Saturday Stitching Day

My quilt club runs a monthly stitching day either on Saturday or a Monday, which I like to attend, if possible.  But sometimes other things get in the way, such as travelling away in our caravan, which happened last month.  So I was thrilled that we were home this weekend, and I packed up a bag of things to do, prepared my lunch, and set off for the day.

Trimming the blocks

My aim for the day was to trim my Christmas ABC blocks.  Sounds simple enough, but these things always take much longer than anticipated.  With 30 blocks to deal with I did them in batches.  Off to the ironing board first to press them neatly.  Then I had to make sure  the designs were centered, and iron a small press mark around the edge of each block.  Only then did I carefully slice off the excess, hoping I hadn’t miscalculated!  “Measure twice and cut once”, isn’t that the secret?   My pile of cut off strips grew and grew until I was finally finished with block number 30.  Sadly, I miscalculated with one block, so will have to add a strip back on one side.  Hopefully it won’t be noticed once the quilt is assembled and quilted.

There was a nice group of ladies spending the day together.  It seemed I’d hardly arrived (I was running a little late) and hadn’t done a thing before it was time for Morning Tea.  Never mind, it’s always nice to sit down together for a cuppa and a chat.

Morning Tea time

There was a lot going on around the hall.  Sewing machines were whirring away on various projects, and several ladies were sitting at a table together going hand stitching.  There was a pattern available for a table runner project for those who wanted to partake, and several decided to make this.  First step was to slice and sew their strips, cut them into squares and triangles, and then reassemble them.  The narrow “zinger” strips were the secret and made all the difference to this design.  Jane was sitting beside me, and thought it was such a great design, that she declared she would go home and stitch another one!

  Jane working on her table runner

Another group of ladies were making tiny flowers and organza leaves as homework for the recent Hydrangea class run by Adrienne Walker.  I was amazed at the amount of stitching which went into making these organza leaves, and they certainly were very realistic. 

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Hydrangea leaves made from double organza

Janneka had brought along a pretty floral quilt she was making which will be donated to the Pink Ladies Breast Cancer Support Group.  This is sure to be most appreciated by someone who is dealing with this health challenge.

Pretty floral quilt to brighten a patient’s day

It was nice to walk around the hall and see what everyone else was doing, and there was certainly a lot going on.  Everyone was busy with their own projects, but only too ready to stop and chat.  That’s what stitching days are all about, aren’t they?  Sewing together in nice surroundings, with good company.