October Show & Tell

For the October meeting we had a sewing morning working on our next raffle quilt. Helen had cut and prepared all the block pieces and the ladies sewed. We made good progress. The border blocks are diamonds:

And the centre is 54-40 or Fight blocks and Corral blocks. I must admit I have never seen the Corral block before and Icouldn't find it anywhere in EQ6 or my book of 500 blocks. I'd love to know where it came from:
The quilt was from Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine Vol 16 #8 and was designed by Frances Leate. We changed the centre block so it had the 54-40 or Fight star points, rather than the Ohio star points in the original design that were in the centre. We are looking forward to seeing the finishee quilt.

The past few months have been really busy for those of us involved in the Row by Row challenge and the Round Robin challenge. soem ladies wanted to do one and some wanted to do the other, so we rane it simultaneously. It made for a great Show & Tell since the ladies did not know who owned the set of blocks until they were displayed. this Row by Row was run slightly differently to the last one the club did. This time the blocks for the rows were not joined together so the owners could decide on a different arrangement of the blocks if they didn't want just rows. The owners made the first row and the other participants had free reign as long as the blocks added up to 48" wide. The fabric was supplied by each participant ( I think).

First up is the set of blocks owned by Heather. She chose a Christmas theme:
These belong to Susan. I think flowers were her theme and the flowere in the centre of the third row were fussy cut:
Then Margaret gets this set of blocks. I couldn't help making a comment about having seen those 54-40 or Fight blocks somewhere else recently!
Alison chose an Autumn theme and has these lovely blocks to play with:
We were all very interested in this halloween theme quilt. Lynette willhave agreat time putting these together for her grandchild. The bat row was very cleverly done with solid black appliqued onto a black and gray printed background and isn't the spider delightful! In fact the whole thing is very cute:
Annette wanted log cabins in bright colours and that is what she got! I can see this one growing into quite a big quilt:
Teresa loves country style quilts and these blocks will make up into a very nice quilt:
Then we moved onto the round robins. These tops were put together (of course) and had more detailed instructions for the participants to follow. All the fabric was supplied by the owner of the quilt. The first one is owned by Bernice:
This dramatic red, black and gray quilt is going to Veronica:
Rae did a very nice needle-turned block for thec entre of hers and whoever did the next row made a great j0b of the blue and white points:
Topsy-turvey for Myra. The third row had to incorporate setting the top on-point and log cabin together (not as easy as it sounds) and whoever did the stripes and tiny white triangle log cabin round was very clever:
Very pretty colours for Rosalie to go with her fushia centre:
Another dramatic combination of colours , this time for Maureen:
Annette chose blues and grays for her top:
Now we move on to the general Show & Tell and this is Annes community quilt finished:
And this is Rae's community quilt, also finished:
Another finished community quilt from Maureen. ( Don't I recognise those star points in the sashing rom somewhere??):
There are a few more quits form this months show & tell but we had some camera problems and didn't quite get all of them on. So we apologise to those members whose quilts didn't make it into this month's post - sorry :-(

September Show & Tell

Oh dear, I've been bit slack again, but only 2 months behind this time :-)
First up is two quilts by Donna and Carey made in the popular 'postcards' design.

Donna and Carey love working together on the same pattern and they repeated it with these two lovely quilts:
Helen has been busy and has just the binding to sew on this scrap quilt:

She has also made this top completely out of scraps with the design relying on the placement of light and dark fabrics only. No regard was given to colour at all. The little squares are 1" finished. The ladies thought she was mad when they saw her sewing them at club!
And this is Helen's contribution to the community quilt project:
Susan mad this bag from a $5 remnant. Very stylie!
Frances G finishe this delightful chook wall hanging:
Carol had a brother's wedding to go to and this is the quilt she made for the happy couple. Lovely freesia fabric:
Audrey made this table runner with beautiful appliqued flowers:
Marie is one of our newer members and this is her first quilt:
Heather is working on this heats and flowers quilts:
Glenys completed this very nice table runner in the stained glass style:
Amy is planning to teach an "orphan" block class next year. She put together these blocks to show what can be done:
(Should I let you in on the secret that she raided her mother's orphan blocks stash for this top?)

Is It August Already?

