An enthusiastic group of members gathered last evening to attend the Town and Country Quilters Club Night. August may well be in the depths of winter, but there was no sign of wind or rain, thanks goodness. With the upcoming quilt show in October, there was a lot of business to get through. Rosters to help with this event were circulated amongst the members, and like most others, I put my name down in a slot or two. Help will be needed to sell tickets, duties in the kitchen, and being a “White Glove” lady at the show, amongst others.
Our speaker for the evening was Sandra who is passionate about Zero Waste. Sandra really practices what she preaches and with chickens in the backyard, a couple of worm farms and compost bins, told us she gets by with using one rubbish bag every few months. She trotted out all sorts of horrifying statistics about the amount of waste in New Zealand and overseas. Plastics are the major waste problem worldwide, as the items never actually decompose, they merely break down into smaller and smaller pieces, and get into the food chain. We were all urged to take to heart the mantra of “reduce, recycle and reuse” and do our bit for the environment. And did you know that the cuddly polar fleece which we sometimes use to back quilts is made from old plastic bottles? I didn’t.
Show and Tell perked us all up considerably after all this doom and gloom. Several of the quilts held up for us to admire had been expertly machine quilted by club member Paula of Rabbits Patch Quilting, who always does such wonderful quilting with her long arm machine. Here are a some of the quilts which I snapped with my new camera, this is the first time I have really used it so I wasn’t sure how the photos would turn out. Chloe brought along her warm and cosy looking tartan quilt, using some old shirts, I believe.
Chloe’s tartan quilt
Helen’s Row by Row quilt was a challenge quilt made with her group of Sew Wot friends and has a lovely story. Each row in the quilt relates to her journey while undergoing a recent cochlear implant to help improve her hearing. (I’ll let you into a secret – I’m a very recent Sew Wot member. The lovely ladies invited me along to join their group).
Helen’s Row by Row quilt
Helen’s second quilt was done as a Block of the Month quilt by one of our local quilts shops, Cherry Pie Bernina. Helen does wonderful machine quilting – it shows up so nicely on the dark brown triangles.
Block of the Month quilt
Heather is another Sew Wot member and showed us two lovely appliquéd table runners she had recently completed. I think they have a Jacobean look about them with all those lovely swirls.
Heather’s table runners
Cheryl brought along two sporty quilts made with panels, a cricket quilt and a rugby quilt. Kiwis are known for their love of sports and Cheryl obviously has some sports mad people in her family.
Rugby quilt
And lastly, I really loved this soft and pretty rose quilt. Sarah has made it in celebration of her MILs 90th birthday, who loves roses, we were told. It is just so beautiful.
90th birthday quilt
After a quick supper, I went home from the meeting with my head buzzing, full of all the lovely quilts I’d seen, and ideas of more. I’d better get sewing, I think.
1 comment:
Lovely quilts. Thanks for sharing, it's like a mini festival!
I knew about the polar fleece. I use a batting/wadding that's made from recycled bottles, it's called Dream Green. I wonder if I'll be able to find that in NZ.
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