November Stitching Monday

Today was tinged with sadness, as it will probably be the last Stitching Monday I attend.  We move out of our current house in two weeks time, and I’m not quite sure at this stage if I will drive down from Levin to attend the December Stitching Monday. It was a lovely surprise to receive a “going away gift” from Heather, who had made me a needle holder.  “I’ll treasure it”, I told her, Heather is an award winning quilter, and such a lovely warm hearted lady, always willing to help with friendly advice. 

  

  A hug from Heather

The outside of the needle holder is made from a pretty purple “cotton reel” print.  It opens up to reveal named pockets made to slip your packets of needles into, made of wool felt.  The inside fabric is another sewing print, of rows of needles and hand quilting.  Thank you so much, Heather.

The inside of the needle holder

There were all sorts of projects being worked on today.  Heather was busy stitching more six pointed stars from her shirting fabrics.  And Gaye was doing a little upholstery work.  She had brought in some squabs and was covering them with a layer of batting, then they will be getting new covers.  That’s quite a challenge she’s set herself! 

Gaye and Heather busy hand stitching

Margaret was quietly working away on her bright “Daizies” a Jan Mullen design.  She had already made quite a pile, but needed some more.  These blocks are really pretty with turquoise backgrounds and different coloured flowers.

Margaret stitching more Daizies

Another pretty quilt on show was Petronella’s, in shades of pink, purple and lime green.  It just needs the binding stitched down, then it will be gifted to a nursing friend, Petronella told me.

  For a lucky friend

Joyce is a dab hand at machine quilting, but is not too sure if hand quilting is her thing.  But she is persevering with hand quilting “Crop Circles”, her lovely quilt made with a nice variety of New Zealand prints.

Joyce hand quilting Crop Circles

Pamela is getting ready for Christmas dinner, and is making a set of Kiwi Christmas place mats.  She is well on the way, all the parts of the little kiwis have been cut out and assembled, ready to be appliquéd in place.  This is a Susan Claire design from my book Country Christmas. 

   Six Christmas Kiwis

We were all rather taken with Pamela’s pretty flower brooch.  It’s very easy, we were told, it’s made from organza, and the snipped edges are burnt with a candle, which makes them fluff up.  That sounds like fun. 

Organza flower brooch

I was working on a “secret” stitchery which will be a gift, and finally finished the last little bit of stitching.   I’ll just show the sunflowers which I completed today.

 

Part of my “secret” project

We had a bit of a treat today - I took along a chocolate cake to share at lunch time with everyone.  Would you believe I have been making this never fail recipe from my Edmonds Cookbook since my days as a young Mum, many years ago?

Chocolate cake to share

Stitching Mondays and I go back a long way.   When I was working as a “temp” I often had (unpaid) time off during the month, and occasionally , but not often, this would coincide with the Stitching Monday.  I really wanted to attend each month, so I decided the only way this would happen was for me to take a day’s leave on the third Monday of each month.    My Team Leader once asked me why I always wanted this particular day of the month off. The cheek of it, what has that got to do with her, I thought!   It’s because I attend a Support Group,  I told her.  I could almost read her mind as she processed this little snippet, and could image her thinking, “I’ve always thought Jenny had a problem”. 

And it really has been a support group over the years, I’m going to miss the friendship and fellowship of all the ladies.   I just hope that I can find another like minded group to join when we move to Levin.

October Stitching Monday

Doesn’t time fly – it really was a month ago when we had our previous Stitching Monday get-together.  We gathered together in the hall, and a  few of us had brought our sewing machines along.  First order of the day was to find a table that didn’t wobble.  It’s no fun going flat out on your sewing machine if your table gets the shakes! 

I spent most of the day finishing up my cream and burgundy paper pieced Log Cabin blocks.  I make these in batches of six, stitch one of the numbered logs on the paper, snip the connecting threads, trim and press, six at a time.  As I was snipping away, I snipped a gash right into my finger.  Thanks, Fay, for the plaster to stop me dripping blood on my work.  It does prove that my small scissors are sharp, doesn’t it?

My log cabin blocks

Margaret laid her bright daisy blocks with blue backgrounds on the floor.  She was making another quilt to use up some of her stash, she said.  But we all know it never quite works like that.  Margaret was running short of blues for the background so had to go out and buy even more fabric.  The pattern is “Daisiez” by Jan Mullen.  There seems to be lots of stitching, slicing in half, and sewing back together involved in making these bright and cheerful blocks. 