Since I have been such a slack blogger for quite some time you have 3 lots of show & tell to feast your eyes on today. I don't think I have ever made 3 posts in one day and may this teach me a lesson to do it straight after each meeting! Make sure you scroll down to get the June, July and August Show and Tell.

There were lots of quilts today. The first one is a strip-pieced hexagon spider web quilt by Susan:
Next are two Cathedral Window quilts by Rosemarie:

Joy has made 4 more scrap quilts. I'm only showing half of them because 'someone' was standing in front of the other half when the pictures were taken :-)



Anne is one of our senior members and is vision-impaired, but still she quilts!
Frances G made this ever-popular gollie pattern:
Not a 'quilt', in the sense that it has no batting, and it was not made by her, but Kath thought this piece of embellished embroidery from Thailand was worth taking a closer look at:
Judy made this scrap quilt for our community quilts project:
Veronica made this for her grand daughter:
Maureen is also a member of Rangitikei Quilters and won a prize at their recent exhibition with this very interesting piece:
Carol is sending this top off to the quilter on Monday. Lucky she noticed one of the borders is on upside down before she sent it!
Audrey did a workshop by Anna Williams. I think it is called Persian Carpet:
This was made by Rosalie for a new great niece:
The next two are cot quilts made by Rose for the community quilts project:

Ruth has finished stitching her sashiko piece started in Robyn Burgess' Symposium workshop:
Anita, who is the queen of the basting table, had been practising herf ree motion quilting on these two pieces:

This is Madeline's quilt for the community quilt project:
and this is Rae's donation:
Myra has finished the NZ fabric waistcoat for her husband. She says he is gooing to wear it to work next week. good on him!
She also made this quilt and used a walking foot for the first time:
A lesson from Frances on the perils of using wool batting. This is the very first quilt she made, for her grandson. Guess what happened when it got washed? He won't let her fix it up. He loves it the way it is, all wrinkly (like some of us are getting!)
As Frances showed her latest work, her daughter Amy was heard to say " she went through all my cupboards!". Amy was away on holiday and France 'pinched' this quilt so it could get to the finished stage. Amy started it for her first daughter Georgia (now 2 and a half) and Frances completed the quilting so Sienna, Amy's second daughter (who is now about 7 months old), can have a quilt too :-)

July Show & Tell

And moving right along we now have the show & Tell from July.

Doreen is a couple of years the 'wrong' side of 80 and is a fairly recent convert to quilting. These table runners are her latest pieces. Isn't she doing well?
Pat made this very popular Bugs pattern:
and this scrap cot quilt:
Lyn made this retro apron. I remember my mother wearing these "cover-all's"Susan fussy-cut every single hexagon on this I Spy quilt. It was fantastic:and the Disney characters she embroidered on this quilt are very sweet:
A new member, Ann, was brave enough to bring some show & tell to her first meeting. She showed us this sampler quilt with lovely soft colourings:
and this popular pattern, from Grandmother's Garden I think:
The ladies liked the bag Ann used to carry her quilts in:
This is a scrap piece made by moi. I was given several, well lots (make that hundreds!) of pre-cut 1 1/2" squares and I couldn't bear to ditch them (the ladies thought I was nuts sewing such small squares together) so I am teaming them up with half-square triangles in this Jacob's ladder variation. I kinda like it:
This quilt was made using the very beautiful Nancy Halverson fabrics and the photo does not really do it justice. Made by 'I don't know who' since I can't find itwritten on the list I was given:
Roesmary made this scrap quilt using quarter-square triangles:
Lesley's pieced hearts quilt was very cheery:
Madeline did a 'piece and cut' type workshop at Symposium (sorry, I don't know who the tutor was. She made the resulting blocks into this bag:


Frances is doing the very lovely Susan Claire block of the month. This is one of the borders:

June Meeting?

Actually, today is the August Meeting. I got the message today that I haven't done the club blog since May! Woe is me, where does the time go??

