Friday Night is UFO Night

I’ve just attended my first Friday UFO night with my new quilt club, Town and Country Quilters.  These are run on the last Friday of each month. Suits me during winter, as I can escape the incessant hours of rugby shown on TV, and Robin is happy watching his favourite sport. 

I arrived at the hall about 7.00pm.  Members can bring along a plate of food for the shared meal, but I ate at home.  But everything looked so tasty that I will probably join in with the meal next time.  Sandra had brought along some home made soup for everyone, and invited me to try some.  It was delicious, chock full of veggies, just the way I like it.

Unpicking was my “to do” plan for the evening.  I was not at all pleased with my free motion machine quilting efforts using coloured variegated thread, so I am unpicking all my hard work.  The test bit I have done using cream thread looks so much better, so all the coloured stuff has to come out. 

There were about 15 ladies in the hall, working on all sorts of projects.  Two were stitching down a quilt binding, one of the lasts jobs to do before a quilt is finished.  A couple were tracing patterns, knitting needles were clicking, and Vickie was working on her needle-turn appliqué.   I’m looking forward to seeing the end results of the shiny vinyl jacket which was being cut up and made into a purse, it looked really intriguing.

Of course, in between unpicking, I had to walk around and check out some stunning quilts.  Kaye wanted some advice on the best way to finish off her pretty pink and purple fairy quilt, and there were several people to help her.  This will be going to Kaye’s great-niece when finished.

Kaye’s fairy quilt

Sandra was busy stitching borders on to her intricate foundation pieced quilt.  There is no doubt about it – this is the way to keep all those narrow points nice and sharp.  I was amazed when Sandra told me that she likes to stitch the arcs onto the foundations by hand!  I don’t think I would have the patience to do that.

  Sandra’s foundation pieced quilt top

I love quilts with a New Zealand flavour, and Nan was stitching a really beautiful version for her son’s birthday.  She had done a marvellous job with the needle turned native bird blocks, and has added some embroidery as well.  The background fabric is just perfect with the New Zealand theme.  What a wonderful birthday gift this will be.

Nan’s New Zealand birds quilt

During the evening we had a raffle with a difference.  Our club President Leigh was over-run with free range organic eggs from her very industrious hens.  We put our names forward, at no cost, to be in with a chance to win a dozen eggs - I told Leigh I would gladly pay $2 or so for a ticket, but she was just happy for her eggs to go to one of the members.  Sadly, I didn’t get to take those eggs home, Kathy was the lucky winner.

We were treated to some special “Show and Tell”.  Kathy was asked to bring along some of her unique wool bags which she fashions from recycled woollen blankets.  Each bag is different, they can be embellished with embroidery, couching, fabric, or braid, whatever Kathy feels like doing.  Each bag is beautifully lined and has a long shoulder strap.  Check out Freedomart  here.

Lovely woollen shoulder bags

It was a very pleasant evening spent stitching, or in my case, unpicking, all together with club members.  You can be sure I’ll be there again, I’ve already made a note on the calendar for the last Friday of the month to remind myself.  Next time I’ll get there in time for the shared meal, I think.  Robin will be quite happy buying himself some take-aways for a change.

“Bless my Knees” birthday cushion

My friend Merilyn is an old friend from way back – we met at primary school as youngsters a life time ago.  Even though she moved to Dunedin, in the lower South Island, many years ago, we still keep in touch.  When we meet up, or talk on the telephone, it is just like we have only been in touch the day before.  We are lucky to find true friends like this who care for each other through thick and thin.

Birthday cushion

Merilyn was turning 68 and loves gardening.  (Not me – it doesn’t appeal at all).  I had been busy doing the stitchery off and on to make her cushion for ages, and luckily completed the project in time for her birthday.  The pattern is “Bless my Knees”, designed by Mulberry Street, USA.  I used No 5 Perle cotton for the stitchery, and added highlights with fabric pens. The body of the cushion is a pale green cotton fabric.  It fits in well with the decor, I was told, and has pride of place on one of the couches.

