Hi everyone,
I was very blessed to have Anne send me a few pictures of the quilt she has been working on…
I’m sure the quilts made in New Zealand, especially the ones made by Anne, are the most beautiful in all the land! Thank you Anne for sharing your talent with us… and yes, send the other pictures you mentioned in your email.
This is the centre of the quilt I have been working on for 9 months. I still have to add the borders have been doing quilt as you go so the centre is finished.
I will photograph the back of the quilt so you can see how it has been constructed.
Thank you Anne
Blessings, Jeanne
What a beautiful quilt, Anne! Thank you so much for sharing. And such an interesting variety of patterns, each block being different! I am especially fond of the block with the butterflies (far left/center), but also like the “diamond” or “gem” pattern (far right/bottom) and the purple flower to its immediate left.
I remember years ago an American quilter named Georgia Bonesteel used to have a TV program called “Quilt as you go”, and she demonstrated a technique to do that; I think I may have one of her books, also, although I have never tried doing a quilt that way myself. Yet!
Sorry I was missing in action yesterday. For the last couple of months, I haven’t been getting any reminder emails of Jeanne’s blog, and sometimes I forget to look, even though I have added a “shortcut” to my screen. So, to answer your question about learning something new….
My first thought, of course, was about some of the classes I’ve taken at Expo thru the years, where I’ve learned things like shibori dyeing and felted wool applique, but then I realized, I have a Much more recent “new” I can tell you about!
I have gotten my first smart phone! My son and I decided to get a 2-line deal on our cell phones, as it will save us a little money and also my old flip phone was a really really bad one–the buttons didn’t work properly from the beginning, and it was very frustrating to do anything on it, even enter a phone number. If the button worked at all, you might get a particular number multiple times, for instance, even if you only needed one of them!
So, I am learning that. I have Facebook on mine already, and I’ve entered a lot of my contacts and their numbers (after spending some time copying them down from my old phone–I wanted to have a written list anyway, just in case, as I am sure some numbers are not in the directory of my landline phone) I have also sort of learned how to do a video call (well, I’ve done it once!). I know there is more to explore on this thing, but not all at once! And I still don’t plan to do texting. Just not my thing at all.
And just tonight I discovered that Yahoo is changing us over to their “new” Yahoo, whether we want it or not. There is no way to “go back” to classic Yahoo. Ugh! I am finding the viewing area of the emails is much smaller than the old one, and there is no way to make it larger, so you can see the entire width of the email. So not fun.
OH, and referring back to a few days ago–tonight I found my African dolls, so will try to get some pictures of those tomorrow. There are four of them!
So glad you are enjoying your new phone, Charlotte. Mine is about a year old and I prefer using my computer if possible for most things. But I use mine for mostly easy things, like calling people.
Charlotte, thank you for the update. Change is hard and annoying sometimes!
That kind of learning and remembering makes my head hurt 😂
I am so happy you found your dolls!!
Hope to see pics of your new dolls soon. 🙂
Charllotte, glad you are adapting to your new phone. The technology is definitely different. I love the video call feature since that is the way my daughter in Maine and I keep in touch. It’s so much more fun to actually see her, where she lives, what she and her husband have been working on and best of all my growing grandson whom I haven’t seen in person since he was about a year old. He is 9 today. She initiates the calls because she has a lot on her plate so we pick a day and time and sometimes she is late but I’m ready when she is. Can’t wait to see your African dolls.
Thank you, Charlotte. There are 100 blocks each one different. I started off trying to make perfect seams but eventually decided that near enough was good enough and now it is together it is very hard to see the imperfections (and they are definitely there) because there is so much going on. I should like to have it finished by the next meeting but I think it will have to be the first meeting in November.
I am looking forward to seeing your dolls.
