Friendship Group Christmas Meeting

It was the last meeting of the year for my Friendship Group, and as it was December, of course there was a Christmas theme.  We meet monthly for a stitching evening, and work on our own projects, and occasional group projects.  Show and Tell is always a fun part of the evening.  Debbie couldn’t make our previous meeting when we had our Christmas Decoration exchange, so she was thrilled to receive her hand made gift this month.  A beautiful stitched panel covered a wooden cotton reel (the wooden reels are hard to find these days) and the decoration was finished off with dark red glass beads.

Debbie’s Christmas Tree decoration

Helen is a wonderful cook who is so generous with her baking and often brings along a plate to share at our monthly meetings.  In appreciation, Margaret presented her with a special award, a pretty little cup cake mug mat.

  Thank you to Helen

Everyone had brought along a gift and placed it in the basket.  After an hour or two stitching and chatting we were asked, “What shall we do first, presents or supper?”   Presents first, we all decided, and Maureen, as our oldest and wisest member, was asked to walk around the table and hand the gifts out.  My gift contained some yummy Russian Fudge, think I’ll save that till we go away over Christmas. 

Maureen is being Mother Christmas

My gift

The supper was delicious.  There were savoury muffins and pikelets, cup cakes, sponge drops (just like my nana used to make, one of our members commented).  Chocolate cake, slices, brandy snaps, and more.  Everyone really excelled themselves.

Christmas supper

Thanks everyone for your company and friendship during the year.  I have certainly enjoyed our monthly get-togethers.

Hoffman Challenge Quilts

The annual Hoffman Challenge quilts are touring the country, and luckily for me, were just around the corner at Thimbles and Threads.  I took my friend Dot with with to view these works of art.  The chosen fabric for this year was from Hoffman’s Penny Lane collection, with a flowing paisley design in rich hues.  As always, the quilts for this challenge had to be less than one metre in any direction, and be neither square nor rectangular.  “Ride with Me”, by Joanne Mitchel won both the Best Overall Quilt, and Viewers Choice.  Featuring a prancing white carousel horse, with an ornate saddle and livery, the quilt was harbouring a little secret.  A sensor starts the lights to flash and the carrousel music to play when someone walks close by.  I had to agree with the judges that this quilt deserved it’s awards.  The front horse is beautifully done, as are the background details.

“Ride with Me”, by Joanne Mitchel

The iconic Combi van has been a favourite with young Kiwi surfers and campers for many years.  This one, stitched by Wendy O’Neil, was sporting  paint job straight out of the swinging sixties. 

“Hippie Wagon”, by Wendy O’Neill

“Indian Chief War Shield” by Jenny Scudder was a little piece of calm amongst the riotous colours of the other items on display.  We had to really look to see the challenge fabric hidden under the feathers and clothing.  This little gem was very well thought out and executed and was my second choice.

“Indian Chief War Shield”, by Jenny Scudder

Another small offering which took my eye was the little “Indian Elephant”, by Brenda Reading.  This lovely little elephant was dressed in a pretty cover, finished off with beading.  Quite simple, but very effective.

“Indian Elephant”, by Brenda Reading

The award for Best Contemporary Quilt went to Cindy Watkins for “Masquerade”.  The young lady’s face was peeping out of an extravagant mask, as she fluttered her matching fan to great effect.

“Masquerade”, by Cindy Watkins

The Barn Embroiderers of Chesterfield, UK, worked together to make “Ladies Day at the Races”.  This group of embroiderers were unaccustomed to quilt making and they had to think completely “out of the box”, they commented.  Inspiration came from ladies attending Ascot Races.  I think they did a marvellous job working together to create this beautiful quilt of a lady at the Ascot Races sipping on her cocktail  under her shady hat..

“Ladies Day at the Races”, by the Barn Embroiderers

It is always a delight to view the Hoffman Challenge, and it was interesting to take a non quilter with me and watch her reaction as she studied each quilt. 

First day of Summer at Stonestead

Today is the first day of Summer and what a glorious day it was, so nice and warm that the Stonestead Stitchers sat outside in the lovely garden, instead of meeting upstairs as we had done over the colder months.  We dragged one of the large timber  picnic tables over to join two up together to give us a bit more room.  Luckily there were nice big sun umbrellas shading the tables, and Kevin from Stonestead also provides the much needed insect repellent.  Another quilting friend, Jenny H, came over to see what all the noisy chatter was about, and kindly took a group photo for us.

