 patches to make it all fit.

In turn this meant that the magic binding I like to use would not be suitable as it is wider and extends more into the border, therefore losing the effect of the 4 patch.

Back to regular binding which was nice to do for a change and it worked well in this instance.

P.S.  I have not shown the quilts in their entirety.  Linda made them and I am leaving it for her to blog about them if she wishes.