Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) # 8

Welcome to the next instalment of Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) designed by Helen Stubbings of Hugs n Kisses.

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,

Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

I love the view of the Milky Way from here in Australia. I don't know what it is like in other parts of the world but if you can get away from the city lights it is spectacular.

Much of my reading time over the last decade and a half has been spent reading aloud to my children. Those children's bedtime rituals of supper, bath, stories, and sleep have been a staple of my life and some of the best, most special times I can remember.

            - Louise Brown 

This quote from Louise Brown is very true. Since having children I have really enjoyed the bedtime ritual of reading a story. They have now gotten too old for me to read to them but this is still one of my favourite times of the day. I also love my bed in the winter time, with its woollen underlay, flannelette sheets and feather doona. When I get my Nice People, Nice Things quilt done I am really looking forward to spending my first night with it on my bed.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Garden Chic # 4

Today's block for the Garden Chic quilt is called Father's Choice. Here you can see that all of the pieces are pre-cut which does save some time. Unfortunately, the fabric isn't the best quality and the cutting isn't always square so I do have to spend some time trimming before I start.

Here I have laid out the pieces to give me a better idea of the layout and also to check that they are all there. Wouldn't it be awful if something was missing?

The completed block below. As you can see the lemon fabric is quite thin, the seams are visible and even my grey carpet is showing through. Hopefully this won't be a problem when it comes time to put it all together.

And here are the four blocks I have completed so far. I think they look rather nice altogether and it is certainly giving me a better idea of exactly how big this quilt will be. To give you a better idea the Father's Choice block is 15 1/2 inches square.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

My first finished quilt

Hello again. Today I thought that I would share my first quilt with you. It is nothing fancy, just a panel that I sandwiched with batting and backing fabric, so it is technically a quilt even though there was no patchwork involved.

I made this many years ago for my niece for her birthday. I whipped it up the day before because it is only small and, as I said, it is a pre-printed panel. To ad a bit of interest I used blanket stitch on my sewing machine to go around each of the Sunbonnet Sues. It came back to me when my daughter was old enough. She used it in her dolls pram.

The next quilt I will share with you is the first large quilt that I finished. I measures about 180 cm square and is made with flannel fabrics. I bought it as a kit from Alison at Canterbury Quilts but I modified it slightly. My friend Chris has a lovely raggy quilt on the back of her couch and I have always wanted to make one.

So after buying the kit I cut the blocks slightly bigger and sat down with a piece of graph paper to work it all out. As this is a quilt as you go type of quilt, I went back to by some flannel for the back. Alison's original quilt is a 10 x 10 with the centre panel and two borders. Mine is a 9 x 9 with only one border.

When I was finished cutting I had some scraps left over that I knew I would never use on anything else. So I sewed them all together and put a border around it to make it the same size as the centre panel on the front. The working out probably took as long as the actual construction but I think it was worth it. It is a great quilt for a male because the centre panel is a farming scene with windmills and tractors. My brother loved it.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) # 7

This week I will share with you two more blocks from the Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) quilt designed by Helen Stubbings.

“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.”

 - L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl

And of course, one of the best known songs from "Cats" and also one of my favourites.

“Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.”

 - Sammy Hagar

I love birthdays because it gives our family a chance to catch up with one another. In our family we celebrate the most birthdays in September. I often wonder if that is because Christmas and New Year are nine months beforehand. What do you think? What is the most popular month in your family?

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Garden Chic # 3

This week I worked on the next block of the Garden Chic quilt. This block is called "Four Square". 

That reminds me of a shop around the corner from where I grew up. This was before the invention of supermarkets. This shop was bigger than a milk bar (what a corner store is called store in Australia) but smaller than a supermarket. I think it might be called a mini-mart in America but I could be wrong. The store closed down a long time ago and is now a fish and chip shop but the memories remain. I remember Mum sending us around with some money to pick up a dozen eggs, a pound of butter or a bottle of milk.

As you can see, in this kit all of the pieces come pre-cut which makes for very quick assembly.

Here I have laid the pieces out so that I can get a better idea of the layout.

After sewing, the finished block.

And here we have the first three blocks for the quilt. They are such fun to stitch because they come together so quickly and I am beginning to enjoy the colours more, although they are still not really me.

How are you doing Chris? Are you keeping up? (my friend Chris is stitching this at the same time)

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Nice People, Nice Things # 6

I am still working on my Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) quilt. I try to do a little bit every day while watching TV.

Angels are like diamonds. They can't be made, you have to find them. Each one is unique.

-         Jaclyn Smith 

Looking at this reminded me of a couple of movies and TV shows about angels. Do you remember the 1980 movie called "Angel On My Shoulder". This was one that my sister and I really enjoyed. We both thought Peter Strauss was really cute.

What about the TV series, "Highway to Heaven" starring Michael Landon. We grew up watching him in "Bonanza" and "Little House On The Prarie". He was a very talented actor and director and it was so sad that he died at only 55. I will always remember his giggle.

And don't forget "Touched By An Angel" with the wonderful John Dye as Andrew (also gone at 47) and "City Of Angels" with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage.

Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'

-         Robin Williams

Spring was certainly in evidence today in Bendigo. We reached a temperature of 28 degrees celcius and it was glorious. When I got home I actually changed into a t-shirt and had the windows down in the car. It is a great time of year.

Talk again soon 

Jeanette

Garden Chic # 2

I  have been working on the second block from my Garden Chic quilt that I shared with you last Saturday. When I was visiting my friend Chris recently she purchased the same kits and now we will be able to work them together. This should be fun. A quilt-along with someone who is two hours away.

