Pike River Mine Tragedy

The whole Country is mourning the loss of 29 Miners from Pike River Mine. We were all hoping for a miracle but it was not to be. 

If you haven't heard about it go here to read about it. Pike River Mine.

If you would like to do something to help, you can. Below is a letter from Shirley Goodwin who is co-ordinating the making of quilts for the Miners families. 

Dear quilting friends,

You may be aware that New Zealand has suffered a major mining disaster at Pike River mine on the west coast of the South Island, resulting in the deaths of 29 miners. Many of these miners had young families. One was soon to be a father. Like many New Zealanders, I am sharing the pain of the families of the miners. And like many, I have thought about what I could do to help.

I am part of Kiwiquilters, an email group for New Zealand quilters. We have a tradition, as do other quilting groups, of making Healing Hearts quilts for members and their families or friends who are suffering personal tragedy or serious illness. I have asked the group, and other quilting groups around the country, to contribute heart blocks to make into quilts for the miner’s families, and I will assemble and co-ordinate these.

Please consider making a block or several blocks for this cause. It doesn't matter that you don't know the people involved - neither do I. The love and support from strangers that is embodied in these quilts is something tangible that the families can get comfort from for years.

Shirley Goodwin

Here are the block details if you want to make some:-

- - Cream background – calico is fine

- - 6 ½” unfinished size (so they will be 6” finished)

- - Pieced or appliquéd heart or hearts

- - Any colours or patterns for the hearts. Some of the quilts will be for children, so children’s fabrics are fine too.

Send Blocks to:
Shirley Goodwin
51 Charles St
Rangiora 7400
New Zealand

She is also happy to receive any quilt tops or completed quilts too, so check out Shirley's Blog as she is updating it with more details all the time.

PS: I think its nice to sign the blocks with a name and town (country if not from NZ) so the families can see people from all over the country & world are thinking of them.

Charity Block for December Meeting

The block to make this month is a Diamond in a Square. Make as many as you like and bring to the Xmas Meeting.

Cut a 6-7/8 (six and seven eighths) inch square in a dark blue fabric. And cut two, 5-1/2 (five and a half) inch squares in light blue.

Cut the light blue squares in half on the diagonal.

I laid two of the light blue triangles on opposite sides of the dark blue square, right sides together. (To get them in the right place I folded them in half and finger pressed them to find the centres, then pinned them together on that finger pressed mark).

Then I sewed down the long side of both light blue triangles.

NB: The light blue triangles will hang over the end on the dark blue square. (see photo above)

Okay if you didn't understand that ramble, I hope you can see what happened in the photo above. After I have sewn the two triangles onto the square, I have folded them back and finger pressed the seams. (seam is pressed towards the light fabric)

Then I find my centres again on the other sides of the dark square, and the centres of the long sides of the last two light blue triangles. I put a pin through the centres, and sewed these last two seams.

Then I folded back the triangles and pressed the finished block. Don't trim your blocks, in case they need any tweaking later when we put the charity quilts together.

This is the 'plan' for the blocks you are making. We're going to put them together with the nine patch blocks we made in October.

November Meeting 2010

Ok there was a lot of show n tell at the meeting so lets get straight into it.

Rikki Going's Ngaruru group had a sewing day with Otamatea Quilters, and they produced this log cabin top. They decided to donate it to Elaine Healey who finished it, and donated it Starship. Well done everyone great team effort.

Rikki also donated this top to Elaine, she added borders and polar fleece backing. It's off to Starship Children's Hospital too.

Elaine Healey got busy again for Starship. She made this with remnants and donated nine patch blocks from Relda Haigh.

Helen Barron said 'I have had 4 pinwheel blocks for years not knowing what to do with them. I had a sudden inspiration and made this quilt mostly from my stash.' This quilt is going to Christchurch for 'Quilts for kids, for Christmas'.

This fabric covered box and album was made by Rose Silvestor to keep photos and information of the projects she has made.

Sue Farrier made this cover for the rubbish bag holder on her campervan. It has dog paws quilted on the bottom too.

Rose Silvestor made this cushion using paper foundation piecing. I love the little dog in the centre.

I thought this was a handbag, I picked it up and was surprised how heavy it is. That's because it's a Door Stop! Hazel Phillips bought the kit last weekend at Calico Christmas and whipped it up for show n tell !

Maureen Jackson made this bag using Kiwiana fabric.

Petra Pilkington made this Christmas Stocking for her Godson. It will be his first Christmas. The bells on this stocking made the most wonderful sound like sleigh bells.

