Jo has show and tell to inspire us

 Our newest member, Jo, sent through her latest finish. It is a quilt, pillow and playmat all in one as a quillow.

What fun for one very lucky little boy.

See Jo's post about it here.

Jeanette and Elaine have show and tell

 First another Brown Quilt that Elaine and I teamed up to do (she did most).

It turned out really well.

Now for some of Jeanette's finishes that she showed us on zoom on Saturday..

Hexie table topper

Hexie dogs for a friend who is dog mad.

Karen's yummy cake

 At our last quilting weekend Karen brought a lovely cake for our afternoon tea.

Here is the recipe as promised...

Carrot Cake (GF and other adaptations by Karen)

 

2 cups plain flour (if using gluten-free, add ½ tsp xanthan or guar gum, or 1 tbsp golden syrup)

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon (plus ½  tsp each of ground ginger, five-spice powder, cardamom, or to taste)

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups grated carrot

1 cup chopped walnuts

250 gm tin pineapple (crushed or chopped; drained)

 

Frosting

250 gm butter, softened

250 gm cream cheese

c. 250 gm icing sugar, sifted (add more to make stiffer, sweeter frosting)

1 tsp vanilla essence

 

Sift flour, baking powder and soda, spices and salt.

 

Beat eggs well in a separate large bowl. Add sugar and oil gradually, continuing to beat.

Fold in carrots, nuts and pineapple gradually, mixing well after each addition.

Fold in flour mixture gradually. (If using g/f flour, add a little liquid, e.g. from the pineapple tin, if the mix is too stiff.)

 

Divide mixture between two rectangular slice tins, lined with baking paper.

 

Bake at 180ºC for  15-30 minutes depending on your oven. They are cooked when a skewer in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to sit in the pans for 15 minutes, then put on wire racks to cool, covered with a tea towel.

 

Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese together, adding icing sugar gradually and vanilla. 

Use the frosting either on top of the cakes or as a middle layer between the two.

 

Tip: Unless there will be a lot of hungry mouths, only ice one of the cakes (or cut it in half and sandwich the halves with the frosting) and freeze the other cake (without any frosting) for later use.

After freezing, defrost then heat in a microwave oven for about 1 minute before adding frosting.

 

Karen Wilson

September 2025

 

Based on a recipe from Priscilla Roth in The Independent newspaper, London,  c. 1988

September is flying past

 Sorry that this has taken so long to come but sheds have taken precedence.

Elaine and Karen came for our scheduled day together a few weeks ago, Liz was on Zoom. I received a few shadow blocks after our day so we will need to work out where they will go.

Progress so far includes...

Carol's Orange now has its borders added and binding cut but it needs a polar fleece backing. I don't have any to hand so we'll need to buy that in a dark blue or teal I think.

Lots of shadow blocks have come in and our thinking is to make a more adult quilt with the 'favourites in blue/green' combined with some of the brown. The 3.5" blocks at the RH side are random thoughts about using up some squares as a border. The 3 blocks on the left are the extras that we will need to add to either this or the child's quilt.

This is what we have so far for the child's quilt but one or two of them are quite suitable for the more adult one. 

I had so many offcuts of polar fleece that Stephanie and I are in the process of making some 'franken' polar fleece backs for these quilts.

We chose another fabric for our next quilt and I have cut pieces but not sent them out yet. I have not made the trial block to show you either so you will need to be patient.

We thought that the fabric lends itself to a block like the one Jeanette showed us with the pale part of her borders in the pale blue we found in our stash. I'll send this out with the focus fabric. Your job will be to find one of the other darker colours in the fabric (not white or any of the greens and not the yellow either. Good luck.

Achievements from our last weekend get together

 At our gathering on Saturday we spent a few brief moments looking at the blocks that have been received so far for our next three quilts. The RH column are the favourite fabrics, the centre column are the brown, and the LH column are the kids blocks. There are still more to come back and I know they will keep us busy for a while making our three quilts.

When Stephanie and I stayed with Jenny in April she gave us this quilt top to sandwich and finish. This has now been done and will make a lovely quilt for someone. Each of the feature hexies is different!

The blocks for Carol's orange feature fabric are coming together nicely thanks to a lot of resewing on one or two of them. We think we'll add another border of the feature fabric then bind it in navy to frame it.

