March Club Night

Pinestream Quilt Club night had rolled around again.  (I missed the previous month’s meeting as we were on our Wairarapa Safari caravan trip.)  Our speaker was Karen Johnston, a member who has recently  returned to New Zealand after living abroad for some years.  She spoke about the treasures she had purchased from exotic overseas markets.  Karen had brought wonderful textiles to show us, and passed them around so that we could touch them.  There were beautiful embroidered tablecloths and a length of shimmering brocade from Damascus, and shimmering fabrics from the souks of Israel and Palestine.  While living in USA, Karen bought a good selection of vintage feed sacks, some of the original sort with brand names, and some later floral feed sacks.     

Exotic fabrics

Karen then went on to show us her Caribbean doll collection.  She is not really a doll person, she told us, but was drawn to these naive hand made dolls, and decided to collect only those with hand embroidered faces.  The topsy-turvy doll was the prettiest, with her full, flounced skirt.  The other dolls were much smaller, and one of Karen’s favourites was her ugly sack doll!

  Caribbean doll collection

Our club night show and tell is always interesting, and the highlight of the evening.  Sharon brought along a very striking black and white quilt which started life as a Block of the Month at another quilt club.  When the quilt was completed, it was presented to Sharon for her birthday, as she had told the maker she really, really liked it!  What a nice friend to give a quilt away.

Sharon’s black and white quilt

Joyce has been busy stitching this train quilt for her Great-grandson Cody, and little boy would love a quilt like this.  He will know it is his very own quilt when he sees his name on it, won’t he?  

Cody’s train quilt

Another very special quilt was the cross stitched ABC quilt made by Petronella for her grandson.  This is an ABC quilt with a difference, as the items all have Dutch names!  Such a lot of work went in to this.  It is beautifully stitched and was obviously a real labour of love.

  Petronella’s Dutch ABC quilt

Heather brought along her cat quilt.  I recall that this pattern was published in a Quilter’s Newsletter magazine many years ago.  Heather is generously donating this quilt to Haven Animal Rescue group for them to raffle for funds.

Heather’s raffle quilt

Two charity quilts were brought along, made by club members for Te Omanga Hospice.  Both used the same design of four patch blocks, set with plain squares.  One was a soft cream quilt, and I rather liked the pretty shades in this purple quilt.  It is a simple design but very effective.

Quilt for the Te Omanga Hospice

Once again, it was a very enjoyable club night.  There were lots of quilts to look at, and people to catch up with.  No luck with winning a raffle prize though, as per usual.