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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Warm Welcome at Stonestead

It was a cold grey day when I set off to the fortnightly meeting of the Stonestead Stitchers.  Yvonne from the adjacent Sawmillers Quiltery stopped to talk as she was taking the two little dogs, Bailey and Poppy, outside for a bit of fresh air.  These two cuties spend their time at the quilt shop, greeting visitors, and snoozing the day away. 
DSCF6378 This way to the Stonestead Tea House
You can always be assured of a warm friendly greeting from Kevin when you walk into the Tea House.  “I’ve put the heater on upstairs”, he told me, after I had ordered my lunch and started walking up the stairs.  Mmm, think I’ll sit right here by the heater, I thought to myself, while I wait for the others to arrive.  Quilts  were hung on the walls, and draped over the rail, giving the Tea House a nice homely feel.
DSCF6379 Looking down from the balcony
Before too long other eager stitchers arrived and we all got busy working on our own projects.  Mary was doing a bit more stitching on her plaid Christmas block, and Ruth showed us how she was progressing on her long term Mountmellick embroidery piece.  Carol had brought along her felt wall-hanging kit, purchased from Sawmillers and started some time ago then put away.  The flowers and leaves around the border still need to be stitched down, so there is still quite a bit more stitching to do.  The felt shapes combined with plaids give this piece a nice country feel.
DSCF6380  Carol’s felt wall-hanging
Liz was doing tapestry and was pleased to finish the last little bit of stitching.  Called “Albion”, this very patriotic UK piece has been claimed by her son, and will be made into a cushion.  An awful lot of stitching went into this flag.
DSCF6381 Flag tapestry all finished
Bridget was busy with appliquéing tiny pieces onto her Christmas Tree block.  All the blocks on her Christmas Tree quilt feature different appliqué designs.
DSCF6385 Christmas Tree block
Cheryl was “doing Christmas” as well.  Her quilt was a Block of the Month from Thimbles and Threads with both pieced and appliquéd blocks.  Cheryl explained how to use marked “Glad Press and Seal” as a quilt motif to hand quilt through.  The plastic just rips away and this idea can be used for either hand or machine quilting.  I had heard of using this product for quilting but had never seen it demonstrated before.  Thanks Cheryl, that was something new we all learned today.
DSCF6384You can just see the quilt motif marked on the plastic
DSCF6382Cheryl’s Christmas quilt
We were all ready for our lunch when Kevin delivered our trays up the stairs to our table.  Hot scones straight out of the oven, with tea or coffee, what could be nicer on a cold day!
DSCF6386 Cheese scone and coffee for me today

2 comments:

FlourishingPalms said...

What a lovely, lovely place, Jenny. Thank you for sharing pictures. They made me want to come in with you. Gosh, we have nothing like this anyplace close to us. You are so fortunate!

I appreciate seeing the projects everyone was making. Thank you especially for reminding me about quilting with Press and Seal! I'm quilting now and have reach a place where I'm stumped as to how to get my design onto a critical section. You gave me an ah-ha moment! Off to find my Press and Seal...

Katie said...

I've been trying to find the Press N Seal Freezer wrap but it doesn't seem to be in the stores, though it's online. It's supposed to be good for making stencils when you are using a Pounce. I did read not to sew through it with a sewing machine as it's impossible to get all the bits out. Hmmmmmm.