We added the binding to the card tricks quilt and I have spent the last few evenings staying warm in front of TV while I hand stitched the binding. How stunning is this one!

Last week Stephanie brought a suitable binding fabric for the black quilt so it also kept me warm while I hand hemmed the binding.

The finished quilts all need labels then can go to appropriate homes. If you know of anywhere then please let us know.

News from Jeanette

 "My latest completed quilts which I've quilted myself.  - they are Tumalo Trail done in my 1.5" scraps. The larger one is "Turning Twenty Again"."

I love the top one with all its little leaders and enders. Thanks for sharing Jeanette.

Using scraps.

 My second finish for 2025. I made this one from my strip scraps by sorting colours and tones then creating courthouse steps blocks around leader-ender 4-patches until one dimension was trimable 6.5". Heights of each block are whatever they turned out. Lots of fun.

Saturday achievements

 When we gathered on Saturday we 3 were very pleased to make so much progress...

We now have some bright pink polar fleece to back our stained glass quilt top. That will be tacked next time we meet.

Our card trick blocks have now been tacked onto bright blue polar fleece and an appropriate binding has been found. We were so pleased to find an excellent border in the stash and have attached that as well.

We had lots of trouble with the sizing of these card trick blocks and the orange blocks below. Elaine has now put the brown ones together with sashing and cornerstones and we will do the sides next time we meet.

We have now reinstated our early rule to write your name or initials onto one of the pale seams on the back of your blocks. This will mean that we can keep track of who has blocks still to arrive and to better teach those who are having some difficulties constructing their blocks.

When Kerrie and Pernilla were here we started making some scrappy blocks for my next project.

A decision was made to make 6 pale and 6 rich in each of 8 colours - red, pink, purple, yellow, orange, brown, green and blue.

I threw them on the table and was so pleased with the effect I continued to make blocks. Each block starts with a leader-ender 4patch and then grows with thin or thick strips on alternate sides to make sure the 4patch is off-centre. Nothing is measured, nothing is squared but I do need one side straight as a guide to sew along.

While dog sitting at Ellen's I was able to trim all the blocks to 6.5" wide and whatever height they came out as.

Now that I am home again I am playing with layout and will soon start sewing them together in columns.

I'll use appropriate fillers to make them all the same length when the time comes.

Continuing our Zoom from Saturday

 So many could not join our Zoom on Saturday so have sent photos of their latest work for our show and tell.

Jeanette has finished Brother Bear Sister Sun. It was paper pieced. She says: "I finished quilting it at a Stay Home Retreat and it nearly killed me. My shoulders & neck told me I was mad.....most likely! However I was pleased with the result. The backing is a few "bears". One of our Patch ladies found it in the furnishing section of Spotlight for $1/metre!!!  So bought 5m. "

Liz  created this at a workshop and says: "it is a wall hanging I started with a Gloria Loughman class here in Palmerston North. Apparently she is retiring from doing classes after this year so it was great that we had booked her three years ago!

 It was a very enjoyable experience, she always is a good teacher.."

Christine send a photo of her latest creation and says: "I made this wall hanging at a workshop run by one of my quilting group members recently, it is Globe by Zen Chic, all very challenging to get it balanced and all the little pieces in the correct spot but I am pleased with the end product."

At the Zoom itself Elaine showed another quilt made from donated scraps.

This and her previous quilt were both made from a mass of triangles donated to me at the Baradine Quilting Retreat earlier this year.

Some really amazing work from our members. 

News from Heather (NZ)

 As Heather is unable to make our Zoom today she has sent me news about her quilting and craft room.

Firs a quilt she made recently for her nephew's first daughter.

She also sent me an update on the progress in her new craft room...

"We have finished painting the Craft room as it will be. Cupboards removed for painting and awaiting the blinds for the windows. I have started to set up my machine and cutting table and not much else!!! The remaining bedroom  is currently a store/junk room and luckily the door is left open , otherwise one would not be able to open it!

The intention is to keep the sewing tables clear of "stuff" so that I can sew easily.....I am looking forward to actually sewing. The machine got a thorough clean yesterday and a new blade in the rotary cutter. So all ready to sew; only issue is that the fabric and patterns are in the "storage" room. A lot more tidying up in the near future.

The spare room has one of 1st quilts that I made - embroidery and patchwork - and that felt great to get out it's plastic storage container and onto the bed.

Slow but good progress."

Good luck with your progress Heather.