Saturday, October 7, 2023

Weight of Love, Sunflowers, and the Beginning of a Hat.

 Late last week, I picked up my Weight of Love quilt from my local long armer, Julie. My goal for the week was to have it bound in time to bring it to the Oxford Quilter's Guild meeting on Thursday for show and tell. I finished the hand stitching on Thursday morning.  Yahoo!  


The backing fabric was in my stash. There are a few strips in my gray scrap bin from trimming the quilt. 


Several years ago, I attended a quilt show featuring quilts from New Zealand.  I purchased some New Zealand fat quarters and used them in this quilt as well as other fabrics from my stash.  I don't know much about the flora and fauna of New Zealand so if anyone can tell me about any of these birds and plants, please do so in the comments!





Here are some examples of the different quilting patterns that Julie used. I wanted the hexagons to continue into the background fabric--you can see that in the pictures below of me holding the quilt. 




I took a class from Libs Elliott in November of 2019 and started this quilt then. During the class, we learned how to do Y seams.  Now I just need to add a hanging sleeve and put this on display in my house!





I am just about done this 3rd quadrant of my Sunflowers cross stitch.  I have added a few stitches in the fourth quadrant to use up the thread on my needle.  I hope to do some more cross stitching tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching. 


I started knitting the ribbing on my hat this week.  I try to do at least a couple of rows each day. 


We have had some beautiful warm days this past week (a cold front moved in last night so it is much cooler today), so my husband and I went to a local provincial park to go bike riding one day this past week. There was only a touch of fall colour here and there.  


My daughter made herself a strawberry and peach smoothie this week.  When she turned her back to take a call, Finn helped himself to a taste!  He liked it!


Finn was sun beaming during one of our Face Time calls this week. 


Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers in the morning. 

13 comments:

  1. Well done the quilt is fabulous, the New Zealand fabrics are so pretty, your cross stitch is beautiful, lovely vibrant colours. Have a great Sunday.

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  2. Love the quilting on your latest finish. That looks a great place for a cycle ride. Finn looks very happy with himself!

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving! Your quilt is so pretty. I love the variety of fabrics. I like that the background fabric is quilted hexagons.

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  4. Your sunflower piece is so cheerful!

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving, Gail! Your quilt turned out beautifully! I love the fun New Zealand prints and the hexagon quilting is a brilliant idea. Looks like a beautiful day for a bike ride, and adorable Finn always makes my day!

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  6. Beautiful finish of a gorgeous quilt! Love those New Zealand fabrics, and love the sunflower piece. Finn is his usual adorable self. Who could blame him for wanting a taste of the peach smoothie! Happy Thanksgiving!

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  7. Lovely NZ fabrics - the stylized red flowers are those of the pohutokawa tree, known as the New Zealand Christmas tree as it flowers over Summer. And you have a couple of fabrics showing the pretty golden yellow kowhai blossoms, our tree here is in the last stage of blossom, the wind has taken most of the off to litter the ground. The lovely black bird is a tui which sips on the nectar of the kowhai blossoms.

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  8. PS. The blue bird is a long legged pukeko, not known for their road sense and often come off second best with cars.

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  9. Hi Gail, what a magnificent finish. Thanks for showing those lovely fabrics and quilting lines close up. Just goes together so wonderfully. YOur Sunflower is moving right along as were you bikers. Yes, we too had a nice run of great weather but quite cold and wet today. Oh, just saw Jenny has explained some of the flora and birds there...neat!

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  10. Congratulations on the finish, it's a beautiful quilt. I love how the hexies are quilted on the background too. Well done on finishing the binding right in time for the Show and tell!
    Thank you for sharing your pretty quilt, and linking up.

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  11. Beautiful quilt. In the black hexagon you have a pukeko bird, with long red legs and a kereru or pigeon to the left of the hexie. The white hexie with red flowers has a tui bird and the red flower is pohutukawa or NZ Christmas tree. The next hexie is the tui bird again and the Kowhai (Pronounce korfeye), the black hexie with yellow flowers is more kowhai. The way you have quilted the hexagons is beautiful.

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