Stonestead Stitchers working in the garden

We all worked on our own individual projects, and the conversation ranged over all sorts of topics, Christmas of course, and family and food got a mention as well.  I was working on a Christmas project, and put the last few stitches in, I’m pleased to say, and will show it closer to the “big day”.  Ruth had brought along her lovely piece of Mountmellick embroidery.  This is a long term project and she is making good progress with it.  She hastened to add that she has also been working on other projects too.

Ruth’s Mountmellick embroidery

Dorothy was adding green hexagons down the side of her Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks.  This popular pattern is made with in the English Paper Piecing method to ensure accuracy, and seems to be enjoying quite a revival lately. 

Dorothy’s pretty flower blocks

Pretty little gift boxes seemed to appear like magic from Vicki-Ann’s talented fingers.  She makes lovely cards too.

Vicki-Ann making gift boxes

Christmas must have been on Cheryl’s mind, as she had brought along two Christmas quilts to work on.  This lovely large Christmas quilt was a “block of the month” and Cheryl button hole stitched around all the appliqué blocks.  She has now machine quilted around the blocks, and still has hand quilting to do in each block.  It’s a big quilt, so that will keep her busy for a while, I expect.

Cheryl’s Christmas quilt

Cheryl had brought along another projects “just in case”.  She is making this Christmas wall hanging as a gift for her SIL, and just has the binding to complete.

Christmas wall hanging

Now it is December, we just have one more fortnightly meeting of the Stonestead Stitchers before Christmas is upon us.   Hope it is another lovely fine day so that we can enjoy sitting in the peaceful garden again.

Lovely Lemons

Although I’ve got quite a sweet tooth, I just love the sharp citrus taste of lemons, and I’ve been given a whole heap of them lately.  So I’ve done a bit of baking and my favourite lemon recipes at the moment are lemon muffins with sugary lemon juice drizzled over the tops while just out of the oven, and lemon slice, made with a crunchy base incorporating rolled oats.   Kept telling myself that I really must have a go at making lemon honey, but I was a wee bit worried about how to do it.  I’m pleased to say I finally got around to trying it.  It’s such a simple microwave recipe, that I really don’t know what I was worried about.  Just sugar, eggs, butter, lemon juice and lots of lovely little curls of rind using my very handy little lemon zester.  Here it is just about ready to go in the hot sterilised jars.

My microwave lemon honey

It just needed another short burst in the microwave and then I poured it into the jars.  These microwave recipes don’t make a huge amount but there was enough to fill two medium sized jars, (plus a little for me to enjoy straight away).

Doesn’t it look yummy?

Luckily for me, Robin doesn’t really like lemon honey that much, so it is “all mine”.  It’s so delicious on a piece of toast for breakfast, wish I’d made some years ago.  Thanks to Dot for sharing her recipe with me – I’ll be sure to make some more before too long.

The Material Art Show

The Material Art Show was a showcase of hand-made quilts, knitted baby clothes and Christmas stockings, all donated by talented crafts people of Wellington.  All items were hand-made by volunteers and are for sale with funds raised to support sick children and premature babies at Wellington Children's Hospital.  My friend Kathryn and I called in to “The Atrium” on Friday, the light and airy foyer of the recently rebuilt  Wellington Hospital to see what it was all about.

Quilts for sale to aid Wellington Children’s Hospital

Volunteers were on hand, and as we were admiring a happy looking quilt made up of African animal faces, the young man on duty was quick to point out that this was his favourite quilt of the display.

Our volunteer’s favourite

The quilts ranged in size from small to large bed size, in a great variety of styles and colours.  Here is just a small sample of a few which took our fancy.  They all seemed to be very reasonably priced too.

Fresh and pretty floral quilt

  A tree full of parrots

Kathryn rather liked this dog quilt, even though she is really a cat person

Display of Christmas quilts and stockings

There were people in the Atrium looking at the quilts, like us.  Patients, visitors and staff also walked past as they all went about their business.  I hope that the sale was a success and that lots of money was raised for the Wellington Children’s Hospital.  We had a cuppa at the adjacent cafe and looked out into the courtyard.   During the recent rebuilding process the original frontage of the hospital was saved and stands proudly in the courtyard.  I can well remember climbing these steps and entering through the doors many times through the years.  Not as a patient, I’m happy to say, I can particularly remember when I was a young working lass coming to visit my Mother as she recuperated from one of her several stays in this hospital.  In those days visiting time was quite regimented, and I had to wait around for a couple of hours after  finishing work for the wards to open in the evenings.  Then afterwards,  catch a bus to the station, and a long train ride home, making it an extremely long day.  Visiting family and friends is so much easier these days.

