A (small) finish

It’s always nice to have a finish, no matter how small, and I’m quite pleased with how this has turned out.  Our new (larger) coffee table needed a table runner. The double wedding ring runner used on our former coffee table was so small on the larger sized table, it looked ridiculous!  So I got to work and cut out all the pieces for a new one, using my very handy book called “Around the Block”, by Judy Hopkins, which shows how to make 200 rotary cut blocks in six sizes.

The saw tooth stars were made from some of the extra curtain fabric, using a cream patterned fabric for the background, and plain green for the borders.  After a small glitch  with my cutting out, it all went together easily.  I’ve just finished stitching the binding down – there, all done.

Coffee table runner

Keep me away from Glue Guns

I just can’t be trusted with those hot glue guns, and that is why I got rid of my little cheapie one some years ago.  But a glue gun was required the other day at Krazy Cow stitchers group to finish my block roll project.  Our tutor Luchelle kindly brought her one in from home for me to use.  But….. you can imagine what happened.  I had to cover the heavy cardboard roll with fabric.  The first few dabs of hot glue were put on, and I had to smooth the fabric down over the roll and hold it in place.  My gluing had been too generous and drops were everywhere, and it stuck to my fingers.  Oh, those little dabs of glue were smoking hot, and I ended up with a big blister on my finger!  Luchelle took over the job, and it was all done correctly in no time at all.  No burnt fingers for her.

Block Roll

My block roll started life as a “quilting” tea towel, sent to me by my UK pen-friend a while ago. I backed it with calico, added a light wadding, and stipple quilted the layers together.  Then I added the red binding and ties – and as mentioned earlier, I sadly failed the hot glue gun part of the job.  The tea towel certainly tells a story.

Quilters Quips

Quilting and patchwork are fun to do

Use up your scraps or buy stuff that’s new

In goes the needle, then pull through the thread

Loads of bright colours, blue, gold and red

Techniques and traditions, from home and abroad

Enjoy your designs, and you’ll never be bored

Rustic or modern, you must have a go

Select your own templates, and start to sew

Quick as a flash, you’ll piece and you’ll patch

Unique masterpieces, you’ll very soon hatch

Ideas and designs of star, chain or plate

Pinwheels and triangles, they’ll grow at a rate

Start sewing today, you’ll find it’s just great

By Marjorie Carrier - 1996

I’ll be using my nice new block roll to keep my stitchery blocks tidy and flat, and I can carry them safely to stitching days.

Krazy Cow Stitchers

We had another good morning at Krazy Cow quilt shop yesterday.  That was, till I glanced out the window and saw the rain coming down hard.  Oh no, I had just hung a big load of washing out on the clothes line before I left home, and now it was out in the rain!  So what was everyone doing?

The “other” Jenny was there, working on her original elephant quilt.  For a first time quilter, she is doing really well.  It was time to sew the borders on.  No, teacher Luchelle told her, we don’t just sew a long strip on and chop off the ends,  we measure!  A new quilter wouldn’t necessarily know that unless told, but Jenny took it all in her stride.

Jenny sewing on her borders

Glenys wanted to make a block roll, but first had to practise some free motion quilting.  Practise drawing it first, Luchelle advised, so that your hand and brain work together at the machine.  That’s really good advice.  Then with the feed-dogs dropped, and the darning foot on, away she went, free motion quilting her three layers together.

Glenys machine quilting

With her table runner all done and dusted, Ann went back to work on her cot quilt.  Teacher Luchelle had taken it home and free motioned quilted it for her, so that was a bonus.  Ann machine stitched the binding on, then just needed to hand stitch it down at the back.  She is very proud of her mitred corners, she told me, a technique she has just learnt.  Don’t forget to add the label, I reminded her.  This is such a pretty little quilt, in blue and lemon.

Ann’s cot quilt, almost finished

Luchelle brought along two of her projects to show us.  A friend asked her to make a quilt using her baby’s pyjamas and stretch-and grows.  Not nice fabric to work with at all, we were told.  The end result used a selection of other fabrics, and embroidered pieces of the stretchy stuff appliquéd on.  Hasn’t it turned out great!

Cot quilt using baby’s pyjamas

We all loved Molly with her knitted red wool hair.  Luchelle is making this for her grand-daughter’s birthday, and just needs to finish off the face.  The little pink pinafore has butterflies, snails and wiggly worms appliquéd on it.

