Bound

The builder and plumber turned up this morning and of course the builder decided that the leaking pipe is not a warranty issue. Of course!

I stayed out of it, sitting inside stitching binding on my temperature quilt. And here it is!

The plumber will be back tomorrow to actually fix the pipe. And hopefully that will be the end of the turning the pump on and off every time you want water.

Decisions

I've finished quilting my temperature year quilt. Hooray!

Now for the binding:

I had planned to use the one on the right, with a full rainbow of stripes. But I have some left-over strips from the binding on my Bloom quilt (which I just realised I haven't photographed yet). That's it on the left. It is mainly aqua with touches of green, yellow, and blue. And now I think I like it better than the stripy fabric. The stripes look a bit harsh to me now.

Which one would you choose?

Quilting Progress

Lots of back and forward squiggling going on here:

I've quilted about half of the background between the hexie rosettes.

More Basting

Today was the temperature quilt's turn to be sandwiched:

It is much smaller than the last one, so hopefully will be quickly quilted.

Just over 3 weeks to the quilt show...

Temperature Top

The third quilt top completed in four days, and another dash out to the clothesline between wind and rain to get a photo.

The real colours are probably somewhere between the slightly bleached out version above, and the shadowed one below.

Now I really have to start doing some quilting.

Progress

Yesterday I finished assembling my cut-down "Sew Many Strips" quilt, but I didn't get the chance to photograph it until this afternoon. I dashed out between the wind and rain squalls and managed to get this shot:

Today was a sewing day with a few friends. I took along my Bloom with a couple of border fabric options, and we spread them out to see how they looked. Once I'd seen the options it was obvious what I needed to do, so I hope to have the borders on that quilt very soon.

The heading for my temperature quilt, which I started over a month ago, is just missing one "Lal" after today's sewing:

Hard to see the details in this poor lighting, but I think it will be more readable on the actual quilt.

Heading

At Sit and Sew today I got the heading traced for my temperature quilt:

First letter stitched:

By the end of the day:

I think this will keep me busy for a few sit and sew days.

Temperature Quilt

On Monday it will be two years since I started my temperature quilt, and next Saturday it will be a year since I got to the end of it. So it is about time I made the finishing touches.

I started this earlier this week, and finished it today:

This is the block that explains how the days make up each weekly rosette. It makes sense to me but a few people have found my anticlockwise arrangement strange.

Here's the final block sewn into the quilt:

Next step is the "heading" border across the top.

Temperature Scale

At a sit and sew day today I started stitching the temperature scale for my year quilt:

And then surprised myself by getting the whole thing stitched. So when I got home I sewed it into the quilt:

I'm a beginner at embroidery. I was feeling a bit discouraged by my wonky stitching, but I think it looks good enough from a distance.

Linked to Sarah's weekly weather report for old time's sake!

Also when I got home I discovered we had a different duck:

Apparently one of the original ducks turned out to be a drake, so he's been swapped out for the little black duck in the background. Sorry about the bad photo, but it gets dark early these days. This was about 4:40 and it was already too dark to take a photo without the flash.

A Year at a Glance

Here is 53 weeks of top temperatures:

A reminder of the colour scheme, with the counts of days:
   45.1 and over     black             0, fortunately!
   40.1 - 45             purple           2
   35.1 - 40             magenta        5
   30.1 - 35             red              24
   25.1 - 30             orange        59
   20.1 - 25             yellow         65
   15.1 - 20             green          54
   10.1 - 15             aqua/teal   123
    5.1 - 10              blue             38
    5 and below       pale blue      0, also fortunately.

One of these counts is wrong because I am missing one day somewhere, and I don't feel like going and counting them all again right at the moment. But it is accurate enough for you to see that one third of my year was in the aqua/teal range!

The bottom corner will have an explanation of how the days are arranged in each hexie, the temperature chart in the top left needs some numbers, and there will be a top border saying something like, "Daily top temperatures at Lal Lal 27/5/2017 to 1/6/2018".

I will link this to Sarah's Weather Report post later in the week.

Here's the link-up.

Last Stitch

Well the last stitch joining hexagons together:

After this I did appliqué this rosette down, completing the final week of my year quilt. But due to circumstances beyond my control I didn't get photos of that, or complete the assembly of the rows of the quilt, which was my plan for this afternoon. That will have to wait.

