Harmany Quilting

2009-05-25T07:57:00.002+08:00

Sorry about the quality of the photos in this post - I lost the light and the camera flash came on. I have been working, albeit slowly and between bouts of the 'flu that everyone else has had and going to work of course.

This is another of the Jelly Roll quilts that seem to be taking off.

2009-03-11T08:00:00.000+09:00

Here's a quilt that I gave back to it's owner today...............

As per usual there is an element of rule work to create the boundaries and then just fill it all up with feathers.

Thankfully the owner liked it.

2009-03-06T08:00:00.000+09:00

There are a few things that have changed around here

The before photo and ........

the after photo. All in preparation of the first day of school.

The middle Sweetie, now named the Hostel Boy. Doesn't he look gorgeous? I asked for him to put on his school uniform so that I could take this. He now sleeps four nights a week at a residential college attached to a Senior High School ~90kms from here. Still gorgeous and lovely, just a bit further away than normal.

When we were at Two Peoples Bay here is what came out of the underbrush to share our lunch. Superb creature who was very focused on what we were eating and he didn't get any. We ate it all.

Sitting on the foreshore at Albany's Princess Royal Harbour, this was our view one night. It was a magical sight, somewhat lessened in this photo.

2009-03-05T08:00:00.000+09:00

This is where I work as a gardener - there is much work to be done. However, it will slowly take shape and become the lovely garden that it was.

2009-03-04T08:00:00.003+09:00

The two birthday people in our house very kindly shared a birthday cake so I didn't have to make two. A banana cake fresh from the oven.

2009-03-03T10:00:00.000+09:00

Over the weekend is was particularly exciting here, we not only had visitors, and a teenage birthday but a fire as well. All a bit hairy and eyeopening. It was a bout a kilometre to the south of us and the wind wasn't helping at all. There were two fire fighting 'planes as well as a wonderful helicopter.

The fire was started from the belt off a water pump becoming too hot and shredding rubber.

Thankfully we didn't make to the national news, no one was killed or injured; all the houses survived and a few sheds were burnt.

Thanks to the local firefighters and those from surrounding districts who came to help. It ended up being an all nighter, and thanks to them there was a good outcome.

After standing in at the end of the driveway and watching the flames and smoke from a distance, I decided that I will create an emergency box with all our pertinent documents ready to go. I will not stay to save our house. The fire if it had have continued on its journey it would've burnt our town, there was only a short tract of land before it could have started on an uphill journey and then down the other side and hit the town. I think there will be some serious thinking happening hereabouts about what people will do in the event of a fire.

2009-03-02T17:36:00.003+09:00

At the beginning of the year we went to Albany for a much needed holiday and time away from here. I 'cured' my insomnia that has been plaguing me for ~ two years. I say two years, however when I look back I think that it is more like four years. We got up when the sun did and went to bed with it as well. Over two weeks of walking, riding, swimming, reading, talking, eating and snorkeling.

A tad staged.

ANZAC memorial on the walk from Middleton Beach to Albany harbour.

Seagull at Middleton Beach.

Does he look cold? Because he was.

The Hostel Boy at Middleton Beach after swimming lessons. Waiting for lunch and SO cold and SO hungry and just give it to me now because I'm desperate and I only have a pair of shorts to wear as everything else is wet.

2009-02-06T16:13:00.003+09:00

A long time ago - like three months I last wrote to blogland and here we are in 2009. So happy new year and all the best. So what has been happening except that I'm not quilting and haven't for what seems a life time, not because I'm injured in any way, just because I'm taking a break and wearing a different hat. This is my tenth year of quilting for others and I need a break, so I have obtained a traineeship in horticulture and I get to be outside in all sorts of weather and generally sweat alot at the moment. Even my knees were sweating the other day and other bits that can't be mentioned in polite society. It was a doozy of a day, but hey it is summer and it is meant to be HOT. So yes I'm still here and enjoying life and this year I will get my garden back to looking like it used to and wash the floors and clean the house and not stay up very late and quilt for other people.

2008-11-10T08:00:00.001+09:00

Here is another from a long time ago. The words are gentleness, love, peace, goodness, patience, self-caring, joy, faithfulness, kindness, however I think that it needs the word humour stitched into it somewhere. All the words are very admirable, however humour would be the thing that gives it the spark and make all okay.