Oh Anne, what a beautiful quilt! Since I don’t quilt, I really don’t know the names of most quilt patterns, although my mother-in-law quilted, and made a Sunbonnet Sue quilt for my daughters bed when she was little, and I have the Dresden Plate quilt on a bed now. I don’t know what every square is called, but I do notice the butterflies, strawberries and a dragonfly in several of the squares. That certainly does make it distinctive and fun! That side certainly has a country vibe, but the back, I love it! I have never seen the back of a quilt look so pretty! I would use that side in a heartbeat any day! It looks more formal if I might say, and I love the colors! Thank you so much for sending the pictures, Anne!
I wasn’t able to get on the iPad much at all yesterday, and see that I missed a lot of chit chat! I just don’t have time to comment here right now about all that, but we certainly do have quite a nice little group that knows how to make it a brighter day for all of us!
Looking forward to Charlotte’s doll pictures!
Thank you, Linda. I love the fabric on the back, It was an amazing buy from Spotlight at $4 a metre. I wish I had bought a lot more of it because I haven’t seen anything close at that price. There wasn’t enough to use on the back of the borders unfortunately, so they are the same green as the sashing.
commenting right away: Anne WOW! This quilt is beautiful. I have never made a quilt as you go, but I have seen many in progress. WOW, this one is so lovely with your special blocks, each one is beautiful! and your quilting is perfect…. WOWWWW ….wowowww.
I have never made a quilt like this, yours looks huge too!!!
Thank you, Rosemary. These centre blocks fit on the top of my queen size bed so the borders will give a bit of overhang. It certainly isn’t perfect but nice of you to say so lol. It is certainly a great way to learn new techniques (and to know which you are never going to do again !!!lol). I am looking forward to it being finished, I have a lot of other projects I want to get done.
I sent Jeanne photos of my silly shells decorating things in the house, but I would MUCH rather see Anne’s lovely quilt! Each piece is just so different and lovely! I stopped to look at it 3 times already! The back is pretty enough to use itself! You are so talented, Anne!! Thank you for sharing.
I will be working on cleaning up the house today and tomorrow. My niece and her hubs are coming next week for a few days. They live in Arizona so I seldom get to see her. She once told me that she was the girl I should have had. We are so much alike.
Jeanne, we do hope the doctors have found good things to help George. How is he doing??? We would like to know. Love and prayers to you both.
Enjoy your niece next week! Perhaps she has some fun ideas for all of your shells! I am looking forward to seeing your artistic masterpieces.
How nice that your niece and her hubby will be joining you from Arizona for a few days. I’m sure being so much alike you’ll find a lot of fun things to do to fill the time.
Thank you Sissy. Enjoy your visit with your niece. My niece and my daughter are so much alike not just in looks but in their whole personalities even though they have only seen each other twice since they were 3. Unfortunately, Amanda is dying from a progressive brain disorder, which is very sad.
Here we are, happy Tuesday. It is 50º on the screened in porch right now! wow.
I thought it was supposed to be warm today, like 85º but that is incorrect, it will only be 65º!
Hubbs and I are on an exercise streak (not sure how long this will last) so that we stay strong and balanced. we went to the gym yesterday for about a half hour 😂 and did elliptical for about 15 minutes, pulled on some weights and rode the bikes 🥳
Anyway, brrrrr. Yes, kittyPrincess is miffed. I did give her snuggles this morning but then she scurried upstairs to sit on the very warm heating equipment in the HVAC room upstairs.
I hope all of you have been doing okay. I have been sewing all day… well, doing chores in between, but making progress. I got some 108″ wide backing fabric in the mail (good deal) for the patriotic quilt, I also have a few other quilts that need to be sandwiched and quilted.
I think I like my new quilter, She takes a long time but I do not care. I will have to make an appointment to drive up to Leesburg and sit down to make choices for the work. I will do one project at a time and I have so many finished quilt tops she will be busy for a long time. I know she has many other customers. Okay, so.
