Home from Brisbane..

and a really great time with family and friends. The retreat was fabulous and I felt like I was part of the ‘group’, so much so, that I hope to be able to return to next years retreat.

 
Unfortunately I should have taken a group photo of every-one, but I didn’t so will have to next time.

My sewing table companions Julie & Sharon with Marg. in the background.

 
There are heaps more photos of the retreat on Julies site. She made better use of her camera than I did!! some of the other gals weekend work. 
Sharon & Cath 

Jeanette & Cindy hard at work!                                    Maree Flat out!

At least I have made a start on my Grand-daughters quilt.

Lots of lovely show & Tell

                    

                        

Thanks For dropping by

 

Fun in Brisbane

Hi all

I am having a lot of fun with my family in Brisbane, but can't wait till the weekend where I get to go to a retreat at Mt. Alford with Julie . Julie is the only person I know at this retreat, but I'm sure I'll have a blast. The only problem at the moment is I came away without the lead from my camera to the computer. B.....!! I have a lead for the battery charger, a lead for my phone charger and a lead for my tablet charger if needed, so I guess I could be excused for forgetting something. Trouble is I want to put some pics up.

I am doing some hand applique whilst here, and have just made a start on Mrs Billings coverlet. Phew 5/8" hexagons!!

Also starting one of the 16th birthday grand child quilts. If I get a lead to the camera, I'll post what I get done at the retreat. Mind you there'll be a fair bit of talking and eating going on, and I've got my supply of red wine at the reddy!

Bye for now

Sue

http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

I Spent the Most Enjoyable Weekend…

in a class tutored by Karen K Stone, from USA. Karen is a wonderful tutor who is very happy to share her ideas and methods on the quilts she has made that weren’t even part of the class. She had brought with her a suitcase full of quilts, and I managed to photograph some of them.

The photo above left was our class quilt.

Lots of ribbon, wool, rick rack and anything you wanted to add.

This was an eye opener for me, as I am very organised in my quiltmaking. This was so much fun, as I didn’t worry about what I was doing, and looked upon it as a fun weekend. As you can see mine wasn’t up to much, and I have a bit to do still, but  I think it will be good hanging in the loo. The only space  on a wall that I have left. haha!

Karen demonstrating joining blocks as in QAYG. As there were no class notes to speak of Karen very kindly gave us some notes on another quilt of hers. Photo above.

This one looks like a bit of me. I love those Foundation Pieced Blocks.

I came home, full of smiles. I said to my DH how lovely it was to have a weekend of laughter and general silliness with a bunch of friends. That’s what quilting is all about isn’t it?

Thanks for dropping by

Busy, Busy….

I seem to be doing a bit of everything at the moment, but don’t have much to show for it yet.

Last Friday night our little Quilt group held a Midnight Madness, for those who wanted to sew their own projects, and those who wanted to make cushions. As a community project Village Green Quilters (VGQ) sew 15” cushions, and then gift them to the Heart Patients at Auckland Hospital.

These cushions are used as a buffer against the chest wound, in the Patients recovery program. They need them when they are in the car, so get to take them home.

   

Its such a fun thing to do – going through all the scraps, so on Sunday afternoon I managed to make these cushion tops. I just have to put the backs on them.

   

 The hardest part for me is making something suitable for a man, as I noticed how much floral fabric I had in my scrap basket.

I also took a photo of our raffle quilt that was beautifully made by Carol one of our members,  with donations of fabrics from the rest of the group.

We are holding our biennial show in July, so will post some Show & Tell then.

Thanks for dropping bye- see you soon!

-

Back to Work!

I can’t believe its a month since I last blogged. My how time flies.
I had a lovely holiday with my sister visiting the old home town haunts we used to go to as children and reminiscing. We were very disappointed however to find the house we grew up in, was no longer there. Demolished to make way for a huge truck stop and petrol station. Ah well, you can’t stop progress. But, further down the same street, our Grandparents home was still there, and unbelievably our Great Grandmothers house a bit further along. Yes we were all in the same street, as happened in the "good old days". After arriving back from my holiday, the days have flown by. Lots of office work ( end of financial year) and everything in the garden needs to be preserved for the winter. I have been busy freezing Feijoas and made some plum jam from plums I froze last year.
 
I managed to do some appliqueing at night, and I don't know whether I have been back basting or front basting my applique, but whatever its called I am loving it. Its so much easier than pinning or glueing. Cathy of Cabbage Quilts has a great tutorial on the method I used over on this site.
I managed to get the 12 handles of my small Basket Quilt done ready to sew the rest of the basket when I arrived home.
I have also made two little bags as gifts using the method of Leesa Chandler out of an old Quilters Companion mag.
 
Thanks for dropping bye – I’ll try to be quicker next time.
 

Another one finished….

I have finished the binding on another one of the 16th birthday quilts. I set myself the chore of making one for each of the GKids for their 16th birthdays.
I have finished 3 now and only have 5 more to make. one I need to do next year, the others are further down the line. I really like this one, although it was challenging as I said before in one of my posts.


I have also sneaked in another 3 Nearly Insane blocks – Block # 19

Block # 25

And Block # 31

Off to Pauanui for the weekend. My lovely DGS 9th birthday, so see you again
Thanks for dropping by
 

Friendship Medallion Quilt..

It’s a beautiful Summers day here today. One of a few we have had this summer – the weather has been VERY average to say the least! Over the weekend while DH played golf ( twice) I managed to piece my flying geese blocks for Round 5 of my Friendship Medallion Quilt. I was going to give it to my of my grand-daughters, but its going to be so large I think I’ll keep it for my bed. I’ve decided I will practise some domestic machine quilting on it, with the help of my friend Sharon, who is a magician with domestic machine quilting.
Sorry about the shadows and chopping the top off, but when you have a helper and the wind blowing, you can only do what you can. :-)

Nothing else to show at this stage, but I have a birthday pressie to make, and I need to make a couple more Nearly Insane Blocks. So, cheerio for now and thanks for dropping by
 

I Was Slightly Distracted…

from my Medallion Friendship Quilt this past week. After telling my cousin that we planned a trip to her place down country, to visit our DA (her Mother) to celebrate her 89th birthday, she asked me if I intended bringing a quilt to quilt on her Long Arm Frame..
I hadn’t actually thought of it, but as I had started a DGS’s 16th birthday quilt last year, I thought what a good opportunity it would be to finish it. Well, I had only managed to complete about 6 block’s as I found it one of the most challenging things I had made in a long time. The block was very simple, but had to be cut to go one way, for 1 block and the opposite (sort of :-))  for the other.. The challenge was to get all the blocks made in a week, along with all the other things one has to do in life.

I am really happy with the way it turned out, although I should have made another row on each side, plus another row top and bottom to complete the pattern correctly. That would have made the quilt 84 x 92.
I figured that was fairly large for a young man, so finished it up at 60 x 72. I have only done a large stipple, as I didn’t have time to try anything fancier.
Now to finish it off and bind it.
Thanks for dropping by
 

Friendship Medallion Quilt…

I am really pleased to say I have finished round 2 of my Medallion Quilt from Patchwork Pumpkin thanks to Linda who inadvertently gave me the push to get back into it. :-)

Then last week I went to my friend Sharon’s place and pieced Round 3, so now I am waiting for Round 4 to be given to me.

This quilt is designed by Patchwork Pumpkin, but the participants must use fabrics from their stash and not buy any for the quilt. This is VERY easy for me to do. :-)

After completing a round a photo is sent to the shop, and the next round is sent to you.

Round 3

I have also completed another block in my Civil War series.

Block  # 46   Apple Tree

Thanks for dropping by