The door is between the front lounge and the kitchen and is our old front door that the four of us sanded back and oiled one afternoon. The builders of the house made it from the leftover Jarrah floorboards, from when they built our house in the 1930s. The toilet door was also of the same construction and made at the same time. It is one of the features of this style of house that the dunny (toilet) door would be made from the leftover boards. The hairiest Sweetie built the door frame, side light and hung the door to block off the rest of the house as I used to quilt in the front lounge and had people dropping and picking up quilts. They were quite nosy at times and would take off for a tour of the house! So a door was the best option and then I knew that the youngest Sweeties could be vegged out on the couch without complete strangers walking through and conversing with them. Remember humour - it's always important. As are the other things on the stitchery.

2008-11-07T08:00:00.000+09:00

There were quite a few quilts on display for the Field of Quilts. At this rate I have enough for 40 days postings. There might have to be some serious culling.

2008-11-06T08:00:00.004+09:00

There really is something about these one shaped quilts. The apple cor is one of my favourites. I don't know if I would ever make one however I do like to look at them. I think that it would be a great idea to do them as a group effort and make a stack and then swap them with others who have done the same. At least if they were basted on to paper then there would be no seam allowance issues.

I quilted this one - not that you can see the quilting. There are trains puffing across the quilt with level crossings and cows too. Click on the photo and there will be a bigger picture.

2008-11-05T08:00:00.005+09:00

This is the redwork quilt that I have been talking about and another of those projects that I started when everything was a lot younger. This was probably started sometime in 2003/2004 when I fell in love with Bronwyn Hayes' work. The original quilt was smaller, however we have the technology to make things bigger so I did, and I remember stuffing up with one of the blocks and it wasn't increased at the same rate as the others, but hey what the heck I'm a big girl now so I just fudged the piecing when I came to put it all together.The later quilting is freehand. All the earlier stuff was done on the Compuquilter, and that includes the crosshatching over the embroidery. If I was to do it again I would freehand everything, except for the crosshatching on the embroidery. The crosshatching on the 'patch' border I would freehand. I have had my Compuquilter now for almost three years and I have worked out what it is good at and what I am good at and enjoy doing.

The blocks were completed quite quickly, over a few months, as they were very transportable as all I needed was the fabric, a pair of scissors, the thread and a needle.

The machine piecing of the bits around the blocks took the time and then I couldn't find what I wanted for the outer border and then there had to be the extra outer corner blocks.

The chooks on the original quilt both faced the same way so I changed that.

This is the only cat that I will ever own.

I love ticking so when I saw a piece on special I bought it and thought that it was serendipity. Ticking was used for mattress covers, however in my many and varied readings I have read that it was used for the firing of cannons. The spacing of the stripes had to do with the rate of burning or something like that. I should really find out more. The curved quilting on the stripes is different and a bit on the wild side. It works to a degree and breaks up the lines.

I just love the freehand feathered swags in the borders. This time I had the feathers alternating direction and that worked really well too. Previously, on other quilts, I have had the feathers going the same way all around the quilt.

All the thread on this quilt is Aurifil and that includes the redwork. Lovely thread for every occasion.

There was from another project that Bronwyn did and I think it was for a pillow case if I remember rightly. I just thought that it suited this quilt so I made one as an afterthought. As you can see I was very enthusiastic in 2006, and thankfully my enthusiasm carried through until now and I now have this beautiful quilt.

The reason that there is no quilting on this piece is that there is no label on the quilt (yet). It will go behind this label on the back of the quilt and then I will quilt over this piece. Well that's the plan - hopefully before the end of the year.

2008-11-04T16:20:00.003+09:00

I'm waiting for the Sweeties to give me a hand to photograph some quilts and then it rains and then it's REALLY windy and then it's too late.

So these will have to pacify your need for non fattening eye candy.

Obviously influenced by William Morris.

2008-10-31T08:00:00.001+09:00

Looks like someone's quilt for a favourite child.

There was a frog on the back too. Can you see its foot coming from behind the quilt.

2008-10-30T08:00:00.003+09:00

I really like this quilt, quite simple however very effective use of fabric.

Another favoutite pattern - Dresden Plate is really a classic.

2008-10-29T08:00:00.002+09:00

Some more from the Field of Quilts.

The more I see of these cobweb quilts, the more I like them. Even though the maker only used a minimum of fabrics, the illusion is striking.

A old favourite using butterfly fabrics as the windows.

2008-10-28T08:06:00.005+09:00

A while ago when things were younger, my family holidayed down in the south west of West Australia and I learnt to snorkel. I snorkeled a lot, whenever the opportunity. Hey, I even snorkeled in the family pool. I was very enamoured with snorkeling. Snorkeling has become a bit of a legend with the younger Sweeties and of course they wanted to snorkel. Soooooo they learnt to snorkel and as a bit of a reward, the Hairiest Sweetie and I took them to a place that I snorkeled and 'hunted' abalone. The Hairiest Sweetie had never been there, and to say that he was shocked with the length of time it took to walk there, is a bit of an understatement.