Anne, again, your quilt as you go quilt is beautiful. I have never made a gigantic quilt like this but it looks really nice. I love the hand stitching you did. This quilt is a treasure and you did every part of it! Do you have a big fancy machine? I can’t remember but you probably did tell us at some point. I have all old mechanical Singer machines. They can do anything I want them to do. I should take a day and clean all of them and oil them like crazy.
I hope we see some good sunshine today.
Jeanne, I hope George is feeling good! I hope he is comfortable.
How are your chickens doing? I bet they adore having George coming out and doting on them.
And the huge tub gardens you had. Have they produced a good crop this year? I know it has been difficult to manage all of this at one time. I wish I could come over and be a helper! I hope you have a lot of help getting through the daily stuff.
Love to all of you
Good for Y’all, Rosemary, working out! I see so many people my age and younger walking with walkers. I know there are people that have problems that we don’t have but also I know there are people who could have done better for themselves. I am so glad I got Peyton working at the Y with me years ago.
You quilters are so amazingly talent! I went for sewing for myself and then for dolls when I had granddaughters, then sewing for the dolls I collected for myself. My sewing doesn’t touch what Y’all can do..
Yes, Sissy, with the condition I’m in right now I tell everyone I see “don’t stop moving”. Before I stepped on my dog (didn’t know she was going blind) I mentioned to David that I was truly blessed. I was in my 70s and had no inflammation or pain. Then I did. I thought I just hurt my knee but it kept me from doing my usual walking of a mile or two a few times a week. I was pretty ignorant of what could happen. I would have had it looked at but it was during COVID and nothing was open. But I have been trying for a few years to remedy the problem but until I finally found my former chiropractor, no one would listen when I explained what happened. One chiropractor told it was due to my age and I’d have to get used to it. Another just wanted to do the usual adjustment and nothing more. My current (and former) chiropractor is old school and actually refers to a chart while he is working on me.
Barbara, as I have written to you before I am so proud of you for trying to get better. You have had a hard time and I am so glad you seem to be finding better help.
Hi Rosemary, thank you for the compliments. I have an Elna Quilting Queen machine which has a built-in walking foot. It is now 14 years old, I bought it when we had to move out of our house because of the earthquakes and we rented a house till the insurance was settled. It just so happened that I was within walking distance of a very good small quilting shop in 2011. It has had some issues but (fingers crossed) they seem to have finally been fixed. I do have my eye on a fancy machine but at $7000 NZD I am only looking! I would love to send my quilts to a quilter but that is very expensive so have to manage myself. I also have a Janome Skyline which is a good machine with a lot of stitches (way more than the Elna) but Sam has claimed that one.
Thank you Jeanne and Anne for the pictures of Anne’s beautiful quilts. They are amazing.
I was writing and suddenly I wasn’t able to finish writing so I’m sending this now. It simply wouldn’t print any more words.
Thank you, for the compliments. I have that problem sometimes Paula but I find if I move the mouse to where it stopped writing and click it, it starts working again.
What a lovely way to start the day! Anne’s quilt is gorgeous. Love the beautiful designs on the front and the back is amazing too. What a perfect piece to display as the colors are so complementary. Thanks Jeanne, and Anne, for sharing today.
And seeing the quilt is so much more interesting than waking up to a house full of skunk this morning. Of course, we had every window open overnight, after yesterday with the very high temp, so the whole house now smells of skunk. Ick! Other person closed the windows but I discovered that the smell outdoors is now gone so I opened them all again. I am hoping that it clears out a little before I close down the house soon as it is going to be another scorcher today.
