September Stitching Monday

Who would forget our previous Stitching Monday when the snow kept falling down all day?  I was really worried that my little blue car would have a nervous breakdown and not get me home safely.  No snow this month, just cold and persistent rain.  Luckily we were all warm and cosy inside the hall with sewing machines whirring away, cups of coffee as required, and plenty of friendly chatter to keep us going.  Some members had new projects underway, and others had ones they were still working on.  Joyce was working on a new project.  She is making  Snail Trail blocks in black and white for her grand-daughters upcoming wedding.  She laid the blocks out on the carpet and we all helped with views of the arrangement, after all, you can’t have two blocks with the same fabric together, can you?  Several of the ladies offered their  black and white fabrics to Joyce, and she cut off a few pieces to incorporate into her quilt.  This is going to look stunning when it is completed. 

Black and white Snail Trail blocks

Maureen was sitting quietly doing hand appliqué on her teddies and butterflies block.  This will end up as another little quilt to be donated to the Neo Natal unit at Hutt Hospital.  Many of our club members like to make these little quilts and they are really appreciated by the new parents of the tiny babies who have to stay in the ward. 

Cute appliqué block

A beautiful selection of Hoffman fabrics with a Japanese flavour are going into Pamela’s current project.  The pattern is Kaffe Fassett’s Garden Tapestry, and Pamela is making this lovely quilt for her herself.  Just look at all those gorgeous fabrics in such lovely soft colours.

Garden Tapestry blocks

Gaye wasn’t stitching at all, but playing with paper and glue.  She was working on a series of “colour studies” for her Level 1 City and Guilds Embroidery course.  Pictures showing the required colours had been collected from magazines and made into a collage.

Gaye’s colour studies

Stitching the quilt binding down is a good job to do on a day such as this.  It always takes longer than anticipated so it is a good thing to tackle while chatting away to friends.  Christine is up to this stage of her soft and pretty 1930s Irish Chain variation. 

Christine’s 1930s quilt

Fay has recently celebrated a very special birthday and brought in her extra special birthday gift to show us all.  It is a beautiful little fabric book made by her quilting buddy Margaret.  All the pages have a very special meaning and there are several photo transfers which make it so personal, along with lots of embellishments.  This is certainly a treasured gift.

Fay and her birthday book

Margaret seemed to be buried under a whole pile of fabric.  She was busy cutting out pieces of bright kiddies fabrics to make I Spy quilts for two little grandsons.  I spotted the Hungry Caterpillar, Dr Seuss, animal prints and lots of other interesting fabrics in her pile.

Margaret busy cutting fabric

And what was I doing?  First I made some more of these New Zealand Postcard blocks.  I had previously made four quilt tops and a set of place mats from NZ fabrics to take away as gifts on our UK trip a couple of years ago.  So it was time to make something with a NZ flavour for us too.

New Zealand Postcard Blocks

Then I went on to make some Rail Fence blocks, again with a New Zealand flavour.  I will take these down south early next year when we do our South Island Odyssey trip and write down all the places we stay at on the pale green rails.  So this will eventually end up as a memory quilt of our trip.

New Zealand Rail Fence blocks

After lunch I packed my sewing machine away and spent the last hour doing a little hand stitching on my Christmas project.  We all had an enjoyable day, and thanks again to everyone for allowing me to photograph their work.