Merry Elves!

Here we all are, the merry elves of Gisborne Quilters! And canine elflets! Had a fun Christmas party at Marg's house - Marg, I want to live there. Barry was designated cook for the night and did a wonderful job on the BBQ, and Nick was our taste-tester for the night. Everybody brought yummy foods, we had chicken, sausages, steaks, lots of salads, bread, and delightful desserts! And a refreshing punch made by Sue. Santa came too, with beautiful gifts for everyone. What a delight to sew with these ladies throughout the year, and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND TO US!

Quilting in space - and other things....

This is Karen Nyberg, an astronaut who is also a quilter, or a quilter who is also an astronaut, I should say. She is showing off a quilted star block she made on the international space station, under difficult circumstances.
That was one of the topics discussed on Wednesday night. There were eight of us, a good turnout, and everybody beavering away at some project. Heads down, tails up, and anything and everything to chat about.
So when this topic about quilting in space came up, it kind of went into a somewhat different direction!
Things in space tend to drift around aimlessly if not secured (a little like husbands), and Karen found nifty ways to secure things like needles, a ruler, scissors, and so on, mostly using a magnetic pad to attach these to. It wouldn't do to have needles and scissors floating about the space station! Thread is quite tricky, too, and try threading a needle in zero gravity! You could get the effect by drinking a few glasses of good scotch and then trying it! So that got us thinking about drinking, and how that works in space. Does one suck, or squirt, or...you get the drift! er....  So we explored the different options for that, and how would you eat? You can't just hold a sandwich  - the beetroot would fly off, and the salad leaves would obscure the view  from the window, and you might miss something like an asteroid! And then, of course, the next thought wanders to ...... yep, elimination! How do you pee in space? This provided some imaginative discussion, with lots of anatomy, physics, and hydraulics thrown in. Oh yes, our discussions are very scientific. So we thought there might be a negative-pressure thingy for blokes, or maybe a catheter-like thingy (very scientific descriptions, I know). Something like a hospital bottle - here's one I prepared earlier - it's a Chinese one from 251BE. Too much information?  Never mind, then we got onto what ladies would need. And then....   as you can see, we're a group that's very comfortable with each other, discussing such important life issues. Other topics in recent quilting sessions were the difficulties of trying on ladies swimsuits (haven't laughed so much in ages!), and trying on some astonishing undergarments which would go no further than one's knees. I'm looking forward to next week's edifying conversations. We are here to learn from each other!

SPOOKY QUILT NIGHT!

 We all had a fun Halloween night yesterday. OK, so we were a little early, but any excuse for a party!
There were five of us - Sue, Tracee, Annette, Carol, and moi.

Sue had finished that amazing quilt she was working on for a colleague. It was an old quilt top that looked a bit sad and sorry until Sue got her hands on it. She did wonders with it, fixing up all the split seams, adding little hexie flowers, trimming edges, and had it professionally quilted. It looks great, and the binding pulls it all together really well. Congratulations, Sue!

Here's us, looking scary. Well, not much, although that brain was
pretty scary, Tracee!

 As always, we had lots of yummy food. Tracee made interesting cup cakes, with a kind of deconstructed Halloween pumpkin theme. Very yummy though.

 Sue found a gorgeous witchy etagere and sprinkled spooky lollies all over it, as well as EYEBALLS which looked like boobs and tasted like meringues. Neat idea.

Here's my attempt at spooky food, marginally more healthy Halloween mouths with lolly fangs! The denture adhesive is peanut butter.

 Tracees' deconstructed cup cakes. She could win an art prize with these!

We even had authentic candy corn and pumpkin candy, and there's my paper-pieced pumpkin.

Below is a picture of Sue, with a picture of Sue. Are you seeing double? What a clever self-portrait it is! Sue found a lady in America who does these.
Love those bats, Sue!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

Quilt hopping...

 Our usual room still wasn't ready for us this week, so we met at Donna's place. Just the three of us, Tania, Marg and myself, but we had a fun night and time went by quickly.

Tania was working on a spooky quilt, Marg was finishing some hexies, and I was paper piecing a candle mat.

Marg brought her 'challenges'; she used the Accuquilt to cut tumbler blocks and put them together, creating these beautiful little "Blankets of Love" quilts. So pretty!

Below is my little effort, also using tumbler blocks, just don't look too closely, matching them up was tricky, and I'm not really a machine quilter. It was meant for my cat Pretzel, as a blanket, but frankly, the Pretzelator couldn't give a %^&*, so it'll just sit in the pile of bits and pieces!

wednesday night at Tracee's.....

Our regular room for our Wednesday night get together is currently being renovated, so we met at Tracee's for a lovely night of chatting and sewing - Sue, Marg, Carol, Tracee and myself.  

We also had show and tell of our monthly challenge project.  Marg did not have hers with her,  but Sue and I showed our finished items, and Tracee's is a work in progress - and I can understand why, with lots of little pieces to work with.

September's challenge (we have show and tell on the first Wednesday of the following month), was to make an item with pieces cut with our new acquisition, the Accuquilt Go cutter.

Sue did a hexagon tablerunner in this absolutely gorgeous batik fabric, and free motion quilted around the flowers ~

My project was a tablerunner made with tumblers, made with alternating blues and taupes just from my stash, and quilted just with straight lines ~

 

and Tracee's work in progress is in this beautiful flannel fabric ~

Some lovely work, as always, even if I do say so myself!