Yesterday, was exhausting and we didn’t even get in a walk. The workers on the roof of the other house were there long before we arrived around eight to find them busy tearing off the old roof and everything around the house protected with tarps. We went back several times, but they were still working through the extreme heat. Lots of breaks though for them and all of the cookies, soda, and cold waters were gone when retrieved the cooler late in the day. We kept thinking that they were going to quit and finish today, but no, they kept at it until dark. Finally, painting all of the roof stacks to match the new roof. It looks great and should be very helpful with our El Nino weather this winter. The biggest problem was actually the garage. I bought plastic to cover everything there, but other person repeatedly told me that nothing would sift through as we had plywood on the roof. We had a discussion about it, but he assured me there wouldn’t be a problem. Well, he was so very wrong. The interior of the garage and everything stored there is now covered with a layer of grit. It’s awful. The roofing company warned of the problem, but other person did not take that in mind. So, I’m leaving it to him to sweep and dust out the mess somehow. He mentioned the leaf blower, but I vetoed that quickly, as it would only make things worse. Always something I guess.
Time to close up the house and the sun is just coming in through the trees.
Sorry about your skunk problem. I have my own skunk story. David and I used to go to Bellville, a small town near us, for our anniversary each year. We stayed at a B&B that was over 100 years old. We got the “suite” with a bedroom with canopy bed, a sitting room and a private bath with a pull chain for the toilet. The suite was where people of substance would stay when they came to the area. One time during the night a skunk was outside I guess rooting around the trash cans in the alley below. I was asleep but David woke me laughing. I didn’t understand why until I realized that in my sleep I had pulled the blanket up over my nose to avoid the smell.
That’s pretty funny about the blanket. We’ve gone and come back several times today and whenever we open the front door and walk inside, it reeks of skunk. So, guess it is going to take awhile to go away, unfortunately.
Thank you, Joy. Now you know why I am worried about the sun. I would like to have it on my bed but don’t want it to fade.
Sorry about the skunk problem thank goodness we don’t have them here. We have enough problems with introduced species.
What a horrible mess. I had a new roof a few years ago but it was only iron so didn’t make a mess and the roofers cleaned up everything before they left.
You know, we have mini blinds on the bedroom windows and they do a great job of keeping out the sun but allowing for light to come inside. Those and the crank out awning over our sliding door both help a lot. Our roofers were very tidy too, but we were warned that the silting might happen. It was other person who I blame for this mess. He did get a little cleaned up today. Around the whole house, it looks great. No debris at all and no trampled plants either. 🙂
Oh, Anne, what a truly beautiful quilt. I don’t quilt but have everything I need to do it but sewing doll clothes still takes priority. But I totally enjoy seeing the quilt creations of others and yours is amazing. I love all the squares and the backing is as pretty as the front. Thanks, Anne, for sending the pictures to Jeanne and to Jeanne for posting them.
I meant to mention this yesterday but forgot. I saw an article the other day on the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is the driest non-polar desert. With El Nino they have been having a huge amount of rain and it has seeped deep into the soil and produced the most amazing wildflowers. If you get a chance look it up. It’s really beautiful.
I responded to a few comments yesterday but it was late in the day.
Thank you, Barbara. I will look up the Atacama Desert. We have had a lot of rain this winter because of El Nino and are being warned of an excessively hot summer.
What a gorgeous quilt, Anne. The center is beautiful. I really love the square with the butterflies, strawberries, and dragonfly. The back is very interesting as well. My daughter had emergency gallbladder surgery over the weekend and came home yesterday evening so if I’m MIA my day was too full to do everything..
Thank you Laura, I hope your daughter recovers quickly
Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery. Must have come as a shock. My grandmother had hers removed too, and then lived many many years longer to 101. 🙂
Anne, your quilt is beautiful and the back is just as beautiful! I have used only plain, one soft pastel color on the backs of the baby quilts I have made….it was all I could do to finish the fronts in time to give the quilts to the expectant mothers!
Barbara….I loved reading your skunk story…not that skunks are funny but your telling of how you avoided the skunk odor was!
I am still looking forward to sewing for my Ruby Red dolls again….decided I might try making them Christmas outfits, if I can before the holiday. Managed to finish the Birthday homemade cards needed for this year yet and have two pieces of artwork yet to do…both needed for November but I hope to complete them this month as I have plans to do a Christmas figure and will need the month of Nov. since I will be making 10 of the same item! THEN….onto the doll outfits!
