Crazy Block Class

Well this time I remembered to take some photos of the class.
Some photos are taken with my camera and then my cell phone when my backup batteries were dead!
Also thanks to Donna who let me use her camera in case my cell phone photos didn't come out.
It was the first time I had used my cell phone for photos and they didn't come out too bad so that's a good save next time my cameras batteries die.    ;-)
I really enjoyed tutoring so hopefully I'll get to do it again.
Here are a few photos I took of my students work.

We did some Silk Ribbon Embroidery.

We practiced Bullion stitches.

 made some Iris's

Aren't these Spider Web Roses beautiful?

Love that curved blanket stitch it adds a lot of movement to this block, and the ribbon flowers look great.

Silk Ribbon flowers and Buds

Donna's concentrating hard, I don't think she knew I took her photo!

Tric bought her own magnifying glass / light to class and we were all jealous

Here's Lynne as well as doing the class, Lynne looked after us all by setting up the tables, sorting the tea breaks and cleaning up. Thanks from all of us Lynne, we all appreciate the hard work you put into organising classes for the club.

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the second half of the Crazy Block class I have been teaching. I'm really looking forward to it and hope it goes well. When I taught the first class I was so busy I forgot to that some photos! Not like me at all.
I will try and do better tomorrow. Lucky Marie took a few photos last time so here's a little montage of them.

Here we are discussing stitches and I'm demo-ing some. Hope that's interest on their faces!

Sun Rise and Milton

I thought I would share these photos I took just after sun rise the other day. The colours were glorious, not sure if it's because of volcanic ash (from Chile) or not, but I have been enjoying them anyway. 

from my deck over looking Whangarei 

from the kitchen window looking over the banana palms

As it was a 'red sky in the morning' day, I thought it might get stormy but it didn't.

OK I promised some photos of Milton in the last post, so here they are. Milton comes from Morrinsville, so it  is quite a drive up to Whangarei, but lucky for us he doesn't mind.

To bring all his batiks he has an enormous trailer.

You can see we had plenty of colours to pick from.

It was much easier packing up as there was only half the fabric to go back, the rest of the fabric is hiding in stashes around Northland now  :-)

Show & Tell, June 2011

Club meeting was yesterday. It was a great day, we had Milton Wright visiting as a merchant, he also judged our small challenge. More on that on another post. But for now here's the Show n Tell from yesterday. There was a lot and I think I may have missed a few, so sorry if it was yours. A great variety and a lot of finished items from workshops, looks like no-one wants UFOs! Enjoy the eye candy.

'Purple Colourwash' by Tess Harris adapted from a design
by Deanna Springola (Water Colour  Magic)

'Seahorse' by new member Dorothy Terpstra. Dorothy made this in a workshop
with Sally Smith at the Warkworth Quilters, using a 10 degree ruler. 

Both of these poppy wallhangings where made in a class taught by Australian tutor Caroline Sharkey at Bernina recently. 

The blue background Poppies were made by Dawn Dalhberg and the other is by Helen Poot.

Dawn really enjoyed the class and found Caroline to be a great tutor. Helen enjoyed it too and especially loved the 'pizza way of making fabric'. 

This quilt top made by Helen Poot was designed by her 13 year old grandson Sam.  

She said on her note, that she hopes to have it quilted within the next 2 weeks. When asked why (thinking it was going to be his birthday) Helen said 'If I don't put a deadline on it, it won't happen!'

Donna Rowan made this cushion using a Pohutakawa Wreath pattern from NZ Quilter. 

She said to was intended as a gift but missed the deadline by a few years!

Charity Blocks made by club members, put together by Margaret Read.

'Japanese Triptych' by Carmel Spray, ideas and patterns from the book
Japanese Quilt Blocks by Susan Briscoe. 

Poppy Quilt made by Sue Farrier from an Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine Pattern.
Really lovely embroidery on this quilt too

'Typical Northland Coast' by Lynne O'Donnell. Started at the Remarkables Symposium. Made with handmade felt and hand dyed silk. There's also real lichen on there too!

Several club members recently took a class with Lyn King on 'Flower Pounding'. 

They bought their work to share with us. Sorry I didn't get photos of them all, these where all made by Jane Robinson (except the finished one in the top left hand corner, let me know if you know who made that one and I will update this post)   Lynne O'Donnell just emailed, the finished flowers are hers! 

Close up of one of Jane's flowers. The flowers where 'pounded' into fabric using small hammers.
The colours come from the flowers and leaves themselves.

Then the flowers/leaves were outlined using a pigma pen. This really brings them to life.

Beryl McDowell made this quilt for her grand daughter Nicole's 2nd Birthday.
Everyone loved the large rainbow rickrack. 

'Autumn Leaves' table runner made by Terri Mills.
It was started in a drunkards path workshop taught by Kerry Glen. 

'Trellis Cascade' by Robin Halverson. Robin said  'This is my  of Karen Broderson's workshop sample. All fabric hand dyed, or painted. Flowers are made using wash away, leaves are silk.'

Made by Sue Gillard. Sue said 'This Sunflower panel morphed into a cushion cover,
a birthday gift for my sister-in-law in Auckland. 

'Gulls' by Shirley Julian created in Barbara Weeks class at Symposium.
Felting and silk painting.

Framed Pukeko's by Sonya Prchal. Sonya said she painted these a few years ago and decided to was time they were made into a wallhanging.

This beautiful workbag and bead covered tape measure where made by Joan (a visitor from Christchurch). On her show and tell label she said the they where made under 'Shakey' circumstances. I hope you are enjoying your stay here in Northland, and having a nice break from earthquakes.

Made by Elaine Healey from a Handmade Magazine for the best reason- just because Elaine liked it!

Busy Busy Busy.....

... not much to show for it! Sorry still not a lot of sewing going on as other areas of my life are busy at the moment.
Still doing heaps to sort out my Library at work, seems never ending, making signs and labels, and will have to re-catalogue some books, but that is boring to you all I know, but I'm lucky to enjoy my paid work so is interesting to me!
Also I have taken on a part time job, helping with a website so I don't seem to have much free time at the moment. But you know what? When you haven't time to sew, that's when you get all these great ideas, now I need to start planning some so they actually happen.

On the sewing front I taught a Crazy Patch class last weekend and it seemed to go well. I was so busy with that I forgot to take photos of it all to share with you! Hopefully people will bring what they have done to the next club meeting to share. I really enjoyed teaching the class, ( has been several years since the last time I taught some patchwork) so hopefully I'll get to do more of that.

Now so you have some eye candy to look at, check out this cool handbag.

The square sequins are actually solar panels, so you can charge your phone and laptop on the go! I love it. 

Great how they have made an attractive feature of the solar panels. 

Read more about it here.