Reminiscing

This week, Helen, Marg and I gathered for an impromptu sit-n-sew and reminisced about our time with Tania, who had passed away at Easter. We talked about how we met - I think many of us first met Tania when she was working in Lorraine's shop. She was certainly well known to the local quilting community. We chatted about Tania's quilts, and the last class she taught us, making foundation pieced log cabin blocks. Which reminded us that some of us still need to finish those!
Marg had finished her 'Message in a bottle' quilt and was just starting to hand quilt it. Isn't it delightful?! Helen was working on her shirt fabric hexies, and I was starting to quilt my no-so-secret little project. More about that next time. Although we had all suffered a loss this week, getting together helped to heal the sadness.

Foundation Piecing fun

Last night we learned something new! Tania had kindly offered to teach us foundation piecing, so we got together at Marg's place, armed with our sewing machines and little strips of fabric, and a whole lot of enthusiasm.

Of course, we can't work on an empty stomach, so the first order of the night was dinner. The girls got fish and chips, whereas I had falafel, tabouli and hommus.

 Tania, explained some of the basics of foundation piecing to us rookies, and Marina had brought along some of her gorgeous little foundation pieced quilts. They were just mindboggling and beautiful! And beautifully quilted, too.

 Things got underway, and we all got right into the swing of things, with Tania keeping a benevolent eye on us and showing a saint's patience, explaining everything in triplicate and being an excellent teacher.

We hoped to get at least one little Log Cabin block done each, and were successful. Didn't realise how much thinking, sewing, excercise (getting up and down to press) was involved! It's good to be prepared for this kind of piecing, and Tania gave us lots of tips on how to make it all flow smoothly.
In the end, we got our lovely blocks together (and Susan's special block for her Elm Creek quilt), and voila! We are now foundation piecers.
Thank you, Tania, for teaching us, and Marg for having us over.