So here is the Show & Tell from June"

First up, Myra has done a lovely landscape of Mt Ruapehu and has finished her Happy Villages quilt:
She also showed us an early piece, tied rather than quilted:
Joy is the scrap quilt extraordinaire. She has such a great collection of bright scraps that her quilts are always lovely. Here are two of the latest :

Heather has done this lovely scrap quilt using very tiny pieces. Those little squares are cut at 1 1/2"!
Jean did a fantastic postcard workshop at Symposium. I love the reflection in the land(water?)scape. The leaf is pretty cool too:
Alison finished her Mary Transom 'Autumn Harvest' quilt from the workshop we had a while ago:
This is the results of the printing and dying class Betty did at Symposium. A very nice effect on commercial fabric:
Tracey made this wall hanging:
Lorraine did Gloria Loughman's 'Escape to the Rainforest' workshop at Symposium and this piece is still in progress. I can't wait to see it finished.
She did this quilt at our recent half-nighter:
Rose embroidered the birds on this wall hanging very beautifully:
Trish made a couple of bags:
Madeline made this very nice scrap quilt. I like the sashing and cornerstones around the squares:
Heather made this lovely fused applique I Spy quilt.
Amy is quilting her Cloth Shop Saturday Sampler by the Quilt-As-You-Go method. The colours are too dark in the photo but the fabric is gorgeous:
Three of our members did a Round Robin simultaneously with a group of ladies from England. There were supposed to be 4 of us but one had to pull out because of a bereavement. This is Barbara's
This is Helen's
And this is Annette's:
Lastly, remember that saying "I'd rather be 40 than pregnant"? Well, Rosie discovered she was pregnant at the beginning of the year (much to her 15 year old daughter's disgust who felt she needed to have a 'birds and bees' talk with her father!) This is a quick quilt I made for the coming baby:

May's Show & Tell

We had a cosy meeting today as some of our members decamped for Tote & Gloat in Palmerston North. I hope they had a great time.

First up is Rae's very cute light weight travel iron. It does steam! I think she got it from Briscoes. I will have to pay them a visit.

Illeen did June Nixey's class at Symposium. She thought it would be a nice relaxing way to use up some of her large stash of 5" squares. I think June had them working hard judging by all the samples Illeen showed us:
Illeen also did Vicki Pignatelli's curves class. I love the fabric she used:
And just in case she didn't have enough to keep her busy Illeen did a third class with Paula Nadelstern. This was the complete opposite of the curves class. Everything had to be precise:
This is the quilt Donna made for her daughter's 21st birthday.
It has lovely bumblebee quilting which you can see on the reverse:
Donna is on a roll. This quilt is for her grandson and she made it in 3 days! I think the way Donna has used the Hungry Caterpillar print is much nicer than the arrangements the american magazines have been showing:
And the reverse is cool too:
Heather has finished her table runner using a 'big block' from our newsletter series last year:
This large quilt was made by Teresa in the 'quilt as you go' method. Teresa usually works in country colours and wanted a change. A very pretty quilt:
More from symposium classes. This is Sue's class sample from Libby Lehman's thread play. The thick decorative thread was used in the bobbin:
And in this class, taught by Anne Jolly, Sue was only allowed to take 3 fabrics. She found that a challenge and sneaked some extras in:
And now for a change of pace; this quilt is made from totally recycled material. I'll bet you would never guess it is made from old pillow slips. I didn't realise when you unstitched them that they have so much fabric in them. There are no joins in the strips. Totally cool! Well done, Audrey!Colleen showed us the first quilt she ever made, which was for her grandson (who is a bit older now). Only Colleen is allowed to wash the quilts given to members of this family which is why it was temporarily back in her possession:
Judy has nearly finished this lovely quilt, a design by Bronwyn Hayes I think. It was well applauded. I think everyone would have liked to take it home:
Amy is doing the Cloth Shop Saturday Sampler and is trying different fabric combinations. It is amazing what a difference value and colour placement makes to the look of a block.
Frances took the Images of Science class taught by Jenny Bowker at Symposium. These are not flowers, they are microscopic protozoa. I love the 'lip' of light blue at the top:
Finally, I took two classes at Symposium. The first was Layer by Layer Landscapes by Gloria Loughman. Most of the students did a variation on one of the patterns provided, but I tried my hand at an 'original' so I didn't get very far. It is still in pieces:
And this is what I made in Dena Crain's Darned Quilts class. It was total fun. Both of my tutors were excellent and well worth the investment.
Frances has just reminded me of the hilarious merriment I caused today when I was trying to explain how we cut the circles out and swapped them over. I went on to explain that you could do three circles, putting the "A" circle in the "B" hole, the "B" circle in the "C" hole and the "C" circle in (yep, you guessed it) the "A" hole! Now I know why Dena, the tutor, explained it as A to B, B to C, C to A. I bet she has 'been there, done that'!