Here are the contents of the kit and as you can see block # 2 is an applique block. It has been a long time since I have done some applique. I even had to get a book out to remind me how to do blanket stitch.

 The completed block called "Tulip". I think it turned out quite well. It is quite large at 16 1/2 inches x 22 1/2 inches.

Two blocks down, ten to go. I forgot to mention that the first block is called "Checkerboard".

How are you coming along Chris? Are you having fun?

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Friendship

Chris and I met in 1991. Our husbands knew each other because they shared a passion in amateur herpetology (the study of reptiles). We hit it off because we shared a love of craft. She did ceramics, tapestry and crochet and I was mainly doing cross stitch then. I taught her how to do cross stitch and she learnt, or taught herself, how to do everything else.

She is a prolific crafter now: patchwork quilting, doll making, bear making, stitchery, cross stitch etc etc And she finishes everything. Well almost everything.We started doing a cross stitch Santa project at the same time back in the '90's. Funnily enough, neither of us has finished it yet. It quite often pops up in conversation when we get together "How is your Santa cross stitch coming along?" We then look at each other and laugh.

We have shared a lot together over the last twenty odd years. Our daughters were born one month apart and our sons were born four months apart. (She and my sister were my support people when my son was born.) Our marriages finished at about the same time too. There have been laughter and tears shared over the years but above all there has been friendship, support and love.

Pictured throughout this post are gifts that Chris has made for me over the years. Below is the present that she made me for my birthday this year.

And she also gave me this book which is wonderful. It has eleven quilting projects in it based on the gardens of the quilters profiled. Another love we share is of gardens, although Chris is the one who has the green thumb. I just appreciate everybody else's gardens. A great read and a great inspiration, just like Chris.

Now Chris, if you are reading this, and I know that you will be, you really need to start a blog of you own so that you can share all of the wonderful projects you have made and your stunning garden. Thank you for being my friend, through thick and thin.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

PS: I think the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me was something Chris has said:
"Jeanette I love that you never change. You are always the same." I think I like being the constant in someone's life.

Nice People, Nice Things # 5

Ready for the next instalment of Nice People, Nice Things.

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. ~Victor Borge

I think Victor Borge was a brilliantly talented man who never fails to make me smile. For more of his hilarity, and musical brilliance as well, look for more videos on Youtube.

This is the first block I will share with you today - Laughter

The saying stitched on the back of this block is:

Sit long, talk much, laugh often.

Here is the second block "Quilts". If you are here then you obviously enjoy this subject as much as I do. 

I keep my end tables full of needlework and quilting so I don't have to dust them.  

~Author Unknown

The saying stitched on the back of this block is:

Quilts made with love age with time but never lose their warmth.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

New project

I was shopping at the local Spotlight store recently and they were clearing out some things. They offer a Queen size quilt in twelve quilt block instalments with an additional instalment for the sashings and border. These normally retail at about $15 for each quilt block and I'm not sure about the finishing kit. I was lucky enough to get the quilt blocks at $6 each and the finishing kit for $30. So for a total cost of $102 I get to make a Queen size quilt top. Yay!!

The quilt is called "Garden Chic" and is in colours that I would not normally work with. I think it will make a nice gift for someone in the family though and will give me practice at piecing and applique. Here is block # 1.

The pieced blocks come ready cut so they go together quite quickly. The applique blocks require a bit more work because I will have to trace off the design onto Vliesofix before ironing, cutting, applying to the block and buttonholing in place.

I am looking forward to this coming together and I will keep you updated on my progress.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Nice People, Nice Things # 4

Hello and welcome back to Nice People, Nice Things (NPNT) Wednesday. The last time I posted something on this theme was in November 2011. Time has certainly flown or perhaps I am just slack. The truth is I did continue to stitch this project but because my camera broke I didn't get around to doing any posts. I stopped stitching in January 2012 and, to be honest, I didn't do much in the way of craft for the rest of 2012. I started stitching on NPNT again about 4 weeks ago and that is what has inspired me to commence my blog posts again.

I went searching the web to find out what the other ladies I was stitching this project with back in 2011 have been up to. I am sorry to say that nobody appears to have done much on this project either. Kelly last posted for this project in January 2012; Vickie was also January 2012; and Carol in November 2011. That's not to say that they have stopped stitching. I am sure that, like me, they have done more but just not posted about it.

If there is anyone out there who would like to join me in stitching the Nice People, Nice Things quilt by Helen Stubbings of Hugs 'n' Kisses then feel free to join me. I will be posting every Wednesday as long as I have access to a computer.

The first stitchery I will share is Pink Lemonade.

The stitchery quote that will be on the back of the quilt to match this is:

If life deals you a lemon - make lemonade.

The second stitchery is Peace.

And the stitchery quote on the back will read:

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Thank you again to Helen Stubbings for designing these lovely stitcheries. I hope you all enjoy viewing them as much as I do stitching them.

Talk again soon

Jeanette

Past project

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember, since the 80's, but most of my work has been given away as presents and I did not keep a photographic record or the photographs are buried in a box somewhere. Here is a project that I did for my father's birthday four years ago. It is a combination of counted cross stitch, patchwork and quilting. The cross stitch design is Australian gum blossoms and leaves; the border was a fabric from my stash with gum leaves. I thought this would be a good design for Dad because he now lives in Germany and it would remind him of Australia.