“Daisiez” blocks, stitched by Margaret

Black and white is always a winning combination.  Fay told me she needs to make 250 of these little curved two patch blocks for her daughter’s quilt. Don’t know quite how many she has done so far, but she has a nice big pile all completed.

Fay with her Drunkard’s Path blocks

The hand workers were all sitting together as they stitched away.  Both Pamela and Maureen worked on their hexagon blocks for a while.   Then Pamela moved on to hand quilting.  She has decided to use thicker thread and quilt in the Big Stitch style on her very pretty quilt with many Japanese inspired fabrics.   Joyce was also working on a Japanese theme, and she completed the binding on two more tessellated Kimono place mats she is making for her sister.

Tessellated Kimono place mats

Gaye brought along a Neo Natal quilt she had completed to show us.  This is a Christmas design, using some Laurel Birch fabric.  That will certainly brighten up the Neo Natal Ward over Christmas.

Gaye’s Neo Natal crib quilt

Thanks again ladies, for your company on another Stitching Monday.  It is always good fun, stitching together, chatting, and putting the world to rights!

Stitching Monday today

There was rather a small elite group at Stitching Monday today – just five of us.  But that was fine, we all worked hard at our own particular projects, checked what the others were doing, and engaged in plenty of chat.

Pamela was stitching a pieced backing using leftover fabric from her Japanese quilt.  It’s not quite big enough yet, but it is coming along nicely.  I must admit that I really like pieced backings like this which have a proper design to them, rather than bits and pieces of fabric stitched together randomly.  That’s probably because I am a Libra, so prefer designs to be balanced, even on the back of the quilt. 

Pieced backing for a Japanese inspired quilt

Heather is using up even more of her recycled shirting fabrics hand piecing stars.  Not just any old stars, but diamonds set around hexagons – all too hard for me to do!  She decided she wanted to work with striped fabric, and found a pattern which took her fancy.

Pieced stars made from shirts

Joyce was quite busy too.  She started off making tessellated kimonos, which will be the centre portion of a set of placemats.  These will need another border before they are finished.

Tessellated kimono placemats

Next she worked on more of her quick flying geese blocks.  I’m not quite sure of the secret behind this way to do flying geese blocks, but I’m assured it really is quick and easy.

Flying geese blocks

Margaret has many strings in her bow, and today she was doing beading, working on a beaded brooch.  Lots of beads will be needed to complete this brooch.

The bead work at the top will finish up like these

I was rather taken with the pretty little beading sampler which Margaret had stitched, and I marvelled that anyone could work with such tiny little beads. 

Margaret’s beading sampler

I did some more work on my ongoing project, the burgundy and cream paper pieced log cabin blocks.  Doing it this way is slow, but very accurate, and I usually stitch six blocks at a time.

My log cabin blocks

So we all enjoyed another very pleasant (monthly) Stitching Monday.  Thanks, ladies, for your company.

July Stitching Monday

It must have been the wet weather which kept the numbers small at our monthly Stitching Monday yesterday.  But then again, it could well be that our quilt club had organised a whole weekend of quilting classes – perhaps some of the ladies were all quilted out!  Never mind, the old faithfuls were there to keep each other company. 

My sewing machine was whirring away as I worked on more of my paper pieced log cabin blocks.  This is quite a slow process with stitching a log, then jumping up to my cutting board to trim the excess, then on to the ironing board to press the block.  But I stitch six blocks at at a time so the numbers of finished blocks soon adds up.

My paper pieced log cabin blocks

Everyone else was doing hand work.  Maureen was finishing off the last of her place mats which will be offered for sale at the upcoming craft fair.  Joyce was keeping her company as she was  busy hand quilting her Crop Circles quilt, made from lots of New Zealand fabrics.

Joyce and Maureen working side by side

Karen and Brenda had recently attended an abstract  workshop with well known tutor Claire Smith, with the students choosing their own design.  Karen spent some time cutting and sticking her fabric on to the background.  The pieces are then heavily machine quilted with different threads.  Brenda had brought along her finished piece for show and tell.

Preparing her art piece

  Brenda’s finished sample

Margaret loves vintage linens and has quite a collection of old embroidered doilies.  She was hand stitching her latest batch of “doily dollies”  and they are coming together very nicely.  They are so pretty with colour coordinated buttons for their hair and it is a lovely way to make use of old doilies.