More show and tell

 It was fairly quiet on Wednesday night but we enjoyed our sewing night. Sue had finished a Halloween quilt, complete with skeletons attached. Great fabric too! Gotta get some of that candy corn soon...and practise sounding scary...Boo!

 This is Carol's amazing Log Cabin, she was finishing the binding. Isn't it just fabulous! Love the selection of yellows and occasional orange highlight. AND beautifully quilted, too.

Although Helen wasn't there, the adorable little baby jacket was finished last week. It's so delicate with the lacy hem.

another fun night.....

Another Wednesday night has flown by, and here we all were, heads down, hard at work.....

Despite the fact that everyone is looking so serious and industrious, it was actually a fun night, with lots of laughs

Donna worked on her beautiful Rosalie Quinlan 'Scandinavian Rose' stitchery project ~

Marg stitching a little Christmas something ~

A few of the ladies had show and tell to share ~

Sue, still beavering away on the hexie quilt she is repairing and finishing for an acquintance ~

Marina showed us her amazing 'Leaders and Enders' quilt, made with squares all finishing at 1 1/2" ~

..... and Tracee's 'Perry's Place' quilt had come back from the quilter, and is looking fantastic ~

a close-up of the flowers quilted in the outside border ~

and her beautiful 'Dream' strip quilt, also back from the quilter

Beautiful work, ladies!

August Challenge

This month we were challenged to make a small quilt about 24 inches in size as there quilts are going to be donated to Cheryll at Blankets of Love. It always surprises me how we all come up with something quite different in our group.

Marg made a beautiful delicately coloured quilt from a fat quarter she had.

Tracee went geometric with beautiful soft minke on the back 

Tania made a fantastic quilt from fabric in her stash

I made 2 quilts because I didn't realise how big the blocks were going to be - from a tutorial on the Missouri Star Quilt shop called Falling/Tumbling Blocks.

Good effort girls!!

Our new toy

 Our new Accuquilt GO arrived on Wednesday! We were happy to see our new toy arrive and tried it out immediately. Here's Sue studying the instructions, getting ready to cut a few shapes.

And here's Marg, ooooh-ing an aaaaah-ing over all the yummy dies one can buy. We got the basic dies, some squares and triangles, as well as small tumblers, drunkard's path, and of course hexies! I think we'll like this!

Christmas in July 2013

Last night was a cold and frosty night but the heater was on full blast and the table beautifully set when I arrived at group

Tinsel, Xmas tree, candles,Xmas food, Xmas mug rugs (saving one for you Shez!!) and great company!

Santa's helper (Marg) tempting us with jelly slice and Tracee's mini Xmas puds!

Tracee's reindeer - isn't it beautiful?? Our challenge for the month of July was something Christmas and this was what Tracee made.....I forgot to get photos of what Marg and Tania made ...will fix that soon! Everything was beautiful!

Here we all are, Pauline, Helen, Sue, Tania, Marg and Tracee - waiting for the self timer to go off on the camera...would it take the photo or fall off the white board first? Luckily the photo happened first!!

YUM!! Marg's jelly slice - believe me she is famous for it in these parts and Tracee's Xmas puds! I can assure you they tasted beautful!! They both are amazing creators of food!

And Tania had brought along mini pav's and cream and strawberries and I had had a bite (pav is my favourite food!!!!) before I remembered to take a photo! Woops! There was other food but it was ignored in favour of these wonderful offerings!

Tania's Xmas stocking, sadly her machine didn't want to sew around the top of the stocking as it was pretty thick, so it is still to be finished. But it looks very pretty.

Finishing things

 Another Wednesday night, and a few more members made it to the group tonight. And the heater was fixed, yay!
So we beavered away, all warm and cosy.
Tania finished her wonderfully warm and beautiful crocheted rug, all done except for a few threads needing to be cut. And just in time for more cold weather! Great job, Tania, it really looks and feels good.

And yours truly finally got all the Double Friendship Star blocks sewn together (with lots of help from friends!). All hand sewn so far, and a thin border yet to be attached. Then I'll have to win the lotto to afford the quilting, ha! Still, at least I have something to cover the new bed.

The group is all excited about getting a new Accuquilt GO soon, it'll be fun cutting out shapes easily and quickly.
Oh, and next week is "Christmas in July" night. Should be lots of fun.

Cold Wednesday

 Another Wednesday night, and the heater wasn't working! Thankfully, the temperatures weren't too frosty, so, armed with a hot cuppa, we still enjoyed the sewing.
Show and tell for the monthly challenge - quilted journal covers.
From left to right - my 'goth' cover, complete with pen holder. Unfortunately, a little too small, but good to practice. I just adore that fabric (Nevermore; Michael Miller), gotta get me some more.
Then Sue's cover, a pretty blue/brown fabric with owls galore! Finally, Tracee's cover, made from wonderful fabric depicting vintage postcards. Love it. Tania was still in the process of finishing hers, so watch this space.
The other show and tell item was Sue's little owl bag,just so cute! Sue's getting really good at this 'free range quilting' business.
The ladies were very kind to help me sew together a quilt top, should have most of it done by next time. Tania was finishing her crochet rug, and starting a new one.
Hopefully there's be heating!

Show and Tell

Tania brought along her beautiful quilt top, she participated in a Round Robin last year and made the centre appliqué and then off the centre went, with some fabric in a bag and once a month or there abouts, the bags were swapped to the next person and so on until the completed top returned to Tania.

Isn't it beautiful!!