It gets dark early these days, with the shortest day of the year coming up fast. So it was pitch black when I drove myself along to the Town and Country Quilters meeting. 33 pincushions were entered in the pin cushion swap, most participants made one, although some happy stitchers made two and even three to swap. The pincushions were all numbered, and the members came up one by one as their name was called, when they put their hand into a bucket and pulled out the number of their prize. There were some great entries, a couple of tea cup ladies, several chickens, a few mice, and even a giraffe. Some were pieced, some embroidered, beaded and embellished. Everyone did a great job on these little works of art.
Lots of lovely pin cushions
“Show and Tell” is always inspiring, and we were in awe of Kay’s lovely quilt, which took her 4 plus years to complete. And no wonder – this quilt was made with 10,000 one and a half inch squares, assembled into blocks of 100. She was trying to use up her scraps, she said, but of course that never happens, does it.
Ten thousand tiny squares in this quilt
Then we saw a jeans quilt with a difference. Who would have known that jeans are available in such glowing colours? Virginia’s quilt glowed with colour, red, green, yellow, and some denim blue too, and was fun to make, she said. Jeans pockets and labels add extra interest.
Bright denim quilt
Another bright quilt was shown, this one by Helen was made in brights, with black and white. The coloured border sets it off nicely too.
Helen’s colourful quilt
Small and perfect describes Paula’s incredible skill with her sewing machine. She attended a workshop which showed how to appliqué a tray cloth or doily onto background fabric, then add embellishments. This small piece has been beaded, and beautifully machine quilted. It is a bit hard to see in the photo, but take my word for it, this is stunning.
Paula’s appliquéd and quilted tray cloth
Our guest speaker for the evening was Kathy, a member who has spent five years living full time in a bus, while travelling around our beautiful country. She brought along some of her early quilts to show us, then some of the things she had made by travelling around the country. I particularly liked her Memory Quilt, with each block representing sights and places of interest discovered during her travels.
Kathy’s memory quilt
Her lovely crazy quilt was made to while away the long winter evenings. It was stunning, perhaps I’ll get motivated to do of these one day. She also showed us some smaller pieces she had stitched, each and every one a special memory of her trip.
Crazy patch quilt in foreground
Kathy had recently had a trip to India, and had lots of interesting textiles to show us. Sari lengths, scarves, a glowing orange bed cover, and even a skirt embellished with those little mirror pieces, we admired them all. Textiles can be purchased quite cheaply, by our standards, so it would be hard to know when to stop buying, I expect. Perhaps when the suitcase won’t close any more. She has plenty of fabric to work with for years to come, she commented.
Club President Leigh made an interesting observation during our meeting. She had recently been to a stitching day and was looking forward to working on some of her older UFOs. But, she commented, during the time they have been packed away, waiting to be pulled out and worked on, she decided that she just didn’t like a couple of them anymore. Her message was – don’t put your time and energy into working on a quilt that you really don’t like any more. Better to give it away, donate it, sell it, whatever, and channel your energy into a project that you love. Wise words indeed – perhaps I’ll have to look through my stack of UFOs with a critical eye.
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