Orca Bay Part 6

Here’s some of my part 6 of Orca Bay, Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt. If you want to check out all the details about this Mystery Quilt click on the Orca Bay Button in my side bar, you can't miss it. It has a whale on it :-)

I have done most of the black stars and have started on the neutral stars too. I thought I’d do this quick post so I can add it to Bonnie’s blog link up before it closes (I'm number 95). Go and have a look at all the other bloggers (use link above) who are doing the mystery, some are doing different colour schemes, but they are all unique.

I haven’t done part 5 yet, but I’ll get there! The reason I’m behind in the mystery is because I went away to see my Mum. Here’s a couple of photos I took from the plane on the way home. It amazes me that you can get a semi decent photo through a dirty plane window.

I think this is the town of Feilding, flew over just after we left Palmerston North.

Can’t remember where this was but I love how you can see the shadows of the clouds on the ground.
edit; I had a look at google maps and I think this is Waiuku.

Show N Tell December 2011

Hi everyone I've been MIA for a while, because of a trip to see my Mother. The trip involved late planes, two missed buses, and a bus with a flat tyre! Enough said, definitely driving down next time.
So now that life is back to normal (is there such a thing?)
I thought I'd better post Decembers Show n Tell while it is still December!

Jenny Gough started this a few years ago as part of her groups '96 piece challenge'. Yes there had to be at least 96 different fabrics in the project. She is teaching herself to machine quilt, and this is the first large project she has done. (And done very well too)

This is Dorothy Tersptra's amazing Australian Flower 'Balitmore'. It took 4 years to complete, & is hand appliquéd, and machine quilted by Dorothy.
This quilt won the Viewers Choice recently at The Country Yard's Exhibition.

Here's a couple of close up's so you can see the beautiful details. I love the bottle brush flowers below.

Lynne Wilson made this lovely quilt for her brother. This is actually the back of the quilt (sorry I didn't get a photo of the front, but it was made using fabric's that related to all his favourite things, like fishing etc.
Around the edges above Lynne has appliqued family photos.

This is the first quilt made by Raewyn. She has made this for her grandson and Sandy Robinson has quilted it for her.

Marie Finegan made this beautiful small quilt. Close up of the hand embroidered centre block below.

Donna Rowan made this for her niece for Christmas. It is a Lynnette Anderson pattern, called 'Live Your Dreams'.
Sorry I forgot to get a close up of the beautiful embroidery, arrgh!

Shelia made this set of placemats as a Xmas present for her son and daughter in law. She loves lady birds (daugther in law) so when Shelia found this fabric she thought it was perfect.

And lastly Sonya Prchal bought this sample she has made for a machine quilting class, that she hopes to teach in 2012. Click and have a look at the detail its amazingly detailed.

Hope you all had a lovely family time over Christmas.

Advent Calendar Challenge

Last Saturday was our Christmas meeting at Quilt Club. We usually have some type of Christmas Challenge. This time it was to make an Advent Calendar. The winners were decided by viewers choice and prizes were donated by Itch to Stitch Bernina.
As it is a secret who made which, so you don't know who you are voting for, I only know who the winners are, but I thought you'd like to see all the entries.


This won 1st prize, and was made by Hazel Phillips.


Calendar on left unknown, the tree shaped one on the right is by Carol Mayes, and was 2nd equal.


Unknown again, but I like all the ribbons to tie gifts onto it.


This was made by Terri Mills, and was the other 2nd equal winner.


Unknown, love the teddy bears.


Unknown, love that Merry Christmas fabric.

More show n tell from Saturday to come in next post. If you'd like to feel a bit more of Christmasy scroll down to my last post and watch the video on that.
Later

Orca Bay Part 4

OK this week I'm not going to hurry. The other weeks I have and then have finished the clue after a couple of days, and had no sewing to do later in the week. I don't want to start anything else at the moment, so have decided to go slow!
You can see I'm using an old phone book for the paper foundations and it's working out great.
Go and checkout Bonnie's blog with the links to everyone else's progess, there are a lot of these quilts being made around the world.

