Still quilting the front of my mens tie gusset bag, have added a few photo’s of it and by next week should be able to show you the next stage.
I left my home around 7am this morning, cloudy and drizzly but much warmer than it has been for the last two weeks.
When I arrived at the beach the sun was peeping throughout the clouds then disappearing but it was so warm about 25C.
When we left an hour later it was becoming very somber moody and beautiful. There were no swimmers this morning.
My friends front garden, no rain-forest trees but lots of tropical palms.
We all had a fruit breakfast together which was so nice.
One of the nice things about living here we have fresh fruit all year round.
Sunbirds nest they are small like a humming bird and like to build their nests in peoples porches where it is safe there are babies in there now.
I had many quilters ask several questions this week about the tiny log cabin blocks I made for my Mens Tie bag. You all asked so many different question I have decided to show you how with some photo and as I work on the bag I will keep you up dated. I showed how to make them a few years ago. It started with some left over log cabins about 15 years ago, some were off cuts and some whole and I just jumbled them on to a piece of fabric stitched them down and cut the shape, I still use this shape for some reason I just like it.
I bought these fabrics about 8 years ago and have been using them only for my bags since, I mostly make my centre with a bright yellow and this seems to make all the other fabrics glow. I cut these fabrics up in to 1′ strips and keep them in a small bag ready to grab when I go out.
This bag is only about 9″ by 6′ has a good gusset and can carry a lot of strips, a thimble, pair of scissors and some needles. So it does not matter how long I have to wait any where time goes quickly with this little pile of fabric to play with. In the middle of the photo you can see a tiny block developing. I sew these with a running stitch and do a wee backstitch now and then, I don’t mark the seams as they don’t have to be perfectly even as they are scattered randomly and on top of each other not sewn in to strips. I do try to remember to make light and dark blocks but some times I just forget as I get carried away sewing.
You can see in this photo the wee blocks are just scattered an over lapped. I try to put the light ones in the centre and the darker ones on the edges. I cut out my lining usually using a lovely piece of 100% cotton or silk then cut out a piece of batting, lay the two together and place the log cabins on the wadding, I then tack them in to place now I can carry this around with me and quilt the wee logs when ever I want too.
Close up of those wee logs been quilted, it is not necessary to quilt around each one but this bag will never wear out LOL and I find quilting so relaxing I get carried away on these tiny projects.
Start of a Healing Heart, found that the back cream fabric was to small so I will have to pick another piece. My hearts are drawn on to washaway freezer paper and I will leave it in.
Not really happy with the back ground fabric it looks a little dark???? It is meant to be a light beige!!!!! Stiched the hearts to the background fabric cut away the fabric behind the hearts and now do blanket stitch around each heart.
My little healing Heart block finished. It is bigger than 6 1/2 ” but I will let the recipient cut it to size when required.
Some times you see some thing beautiful in the strangest places.
I parked the car and there in front of me was this stunning tree with it’s leaves changing.
SO I drove around and took a close up of it in all its beauty
Sorry those of you who like the wild life nothing to share today LOL
I’m off to link with Esther now on her WOW or WIP’s.
Thanks for dropping in. Cheers Glenda
Dear Glenda
Thank you for sharing your Log Cabin blocks. I love your yellow centers, always try to use happy warm colours for the start. The tree is beautiful. Nature and the random beauty that pops up out of nowhere always make me stop and stand in awe of creation all around us. Is sunbirds as bossy as hummingbirds? The hummingbird wants the garden all to himself. He will fly in, turn ninety degrees, give me the look and basically hover, as if to say: shoo! If we stay in the garden he goes off and until we come back inside. He comes back the minute we go inside. It is okay then, we can watch, the minute we go outside again, it is a repeat of this. He sits in the tree watching us.
The embroidery on your Healing Hearts is a nice touch. I made some, did not trim them to size. Glad to know you did the same.
Maggie
Hi Maggie, no the Sunbird likes to share the garden with you, they look at us as their guards and fell very safe around us, they will fly with in inches of you when feeding their young, they partner for life so each year we wait anxiously for them to return to see if they are still a pair when we first hear their call. If one nests in your garden you go out of your way to protect the nests through out the year when they are away. Ours has nested on the string on the end of a cover that is meant to be in the boot of my car; it was hanging in the roof of our carport one year when they came looking to nest!!!, it is no longer mine now LOL. If a cyclone warning comes in we take the cover down and bring it inside till the danger is past and it goes back up in to the carport!!!!! We have a lot of native birds here but none of them interact with us like these wee birds do. It’s 11.30pm I must go to bed. Hugs from Kuranda in the wet tropical rainforest.
love those log cabin blocks they are so pretty. It looks like you had a nice day even though it was cloudy, the photos are all lovely – must be nice to have fresh fruit available all the time, you must not pay for it near what we all do here – and some of you can just go pick it off the trees 🙂 I hear from one lady in Arizona in our southwest and she has lemon and lime trees and just goes outside and picks it when she wants one.
Hi Karen, yes we have lemons, Mandarins, passionfruit, guavas, bananas, (bananas and grapefruit we pay $1.00 for 5!!! on the side of the road) cherries, dragon fruit, sapoties, and a few others in our orchard in front of the house, but we are also surrounded by commercial fruit growers, from Bananas, pineapple, avocados, citrus fruit of many kinds and many tropical fruits from South America, we are only 40 mins from a large vegetable growing area also, so we are very spoilt having this endless supply of fruit and vegs. I even have a friend who collects honey from hives they use in the commercial orchards and have that every morning on my cereal. Its a very healthy place to live food wise. Hugs from Paradise LOL.