Molly the rag doll

And what was I doing all morning?  Wounded in action, but that’s another story.  There was a nice surprise waiting for me when I arrived home for lunch.  Robin had rescued the washing from the rain, and pegged it all up on the clothes horse.  What a good fellow!

Town and Country Quilters June Club-night

It gets dark early these days, with the shortest day of the year coming up fast.  So it was pitch black when I drove myself along to the Town and Country Quilters meeting.  33 pincushions were entered in the pin cushion swap, most participants made one, although some happy stitchers made two and even three to swap.  The pincushions were all numbered, and the members came up one by one as their name was called, when they put their hand into a bucket and pulled out the number of their prize.  There were some great entries, a couple of tea cup ladies, several chickens, a few mice, and even a giraffe.  Some were pieced, some embroidered, beaded and embellished.  Everyone did a great job on these little works of art.

Lots of lovely pin cushions

“Show and Tell” is always inspiring, and we were in awe of Kay’s lovely quilt, which took her 4 plus years to complete.  And no wonder – this quilt was made with 10,000 one and a half inch squares, assembled into blocks of 100.  She was trying to use up her scraps, she said, but of course that never happens, does it.

Ten thousand tiny squares in this quilt

Then we saw a jeans quilt with a difference.  Who would have known that jeans are available in such glowing colours?  Virginia’s quilt glowed with colour, red, green, yellow, and some denim blue too, and was fun to make, she said.  Jeans pockets and labels add extra interest.

Bright denim quilt

Another bright quilt was shown, this one by Helen was made in brights, with black and white.  The coloured border sets it off nicely too.

Helen’s colourful quilt

Small and perfect describes Paula’s incredible skill with her sewing machine.  She attended a workshop which showed how to appliqué a tray cloth or doily onto background fabric, then add embellishments.  This small piece has been beaded, and beautifully machine quilted.  It is a bit hard to see in the photo, but take my word for it, this is stunning.

 

Paula’s appliquéd and quilted tray cloth

Our guest speaker for the evening was Kathy, a member who has spent five years living full time in a bus, while travelling around our beautiful country.  She brought along some of her early quilts to show us, then some of the things she had made by travelling around the country.  I particularly liked her Memory Quilt, with each block representing sights and places of interest discovered during her travels.

Kathy’s memory quilt

Her lovely crazy quilt was made to while away the long winter evenings.  It was stunning, perhaps I’ll get motivated to do of these one day.  She also showed us some smaller pieces she had stitched, each and every one a special memory of her trip.

Crazy patch quilt in foreground

Kathy had recently had a trip to India, and had lots of interesting textiles to show us.  Sari lengths, scarves, a glowing orange bed cover, and even a skirt embellished with those little mirror pieces, we admired them all.  Textiles can be purchased quite cheaply, by our standards, so it would be hard to know when to stop buying, I expect.  Perhaps when the suitcase won’t close any more.  She has plenty of fabric to work with for years to come, she commented.

Club President Leigh made an interesting observation during our meeting.  She had recently been to a stitching day and was looking forward to working on some of her older UFOs.  But, she commented, during the time they have been packed away, waiting to be pulled out and worked on, she decided that she just didn’t like a couple of them anymore.  Her message was – don’t put your time and energy into working on a quilt that you really don’t like any more.  Better to give it away, donate it, sell it, whatever, and channel your energy into a project that you love.  Wise words indeed – perhaps I’ll have to look through my stack of UFOs with a critical eye.

Why I’ll never be a famous quilter

Isn’t there a saying that applies to quilters such as, “Measure twice, cut once”?  I didn’t do that today, so that is why I will never be a prize winning quilter, I expect.  But never mind, we do this for fun, don’t we?

I’m making a table runner for our new coffee table.  My first hurdle of the day was trying to find my very handy book called “Around the Block”, by Judy Hopkins, which shows how to make 200 rotary cut blocks in six sizes.  But my book wasn’t where I expected it to be, so I had to do a bit of searching.  There it was, tucked away in a corner of the bookshelf, I’m so pleased I found it at last.  I had some extra curtain fabric which I wanted to use, and found a couple of extra pieces which I thought would work well.  The chest freezer in the internal garage is just the right height for me to use as a cutting table, and there is room for the ironing board close by, so I was all set to go.

