Mat and ruler bag

I finally did some sewing this weekend and made a bag for my 

cutting mat and rulers from a pattern designed by Wendy Oswin.

Butterfly

Septembers' 12x12 Challenge for WQC

was "Butterfly"

I decided to do some trapunto and practice the

great free motion quilting skills recently learnt.

A Sewing Weekend

Last weekend I headed up North to Russell with 3 of my quilting friends.

We stopped off in Whangarei on the way up to check out the Whangarei Quilters Show.

A really good show.

For some photos check out http://quiltwhangarei.blogspot.co.nz/

 We stayed in this great B & B

The house was moved to Matauwhi Bay in 1990 and lovingly restored

by Marilyn and her late husband Allan.

Matauwhi Bay Saturday morning.

The breakfast menu on Saturday.

After breakfast we moved to the large room Marilyn has set up for sewing.

As a quilter herself, she enjoys having groups of like minded people stay.

 Wendy talked Annette into a jellyroll race.

Annette's on the left and Wendy's on the right.

 At their machines ready to start.

 Wendy is winning so far.

 Annette trying to catch up

 Still smiling event though she is losing by miles.

And the winner is Wendy

Annette's finished.

My Sudoku quilt

 In the evening we had this lovely fire to keep us warm.

My room.  All the rooms had lovely quilts on the bed.

We had dinner out each night and all up had a wonderful time.

Celtic Alphabet

I finished quilting my celtic alphabet wall hanging at the weekend.

Just for Anna, I tried a different quilt design around the letter
and cross hatch quilted the border.

Play on Your Name 12x12 Challenge

This month's WQC 12x12 challenge was

"Play on Your Name"

Claire means clear,bright so I decided to use this piece of

fabric which shows the bright moon on a clear night and

framed it as if looking through a window.

For some of the others see Western Quilters Circle

DG mystery quilt, July

I have caught up on this mystery quilt.

All ready for show and tell at Dream Girls on Friday.

DG mystery quilt so far

I am a month behind on this project so tried to catch up yesterday.

This is the month before done.  I have made the blocks for this month
but haven't quite finished them.

WQC Tui class

 On Sat 14th July WQC had Dianne Fussell come and 

teach her technique for making this beautiful Tui wallhanging.

"Theres tuis in my garden 2" by Dianne Fussell.

It is usually a 2 day class but we only had one day.

We spent the day free motion sewing beautiful rayon threads

 over a colour photo of the big tui.

This is me stitching away

My finished tui.  Only 2 more to go plus the background.

The feet get stitched once the tui is attached to the wallhanging.

Disappearing 9 Patch

Arnie weighing the quilt down while I pin it.

Jake aiding the quilting process.

 It looks great on our bed.  Shame it isn't for us!

"Happy Memories" made for a friend.

Close up of my quilting as I free motion quilted this quilt
on my Janome 6600.

WQC Trapunto with Anna Williams

On Saturday 9th June I attended the WQC workshop with Anna Willams.

This class was her Celtic Alphabet.  

I haven't completed this one yet so will post photos when all done.

On Sunday we had Anna teach us Trapunto.

 This is Anna's class sample.

This is mine at the end of the class.  

Anna used mine to show the removal of the wash away thread so it is 

a little wet and creased.  I carefully put it in the car so it wouldn't get dirty

and DH was being helpful and got it out with dirty hands.  I washed it again

to remove the finger prints and laid it flat to dry.  Next day it was dry but

covered in muddy cat prints.

Here it is completed and made into a cushion.

I really enjoyed both classes.  Anna is a great teacher and has some really good tips.

Although I have been feeling more confident with my free motion quilting, I learnt

lots and now feel a lot more in control of my stitches.  Anna gave us all individual tuition

and I finally have the speed of my machine and my hands sorted so that I get reasonably

even and good sized stitches.  I hope I can maintain it on a big project.

Anna wouldn't let us stipple so I was forced to try other designs.

I am so pleased with my pebbles in the centre.

My First Mitre

The block of the month "Pieces of the Past" that I have been working

on has mitred borders.

 The borders are on and I just have to do the applique on

each corner of the light border.

A close up of my mitre

Boxes of Fabric

A friend of Stuart's gave me 2 boxes of fabric.  His mother used to work

at Barker and Pollocks and has gone in to a home.

I wasn't really sure what to expect so it took me a few days to finally go through it.

There is some really good fabric and some not so good.

I found this in one of the boxes along with a pack of blocks.

I added 3 more rows and plan to complete it and give it to Craig

as a completed quilt.

My Craft Weekend at home

I was supposed to go North to have a Craft weekend with my cousin's.

Rocky was really sick Wednesday night so after paying the after hours Vet

and my own Vet the next day, I couldn't afford to go. (Rocky is good now)

Instead I worked at home and was very productive.

My first project was quilting Poppy's quilt. 

 This is made with the blocks left over from Lindsey's Quilt.

Chloe's Quilt.  I made this little quilt to practice hand quilting.

I hand quilted the centre blocks and then it was put in the cupboard.

Every time I saw it, I thought yes I will finish hand-quilting it but at the 

weekend I decided it was never going to happen.  I machine quilted

the borders and now Chloe has a warm quilt on the chair downstairs.

 I made the rest of the blocks for the disappearing 9 patch top.

Here is the top pieced so now have to save for the border,

backing, batting and quilting.

Disappearing Nine Patch

After I saw a disappearing nine patch quilt made with black and white and red,

I decided I would like to make one.

 Here are 4 of my Nine patch blocks.

I decided to use different colours for my centre block.

Some of the blocks arranged to see what it may look like

.  I need to make some more 9 patch blocks yet to make the size quilt I want.  

These are laid out on my bed and I certainly don't want all those spots together.

Bird 12x12 Challenge

This months' 12 x12 Challenge is "Birds"

I made this block from Michelle Hill's book, "William Morris in Applique"

I used William Morris fabric designed by Barbara Brackman.

Trip Around the World

The May WQC workshop was "Trip Around the World"

with Ann Herrick.

My strips all lined up ready to start sewing.

 
Lots of chain piecing

Strips sewn together

Pressed and in tubes

The strips were then cross cut and placed into bag A & B

Not quite there yet but no more time so Ann used my blocks so far

to demonstrate how to put the blocks together.

This way

Or this way?

Altogether.  Shame I can't photograph straight.

I love this top and really enjoyed the workshop.