Week Fifty-Three

This is it! The final temperature rosette:

Not at all sewn together yet; that will happen at a sit and sew day tomorrow. Here's this week's temperatures:

1/06/2018      13.7    aqua/teal
31/05/2018    10.9    aqua/teal
30/05/2018    11.6    aqua/teal
29/05/2018    12.2    aqua/teal
28/05/2018    16.8    green
27/05/2018    16.6    green
26/05/2018    17.3    green

I was wrong two weeks ago when I thought I'd seen the last of green. The 365th day of the year, which would have been missed if I had stopped at 52 weeks, was a green day. Now that June has arrived, I don't mind wintry weather.

The quilt top is not complete, as I am planning a couple of explanatory sections around the edges.

Linked to Sarah's weekly weather report., where Sarah is getting ready to start another year, Pamela has already started her second year, and Sharon has about 3 weeks to go on her year.

How I spent the first day of winter:

Enjoying the sun at Ballarat Wildlife Park! Sunbathing meercat above, Tasmanian devil below:

Common wombat:

Koala:

People I don't know feeding kangaroos:

I fed kangaroos too, but I couldn't photograph myself doing it. The kangaroos are a different species to the ones we see around here (like yesterday). These are Kangaroo Island kangaroos from South Australia.

Week Fifty-Two

Can you believe it?

The 52nd week of my year quilt. And every day was aqua:


25/05/2018    13.8    aqua/teal
24/05/2018    11.5    aqua/teal
23/05/2018    10.3    aqua/teal
22/05/2018    11.9    aqua/teal
21/05/2018    11.6    aqua/teal
20/05/2018    12.8    aqua/teal
19/05/2018    11.1    aqua/teal

This is the third time in the year where I've had a whole week all the same colour. Week 3, week 9, and now week 52 were full weeks of aqua!

You might think that this would be the last week of the year quilt. But if I stop now, the year would have no 26th May. So I am going to do one more week, which will cover a whole year plus 6 days, and take me up to the official first day of winter.  

Linked to Sarah's weekly Weather Report here. Now Sarah has her complete year together as well. Go and check it out!

Amitié

Today a group of quilting friends took a trip down to Torquay to visit Jen Kingwell's shop, Amitié.

We sat and sewed, ate lunch from the in-store café, and probably all splashed a bit of cash on lovely fabrics and patterns.

The very high ceiling means there is plenty of room to display quilts above the stock shelves:

See the quilt up above the Featherweight? I photographed that because of a design idea I've had in one of my sketchbooks for ever. I based it on the robe Katharine Hepburn is wearing in this scene in Adam's Rib:

Trailer screenshot uploaded by Lobo512 at en.wikipedia - Adam's Rib trailer, as featured on the DVD, Public Domain, Link

One day it will get made maybe!

There is lots of room between the shelves, too. The fabrics are all arranged by colour:

What I didn't photograph are the little baskets of 1/16ths scattered around between the shelves. They're ideal for if you just need a touch of something. For example, the background I've used in this week's temperature rosette came from one, as did today's hexie:

This is week 51. So close to the end. Here are the temperatures:

18/05/2018    13.1    aqua/teal
17/05/2018    10.3    aqua/teal
16/05/2018      9.3    blue
15/05/2018      9.8    blue
14/05/2018    14.3    aqua/teal
13/05/2018    11.2    aqua/teal
12/05/2018    11.3    aqua/teal

It really feels like winter has arrived. I know last year in the week before I started this quilt there were three "green" days - ie temperatures between 15 and 20C. But this year it seems green is gone.

Linked to Sarah's weekly Weather Report here.

Blue Returns

This is week 50 of my temperature-based year quit:

You will notice there are no warm colours this week. Perhaps we have seen the last of yellow.  And then yesterday was our first "blue" day since week 15 (the 8th of September to be precise). We are definitely heading for winter.

This week's temperatures:
11/05/2018    8.9    blue
10/05/2018    8.4    blue
9/05/2018    14.3    aqua/teal
8/05/2018    16.3    green
7/05/2018    15.9    green
6/05/2018    18.6    green
5/05/2018    17.2    green

I used the same fabric for both yesterday and today, which I wouldn't normally do. I've been trying to keep repeat fabrics well separated in the quilt. But we have had rain. The umbrella seemed appropriate for yesterday, and then today it has rained non-stop so I couldn't resist using those gumboots as well. Since it started raining yesterday we have had 35.8mm. Our water tank has gone up from 65% full to nearly 90%. It is wonderful to get so much, although I feel sorry for the people of Hobart who have been flooded by 129mm in the same period.