All ready to start

Being predictable, I chose the saw-tooth star block for my table runner.  I cut and sliced, pinned and stitched, and finished up with a bunch of these. 

Star points made

But……. when I came to stitch these pieces on to the centre square of the star, I discovered I’d made a cutting mistake.  The green centre squares were cut five and a half inches, and the star points were five inches.  What to do?  Easy, I’ll just trim the centre squares down to fit, that should do it.  Just as well I’m only making a few stars for a runner, and not for a large quilt, as all the measurements would be way out!

Three star blocks done

Now I’ll just have to stitch them together and add a border.  But I think I’ll leave that for another day.  I’ve made a good start, and  I’m happy with my progress so far.  I’ll stop now before I make any more mistakes, I think.

Where’s my lemon zester?

I’ve been looking for my lemon zester for ages.  Looked in the cutlery drawer, and in the one underneath, where all the other kitchen bits and pieces are kept.  I even checked the caravan utensil drawer, just in case I had taken it away on a trip sometime.  But no – it was nowhere to be found.  But then, when I was looking in the cutlery drawer for something else, I spotted it.  So what I want to know is – who had it, and when was it returned? 

I finally got to use my lemon zester yesterday, on a lemon or two.  It’s such a handy little item, I don’t know how I have lived without one for so many years.  I’d seen them used on a TV cooking programme, and my daughter Nicky said they were really great.  If I didn’t know what to get her for Christmas,  could she have one of these, please.  No problem, I bought two, one for her, and one for me. 

My long lost lemon zester

Caravan club friend Barbara had given me a big bag of feijoas.  They don’t last very long before they start going soft and squishy, so I cooked up a batch of feijoa jam.  The recipe calls for the rind and juice of a couple of lemons, so I was really pleased to finally meet up with my lemon zester again.  Not sure what I did to the jam this time, but it didn’t set properly.  Into the pan it went again for a second boil, and the results were much better this time.  Thanks for the fruit Barbara, one of these jars is for you.

Feijoa jam

While cleaning up after my jam making operation, and putting things away in the kitchen cupboards, Muffy couldn’t help herself and jumped in to have a look.  Oh look, there goes her tail.

Is that a tail I see in the cupboard?

No, nothing much of interest to a discerning cat, so she carefully turned around and wended her way out again.

I’m coming out now

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times she has explored the same cupboard, any opening always gets her interest.  We are pleased that she is feeling brighter, as she had a trip to the vet after having a funny turn a week or so ago.  She seems much better but needs a return trip to the vet shortly for another blood test to compare the two results. Fingers crossed – and I’ll keep you posted.

Krazy Cow Stitchers

It was back with Krazy Cow Stitchers today, after missing a week while on yet another caravan trip.  This trip, we stopped off at Ekatahuna, of all places – just because it was there!

My sewing project today looked like this.  It’s cream, and burgundy, and isn’t quite finished yet, so that’s all that can be shown.  But it is coming along nicely, and hopefully it will be completed next week when I attend the group.

Wonder what this is?

The other Jenny is still working away on her elephant quilt, and has done most of the machine appliqué now, and has framed it with a nice striped fabric.  Today she was making blue and green blocks with red centres to add as the second border.

 

There's an elephant in there somewhere

Glennis and Suzie were two friendly ladies whom I hadn’t met before.  They were both making a sampler quilt, and today they were working on a paper pieced log cabin block each.

  Suzie happily ironing her strips

Glennis’s paper pieced block

Ann had almost finished her beautiful batik table runner, and was stitching down the binding.  This beauty is a birthday gift for her daughter, and the teals, oranges and dark blues  look wonderful together. 

  Ann with her table runner

With all of us doing different projects, Luchelle was running from one to the other.  But she took it all in her stride, and showed us her pretty hand embroidered blocks she works on when time allows.  A new creation was her Kaffe Fasset quilt top in a large tumbler patter, full of colour and flowers.  Ooops, I forgot to take a photo of that.

Luchelle’s pretty pastel blocks

In between making coffees and serving customers, Trish was busy at her long arm machine, working on another customer’s quilt.  This one was a Mariner’s Compass in blues and reds.

Trish working her quilting magic

A lovely morning, once again, and many thanks to Luchelle for her helpful advice.  Special thanks to the other Jenny too, for bringing in some home baking to share with us.