The original frontage of Wellington Hospital

Pinestream Quilters Christmas Meeting

It was the last meeting of the year for my quilt club, Pinestream Quilters.   Christmas tablecloths, water, juice and fizz were on each table (no wine, as we all had to drive home).  There were Santa hats galore, Christmas earrings dangling from many ears, and this gorgeous dark haired angel sporting a beautiful pair of wings.  On closer inspection, that’s no angel, it’s Tricia!

Tricia wearing her angel wings

As usual, there were lots of lovely quilts at “show and tell”.  Pat had made this pretty Oriental themed quilt for her daughter as a Christmas gift, and has quilted it with both hand and machine quilting. 

Pat’s  Oriental quilt

Rugby is our number one winter sport here in New Zealand, and June had made a rugby quilt for her grandson.  He has been selected to play for the Manawatu Representative team, she proudly announced.

Rugby quilt for June’s grandson

The simple nine patch can make beautiful quilts, and this Wedding quilt was made by Ruth.  The photo doesn’t really do it justice, as the dark squares are made from a beautiful purple and blue floral batik.  Some of the lighter fabrics feature writing, I noticed.

Batik nine patch made by Ruth

Another nine patch  brought along was made from tiny one inch squares.  Sandy’s nine patch quilt also had some square in a square blocks scattered throughout.  This design would help use up some of those smallest scraps that quilters often keep, just in case. 

Sandy’s nine patch quilt

Fay was stitching the binding on her lovely jewel toned quilt on our last Stitching Monday, and here is the finished quilt.  I believe that Fay won some of the blocks at a club night and made some more to finish the quilt.  She added a pieced border around her quilt which really complements the design.  Those colours just glow, don’t they, and the quilt was beautifully quilted by Sue B.

Fay’s quilt

Christine had been working away quite happily doing hand appliqué on this colourful child’s quilt not really knowing who she would be giving it to.  That all changed with the exciting announcement that her son and his wife are expecting their first baby.  The appliqué patterns were a free internet download from Susan Claire, and Sue B once again worked her magic on the quilting.

Christine is hiding behind her quilt

Jan brought two striking bags along to show us.  She made one for herself, and one for her sister.  Aren’t they great?

Two bags for two sisters

As this was the last club night of the year, we all participated in a Christmas quiz.  After a great start of getting the first 9 out of 10 answers correct, sadly our team bombed out.  Some members took part in the Christmas Gift Bag challenge.  This was a little different, as the bags had to be made without using either Christmas themed fabrics, or Christmas colours.  Viewers choice was Gaye and her lovely embellished book bag.

Viewer’s choice in the challenge

Our meeting concluded with a yummy supper with all sorts of special goodies.  Pride of place went to the most delicious Christmas cake baked and iced by Joyce.  It was so popular that I don’t think there would be any left for Joyce to take home.  Hard to believe that this is the last club night of the year, and Christmas is just around the corner.  Merry Christmas to all Pinestream Quilters, and your families.

Lucky me!!

The lovely Lis, who writes the Piece’n’Peace blog, was offering several give-aways  recently to celebrate her 500th blog post. (We had to relate the story of our first ever quilt, so that reminds me that I should share that story here one day, I guess).  Thanks Lis, for sending me the wonderful “Inspirational Strippy Quilts” magazine, there is certainly lots of good reading in here.  Plus an extra gift of a pack of three hanks of Perle thread in bush colours, “Hand dyed in South Africa” the label says.  Thanks so much Lis, and many congratulations on your 500th plus blog posts,  may there be many more to come. 

  My prize from Lis

We met up with Lis and Alan  in April 2010 when they were out here on their New Zealand holiday.  They were staying at Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast, and after exchanging a few e-mails, we arranged to drive up and meet them in a local cafe.  You know what it’s like when quilters get together, even if they haven’t met before, it’s just chatter, chatter, chatter. The the two husbands weren’t doing too bad, either. We decided to share one of those delicious pizzas that the cafe specialises in as we got to know each other a bit better.

Lis and Alan looking forward to a slice of pizza

   The two of us together

Mmm, I’ve just checked “my” blog numbers, and this will be number 328, so I’m a long way from Lis and her 500th.  I’ll just have to keep writing!  Do pop over and visit Lis’s blog.  She is looking forward to an upcoming textile trip to Japan, so that will certainly make interesting reading.