The alert reader may notice that this background fabric is the same as last week. In fact I changed my mind about last week's background as I was assembling it. You can see the actual fabric I used in this photo of the last three weeks:

Linked to Sarah's weekly Weather Report. The project is drawing to a close. Sarah has only one week to go. Pamela in Japan has completed the whole year. I am planning another 3 weeks, to take me up to the official first day of winter.

Week 49

Another week that hasn't been sewn together yet:

I've been busy quilting charity quilts this week, but I will have to take some time off from them and do some hand-sewing to catch up with my year quilt.

Here's this week's temperatures:

4/05/2018      12.4     aqua/teal
3/05/2018      20.2     yellow
2/05/2018      19.7     green
1/05/2018      20.9     yellow
30/04/2018    21.1     yellow
29/04/2018    16.2     green
28/04/2018    19.2     green

We got some very welcome rain overnight and today, so I don't mind that today was aqua.

Linked to Sarah's weekly Weather Report.

Last Row Begins

I think it is a while since I showed my full year quilt rather than just the weekly rosette. The completion of the 7th row is a good time to rectify that:

Forty-seven weeks of weather. It is interesting seeing how the colours have changed through the year. Our winter temperatures were much more stable than the rest of the year. Summer highs in particular bounced up and down over a very wide range of temperatures.

And here is week 48, which is the beginning of the final row:

Not stitched together at all yet!

Here are the temperatures that determined the colours of each hexagon:

27/04/2018    15.6    green
26/04/2018    16.3    green
25/04/2018    20.1    yellow
24/04/2018    22.3    yellow
23/04/2018    26.3    orange  - probably the last appearance of orange.
22/04/2018    22.8    yellow
21/04/2018    24.3    yellow

My ginkgo is now almost completely yellow, and glows in the sun against the dark tree-trunks behind it:

My wind-flowers have started opening. This pink one is surprising - I wasn't expecting so many petals, or the shape of the petals:

I also have a white one, (thanks, Jeanette) which is just starting to develop buds.

Speaking of buds:

It looks like the tree dahlia could have flowers this year! That's the first time since we moved here. Grown from a cutting from the city garden, it has grown taller each year. I hope these buds get a chance to open before we get a frost.


Linked to Sarah's weekly Weather Report.

Week Forty-Seven

This week started with a taste of what is to come (Saturday was cold and wintry), but ended with beautiful sunny days:

20/04/2018    23.3    yellow
19/04/2018    22.3    yellow
18/04/2018    20.9    yellow
17/04/2018    13.9    aqua/teal
16/04/2018    17.4    green
15/04/2018    13.3    aqua/teal
14/04/2018    10.6    aqua/teal - brrrr!

Days like the last few are why autumn is my favourite time of year. Cool evenings and mornings, and beautiful days of warm but not hot sunshine.

Instead of photos from my garden this week, here are a couple from the garden of a friend I visited today for a sewing day:

Strong contrast between the bright sunshine and the shaded parts of the garden. Her house does have a roof, it is bleached out of the photo by the intense light. The sky was really a beautiful clear blue.

Perhaps we should have sat out here for our sewing!

Linked to Sarah's weekly weather report. Sarah is not enjoying her weather much at the moment.

Summer's Last Gasp?

This was a week of summer temperatures. Looking at the weather forecast I thought we might even have a red day or two.

Red like the leaves on one of the crepe myrtles:

Or the red starting to appear on the liquidambar:

As it was, we got within one degree of a red hexie, but had to be content with a bunch of orange.

Orange like this abutilon flower:

 Or like this Echeveria "Topsy Turvy" flower:

By the end of the week the temperatures had fallen back to yellow.

Yellow like the leaves of my ginkgo glowing against the grey of the bush:

Or the heart-shaped leaves on my redbud, Cercis canadensis:

So here is week forty-six of my temperature-based year quilt:

(Only half sewn together, which is why that piece of thread is visible. Sorry if it is driving you nuts wanting to pick it off!)


And here are our temperatures:

13/04/2018    20.5    yellow
12/04/2018    24.6    yellow
11/04/2018    29.3    orange
10/04/2018    28.7    orange
9/04/2018      25.6    orange
8/04/2018      28.1    orange
7/04/2018      23.8    yellow

I don't think the weather will be this warm again before my year quilt is finished. It's probably good-bye to summer, as the forecast for the week ahead is all green and aqua.

Linked to Sarah's weekly weather report.