Temps have been more comfortable in our neck of the woods, and the days-and days-of non-stop rain (Finally…some rain here in Texas!) have stopped and the sun is shining again. Our lawn guy normally would have mowed & edged last week but he contacted us to say he would postpone until the rain stopped and the ground wasn’t quite so saturated. And then yesterday my daughter received an email with an attached photo of our front yard from the HOA stating our grass was too deep and we have 12 days to mow it. Unbelievable. This much extra rain just made it grow even faster but I guess they expect you to mow it as SOON as the rain lets up.
I would love to comment to the HOA if they ever notice the untrimmed, overgrown bushes in the front yards of most of the houses in this community. Maybe bushes don’t count in their minds. And I am angry to have received the notice when our yard and landscaping are kept trimmed except for this time when we had so many days of rain. I tell myself that never again do I want to live in a community with an HOA, but then at my age I probably won’t need to worry about that. This community does not have a pool, a park area with play equipment for children, nor a community building and they have taken 3 years to try to finish the landscaping at the front entrance into the community. And they keep the row of starter trees and the grass along the main entrance street, trimmed and neat…that is all we are seeing. Our yard issue is just another slap-in-the-face….I had already been angry after moving here and discovering the HOA does not allow bi-annual or quarterly payments of their fee, and if late they will attach late fees. They want the entire thing in one full payment on Jan. 1st, right after the holidays. We were not aware of this beforehand and so many HOA’s allow payment over the year.
Must take care of a few household chores yet today and move onto my art projects and keep my mind occupied so I don’t dwell on the yard issue!
I’m so sorry about your HOA woes. What a crummy deal. I wonder how many similar letters went out to others in your area? Is there some accountability there so as a home owner, you could check their activities? Do you get to vote people into office there? And what about a petition to make payments on the fee available? Just stirring the pot I guess. I can see someone trolling around, jumping out of their car with a measuring tape, and quickly measuring the highest weed/grass they could find. Almost comical. Might be fun to have a door cam to see who drives by. 🙂
And I hope that you can share the 10 figures you make this year and the Ruby Red dresses. 🙂
We feel the same about HOAs. They have far too much power. Once in Houston they literally threw a woman out of her house for non-payment of some kind. She was a senior citizen and had limited options. She retained a great attorney and got her house back as well as legal fees. But she shouldn’t have had to go through that because they were wrong to take her house in the first place. The last time we lived in a community with an HOA we got a notice in February that our lawn was not properly edged. We were shocked because we had a particularly cold winter that year and the ground was frozen. In the summer some woman took it upon herself to measure the length of everyone’s grass. God forbid you should go away on vacation in the summer without making arrangements for someone to cut your lawn. But in our effort to avoid living again in an HOA community we moved to Sealy which at the time was a lovely rural town under General Rule. A few years later they went Home Rule and hired a “code enforcer” and began to act like an HOA. We were harassed off and on for years until last year when we had two cases against us (personal and business) which were ridiculous and definitely were harassment. We went to court and David told the prosecutor he was pleading guilty and would demand a jury trial. All of a sudden both cases were dismissed and the two women involved in the whole thing were severely reprimanded. The old definition of private property rights seems to no longer exist.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
When we were looking for a new house after the earthquakes, we looked at an estate which had our equivalent of your HOA. I forget what they are called. I picked up a “rule book” and decided it wasn’t for us!!
Have a good day everyone, it is cleaning day here.
My mom, sisters, and I went to a show of prize-winning quilts once, Pretty amazing. Paintings are enshrined in museums. Those should have been as well. Anne’s quilt belongs there too.
Is an Alice quilt one with many square patches, each with a different pattern? I looked the term up and got pictures, but no definition.
Have you seen the articles about the Colorado SCOTUS case? It’s about the right of a community to sue companies for environmental damage. A comparison would be suing tobacco companies for knowingly selling a product that caused health problems.