I don't know about everyone else, but I have been trying to feel Christmasy and it hasn't caught yet. This morning I made a dancing Elf Xmas card, and this afternoon had a look at Youtube and found this video which I thought I would share, in case you are like me and need a little help to get into the mood.


Got to love a man in uniform! Or half a uniform as the case may be.
Hope this puts a smile on your face, bye

Orca Bay Part 3

Well part 3 was making 350 half square triangle in black and neutral! Here they are all sewn, in a heap waiting to be pressed. I used the Easy Angle ruler to cut them as Bonnie recommends, and found it easy and the units sewed up accurately.. yaaaayyy!

I sewed these blocks as I watched eldest Son decide what to take to Australia and what to leave behind. Not something I could do for him, but I kept him company, and was there when he asked what I thought.
We dropped him off at the bus to Auckland airport this morning, with over weight bags, extra money to pay for them, and a packed lunch! I cried, couldn't help it, but I did try not to.


I left the pressing till I came home. I knew I'd like something mindless to do when I came home.
It has been good to have this mystery to do, has given me something else to think about.


Here's all 350 of my half square triangles pressed and sorted into piles of like squares.
See in the background left over blue strips from my string blocks? I got a bit carried away with cutting blue strips, oh well if they don't go into this quilt they can go into a log cabin I have started.


And here are all the blue string blocks (72) finished from part 2 of the mystery.

It's still not too late if you'd like to join in. Use this link to see all the details of Orca Bay on Bonnie's blog.
Bonnie is having another 'linky' of  blogger's who are doing the mystery , so go and check them out. There are lots of people doing different colour ways.
Last week it got up to 125 blogs linking up! I wonder if there will be more this time.


And I thought I'd show you these fat quarters that my eldest picked out for me, before he left Hamilton. I had a voucher but couldn't get there to use it, so I asked him to pick some fabric for me. He was a bit nervous about picking out fabric, but I said I'd be happy with anything. He did well, I like them all.

Part 2 Orca Bay Mystery Quilt

This is all I have managed of part 2 this week. I need to make 72 of these little units, they are only 3 1/2 inches. I'm not worried if I can't do them all this week I will catch up!

Pop over to Bonnie's Blog and see how everyone else around the world is getting on with the mystery.

My link is number 101! So there are a lot of people doing this mystery, (this is only the people with blogs) think of the hundreds of people who are also doing the mystery that don't have blogs!

And this is why I'm kind of behind in my sewing. My eldest Son has returned home for a week before he moves to Sydney Australia. He was very proud of himself as he was able to pack all his worldly possessions into his Toyota Corolla. Now they are in my lounge! Oh well he flies out on the 5th so it has to be sorted by then.

First Quilts

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville is linking a whole lot of blogs today, with posts about the first quilt they made.

I have two first quilts. A bit confusing but it is because I was making a sampler in a beginners class, and before I finished that I started another! So My first quilt was kind of my first UFO too!

I started a second project as my Nanna had moved from Tauranga to Wellington. (From warm weather to cold for non New Zealanders). She was feeling the cold so I made her a lap quilt. I managed to made it in a few days, post it off and then continue with my sampler quilt.

You can see it was a simple quilt, that’s why I could run it up in a few days. I hand quilted it too. The white & black floral squares actually came from an old sundress of my mothers, and the red was a poly mix. I remember the poly batting bearding through the black backing fabric. I learnt why there is black batting through that! But with all those white squares maybe it was just as well I didn’t use black batting.

Nanna was a lovely lady who knitted and sewed all her life, so she greatly appreciated that I had handmade something for her. She enjoyed it for about three years before she passed away.