 

Sunflowers in the garden

Last time we were chatting on the phone, believe it or not, we both said the same thing.  It doesn’t matter how many birthdays roll around,  we both feel 16 on the inside!  The outside, however, is quite a different matter – who is that grey haired lady in the mirror, I often think.  Oh dear, I think it’s me!  But never mind, we keep busy, have interests that get us out and about, our health is good, so life is not too bad at all.  Who cares about that funny old lady in the mirror!

A Sunday spent Quilting

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday.  My quilt club had organised a UFO Day, so I was very keen to join in.  But what to take?  I’m sorry to admit that I have an unmentionable number of UFOs packed away.  When we packed up and moved house, all my quilting things were packed into plastic crates, and they are still there, all these months later.  I opened up one of these crates and found my burgundy and cream paper pieced log cabin blocks.  I had  already made a whole lot of blocks, but I still needed more.  So this is what I sewed on Sunday.  It is quite a slow process:  stitch a log, trim the excess, walk to the ironing board, then press.  But I sewed a set of eight at a time, so at the end of the day, I was pleased with what I had achieved.  And sewing on the tissue foundations keeps the blocks square.

Sewing more log cabin blocks

I had the company of about 18 or so ladies in the hall.  Some came early, and stayed all day, while others popped in later for an hour or so.  I noticed some mending being done, hand work, and plenty of machines whirring away.  I stopped to admire a lovely Christmas runner which one of the ladies was working on.  Like most quilters, I love Christmas things.  We all brought along something for the shared lunch, and as usual for these sort of outings, there was food galore.  With a spread like this, there was no chance that we would go hungry.

Our tasty shared lunch

In between my stitching, I checked out what was happening on the other tables.  Moira had a nice selection of Sashiko stitching she had recently done, and plans to turn these into table mats.

  Sashiko stitcheries by Moira

Sitting next to Moira was Rae, who was busy beading.  She was making a lovely elephant using silk tie pieces in mainly reds and greens.  Before the elephant is assembled any further, he needs to be embellished with beads, braids and fancy stitches.  You can just see his pair of rather handsome beaded paisley ears at the top of the photo.

  Rae’s beaded elephant pieces 

Another exotic project was Yvonne’s Japanese Doll sampler quilt.  She was machine button holing around each doll, and it is going to look fabulous when it is completed.

Japanese Doll blocks

Vickie was another who was also doing some button hole machine stitching.  She was making the most impressive border strips, full of swirls and points. 

Vickie’s border strips

“Just using up my scraps”, said Jill, when she held up her beautifully shaded random scrap quilt, stitched in a crazy patch style.  The quilt just glowed with colour, all set off nicely with the black lattice strips.  She was busy hand quilting during the afternoon.  

  Jill’s quilt of many colours

Another lovely quilt was Debbie’s autumn toned hexagon quilt.  I really admire people who work with hexagons – all that cutting, tacking the papers on, then stitching together by hand.  Not for me, I don’t think, but I can certainly appreciate all the hours which go into these works of art.

Debbie’s hexagon quilt

Sarah had her quilt laid out on the table when I arrived, while she contemplated just how to machine quilt it.  Decision made, she got to work on her purple hued quilt..

Sarah machine quilting

I had a lovely day, as I’m sure all the other ladies did.  It was nice to meet up with some more club members too.

Scatterday - B

Oops, think I missed the previous scatterday, but I’m here to do homage to the letter “B”.  The categories are:  library, smell, equipment, blog.

Library:  book bag.  I love libraries, and when we moved house a few months ago, one of the first things I did was to sign up with the local library.  They run a monthly book club, so I joined that too.  The monthly categories take us out of our comfort zones, to read a book that we probably would never consider.  (I love serial killers, thrillers, authors like Lee Child, anything about the Tudors, historical novels, and whatever else takes my fancy).  My book bag gets taken along on my regular visits to the library.   It started off as a plain black library bag, with a logo front and back, purchased for $2, and I’m rather pleased with the make-over.

