Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Backing a Quilt and Walking.

At the weekend when it was so wet I had some time to sew. Having finished bandanna quilt #2 I went back to working on a backing for # 1. I only had 5 bandannas left. One turquoise; one black with turquoise and 3 white with some black design. They did not look great together, so I squared them up and joined them, then took to them with my ruler and rotary cutter and cut some 4" strips , some 3" strips and some 2" strips. I laid them on the floor. Where there was too much white together I joined the ends of that strip and cut it in a different place and kept doing this till I was happy. I then added in some other fabrics to try and enliven it. Some Laurel Burch coloured trees fabric worked well. Some paler turquoise, some blue batik and it was starting to look better. Now I am at the stage of joining the strips together.
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 Every fine day now before I come home to make dinner I have been collecting walnuts for drying.( makes my back ache temporarily ! )But if I do some every day it's not such a big job all in one session.
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This morning R had to go through to Katikati briefly so I went and got out and walked up a side road I had never been up before.( trying to improve my fitness for walking when we go on holiday ) He picked me up on the way back. Here is some of what I saw.
Neatly mown grass and cana lilies on the roadside of an orchard.
Lovely patches of native bush.
A train headed for the Kaimai Tunnel.

Rolling green, grassy hills with the Kaimai Ranges in the background.
Best of all 10 coloured mail boxes on a stand.
There , you should feel a bit warm after that; I was, cause a lot of it was uphill!

7 comments:

Meggie said...

The sight of those Kaimai ranges brings a lump to my throat. How well I remember travelling over them with our mother who drove her little car like a demon! We nicknamed her Mrs Nick, after 'Old Nick'.

loulee said...

\blue and white, you can't go wrong really can you?

Jennifer said...

What lovely countryside! Your idea for the quilt works well.

KathyB said...

Wow, sorry about your back. I just saw a gadget on"This Old House" that was sort of like a round wire rolling cage on a long stick made just for picking up nuts. (Imagine a bingo wire cage that they put the 'numbers' in), but it is attached to a long handle and you roll it on the ground like a child's 'popper' toy. It easily picks up all the nuts as you roll it. I saw them do it!! Maybe you could find one. Good luck. When you finish picking up all of those nuts, drop by and see what I'm doing with all of my fabric scraps. http://kbartdesigns.com

Ali Honey said...

Thanks Kathy, that sounds like a useful tool. I wonder if where I might find one. I'll do some research.

carole brungar said...

Your quilt is looking great. I loved the pic of the letterboxes too! Good spotting :)

Unknown said...

Beautiful pictures.