Margaret sewing her doily dollies

Blue doily dolly

I was rather taken with Margaret’s blue and white hexagon bag.  This is a Bronwyn Hayes design and features Bronwyn’s trademark stitchery designs.  Margaret had dug into her collection of vintage buttons to add to the bag. 

.Margaret’s blue stitchery bag

The numbers may have been small, but we all worked happily away on our projects during our stitching day, sharing good company.  That is, after we got the lighting sorted.  It was so dim inside the hall on our arrival that we really wondered how we would see to do our stitching.  In came the electrician who went up to the light dimmer switch and turned the big knob right around.  Thank heavens, the hall was bathed in bright light.  And we didn’t even know there was a dimmer switch hiding on the wall!

June Stitching Monday Get-together

Another grey day, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the ladies gathered together for another “Stitching Monday”.  We had plenty to keep us busy, there was lots of chatter going on, and not forgetting the “show and tell”.  Joyce was first with that and once she had finished stitching the binding down, held up her new quilt for us to see.  The Drunkard’s Path block was made in florals and cream, and put together in the Love Ring design.  Joyce has named this quilt “Merrily around the Garden Path”, and it will be gracing the spare bedroom.  The quilt started with 46 of the blocks being made for Joyce by members of the Friday Stitchers group, then Joyce set to and made about another 280 blocks to complete the quilt.

“Merrily around the Garden Path” held up by Joyce

Pamela had recently made one of those handy thread catchers which hang on the table close by while you are sewing, to put all the snips of cotton in, rather than all over the floor!  With a tile to hold it in place, this was made in a very pretty blue fabric, and finished with gold cord.  Recently back from a visit to the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair, she had also brought along some of her purchases to show us.  It certainly looks like she had a wonderful trip.

Pamela’s Thread Catcher

Goodies from Sydney

It was good to welcome Betty back to our stitching group, we hadn’t seen her for a while.  Betty had a new project underway, she was making stars and nine patches to go together in a wall hanging for her bedroom.  This is from a pattern in Australian P & Q magazine.

Betty’s new project

Not everyone was quilting – Gaye brought along a couple of pair of trousers she was finishing off for herself.  She likes to sew her own trousers she told us, then she knows they will fit her properly.  Don’t think I would tackle trousers, I’ve got out of the way of dealing with zips and waistbands!

Gaye finishing off her trousers

Heather wasn’t quilting either.  With a pair of scissors in her hand, she was dissecting more op-shop shirts for her “Great Shirt Challenge” quilts.  She cuts all the seams off, removes the buttons, labels, collars and cuffs, and has plenty of fabric to work with on her next creation.  Heather is working on quilt number 11, all made from recycled shirts, and they will be donated to a good cause in the future.

Heather cutting yet another shirt to pieces.

Some of the collars and cuffs have been passed on to Margaret, who showed us her Journal Cover made from cuffs.  What a neat idea, and it just goes to show what can be made from scraps.

  

  Journal cover made from recycled cuffs

Margaret was busy pinning and basting her Kaffe Fassett hexagons together.  This will be hand quilted then made up into a tote bag, she told me.  Margaret works fast and had that done in  no time at all.  Later in the day I saw her working on some more pretty “Doiley Dollies”.  This is something I’d like to do “one day”, just need to get started on them.  

Kaffe Fassett hexagons

Another lady who is never without work in her hands is Maureen.  She is making a whole lot of place mats to be offered for sale in the upcoming Pinehaven Fair.  I noticed she used hair clips to keep the binding in place, no stabs from the pins with this method.

Maureen and two place mats

I decided against taking my sewing machine along to the stitching day, so had hand work with me.  Had the binding to stitch down on my rail fence with the cheeky kiwi backing – it’s almost done.

Stitching down my binding

Then I got into a fine old mess as I ripped out the tissue paper foundations on my burgundy and cream log cabin blocks.  This will be an ongoing project as I need to make quite a few more blocks, plus the border will be foundation pieced too.  Still, I’ll get there eventually.

My foundation pieced log cabin blocks

All in all, another interesting Stitching Monday, lots of work achieved – thanks ladies, for your company.

Hello Friends at Stitching Monday

It was great to return home (after three months away travelling around the South Island) to find that I was just in time to attend the May Stitching Monday.  With us on our travels, this is the first monthly meeting of 2012 I could attend, so it was lovely to catch up with everyone again. Shall I take my sewing machine, I pondered, or just work on hand stitching?  The sewing machine won, but I must admit I didn’t do too well at all.  The plan was to stitch up my Rail Fence blocks which I had made, recording places we had stayed, and attractions we had seen.  So I duly pinned them in twos and away I stitched.  So far so good.  But…..I forgot that two of then go one way, and then two more go the other way, to make the pattern appear.  Silly me, now I have to unpick half of them, and restitch with the blocks the other way.  Guess I should have laid all the blocks out first to get the correct orientation!

