It’s Arrived!

Poking out of my letterbox this morning was a large envelope. I spent a couple of minutes texting quilting friends to tell them it had arrived, then I ripped it open. I texted first as I knew I wouldn't want to stop looking at the booklet after I had opened it ;-)

So it's big decision time now, what classes to take, do I go to all the lectures and happy hours? Yay fun fun FUN!

Our Second Retreat at St Francis

Several members of the Whangarei P & Q Club went down to Auckland last weekend for a fantastic weekend of sewing. We stayed at the St Francis Retreat Centre. It's a great venue, as everyone has a private room with a proper bed (not bunks or slats) and it is fully catered.

Here's a few photos of what we got up to.

Standing Left to Right, Sandy, Shelia, Fiona, Judith, Leeann (me), Kathy, Donna, Lynne W, Liz.
Sitting Left to Right,  Marie, Maria, Lynne O, Jane, Ros, & Lynda

Fiona machine quilting a quilt for her grand daughter.

Opps, Fiona quilted completely over this safety pin!

My Opps, I did this several times, the block on the left is correct the right had to be unpicked :-(

Me hiding behind the dots. I had just been very naughty. Enough said.

Here's all the blocks I sewed at retreat. I laid them out in the downstairs lounge before we left.
 I hope to put this together at home, so that it's not a UFO forever.

Donna machine quilting her quilt as you go blocks. She finished half her quilt in the weekend.

As I said earlier the retreat is fully catered. All we had to do was walk to the dinning room when the dinner bell was rung. No food prep, no dishes, it was wonderful.

One of the lunches, the salads were really yum.

Roast Lamb & Vege, you can see we have all had some. There's still plenty for seconds.

Yummy dessert, it had a meringue edge and base, chocolate centre, with walnuts and cream on top.

We are booking another retreat here, so if you missed out this time make sure you come next year.

Like it’s 1999

I spent a big part of yesterday morning ironing these UFO blocks from 1999.
Each pile here has 10 blocks in it so I have 40, 10 inch blocks, more than enough for a quilt.

I think I kind of got carried away when I was making them in 1999. I was having so much fun hand piecing them, YES I Said HAND PIECING them!

Then they were put away. I have no idea why, it's too long ago. Anyway I did get them out a year ago (I think) and had to hand wash them all, as some of them had stains on them. I think the stains may have been from me pricking my finger as I sewed them. The stains came out, but for some other reason I packed them away again without pressing them.

40 Whirlygig/Pinwheel  Blocks 

I really did enjoy pressing all these blocks. It was like visiting old friends, as I remember all the cute fabrics that I used. I hope to get this together as a top soon, then I wonder how long it will wait before I quilt it? Hopefully it will be less than another 13 years!

I used some 1930's fabrics that I had fallen in love with, and then added other fabrics that I liked too. All the blocks have red centres.

Look at those Bunnies & Kittens, oh Scotty dogs too. They're just too cute.

I love the Trolley, and Paisley print

More Scotty dogs, a flower picking Fairy, and don't forget Teddies

After finding that Ironing Art video yesterday I had a look to see if there was any more fun ironing videos on Youtube. So here's Extreme Ironing.

Ironing, but not as we know it...

What to do with the pieces of fabric that you just can't cut up into small pieces to sew back together!

Lucky, Easy Street

A couple of weeks ago I went shopping with Hubby. Outside a shop was a Sausage Sizzle & Raffle. Hubby got a Sausage, and I got a raffle ticket.

Nothing special there, but then my Hubby teased me as he had "got something for his money" and I hadn't. Raffles in his mind are a waste of time.

So you can imagine my joy this week when I was rung to say I had won a basket full of groceries! He’s not going to live down teasing me for a long time!

Grocery Basket

OK now to make this post a bit Quilty. I'm thinking about doing Bonnie Hunter’s new Mystery ‘Easy Street’ so have been pulling fabrics from my stash. I've not got too many of the colours needed so I might just make half the units, and see how things go. 

Easy Street Fabrics

Ribbons!

Some of Whangarei P &Q Club members entered quilts into the recent Auckland P&Q Clubs exhibition.
They were very successful and came home with Ribbons.

Elizabeth Percy, 1st Place- Amateur Wall Hanging

Sonya Prchal, 1st Place- Professional Wall Hangings 

Sonya Prchal, Highly Commended- Professional Wall Hangings

Robin Halverson, Highly Commended- Amateur Wall Hangings 

Lynne O'Donnell, 2nd Place- Amateur Wall Hangings

Congratulations ladies, all these Ribbons are well deserved.

Otamatea Quilters Show

 Last Friday I went with a few friends to the Kauri Museum for Otamatea Quilters Show. It was a lovely day out and I recommend you go if you can. It's on til the 2nd December. Entrance is $5 if you are going to see the quilts only.
OK here are a few of the quilts that were on display. Some of the photos are a bit 'strange' as my camera batteries died. So I had to use my phone, :-)

Isn't this setting really effective?

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Love this pattern

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Fabulous way to use panels of all different sizes and make a great quilt

Close up of log cabin blocks

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The quilting was really great on this, and the butterfly bodies were a fur fabric.

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A lovely blue and white quilt

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Really interesting like a botanical book 

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Photo doesn't show it's beauty, the lighting was fighting with my phone. But this was really beautiful and the colours were subtly blended

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 An over view from above.

Time for Photo's !!

Show n Tell November 2012

The Meeting last Saturday was fun, Show n Tell was good too, so have a look and enjoy!

Lap Quilt made by Shirley Julian 'to use up some scraps'

Pamela Danher made 'Midnight Cowboy' for Starship Hospital

'Animal Crackers'  another quilt for Starship by Pamela

Jane Robinson made this for her Son's girlfriend, who is visiting NZ for the first time this Christmas. 

Detail of the New Zealand fabrics Jane used.

Pauline Schon made this wallhanging after taking a library book home about curved flying geese.

Ann Field has been really enjoying doing machine embroidery, and made this beautiful quilt & matching pillowcases.

detail of some of the embroidery and beautiful ribbon work

Rose Silvester made this amazing quilt for her daughter Demeta's 50th Birthday

One of the red work stitcheries on the quilt Rose made

'The Swirl' by Maureen Jackson, started in a class with Kerry Glen.

Helen Barron made this Dinosaur quilt for Hospice fundraising. 

Sue Farrier made this sweet cushion

Sue also made this bag using a Japenese fat quarter

Hope you enjoyed that, come back tomorrow for my visit to the Otamatea Quilters Show, at the Kauri Museum. Bye