October Stitching Monday

Just a small group this month, only six of us this time.  But there was plenty going on, Three were machining and the other three were busy doing handwork.  Jo had brought along all her sewing things in her newly finished big bag, big enough to hold the cutting mat, rulers and all those sort of necessary things that one wants on a sewing day.  She had also made a matching thread catcher with an attached pin cushion, all done in retro autumn prints.

  Jo’s new bag and thread catcher

A friend of Jo’s was downsizing and had a big bag of patchwork scraps looking for a new home, with lots of kiddie’s prints included.  Jo snapped them up and thinks she has enough in the bag to make a bright quilt for her grandson.  She was busy pressing fabric, cutting, stitching, then cutting the blocks down to size.  At the end of our stitching day she had made all these.  There were lots of interesting prints in the bag and I bet her grandson will love the alien fabric!

Jo’s wonky blocks

Margaret was making a quilt for her grandson too, in fact she was making quilts for two grandsons.  She held up this lovely Eye Spy top to show.  This is from a Kaffe Fasset pattern and is made up of squares in three different sizes. 

Margaret’s Eye Spy quilt top

Maureen was completing another little neo-natal quilt for Hutt Hospital.  A horse drawn carriage is pulled past a fantasy castle in the central motif, and the quilt uses two different prints featuring cute little babushka dolls.

Maureen with her neo-natal quilt

We were all very impressed with Joyce’s black and white Snail Trail blocks.  There were just three more blocks to stitch, and once these were done Joyce laid them all out on the carpet.  With an adjustment here and there, they were soon arranged to her liking.  She made a good start of sewing the blocks into rows before it was time to pack and and head home.  This quilt will be for her grand-daughter’s wedding.

Snail Trail blocks

Heather likes to have hand work to take along and she is working on some lovely needle turn appliqué blocks.  The design is Wild Rose and each one has four different creams in the background.  When assembled, the green stems join up to make a circular pattern.  This is going to be a really pretty quilt.

Wild Rose appliqué block

I was stitching away diligently sewing buttons onto a “secret” gift I’m making, I didn’t realise that sewing buttons on would take me so long.    This is for a special occasion, so I can’t show a picture just yet.  I had taken another couple of things to do “just in case” but didn’t even get them out of the bag.  Never mind, there’s always next time.