Stitching my Rail Fence blocks

I’m sure the other’s were thinking straighter than me and working much better.  Jeannette showed her Disappearing Nine Patch which she is making for friends to use in their house bus.  The colours all work so well together but there is a little secret in this quilt.  Jeannette has used some recycled fabric, from denim, to jacquard, to stretch, and has stabilised where needed.  Just goes to show that anything goes, it treated with care.

Jeannette’s Disappearing Nine Patch

Heather is on a mission to use up all those recycled shirts she has been buying from Op Shops, I think she is up to Shirt-tail quilt number eleven now.  But she is fighting a losing battle as she keeps buying more, and some of her other quilty friends have started their own Op Shop Shirt Challenge too.  Here are two she has recently completed,  both beautifully machine quilted in Heather’s indomitable style.

Two more quilts made from recycled shirts

Black, white and yellow was chosen for this stunning quilt that Joyce is making for her grand-daughters 21st birthday.  It’s almost done, as Joyce was busy stitching the binding down.  She’s very shy, so she says, and is only allowing her fingers to be photographed!

  21st Birthday quilt

Maureen was busy most of the day preparing hexagons for stitching, and Margaret had a whole lots of squares ready to make up into four patches to use in another scrap quilt.  Margaret’s aim is to reduce her stash, but as every quilter knows, making scrap quilts hardly makes a dent in in it.

Blocks in  Margaret’s latest stash busting quilt

Another scrappy quilt under construction was Petronella’s Pot Luck flip and sew blocks.  These are being stitched over pages from a telephone book, and is a long term project, I imagine.

  Pot Luck blocks

And for something completely different, we watched Gaye as she was working another her current assignment for her City and Guilds course.  Her triptych represents a scene from the West Coast of the South Island.

West Coast triptych

It was a very enjoyable day, thank you ladies for your company.  Guess I had better get busy with my quick-unpick and start fixing those blocks up.

December Stitching Monday

My goodness, this is our last Stitching Monday for the year.  The sewing machines were stitching feverishly away as everyone worked hard on their projects, and the hand stitchers were tucked away in the corner.  Heather brought in a lovely little angel to show us,  made for her by her niece to hang on the Christmas tree.  Very pretty, and the beads are so tiny. 

Beaded angel tree ornament

Heather also brought in two more tops from her “Great Shirt Project”, and commented that op-shop shirts must be getting hard to find, as several other quilters she knows have now taken up the challenge.  Quilt number five is all pinned up ready for machine quilting, and quilt number six is in quite a different colour way with touches of yellow.

Heather’s shirt quilt, pinned ready for quilting

Quilt top number six

Joyce is another who works hard all month and then stuns us with her output when we get together.  She was stitching a backing for her black and white Snail Trail quilt, using some of the left over fabrics to make a centre panel.

Joyce making a quilt backing

“You’ve all seen this one”, Joyce commented, as she laid her Crop Circle quilt out to show us.  No, we hadn’t, this one must have been stitched in secret, we told her.  Joyce has used lots of New Zealand patterned fabric in this quilt, which has both Snail Trail and Star blocks.

Crop Circle quilt

Jo was stitching a “commission” quilt for a workmate, in a stunning palette of teal and purple.  This is sure to look quite stunning, so we will be interested to see what the finished top looks like.

Jo’s commission quilt

Fay was quietly stitching away, making a set of placemats as a gift for her overseas visitors to take home.  These are being made in New Zealand designed fabric, so will be a reminder of their trip to this country.

Fay’s placemats are coming along nicely

As this was our last meeting for the year, we all brought along a festive plate for a shared lunch.  “Don’t start eating till I take a photo”, I told the ladies.  It was all delicious, especially Heather’s yummy carrot cake.

Ready for our lunch

And as for me, I did a bit of sewing on my burgundy and cream log cabin blocks.  Then I switched to sewing some little selvedge blocks for an idea I had for a  bag.  I’ll have to see how that idea progresses, I think.  Thanks so much, ladies, for another year of stitching and friendship.  It’s been great to come along each month and sew together.