November Stitching Monday

Today was tinged with sadness, as it will probably be the last Stitching Monday I attend.  We move out of our current house in two weeks time, and I’m not quite sure at this stage if I will drive down from Levin to attend the December Stitching Monday. It was a lovely surprise to receive a “going away gift” from Heather, who had made me a needle holder.  “I’ll treasure it”, I told her, Heather is an award winning quilter, and such a lovely warm hearted lady, always willing to help with friendly advice. 

  

  A hug from Heather

The outside of the needle holder is made from a pretty purple “cotton reel” print.  It opens up to reveal named pockets made to slip your packets of needles into, made of wool felt.  The inside fabric is another sewing print, of rows of needles and hand quilting.  Thank you so much, Heather.

The inside of the needle holder

There were all sorts of projects being worked on today.  Heather was busy stitching more six pointed stars from her shirting fabrics.  And Gaye was doing a little upholstery work.  She had brought in some squabs and was covering them with a layer of batting, then they will be getting new covers.  That’s quite a challenge she’s set herself! 

Gaye and Heather busy hand stitching

Margaret was quietly working away on her bright “Daizies” a Jan Mullen design.  She had already made quite a pile, but needed some more.  These blocks are really pretty with turquoise backgrounds and different coloured flowers.

Margaret stitching more Daizies

Another pretty quilt on show was Petronella’s, in shades of pink, purple and lime green.  It just needs the binding stitched down, then it will be gifted to a nursing friend, Petronella told me.

  For a lucky friend

Joyce is a dab hand at machine quilting, but is not too sure if hand quilting is her thing.  But she is persevering with hand quilting “Crop Circles”, her lovely quilt made with a nice variety of New Zealand prints.

Joyce hand quilting Crop Circles

Pamela is getting ready for Christmas dinner, and is making a set of Kiwi Christmas place mats.  She is well on the way, all the parts of the little kiwis have been cut out and assembled, ready to be appliquéd in place.  This is a Susan Claire design from my book Country Christmas. 

   Six Christmas Kiwis

We were all rather taken with Pamela’s pretty flower brooch.  It’s very easy, we were told, it’s made from organza, and the snipped edges are burnt with a candle, which makes them fluff up.  That sounds like fun. 

Organza flower brooch

I was working on a “secret” stitchery which will be a gift, and finally finished the last little bit of stitching.   I’ll just show the sunflowers which I completed today.

 

Part of my “secret” project

We had a bit of a treat today - I took along a chocolate cake to share at lunch time with everyone.  Would you believe I have been making this never fail recipe from my Edmonds Cookbook since my days as a young Mum, many years ago?

Chocolate cake to share

Stitching Mondays and I go back a long way.   When I was working as a “temp” I often had (unpaid) time off during the month, and occasionally , but not often, this would coincide with the Stitching Monday.  I really wanted to attend each month, so I decided the only way this would happen was for me to take a day’s leave on the third Monday of each month.    My Team Leader once asked me why I always wanted this particular day of the month off. The cheek of it, what has that got to do with her, I thought!   It’s because I attend a Support Group,  I told her.  I could almost read her mind as she processed this little snippet, and could image her thinking, “I’ve always thought Jenny had a problem”. 

And it really has been a support group over the years, I’m going to miss the friendship and fellowship of all the ladies.   I just hope that I can find another like minded group to join when we move to Levin.