Here’s my sampler quilt that I finished not too long after the class! You can see my teacher taught a wide variety of techniques. There was hand and machine applique, curved piecing, hand piecing, english paper piecing, strip piecing, bargello, etc etc.
I had no idea what colours to use that’s why I did red white & blue. I thought all those flags can’t be wrong! And don’t you love the gingham border! It’s not even quilted, oh well I did learn heaps from making it though. I machine quilted this as I had just bought a walking foot and was keen to use it. Mostly I just quilted in the ditch and outline quilted around the appliques.

If you have enjoyed looking at my first quilts, pop over to Bonnie’s blog to she her first quilt, and all the links to other blogs featuring theirs.

The Hobbit

I have been enjoying Junez Scrapz recent blog posts with photos from her son. If you haven't clicked though and had a look do so (link is on the sidebar too). He is working on The Hobbit movie, and has been sending marvellous photos to June of the scenery.

Today I was reading a story online about the sets for 'The Hobbit' & Professional Blogger Eric Vespe, who has been invited by Sir Peter Jackson to blog from the set. 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/new-zealand/6031824/Hobbitons-Green-Dragon-tipped-for-pulling-pints

Hobbit Hole, Matamata New Zealand. Photo by Eric Vespe, Ain't It Cool News.

I love the book The Hobbit, I remember one of my school a teachers (Mr Elgar I think!) reading it aloud to the class. He would stop at the end of each chapter and our homework that night was to write a page or two on what happened next. We would read our versions aloud the next day. Some were close to the book, some we thought more fun, and others well there has to be a donkey in most things!  But it was a great way to get us kids wanting write.

Anyway in case you are a fan like me I thought you might like to read  Eric Vespe's blog posts. 
As I have been to most of the 'locations' (long before they were taken over by Hobbits), I really enjoyed seeing these familiar landscapes turned into a mythical middle earth.


Here's links to the first couple of posts, from the set of The Hobbit.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51787
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51851

If you want to read more use 'unexpected journey' in ainitcool.com's search box. 

I’ve been making Flags….

Well not really but that's what it looks like coming out the back of the sewing machine!

I've decided to join in doing Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt Orca Bay. I've put a button to take you to Bonnie's instructions in my side bar, if you'd like to join or just have a look to see what it's all about.

Heres's the flags I was talking about!

I decided to sew this in the lounge so that I can look out the window, and watch TV in between. I love how this is so easy to do with my Sewezi table. Here in New Zealand we are going into Summer so the weathers good, so there's no snow outside my window!

Look at the circle the flags formed on the floor.

I was lucky that Oscar the cat was having his afternoon nap on the spare bed, so he didn't want to play with all these flags. I'm sure they would look very tempting for a cat! And before anyone asks, YES that is half a Lamington cake on my plate! I should have hidden the evidence before I took the photo  ;-)
EDIT: Lamingtons are sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing (or red jelly for the pink ones), then rolled in coconut. You can cut them in half and add jam and cream too. Mine was a bought one which was nice but nothing on the chocolate ones my Mum used to make for Birthdays etc when I was a kid.

On the left this is what the flags make.

You see those triangles that won't match up, well I feed one thru the sewing machine upside down! No big deal I just sewed a new partner for it and moved on! (I then made sure that I feed all my pieces the same way up thru the machine!)


Progesss! I only have to make 224 hour glass units! Can you see these rulers on the left? Bonnie recommends them for the mystery, so I decided to get them. I had to order them from Australia as I couldn't find them for sale in New Zealand at all.   :-(
So far I really happy with them, but you can do the mystery without them, so don't let that put you off if you would like to join in.


OK this is what 224 little hour glass units looks like. I clipped all my dog ears off last night while watching the Leaders Debate ( New Zealand's General Election is this Saturday ). See all the dog ears filled up a cup!

The next clue of Orca Bay is out on Friday, so come and see how I'm getting on!

Use this link to check out the other people with blogs that are doing Orca Bay.

