Grandmother’s Choice (again)

I’m on a roll this week.  I’ve been really well behaved in doing the housework and for the first time in about two years I have an empty ironing basket.  The dishes are done, the washing is folded.  I’ve been trying to do this routine ever since the little ones were both back at school and I think (finally) I may have nailed it.

So I celebrated my domestic goddess-ness by sewing another block.

This one is number 31 - Tinted Chains.

I got sick of trying to find relevant greens and reds from the almost toppling over pile of reproductions that I have, so I spent some time sorting them out yesterday.  Now I have a big pile of them, and my plan is to catch up to date this next month.  I’ve got probably about another ten or fifteen to go, so I think I may be able to cross this one off my to-do list also!

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Grandmother’s Choice–a couple more blocks

After my great spurt of energy on Saturday, I got the opportunity to make a couple more of Grandmother’s Choice blocks.  It didn’t hurt that these ones were really easy, I knocked them off after a couple of hours.

 

I’ve never been a lover of the Rail Fence block.  Isn’t it funny how some blocks we make over and over, and others just leave us cold?  It probably explains why I make the same quilts over and over, just in different colours. 

I hope you’re all doing okay – it’s gloriously Autumn here where I live, cold nights and sunny days – just perfect.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Grandmother’s Choice 37 & 38

So I’m so far behind on these blocks it isn’t funny, but I did manage to make two today!

Yay me!

Could not be an easier block.  Other people were much cleverer by putting little blocks inside their centre block, but not me.  This is what our homework was, so this is what I made.  It’s week 37, by the way.

Shushhhh….. just between you and me I actually am quite proud of this one.  This is week 38.  I just by chance happened to get Judie Rothermal’s latest range in the post and it was filled with reds and greens.  Serendipity.

I think I’ve made seventeen blocks.  I am so far behind.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Dear Jane Chart

A1

B1

C1

D1

E1

F1

G1

H1

I1

J1

K1

L1

M1

Updated 22nd May 2013

Dear Jane–E9 Quilt Jail

I don’t know about quilt jail but I certainly feel like I am in computer jail.  Still no laptop, and this antique desktop is struggling.  How did we survive before we had fast, reliable computers?  Maybe we are too spoilt these days.

So I made another Dear Jane block.  After months of nothing, this one was so easy really, I don’t know why I waited.

I’m not too displeased with it, considering the bars on the jail are only 1/4” wide when finished.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

More show and tell

Alas, I still have no lap top so I can’t transfer any more of my new stuff to show you, so I’ve dug into the depths and found a bit more show and tell.

This is a fairly horrid, scanned photo so it doesn’t get any better than that colour-wise.  I gave this away, so I can’t retake my photo.

This was a design by Michelle Hill of William Morris fame – it’s a shame the photo isn’t a better one because the colours in this one were rich and luscious.  One of those quilts that pained me to let go even though I was making it specifically for a gift.

I loved it so much I made it again.  This one had slightly different colours, but was equally as rich and luscious.  I gave this one away too.

There were actually no such thing as digital cameras when I took these photos.  Or if there were, they would have been horrendously expensive and huge.  I’m thinking I made these quilts in about 2000, and they remain one of my favourite designs.  Perhaps I’ll have to make it again and keep this one.

Michelle Hill has made many lovely designs since this one, and I encourage you to go and look at her blog for some more inspiration.

http://williammorrisandmichele.blogspot.com.au/

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Let’s try again, shall we?

Okay.  Everyone has seen my last post.  So that works.

Now let’s try a photo.  Hold your breath.

This isn’t one of mine.  It somehow ended up in the bags of shop samples we had left over when we left our shop.  I think it was made by one of our lovely helpers over the years.  We had lots of helpers, and lots of left over bags of quilts.  Bags and bags and bags. 

I have never tried crazy patch work, not proper with stitching and charms and the like.  One day maybe I will. 

This is why the list of UFOs never goes down.  Too many inventive people over the centuries inventing clever ways to cut up fabric and sew it back together.

Just a quick show and tell tonight.  Will it publish?  Hold your breath.

Suzie

Hello? Is anyone there?

I’ve been posting and nothing is showing up.  I’m not enjoying technology very much AT ALL lately.  I’m truly technology poison at the moment.

Will this post show?  Let’s see?

I don't like technology

Hi lovely readers.

I have pictures for you, so many pictures.  But my laptop has died.  My desktop won't accept a USB stick and until the man comes and fixes both, I feel a little bereft.

We've been married 18 years, my husband and I.  Most of the stuff we brought we got in our first few years of marriage, and most of it has been replaced at about the ten year mark.  Consequently, we seem to be in our second round of 'stuff breaking down'.  

It's proving horribly expensive and really, really boring.  Who wants to buy new washing machines or fridges, or spending perfectly good quilt money on getting them fixed?  Certainly not me.  Much, much better things to spend my money on, thank you very much.

Hopefully tomorrow the man will come and fix my poor, lost laptop.  I'm pretty vigilant on doing backups so loss of information doesn't really bother me, and I'm quite excited at the prospect of a lovely clean hard drive.  But we shall wait and see what he says.

So, until tomorrow, when hopefully technology will behave a little better for me, happy quilting!

Suzie

So…..

I’ve been UFO’ing today.

I was supposed to make 100 of these:

Instead, I made 100 of these:

Frustrated.

Do you ever do that?  In the completion of one UFO, you inadvertently create a second one?

Happens to me all the time.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

More Show And Tell

I’ve been plodding along slowly on my Grandmother’s Choice blocks, and photographed them all to show.  I just got a new parcel of reproductions so I have some more delicious reds and greens to add to the mix.  I’m so far away from being caught up with these that it’s not funny but at the end of the day, that doesn’t really bother me.  These are in no particular order, because to be in order would mean that the blogger is organised  - and you know me well enough by now to understand how that isn’t likely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the fifteen I have completed, all together. 

It is quite funny really just how much the fabric changes colour with photography and computer variances.  Some look like they don’t really go together, but they do – truly. 

If I have a clear run, I may sew another block tomorrow.  But I’m treating myself to a hair cut and colour, and I doubt I’ll be home all day!  Oh the life of a mother with two children at school.  Pure Bliss!

Till tomorrow,

Suzie