Club blocks – done!!

It’s a great day here in my part of paradise.  The sun is shining, the washing is drying in the gentle breeze, the birds are chirping, and the cicadas are making just as much noise as they can.  It is the male cicadas making all that noise and it is all done for one reason only – to attract a mate.  The sound is made by membranes known as tymbals on each side of their abdomen – this is pushed out, causing a burst of sound, and then it pops back in. By rapidly repeating this, the cicada makes its song. Some New Zealand cicadas also make clapping sounds by flicking their wings against the branch on which they are sitting.  These insects may be noisy, but to us Kiwis, it is the sound of summer!

But I haven’t spent all my time outside enjoying the sunshine. No indeed, I’ve been working on the charity blocks I needed to make for my quilt club, Town and Country Quilters.  There is nothing worse than putting off a job like this till the last minute, then getting into a panic because the time has run away.  So I got the instruction sheets out, selected some suitable fabrics, and got cutting.

First up was the Floating Four Patch blocks which will be made into charity quilts.  These are all to be made scrappy, with no colour stipulation,  just a variety of light and dark backgrounds required.  I’m sure there will be lots of these returned next club night.

Floating four patch blocks

Our club runs Quilt Fest later in the year, and the fundraising raffle quilt will be made up of batik blocks.  Included with the instruction sheet were six squares of batik fabric in various colours.  We had to add contrasting batik strips around the sides, in either light or dark tones.  Luckily I had some batik fabrics on hand which I felt worked quite well, so I cut some strips and sewed the blocks up.  Another easy block, and it’s going to look great when it is all put together.

Batik blocks for the club raffle quilt

The next sewing job was to make one more cushion for the caravan.  I had already stitched four, but felt I needed one more.  This one will be going in the corner of the caravan couch which Muffy has claimed for her own.  She will be able to snuggle up to it as she snoozes her time away.  Yes, it will get covered in white cat fur, but that’s for me to clean up, of course.  

Last cushion made for the caravan