So the youngest Sweeties snorkeled in one of my favourite places, where the Indian Ocean is just over the other side of that reef and there are schools of fish and flocks of terns that don't budge, and cormorants that wash in the water right in front of you as you snorkel. The oldest youngest Sweetie was laughing through his snorkel with glee and the youngest Sweetie thought that the 'waves' were too high and 'really, what was so exciting'. Hey, at least I have one convert. Watching them snorkel was one of those 'aaahh' moments for me and I really wanted to be in there with them and next time I will, because it really is so grand under there where there are so many fish and other creatures. As I said 'I can feel a snorkel moment coming on'.

I had forgotten just how strong and rich the colours are.

The lights were out but there was somebody home.

The limestone cliffs where lots of birds nest.

In retrospect, I think that the reason that snorkeling is such a fantastic thing for me, is that it is just like all the swimming dreams that I have. Some people have flying dreams - I have swimming dreams. Like flying dreams, only better.

2008-10-27T12:54:00.000+09:00

The weekend before last the Floreat Fairies and their siblings/spouses went away for the annual get together. This time it was at Siesta Park in between Bussleton and Dunsborough on the west coast of West Australia. I was desperate to finish this quilt and used the opportunity when the others were swimming/snorkeling/crabbing/sleeping to apply the binding. As you can see I had some strange companions, however they didn't impede my sewing. And I must admit it was rather nice sewing outside with such a nice vista. There will be more photos of the quilt after next weekend as it is entered in the local show.
The things that we do to get things done. Thinking about it though, not one of the Sweeties made a comment or complained about the presnece of the sewing machine in the back of the car. I've trained them well.

2008-10-26T12:28:00.002+09:00

Following the Happy Zombie fabric folding tutorial, I am attempting to turn this

into this.

It might be achievable. I am in serious mind that whenever I buy fabric (wash my mouth out with BLEACH! and all you Stashbusters out there didn't read that) I will wash and fold the fabric and immediately place it in the respective pile for it's colour or hysterics (historics). Sounds unlike me, however as the stash is scattered throughout the house and the donga (read studio) and in so many receptacles and places, I have trouble remembering where the particular fabric is. I can see it in my mind but have no idea where it is and I become so frustrated because I want it now. A life without this particular frustration would be blissful.

2008-10-25T13:11:00.007+08:00

They are bittersweet days, the days when animals die a natural death at the end of their lives. Stanley the Spaceman died early this morning, beloved mate of Stella (dec.) and father of too many chickens and not enough eggs. Stanley the Spaceman? you ask. Well Stanley went into Stella and ....................... became a spaceman. Husbands come out with the greatest things. So back to Stanley, he would have been nine years old and had all the pluck and arrogance of small men. The youngest Sweeties were given Stanley and Stella as a Christmas present. As a fitting end we put him on an ants' nest. Years ago we would have had to buried Stanley with wailing children and a full Mass with an Irish wake. Life has become somewhat simpler, in some aspects. Anyone have a rooster that they need to find a home for? It will go to a good home and will die a natural death of old age.

2008-10-22T09:16:00.001+08:00

Just a short break in transmisssion - look what arrived all the way from North Carolina. Such a lovely book. Bonnie has done such a smashing job.

2008-10-14T07:56:00.005+08:00

When I took these photos the sun was quite high and much of the detail was lost, however I diligently went up and down the rows snapping each quilt. There were quilts in the hall, however the light was so abysmal that the flash would have had to be used and therefore flattened everything - I did take some pictures however I wasn't pleased with the result.

This is a lovely idea with the different quilts being made by different people, although I could quite happily shoot the sunbonnet sue. Let's just say that I didn't have a happy relationship with her when I was growing up.
These following photos are of the same quilt and the second one showing some detail. Apparently it was a round robin with people's favourite letterboxes that they had had over the years and the letters that came through them. A lovely idea.

There are six photos today - stuffed up so there is a bonus.

2008-10-13T20:37:00.002+08:00

Just five more today. Blogger lets me add five at a time, so that is what you get.

2008-10-11T17:30:00.004+08:00

More quilts from the Field of Quilts.

I think that this quilt is particularly gorgeous and really appeals to what my sense of patchwork is about.

2008-10-10T16:13:00.002+08:00

Field of Quilts