Town and Country Quilters October Club-night

With our Quilt Fest quilt show coming up fast on Saturday, it was a very busy meeting last night.  Lots of things to cover making sure that everything is running smoothly ready for the big day, and all the myriad of details seem to be well under control.

Our speaker for the evening was Helen, from Wanganui, who told us about her quilting journey.  Like most of us, she learnt to sew at home on the kitchen table, and really hated having to pack up her project when mealtimes came around.  Helen had brought along two big bags of quilts and it was interesting to see how her ideas and tastes had changed over the years from traditional to more arty quilts.  This piece is heavily machine stitched in a variety of colours and threads, and represents a braided river.

  Our speaker Helen and her braided river wall-hanging

While Helen was speaking, I was wondering where I had seen her before.  Then the penny dropped.  She is the writer of Honey Bunch Quilting blog, and a regular reader of this blog, she told me.  It’s rather like thinking you know the TV actors whose shows beam into the living room regularly, I had seen Helen’s photo on her blog and recognised her from that.   Some of the quilts she brought along to show us are featured on her blog.  It was so lovely to meet you, Helen.

Our guest speaker’s other duty for the evening was to judge the Challenge entries for our upcoming quilt show.  The participants had to use a small piece of green patterned fabric to the best advantage, and add whatever other fabrics they desired to make a cot quilt.  The category winners were Intermediate, Advanced, and Judges Choice.

Kathy’s cot quilt, 1st in the Intermediate section

Paula won the Advanced prize

Helen had made two cot quilts and won Judge’s Choice for the quilt on the left

After the club raffle draw (no, I didn’t win yet again) our members Show and Tell took place.  Cheryl has fallen in love with the endless possibilities of the kaleidoscope design, and brought along three is this series to show us.  Although I only managed to take photos of two of them, one bright, and one soft and pale.  It is intriguing how different the blocks are when they are cut from the same fabric.

Cheryl’s bright kaleidoscope quilt

Same design, but so different

Everyone loved Heather’s Japanese Traditions quilt with those beautiful sashiko panels.  Such a lot of stitching, and the dark panels look so nice against the Japanese fabrics.

Japanese Traditions, by Heather

Helen has been really busy, it seems.  As well as stitching two cot quilts for the challenge, she also completed this lovely quilt in time for this month’s Show and Tell.  The colours in Triangle Tango are lovely, and the quilt is nicely finished with the triangle border.

Helen’s Triangle Tango 

I couldn’t attend the previous month’s meeting as I was feeling rather poorly, so it was good to catch up with everyone this time around.  And don’t forget, all local quilters, about our Quilt Fest Show on Saturday 12th October, at the  Horowhenua Events Centre,  Victoria Street, Levin.  From  9 am – 4pm,   $5 entry.  See you there!