Tuesday, September 24, 2013

10 days to Hand in Day

For the Festival of Quilts in Auckland, and I am busy finishing two quilts.  I am not on the committee this year, so there was no excuse not to have a quilt to show.
This one I started in March this year…. this is probably a record for me to start and finish a quilt in the same year. :-)
I started machine quilting this about 2 weeks ago and as I am not a good machine quilter yet… I am just doing straight lines. 

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The other quilt…..I have just collected from the quilter….and have sewn 9 metres of binding on. Now for the hanging sleeve.

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Remade

A post or two back you will have seen where I had made 72 nine patch blocks - all the WRONG size for my quilt. After much anguish and lamenting, I realised I had to bite the bullet and make 72 new ones.

 I couldn't just cut the originals down to size as it meant the centre row in the 9 patch would have been a different size to the others. 
I then looked at my quilt and realised that the last 2 'rounds' of my medallion weren't fitting as per the instructions. After checking the emails against what I had printed I realised my printer had printed the measurement wrong and where I had read/cut 1 3/4" for my plain borders they should have been cut
1 1/2".

So, after undoing my quilt back to the last 3 rounds, and resewing them, I now have it pretty right!!

Please excuse the photo but it is getting very hard to find a space large enough to fit the quilt in for a photo.
Now for the last couple of borders.
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http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 22, 2013

A Bit of Show & Tell….

from our Wednesday group of VGQ, my little local group. A nasty old day, wind, rain and quite cold, so ventured off for some quilting.

2013-08-21 12.25.24 2013-08-21 12.24.58 Sue and Esther sewing their Farmers Wife Blocks.


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Lois and her lovely applique.


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Jennie sewing the last of her applique on her Vintage Crosses quilt.                                                                                                                          Pattern available at Pinevalley Quilts


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Sheila preparing some Farmers Wife Blocks.
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Lorraine preparing some applique blocks.


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Chris stitching her Blue Work


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A couple of lovely bags made by Lorraine.


2013-08-21 12.56.172013-08-21 12.49.28 Ngaere’s Jelly Roll quilt. 
                    
More of my Hexagons for Mrs Billings Coverlet.

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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Had an enjoyable…

couple of hours away from home yesterday afternoon. DH and I went down the road – 10 minutes away – had lunch which was very yummy, then went to our local patchwork shop  All Things Patchwork.
Well actually we went across the road to the Waimauku School Hall where Cheryl the owner of All Things Patchwork, had set up a one day only show. 
The quilts were made by people who buy most of their fabrics from ATP. It was a really lovely show with not many repeats which sometimes can happen in small shows.
I dont know the names of the people who exhibited these quilts, but they were some of my favourites.


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Hope you enjoy these colourful quilts. Sorry a couple are blurry. Was using my phone.
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Sue

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Home again after Symposium

I spent a wonderful week away in Taupo. Lake Taupo is the largest Lake

 in New Zealand.  P1020033 P1020082 P1020084 
 at the NZ Quilt Symposium. The weather was picture perfect, as the week before had been freezing temperatures, and snow on the outskirts. The weather for us was cold, but beautiful sunny days. Our thermals were well used, and I’m very glad I bought one or two more to take with me. Sharon and I added some $$ to the business’s in Taupo, as well as the Merchant Mall at the symposium.  Books from Quiltmania, a little bit of fabric ( not much as I have so much already) and a few little handworking kits. I did a class with Kim McLean from


 Australia 2013-07-21 15.14.45 which was interesting, and a really good class with Phillipa Naylor from England, learning Trapanto which was very different for me, and very enjoyable. A great tutor! . This class was not something I would normally have done, but as I had a free day I thought ,,,Why Not! I’m really pleased I did it, as it was so much fun. We even had an elderly gentleman in the class, who said he had bought his wife ( who was a cross stitcher ) a new sewing machine, but after a couple of lessons, she decided to go back to her cross stitch. So, not wanting to have wasted his money, her husband took over the lessons, and now thoroughly enjoys making

 quilts!2013-07-23 08.37.52 2013-07-23 16.23.03 
This was a class sample – not my work unfortunately.

As we had a couple of free days, we popped over to Rotorua to see Cottage Flair Patchwork, and decided to have lunch at the 2013-07-19 14.02.28 Rotorua Museum  cafe. This is a great looking building.

After a week at home, our Guild put on a class with Gwen Marston from USA which was absolutely excellent. She is a lovely lady and we had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend of carefree quiltmaking!

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On the Sunday the workshop committee ladies organised a high tea for our lunch. We all bought a plate of food, and were able to use beautiful old fashioned china which really did make the tea taste nicer. haha!

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I’ll show a pic of what I made next time.
In the meantime its back to the drawing board, or should I say sewing machine to remake 72 x 9 patch blocks


I have made 72 x 9 patch blocks but cut them wrong. Now I have to start all over again. What to do with the mistakes!!
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Making up for Lost Time….

This past week I have been Nonna sitting, ( MIL) and having to be around home I have had time to just sit and sew, but needed something I could do without too much thinking.
My Nearly Insane Blocks were just perfect, but after making 5 more, and have had enough for a few days.
Nearly Insane Block 32 Nearly Insane Block 20 Nearly Insane Block 79 Nearly Insane Block 38
Thanks alot for dropping byNearly Insane Block 73
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Monday, July 1, 2013

I Can’t Believe its Nearly a Year…

Since I last posted a photo of a block. I have now completed 3 this month – the latest today.
Block 55 Block 67  Block 61
Have had a great day today… Got up and went for a 50 minute brisk walk. Haven’t seriously walked for over a year. Felt good. I then finished the last of these 3 blocks, and also finished this hexagon which is going into a birthday quilt for my local quilt group. Everyone was asked to make a Hexagon to this stage. We could put whatever we liked on it and sign it. I’m quite pleased with this. It is a 6” hexie.Village Green Quilters birthday block July 2013

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Two months ago…

Wendy a member of our little quilting group, who used to own a Quilt Shop, came to us with an idea of a mystery quilt which she would design. She gave every-one an applique pattern for the centre block, if they wanted to do one as she had, but we could also make whatever we liked as our centre block. I thought ….hey this would be nice made in Reproduction fabrics, and as I had a block that I had made as an experiment, I thought what a perfect block to 

use. 20130522_111915

I was away the following month, so when I arrived home I emailed and got the 2nd round for this Mystery. This is when I started to get into trouble. Nothing is easy, and I found my block measured 13”instead of the 12 1/2”required. No probs. I thought. I’ll just cut my next round down by 1/2”. Easier said than down as the round measured 1/2”finished. Anyway I accomplished this, but my next round is one short square short on each of the 4 sides. Don’t know how that happened, but it appears my 1/4” SA is on the generous size.

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As it is, I am quite happy with how it looks ….I starched the living daylights out of it. Unfortunately that gave me a light square and a dark square next to each other on a couple of corners, but it’ll have to stay like that. I always think in the last century the women would not have worried about that…so neither will I. :-) VBG!
Will post the next round when done.
While I’m at it I must show you what I have been knitting. A scarf in Angora. Hopefully will be cosy when I go to our Quilt Symposium in Taupo in July. I am using these delightful to knit with needles..Knit Pro by Symfonie.

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