'John Dory' by Gaye Miller. It was inspired by an article in Quilting Arts magazine. It's made using freehand cut pieces, held in place with basting spray, then machine quilted. The only seam is the binding.

Carol Mayes bought this panel on a trip around Australia last year. She decided to make it into a bag as a nice reminder of her trip.

Marie Finnegan is getting ready for Christmas, she made this table runner at The Country Yard.

Barbara Storey won this kit donated by 'The Country Yard' in the raffles last month, and she has made it up already! It is her first attempt at machine quilting and binding. Well done Barbara it looks great.

This gorgeous bag was made by Carol Mayes. Carol said,"I saw this picture in a magazine & thought it was cute. I call it 'My Favourite Things'. "

Carmel Spray made this at a Robyn Burgess Class and has mounted it on a canvas board.

This is a scrap quilt made by Maureen Gray, it's backed with polar fleece and Maureen says 'finished at last!' We all know that good feeling when another UFO bites the dust.

Margaret O'Leary is making this for her granddaughters 21st Birthday. Margaret was inspired by Sandy Robinson's quilt she made for her son's 21st. Sue Farrier printed out the photos for Margaret. I'm sure Margaret's granddaughter she will treasure it.

Petra Pilkington has made this for a little girl called Caitlin. I'm sure she will love it. Petra has quilted it with designs by Leah Day.

And here's Nora Ellison-White our guest speaker. Nora spoke about her trips to Noumea.

Christmas Party at Spotlight

Last night I went to my local Spotlight store for their Christmas Party. (Spotlight is a craft/home decor chain store, in Australia & New Zealand) The staff dressed up, there was cake, a lucky draw for a sewing machine, demonstrations, xmas music, and specials. 

An Elf and Santa, happily posed for me.

This lady doing the cake decorating made it look easy! 

This staff member is knitting a beaded purse. She was using the finest knitting needles I have ever seen. You have to thread all the beads onto the thread first, before you knit these little bags. Here's what they look like finished.

This was my favourite costume of the night. Just check out the note she had pinned to her rear. (Click on the photo to enlarge it. The writing not the rear!) 

 

And this is my bargain of the night. All the DMC threads where only 79 cents each. So I got some rayons, variegated, and metallics. They are usually between $2-$4 each so I was very pleased.  

Bramble Cottage's Show

Last Sunday I went to Bramble Cottage's Show. Bramble Cottage is a quilt shop here in Whangarei, they do a lot of classes and each year have a show of customers work. 

This little wall hanging 'Funky Houses' caught my eye. It was made by Alison McRae

This lovely big bed quilt is called 'Black Opal' what a cool name! It's made by Jan Bartleet and quilted by John Neilsen of the 'Quilt Fairies'

Paula Hatley made this one it's called 'My Aotearoa'. 

Here's a close up so you can see it's made with New Zealand prints.

This is Sabine Muller's first quilt. Samplers are a great way to learn a lot of different techniques. Sabine also machine quilted this herself. Well done and welcome to the addiction/obsession of quilting!

Caroline Dunn made this bag as a birthday gift for her friend Paula. 

The small hexagons in a diamond shape is a 'Work in Progress'. Rose Silvester is making a king single bed quilt from them. She said it's not something done quickly! The small hexagons are about an inch across, and are english paper pieced.

Here's a couple of wide photo's of the show. 

It's a small show but well worth going to, I had a lovely time talking to the ladies, and found it quite hard to pick my viewers choice. In the end I went with Paula Hatley's 'My Aotearoa' (left in the photo above) as it was very graphic and the black made all the NZ prints glow.

The Other Life!

Someone asked me the other day if I do anything other than quilting and the blog! Yes I do have another life! Since there seems to be doubts out there, I thought I'd show you what else has been going on. 

Number one Son who has just turned 20, has landed a cool job in Sydney Australia for the University holidays. He leaves next week. Very proud of him and happy about job, but I will miss him. This will be our first Christmas without him. Here's some photo's of where he's going.

This is the cafeteria, it's free for employees, so I know he will be fed! 

People at work, nice view out the window, the office is on the habour. Have you guessed where yet?

Okay this photo should give it away!

And see I have been addicted to something else longer than I've been to quilting! I have been married to Stephen now for 21 years! Gee I'm getting old.

Maybe this is why I'm still married? This is what Stephen did when he had some free time on a business trip to Wellington last week. He found this fabric shop and bought....

...these fabrics. What a sweety, he rang me and asked what I wanted, I said some neutrals. If you look hard there is one cream neutral in the centre. He said he thought the others were more interesting! You got to love them... I really like the butterflies.    :-)