Bye

Country Dawn’s New Store Opening

Country Dawn opened their new store at 17 Gladstone St, Dargaville yesterday.
I was asked along by one of my quilting friends, (she was on the hunt for border fabrics for 2 quilts). My friend found just what she wanted, on the sales table too, score!
Of course I couldn't resist buying some sale fabric too. I have been trying not to buy fabric for the last year or so, as I do need to use my stash but sometimes you just have too buy something.....if you are a quilter you will know what I mean! ;-)


Anyway I thought you might like to see a couple of photos of the store, just quick snaps. Above is just one corner of the large front room of the store. There is a large back room too, with great natural light that they are going to use for classes.


Busy busy busy, there were a lot of quilters at the opening and the staff were running around returning bolts of fabrics to the shelves, after cutting fabric.

In this photo I managed to snap Sue & Chrissie of Country Dawn. They were very busy running about so it was just luck to get them together in this photo. Sue has the cute polka dot shoes and Chrissie has the strappy sandals.

Show & Tell, November 2011

Well it was another busy meeting last Saturday!
We had Kerry Glen of Tulis visiting as a merchant. Kerry also showed us a few versions of the quilt she will teach in a class next year. Sorry I didn't get photos of that as it was dark in the hall (some problem with the lights)
Anyway I did get photos of the clubs show and tell. Some of the photos aren't the best as I had to use a flash which washed out the quilt colours a bit. But I'm sure you will still enjoy having a look at it anyway.  :-)

Jennifer Cullen made this beautiful quilt called 'Coffee & Cream'.

'Baby Bargello' by Marie Finegan, quilted by Sandy Robinson.

Petra Pilkington was asked to make this for a friends baby. She found it interesting to use fabric that someone else had picked. It's not her usual colours or style but she likes it!

Bag (with lime lining) by Hazel Phillps,
this is another version of the bag she made last month as the pattern was so fun to make. 

Doll by Sue Gillard. This is the first doll she has made and had fun learning to paint the face. 

Maureen Jackson made this bag from a kit she bought at the Hamilton Craft Fair.

'Ferry on the Mersey' photo printed on fabric, quilted by Marie Finegan.

By Petra Pilkington, as well as tea bags Petra has used washers & beads.
Click on the photo to see more details. Petra drew all the bugs herself too.

Another smaller version made by Petra Pilkington.

Shelia Udjur made this bags from 5" squares from her stash.

'Crab Apples' by Shirley Julian, the result of Jacqui Karl's recent class

'Bugs' byTerri Mills. Terri started this in a recent class with Mary Transom.

Marie Finegan made this placemat for her four year old granddaughter.

Shirley Olsen started this about ten years ago when she was first a member at WP&Q.
She said she is pleased to have it finished!  

Sue Gillard made this quilt for her 9 year old grandson. He's fascinated by Stars & Space. 
Sue bought the fabric from The Country Yard, the stars on the fabric glow in the dark!  

Opps can't find the details for this little stitchery, 
please someone leave me a comment or email me so I can add a name to  it!

Robyn Halverson painted black fabric with bleach (discharged) to make this image.  

Shirley Julian embellished this wallhanging with copper shim flowers.

Tric Carter made this beautiful Stain Glass Table Runner. 

Helen Barnes made this wall hanging from a kit she purchased from Tulis.

On The Edge

Last night I attended the opening of ‘On The Edge’ a new Art Gallery in town.
I was invited to the opening by Textile Artist Francien Bot, as the gallery is showing several of her works.

Francien & Nymph

Francien works mostly with cotton fabrics but also incorporates more difficult fabrics such as silk, velvet, & organza. I especially like her subtle use of beads and metallic threads, they enhance her pieces without overpowering them.

On The Edge Gallery is upstairs at 69 Walton Street, Whangarei (across the road from the ASB).
Please take the time to visit the gallery, I'm sure you won’t be disappointed. 

Slide Show of Coastal Sew ‘n’ Sews Quilt Show

Tess from Coastal Sew n Sews (Ngunguru quilt group) has sent me a link to a slide show of their recent Exhibition to share with you all. I didn't get to go to the show as I was in Hamilton so I really enjoyed the slide show. Click on the photo below, to take you to see the Exhibition.