April Show & Tell

The club meeting was busy today with the start of the new club Row by Row and Round Robin Challenges. Participants took home their paper bags and we look forward to finding out how they start off their rows/blocks.

One of our members, Kath, gave us a lively techniques training on using Dynaflow.

Our guest speakers were from the Cancer Society talking about the dangers of skin cancers. Often overlooked as 'just skin cancer' it was a timely reminder to us all about keeping a regular check on our bodies and knowing what is 'normal' so we can tell when it is not, so we can get a check done early.

Here is the show and tell from today:

First up from Tracey, a new member. Tracey's husband saw this Mckenna Ryan pattern and told her she had to make it. Thing is, it is her first quilt. Tracey's husband made the frame. Pretty good, huh?
Next is a Sudoko quilt by Margaret S. Beautiful fabrics in this one:
I finished the binding on my scrappy, strippy quilt. This is going to Australia to the bushfire quilts appeal.
This is called Leftover Tabasco Sauce. I made it using all the leftover blocks from our club banner. There were exactly enough to make this 9 rows by 14 columns arrangement.
The following has a little story attached. Frances and I went to Wellington a couple of weeks ago to see the Monet paintings. Of course, a visit to Wellington is incomplete without a stop at Minerva bookshop. Anne Scott told me about this wall hanging that Rosemary McLeod had brought in to the shop, saying Anne could give it a better home than she. Apparently Rosemary had bought a piece of furniture from Dunbar Soan auction house and this piece was inside it. The label on the bottom says it is a 'Pot Pourri Challenge' made by 5 Cotton On Quilter members in 2001. I wasn't a member of the club then, so I took it along to see if I could jog some memories. It was a colour challenge and each person had to make 5 blocks with a given colour theme and they were shared around. This is what Mary Gullery, a long-standing former member did with her blocks. Sadly, Mary died over a year ago and some of her collectables and furniture went to Wellington to be autioned. Voila! What goes around comes around :-)
Next up is Frances G's black redwork sampler. The pictures are all about life in the garden:
Margaret made this cool Beatles fabric quilt for her 16 year old son. I love the fabric:
Rosalie made a sewing bag in a class at the Home Sewing Centre. Of course, it is hard to stop at just one!
Karen A is making this lovely bright childs quilt:
Rose is embroidering Australian motifs which will end up in a quilt:
Doreen made this kitchen wall hanging from fabric she won in a club raffle last year:
Carol is making this wall hanging to take with her to America. She leaves in a couple of weeks. I wish I could fit into her suitcase. She is meeting up with quilters and attending a quilting retreat.
The fish are biting in Audrey's quilt:

I wish I had a better picture of this quilt made by Jenny using fabrics she got in France. She has hand quilted it beautifully and has done a no-binding finish. Lovely!

March Show and Tell

I want to say congratulations to our new president, Frances, and myself. We both had quits accepted for Symposium. Only 5 weeks to go. Now, where did I put that class needs list??

Now, aren't I a good girl? Club was today and here I am getting the Show and tell photos up on the same day. I couldn't stay for the afternoon meeting so I get to see them just as you do, digitally.

The club has a good number of activities planned for this year and they are proving to be very popular. Thirty women signed up for the Mystery Bus Trip later in the year. Full already! And plenty of time to save up some cash to flash (that is assuming I have any left to save after Symposium.)

First up we have Alison's Flower Block quilt:
Alison also made this Trip Around the World for the daughter of a friend. Lovely colours:
Sonia made this delightful quilt for Keaten:
Veronica hasn't been doing much quilting as such lately, but she has made these lovely bolster cushions:
Susan has nearly completed her Row by Row from last year. Susan was the envy of many at club today as she was using her embroidery machine to quilt in sections. We were very interested!
Ruth used a strip piecing technique to make this graphic quilt top:
Rosie G is making this quiolt form NZ fabrics. I think it is for her brother. She is looking for ideas on how to make it bigger:
Riane has been working on her Bow Tie quilt made form the charity fundraiser CanTeen head scarves:
This is Rosemarie's Log Cabin Disaster. The star points were supposed to be 6o degree triangles but the pattern was printed incorrectly and they wouldn't fit together. Much fudging ensued!
Lois' daughter is being married in Ireland soon and this quilt is to celebrate that happy event. If my memory serves me correctly this is a Cloth Shop pattern. We wish Lois a safe and happy trip.
Madeline has been working on these very cute cats:
Lynette made this flower quilt based on a picture her grandchild drew. Very nice!
Heather has finished her NZ Postcards quilt. I'm not sure what Veronica was doing with the camera at the time :-)
Carol, queen bag maker, has made these two:

