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.

Elaine's creation from Jenny's 'scraps'

 When I was at Baradine in April Jenny gave me lots of scraps, many of which were triangles left from a quilt she had made. Elaine loved these triangles so I gave them to her to play with. Here is the finished quilt...

It really looks great in real life too and will probably be donated to the cancer patients that Karen has contact with.

Just remember - Scraps are not Rubbish!

Pockets

 I came across a post today about Pockets. Juxtaposed with this is the July Chookshed challenge of #9. My #9 is to make another quilt using Surrey's shirts of which I still have plenty.

I have featured shirt pockets in a number of the quilts I've made from his shirts.

Now it is time for some new ideas for pockets and a shopping trip to replace all my pants I recently tossed because they had no pockets.

Memories from Robyn

 Yesterday Robyn sent me a photo of one of the group quilts we made in 2011.

The focus fabric was brown print roses which was difficult to manage for a remote group. The quilt was put in the Quilt Show and won a highly commended award. Robyn won the quilt and chose to keep it. Here it is on one of her beds.

It really looks quite stunning! Thanks for the memories Robyn.

Kerrie's Quilt Extension

 Kerrie had a quilt that was a wall hanging and she wanted to extend it and use it as a quilt. The hanging was quite old and of course we could not match the fabric. She has been to mine every now and then and we've worked on it together. 

A few weeks ago the quilt was completed and Kerrie is very happy.

One happy warm lady.

Extension tables for sewing machines

 Yesterday Stephanie came to play while my roof gutters were being cleaned. We did a bit more on our Black and Brights quilt but then decided to face the issue of extension tables for sewing machines. 

I'd looked up prices for extension tables but then noticed that I could not even get one for 3 of my machines. I've been using a small cardboard box on one machine and that gave me an idea.

So we spent most of the afternoon considering how to create templates for the bases of the machines (each one is different) then how to cut some very old and damaged herbarium boxes to solve the problem.

Lots of trial and error later and we now have two extension tables.

Last night at 2am I even worked out that if I sit the box back in its lid and cut just the edge flap that goes under the machine the whole thing will be held in place with the weight of the machine. I'll try that tomorrow when I have a bit of time.

Who would have thought?

Saturday Zoom and gathering

 On Saturday we were a very small group for our physical get together but we did achieve a lot.

Our Stained Glass now has a border.

Karen made and extra Card Trick block as we did not have enough returned and I altered two blocks because they were not large enough.

We are unable to alert makers to the issue of some blocks not quite meeting the stipulated criteria because we don't know whose is which. 

We seem to have all lapsed in labelling our blocks except for Jeanette (thank you). When you return your block please write your name on the back along one of the seams then we can help anyone who seems to need help.

The Orange blocks are up but we are short a few blocks. Also one is missing because it needs to be reconstructed in parts. Again we don't know whose it is. We have decided a dark blue sashing might go well with this one.

Why didn't I think of that? The other day I was watching a YouTube video and noticed a lady had a square ended ironing board and her quilt fitted better than a pointy ended one. Then I realised she just had it turned around! It works so well.

I've now turned both of mine around.

Elaine had time to finish the top of the brown quilt she is making. It really looks quite stunning.

Jeanette showed us her latest achievements on Zoom but could not work out how to turn the camera around to show us so she sent photos instead. I have included them below.

I love them all, thanks Jeanette.

Another new purchase from the refund

 Elaine and I went to Spotlight yesterday and, apart from polar fleece, I bought us another new sewing machine. Luckily Elaine noticed that the one I picked up had been opened so I quickly swapped it over. 

This morning I opened the box and got the machine working.  I was packed with a piece of brown paper under the sewing foot and that had obviously absorbed excess oil. I've sewn a tiny bit with it and it sounds fabulous. This one actually purrs. I hope it keeps working well because I am well sick of machines that do not work.

I even checked the foot pedal of the old Bernina this morning too before I give up on it completely - it is completely clean so that is not the issue. I will donate that to Stephanie's other group who may have someone who can fix it for them or can use it for parts. What a pity.