The Country Yards Exhibition

Last Saturday I went out to the Country Yards Exhibition. It was a great show well worth seeing even if the weather wasn't very kind. I did manage to stay dry in between the spring showers though!
I took at few photos of items that appealed to me, to share with you all. So here we go.

I loved this it looks like it's straight out of a picture book.
Wall hanging by Ngaire Fleming.

I love kiwis and all things kiwiana so loved this. Wall hanging by Susan McRae.

The quilting is special too. Click the picture for a closer look
 to see how the tui's tail is quilted in, and the palm's trunks are extended

This stitchery/applique wall hanging by Racheal, was Lynette Andersons Button Mystery. 

This was a group quilt made for Leeanne's 40th Birthday (no not me!)

This Leeanne is the from http://quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com/ check out her blog it's good.
I thought this was a good idea for a gift quilt, with everyone making a bag block.
(sorry for the side way's photo as it was in a tight space!)

There were a lot of beautiful cushions, this one is made by Noeline.

And this cushion is made by Leeanne of quilt me kiwi blog (link above)

I was praised for this cushion, as several people thought it was mine, but I did put them right and say it was the other Leeanne's work!

This quilt is a sample made to showcase these fabrics for the shop.
It was very popular, and the cushions added a lovely touch too.

The Last week has been a blur…

....days have just run into each other, but I thought I would post a few photos from my trip.

Warning this is more a family/trip post not much Quilty stuff going on.

If you look at my photos you may think I've been overseas to India & Italy or maybe even China. 

But no I've been to Hamilton, New Zealand. (much cheaper option!)

We had some time to spare so decided to go to the Hamilton Gardens as this may be our last visit to Hamilton for a while (more on that later).

     

 This is a close up of the floral carpet in the Indian garden. 

Indian Char Bagh Garden

The 'Char Bagh' garden was beautiful. The flowers are planted close together so it makes a living 'persian carpet' and the colours were so vibrant, specially when they are contrasted with the pale walls and tiled floors.

Through the Pavilion's archways you look out on to the Waikato river. And when you look up there is this beautiful ceiling (picture below). With these designs I was 'putting my quilters eyes on' and seeing quilt borders in the freeze, interlocking designs and of course colour!

Pavillion's celling & freeze.

Italian Renaissance Garden

We all decided that the Italian garden was our favourite. It was very tranquil with the formal structure and the sound of the water. Everything just looked perfect.

Hubby lying down to photograph trellis roof. Silly I managed to get a good shot standing up! 

My photo of the trellis roof (taken standing up!) 

 There was a Juliet balcony too 

My turn to do something silly.

Path in the Chinese garden.

I really liked this path, but I think it looks too complicated to use as a quilt design!

Youngest Son's turn to do something silly (giant bamboo in China garden)

Mark - Birthday boy

This is the reason we were in Hamilton. We were celebrating our eldest Son's 21st Birthday. The Party went well, and Mark was pleased that several of his High School friends came down from Whangarei too.

This will be our last trip to Hamilton for a while as Mark is moving to Sydney in December to start working as a software engineer for Google.

All Blacks after winning the Rugby World Cup.

Of course there was another major event last weekend, the Rugby World Cup. 

We watched the final with Mark and his flatmates. It wasn't the exciting game I had hoped for, but it was nail biting! 

This was probably my favourite bit of the Rugby World Cup, Sony Bill changing his ripped shirt. 

The shirts are so tight that help is needed to take them off, and put them on! 

I think this 'event' got the largest cheer from all the ladies in the crowd too!

Excited Children!

Back at work (primary school) we had some exciting news. The School has won a competition for 'Backing Black' and will be receiving $5000 of sports equipment! 

The best part is it will be delivered to the school by some of the All Black team. 

All Blacks doing the Haka

So I'm sure there will be a lot of Haka practise at school next week. The kids will want to be ready for the All Blacks.