Judith has made this table runner from NZ fabric:
and this is her version of the NZ Postcard quilt:
Lyne is working on this Gollie quilt. There are a lot of pieces to applique!
Kathleen has been having fun with squares of cloth and Dynaflow dyes. Very pretty.
Maureen attended Anna Williams' Print Magic workshop (I have done one of these as well. Unfortunately it is still a WIP):
That's all folks. Come back next month!

February Show & Tell

Yes, I know it is March already and this is February's Show & Tell and it is only 3 days until March's meeting. I Know I have been a real slacker at posting the Sow & Tell over the last year. I promised at Feb's meeting that I would be way better this year. Well, hmmm...

It is true that one should do Show & Tell posts immediately after the meeting because I can't remember who owns most of the quilts shown here. Bad ex president!

Scotty dogs:
This is a bag Amy made, inspired by the wonderful bags seen in the Quilts Japan magazine.

The front:
The back:
The side:
Why, do you suppose, I take photos of such variable quality??

Amy also made this bag, I think for a friend who lives in Korea. I was told she could have sold the bag about 5 times over in the space of getting from the airport to her apartment.
Here is a lovely Jacobs ladder quilt done in autumn colours:
And another autumn toned quilt made, I think, from fabrics purchased in Canada. (Phillipa's?)
Now whose bag is this?
UPDATE: My sources tell me this is Anita's bag



The sun block in the top lefthand corner of this quilt was fab. Much brighter than shows up here. It made me feel very cheery.
Delightful daisies, or is that gerberas? (Everyone knows I don't garden)
A gollie quilt
Moira is making a wasitcoat for her husband. Please excuse the perspective. It really isn't as big as it looks.
The back:
I'm sorry, I really have no idea who this quilt belongs to. I hope someone reading this will be able to tell me and I will make an update.
Ditto for this one
This lovely baby quilt was made by Rosalie for her niece's baby:
The back:
We had a visitor from Wellington and she showed us this dramatic quilt:
Janice's husband turned 60 a few months ago. At the party Janice had bloks of fabric ready for people to decorate and now she has most of the top finished. Very clever.
That's all folks. I hope to be back next week with March's offerings.

December 08

I have performed my last official duty as President of Cotton On Quilters, a position I have held for the last 4 years. It has been a great time and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It has been busy at times which is why this blog has not been kept current, especially this year! However, I have promised to change this. My 'off the committee' position is to keep the blog current. The posts will continue to be labeled as uploaded by 'president' - that's me - not the current president :-)

I wasn't able to attend the December meeting as I was attending my mother's 80th birthday but Veronica did a great job of taking pictures for us. The first few are of the lunch tables:









































We had a decorated box competition, which was won by Veronica with her ingenious Christmas pudding. the lid comes right off and the gift goes inside - well done, Veronica!




















Show and Tell was mostly Christmas themed - as can be expected at this time of the year. COQ members who also attend a Thursday group brought along their Christmas round robins to show. These were contributed by Jean, Donna and Helen A:

Donna finished her Christmas stocking:
Audrey and Carol made these very funky Christmas boots:


Lesley's table runner


















Madeline's table centre and Rather Christmas wall hanging"
Annette's cornucopia:
Sue made this lovely blue horses quilt:



















and Veronica this string scrap quilt:




















Pauline made these Happy Villages landscapes from our Karen Eickmeier workshop run by Diane Southy:













Helen A made this lovely quilt for her great niece. It is called All Sorts. A great way to showcase converstion prints:
This huge quilt was made by Annette, a great pattern:
This japanese fabric quilt was made by Audrey and Carol:
Frances, the new president, has signed up for Susan Claire's new block of the month. Susan's original-designed quilt won Best Bed Quilt in the recent NANZQ exhibition held in conjunction with the Quilt and Craft fair in Hamilton a few months ago. It is a stunning quilt and Frances fell in love with it.

