Design Floor

This is my 'Design Floor' where I place out block's to see if they are coming together as I hope. I'd love a design wall instead but make do with the floor. Oscar the Cat is very good and doesn't 'play' with my blocks, but he sometimes sits on them. There he is slinky outside to the deck this morning.

  

I put these blocks on the floor late last night, and when I got up this morning I laughed as my Husband is learning. What I mean by this is he only opened the door a little bit for Oscar.

The last time I used the design floor I spent hours moving blocks about till I was happy, then I went outside to get the washing in. Well while I was doing that Hubby came along and decided to open the door wide on a very windy day.....You can imagine what happened!

Lets just say I couldn't talk for a few minutes when I found about 200 squares of fabric blown all around the lounge. When I could talk it was through gritted teeth :-(
Hence Hubby is learning as the door is only opened a little! (also it's not windy today).

These blocks are my Sparkle Punch blocks I was working on during the retreat last weekend. The quilt was designed by Elizabeth Hartman of  Oh Fransson! Blog. She has a lot of interesting quilts on her blog so go and have a look.

Retreat at St Francis

A small group from club had a great weekend at Saint Francis Retreat Centre in Auckland.
A lot of sewing, laughing, and eating (without having to cook!) was done. Here's a few photos from the weekend.

Donna stopped sewing long enough for this photo to be taken. She is making an Orca Bay Quilt. 

Fiona & Me

It was really nice not having to cook all weekend. A bell was rung at mealtimes and all we had to do was walk to the dinning room and eat. And it was really nice food too.

I think this is Dinner on Saturday Night. It was so great to not have to cook . 
The dessert was to die for but  we couldn't get the recipe out of the Cook :-( 

Lunch on Sunday (Jane's being Mum) the scones were really good.

Sandy completed the sewing of her 'Star' and was auditioning this black/grey fabric for the background.

And Fiona made lots of blocks to go with her 'horses' for a lap quilt.

The Retreat Centre from the outside. 

The lucky few

We all want to go again, so are thinking about the end of November. So if you missed out this time, join us then.

I should be cutting fabric…

…for the retreat this weekend, but instead I have been reading!
Yes reading is my other love, and I usually get my books from the Library.
(This is so I have more shelf space for fabric )

The first book I’ve been reading Is Jennifer Chiaverini’s latest novel ‘Sonoma Rose’. This is set in the era of Prohibition in America. I did enjoy this but am I the only one who gets annoyed when so much of a book is going over ground we have already covered in previous books? I would estimate that a third of this novel is going over back stories you would already know if you have read the previous books. I know there is a trend to make each book ‘read alone-able’ but this can get annoying if you have read the others!
Anyway I would still recommend this series, they are a quick easy read. I read somewhere the other day that Jennifer Chiaverini is contracted for another three ‘Elm Creek’ books, so I wonder if she will take a break then or come up with another series altogether?

The next book is one of many too, ‘The Scottish Prisoner’ by Diana Gabaldon. I’m just under half way through it and really enjoying it. I’m glad to say it doesn’t rehash all previous books . If you have never read any of Diana Gabaldon’s novels I’d definitely start at the beginning with ‘Cross Stitch’ or ‘Outlander’ (same book different names in different countries).

And in other book news we had some VIP’s at school today so I got them to autograph some of the library books.

All Blacks- Israel Dagg, Zac Guilford & Jerome Kaino with the books they autographed for me.

International Quilting Day

thequiltshow.com is celebrating the International Quiting Weekend by giving free access to view a over a hundred (100) of their online shows. Watch the quick video for all the info.
I have been a subscriber to this show for a few years now and the shows are really good so make sure you make time to watch a few.

Show n Tell, March 2012

Well we had a great meeting on Saturday even if there was a smaller turn out than usual, because of an overseas tutor teaching a quilting class, and other events like Opera in the Park.

I really enjoyed listening to our guest speaker Mary Adlam (a past club member). Mary caught us up with all the exciting things she has been doing since she returned to England. Hopefully we will she her again next year as she is hoping to return for the Symposium in Taupo.

Ok now on to show and tell, enjoy.

Pauline Schon made this little wallhanging, using several different techniques. I recognise the leaves from the 'Layered Leaves' class. 

Marion Moon made this lap quilt. It's called 'Ooey Gooey Hearts'.
It's made by raw edge appliquéing the hearts to the background, then cutting away the background fabric from under the heart, then you appliqué that (heart shape you have just cut) onto the top.

'Layered Leaves' by Merle Armitage, from a class with tutor Jaqui Karl.
I like the extra beads and embroidery Merle has added.

A lovely little stitchery wallhanging made by Marie Finegan

Jennifer Cullen made this quilt using leftovers from another quilter (I think she said her sister?)
That's a lot of left overs!

Beryl McDowell made this beautiful quilt for her Grand Daughters 4th Birthday. 

This is the little wallhanging that Sandy Robinson completed at Opononi the other weekend.
Make sure you read the poem it's good.

Sandy's Son Matthew recently turned 21, so Sandy made him this special book.
It's full of great photos and messages written by family and friends.

That's a good idea about borrowing money... :-D

Opononi Sewing Weekend

I had a great weekend away at Opononi (southern side of the Hokianga Habour, Northland NZ). 

So here's a few snaps to make you all jealous! :-D

This is the Bach (Kiwi for Holiday Home) we stayed at. Opononi is still a small friendly holiday settlement with old fashioned Baches not like some spots where all the 'Baches' are multi million dollar mansions.

Looking left from the deck at the sand dunes on the other side of the Hokianga Habour. 

...and looking to the right from the deck, where nature is trying to tame the sand dunes.

The Sand dunes are amazingly large (I think something like 300metres high).

In case you have no idea where Opononi is I found this map of Northland and have added Opononi on so you can see. We drove from Whangarei thru Kaikohe (road not shown on map) onto Opononi. On the way home we went via Paihia.

Here's my Sewezi hard at work

Can you guess what I'm making?
 (Yes I know bad hair day and I need a haircut, some makeup would help too!)

Yes another star, as I really enjoyed making the last one.
 (those are Sandy's toes in case you are trying to guess)

There was some unpicking done too, see my triangle on the wrong way!

And Fiona joined her border, but that's the wrong side of the fabric on the right!

This is one the quilts Fiona was working on

Sandy & Mary both bought hand sewing with them, and didn't make any mistakes, or at least didn't show me so I could get the evidence!

On Sunday morning we went for a quick drive to the lookout/walkway on the southern head of the Habour.

I took a lot of photos but have been threatened with death if some of the silly group shots make it on the blog! No worries I'm in those photos too and I know how bad they are ;-). Anyway enjoy the scenery below.

Looking back down the Habour, the houses are Ompapere, and Opononi is just out of shot on the top left.

Looking west out to the Tasman Sea

It was low tide so we could see these large rocks. Can you the circle pool? It would be about the size of a para pool.

Sandy and I left early Sunday afternoon to go home via Paihia, as Sandy's Son was doing a tandem Skydive and we didn't want to miss seeing that. It was really nice because I got to meet all of Sandy's lovely family too. 

We were all sure they would land in the sea, as the beach was only a few metres wide. But all went well with perfect landings on the sand. It was quite exciting as they seemed be going slow till they were just above us and then we could see how fast they were dropping.

Nearly on the ground!

I’m cutting up fabric…

….because this weekend I’m going away with three quilting friends to sew the whole weekend .

So I thought I’d pre-cut a couple of quick quilts. This is a sneak peek of one,  I’m planning on cutting the other out tonight. Here’s hoping that I get both tops sewn up over the weekend.

Till later hope you are all finding time to do some sewing too!