  My personalised library book bag

Smell:  boronia.  Boronia comes in many varieties and colours, but the unassuming  brown boronia is my favourite, with it’s delightful scent.   Boronias are Australian natives (I didn’t realise that before)  and have a profusion of flowers in the spring.  I love this little bush, so I’ll need to purchase one to plant in our new garden.

Brown boronia

Equipment:  Bernina.  My Bernina Aurora 440 Quilter’s Edition is a very special piece of equipment indeed.  Quilters like us use our sewing machines very regularly, and we grow very attached to them.  After sewing for many years in a corner of the dining room, my Bernina now has it’s own little room in our new house.  Aren’t I lucky!

My Bernina machine at home

Blog:  That’s why we are here, of course, writing our blogs. Our household has two – my quilt blog, and our caravan/travel blog, so that keeps me busy.  I can always find something to write about.  And it goes without saying that I love to read other blogs too.  For any new readers, the links are: 

Quilt blog: www.romanyquilting.blogspot.com     

Travel blog: www.romanyrambler.blogspot.com

The “Romany” in our blog names refers to the fact that I can boast a Romany Gypsy way back in my family. My Great, great, great Grandfather Robert Beresford was a gypsy. I can just imagine this dark handsome stranger sweeping my G,G,G, Grandmother off her feet. This must be why we have a caravan and why I love travelling!!

Blog writer at work

I don’t like it, so it’s got to go

I’ve got a big job in front of me, I’m sorry to say.  Unpicking a whole lot of machine quilting.  THe quilt is about half quilted by now.  I don’t like the way it looks, and I’m sure that if I keep going, I’ll hate it even more.  So I’ve started unpicking all my hard work.

The problem is, I’ve been using a variegated thread in Christmas colours of red, green and cream in the alternate pieced blocks.  The colours show up every swirl and loop which isn’t as nice and smooth as it should be, jumps out and hits me in the eye.  I’ve done a trial block using cream thread and the quilting blends in without being so intrusive.  So that’s what I’m going to do – unpick all the coloured thread and re-quilt using cream thread.  I’ll be much happier with the final result, I’m sure.  Wish me luck on my epic job!

Through the Kitchen Window

The rain has been coming down, down, down overnight,  and the view through the kitchen window looks like a swimming pool.  A very shallow pool, I admit, but full to the brim with water, never-the-less.  We had some workmen in yesterday as we are having some concrete laid in the back yard.  They dug, and dug, and put all the soil in a big heap.  Then the area was smoothed out, and some boxing put in place.  When the concrete is laid, this will be our summer BBQ area.  But today, it looks like a swimming pool!

Anyone for a dip?

On a rainy day like this the sewing room beckons.  I’m doing some free motion machine quilting on a large quilt.  I’m no expert, by any means, but I do my best.  This quilt had been put away for some time, with some of the straight line quilting already done.  (I’ll tell you the story some other time.)  So now I’m adding some loops and swirls to finish it off.  My quilting isn’t always as smooth and rounded as I would like, but I’m doing the best I can.  I’ll never win any prizes for my quilts, but finished is better than perfect, I say.

I’ve been machine quilting today

A (small) finish

It’s always nice to have a finish, no matter how small, and I’m quite pleased with how this has turned out.  Our new (larger) coffee table needed a table runner. The double wedding ring runner used on our former coffee table was so small on the larger sized table, it looked ridiculous!  So I got to work and cut out all the pieces for a new one, using my very handy book called “Around the Block”, by Judy Hopkins, which shows how to make 200 rotary cut blocks in six sizes.

The saw tooth stars were made from some of the extra curtain fabric, using a cream patterned fabric for the background, and plain green for the borders.  After a small glitch  with my cutting out, it all went together easily.  I’ve just finished stitching the binding down – there, all done.

Coffee table runner