Cotton-On Quilters' Show 2008

Well, the show is over and done. I will leave Helen to provide a report but here are pictures! You can see all the pictures in the album here or watch the show below. If you want larger versions of any of the photo files for printing please email me (Janice) with the image number which is in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. You will need to go to the link above and look at it full size to see the number. I can also provide a cd of all the images if you want one - details in the next newsletter.

December Show & Tell

Now that January is nearly over I thought it was time to put up the show & tell from the December meeting :-)

First up is Margaret's kiwiana placements:
Then Maria's version of the very popular Chris Barrington Santa:

Veronica loves everything cowboy:
Including the coffee. I have this Jacqui Karl pattern too, but it lies around in its plastic sleeve waiting for a caffeine fix:
Judy made this beautiful quilt of falling autumn leaves:
And this is June's lovely kiwiana themed quilt:
Margalite has been really inspired by Jane Sassaman's book. A fantastic way to use solid homespun fabric:


Eileen has made a wonderfully subtle star quilt:
It took her a while and the leaf blocks started out as another quilt but Frances' shadow autumn leaf quilt is stunning:
Jean's Children's quilt - really cute:
Joy is our community quilt organiser and she makes great kids quilts:
Love those snake heads!
Anita showed us her snowball quilt:
Bernice finished her Rookie Class quilt. I am very proud of her:
She did the class with her daughter Donna. Bernice was tickled pink when she finished her quilt before Donna.
The Christmas Angel graced our end of year lunch with her presence:


And the lunch was really rummy. a great way to end a busy quilt club year.

Xmas Dinner

Our club Christmas celebrations this year included a sit-down, fully catered 'traditional' cold ham, cold turkey, new potatoes and salad dinner. It was a wonderful meal well complemented by the festive table setting. Members each contributed and received a hand made xmas cracker with quilty contents and Frances contributed a poem which she recited just before the dessert was served:

The daughter of the farrier Could find no one to marry her, Because she said She would not wed A man who could not carry her.

The foolish girl was wrong enough, And had to wait quite long enough; For as she sat She grew so fat That nobody was strong enough.

It didn't appear to deter anyone from helping themselves to the little pavlova desserts!

October Show & Tell

It is now November and I need to put up the October show & Tell before the November stuff. I have got behind!!

At the October meeting Carol demonstrated how to do really accurate piecing with freezer paper for our Techniques Training session. Can you see her Featherweight Singer. That is a real sweetie of a machine (and I covet it mightily):
Anita and Colleen basting a quilt:
This is a beautiful Bible Block Quilt that Phillipa is making to hang in her church:
Veronica's Cats
Margalite makes quilts to go on beds. This is the first of 3:
And the second:
And the third:
Wow, what an output. Isn't that Stack 'n' Whack fabulous? Do you think blue is one of her favourite colours?

This is Jenny's Quilt:
A cool handbag made by Pauline:
Carol did an internet challenge based on colours starting with the letters of her name. She is holding a very cute drawstring bag made from 2 fat quarters:
These are pincushions Carol got from and internet swap. I love the egg!
And this is a really cool fun quilt:
Frances made this Shabby Chic basket quilt:
Helen H did a wonderul piece of discharge dyeing:
Audrey made these 2 cat wall hangings:
Very cute cats!
And this sweet table runner:
That's all, folks (until next time)

September Show & Tell

A bit late I know and there is still October to do (August Show & Tell didn't get photographed.) I'm not sure if I can remember all of who made what and I've forgotten most of the "Tell" part and some of the photos are less than best, but here it is:

First we start with a quilt-pounce demonstration from Ruth:
Lorraine's baby quilt:
And her cot quilt for Raetihi:
Karen's baby quilt
Judy's Black & White Ferns:
Pauline's Asian Quilt:
Jeans's cushion:
Jean's Quilt:
Jean's Table Runner:
Joy's Go Bag:
Kiwiana Hearts:
Bright Quilt
Colleen's Fruit:
Frances' Flower:
Heathers first trapunto:
Janice's Four Season's Internet Swap
Shattered Poppies
Ruth's Rosedbuds (completely hand pieced and hand quilting in progress):
Redwork Angels
Rae's Flower Quilt: