More of the same..

I have made a bit of progress on the batik quilt as you go. Have free motion quilted 3 out of 4 blocks and laid it out to take progress photos.
Am very pleased with it. Can't wait to join the 3 front seams to put it together. Then it will be trimming/butting the batting and hand stitching the back seams as an invisible seams.
I have yet to decide whether it needs a  border or not but will try it for size on the bed. I have spare material of the backing material. The backing is a varigated grey batik which I've done in  a checker board pattern and used bright pink thread so it can be reversible.
I have used a beige thread on the front.

The reverse side.

You can't really see the pink thread..but the pattern stands out well.

 It's going to look great!


Work continues in much the same vein as before, but had a bonus 1/2 day off on friday with a machine breakdown!
The weather has been SO changeable. Really wet and mild with still hot sun during the day, then down to a frigid 8 deg. C Friday and yesterday, and today up to 15..So house heating is off and on, and the clothes drier is being heavily used.But today has come out bright and windy so will hang out the latest load and hope it dries before the next rain storm.
Gosh, my sympathies go out to the residents of Oklahoma city whose lives and properties have been devastated by the huge tornado this week. We have seen a lot of TV coverage here in NZ.

Now to try and upload pics from the proper camera this time. Laid out of the floor to show the whole quilt in progress.
Have got the hang of downloading pics from the computer so that's progress!

We are going away next weekend as we have a 3 day weekend with the Queen's Birthday holiday.
Til next time..thanks for reading.

To quilt or not to quilt..

My quilting is not going far at the moment. Very frustrating.

Work has taken over. My machine is on and off the kitchen table but none done this week.
It's been extremely wet this week too. The torrential rain is awesome to watch and we had thunder and lightening on Friday night too. It is easier to veg on the sofa at night after a tiring day!!

I intended to blog more too as I really enjoy it but perhaps picked a too busy time for me to start a blog with work which is very physical, on my feet all day, packing kiwifruit and avocados in a local packhouse. It's my third year at it which starts in April and goes through full time until around October time.

I swore I would not return to it this year but as nothing else has taken its place it's better than no work. This year may be different and a shorter season to last as the kiwifruit disease (PSA) has ravaged the kiwifruit vines in this region and beyond and its long term effects are still to hit with the flow on effects of packhouse closing and less jobs. So I go to work not knowing what we are doing from day to day.

The very wet weather and then warm weather in-between over the last month has prevented kiwifruit from being picked. It also hasn't yet been cold enough for the sugar levels to rise in the fruit in order that it can be picked. So one thing depends on another happening.

OK. To save this from being completely boring here are a couple of shots of my batik strips taken on the webcam. I find this the easier way...at the moment. At least I know I will get a photo!!

Top photo. I have sewn  the 4 width strips of my quilt as ''quilt as you go'' with 6 wavey free motion lines per strip with my quilting foot along the full length (a bit hard to see).

2nd photo. Now I am going back along the same lines with my free motion foot and adding leaves and spirals. I did a paper pattern to plan the layout and I try to make sure I vary the leaf shape and direction of the leaves!!
 I do enjoy the challenge of doing my own quilting on my domestic Brother NX400 machine. 

Hopefully more sewing news next time!
Thanks for reading.