Jackie in NZ update

Hi all, Susan and I collected Jackie from the Auckland airport last Tuesday. We had a couple of days eating sightseeing and visiting quilt shops in the area. Have some photos on Jackie's camera but her memory stick does not fit my laptop. She will upload them when she is home.
Thursday Jackie and I wandered our way down to Havelock North via some more sights and shops!

We have done some sewing since being here. Jackie has just finished putting together a Disappearing Nine Patch - or is that disappearing Mum!

I have made some slippers - peeking out in a photo below.
And I've just finished my heart for Jackie. I've not done any beading before but really enjoyed it. Much faster than I thought it would be.

We will catch up with Lucy and then sadly Jackie has to go home on Friday. Margaret, no I won't get to the Birmingham this year, maybe next!
Well better go and attend to the NZ Lamb roast for dinner. J.

Heart for Jackie

Phew!  Just managed to complete the block in April-shall post it out tomorrow.The other blocks were very creative-I took my idea from a Thimbleberries pattern for table mats! I added the check fabric Jackie, it was some Dutch fabric bought years ago when in Holland.

Tomorrow our textile group meets to make bunting for the village diamond jubilee celebrations-hope the weather improves ,wet,wet,wet and gales.

I think our grandchildren are like Joanne's cat-they just keep coming back!!

Have a good trip Jackie,will J be heading this way for the quilt show at the NEC?I bumped into Sue Secker the other day they are going back to HK next week for another couple of years.

Jenny- the quilting bee is gorgeous!

Mx

Hi all,
I owe Karen an apology. I have not sent her block yet. My machine has been acting up and I finally got it working. I will send the block with my fabric for May's block. I saw this cute ornament and thought of all of you. It is a Jim Shore "Quilting Bee".

Chicken Pattern coming soon

Wendy, I forgot to say, I will post details of the chicken pattern as soon as I get the chance. I have to edit the original as it was wrong and scratch my brain as to how I will get it on the blog so the scale of the bits is right. Watch this space. J.

Catching Up

Hi,  I have had several visitors so have not been keeping up with the blog since Susan was here. I have had great fun catching up on all the news.
What a hard act to follow with Jackie's heart block! Just love what you have all done. I have to get a wriggle on as she will be here soon! Yippee.
Your Chicken door stops are cute Jackie. Beats my cubes!
I've not had a great deal of time for stitching just lately but the knitted fabric door mat has progressed, though still has about 8" to go, have to cut more fabric.
Marmite has been back to the old house 11 times now. He is getting more sneeky about being brought home. This last time took 3 days and several trips before we coaxed him out and whisked him into the cage. He is now booked into a cattery on Saturday for 3 weeks. Just have to try and keep him home until then. They are full at the moment as it is school holidays here. Hopefully it will cure him. If not I will be putting flyers in letter boxes around our old house asking for a new owner.
Enough catching up on email - off to sit in front of the fire and hand quilt now.
Happy stitching. J.

Loving the hearts...

I have just returned home from a weekend in Brighton and seen the lovely hearts posted on line.  They are all stunning, and all so different which is exactly what I was hoping for.  Wendy, your's has also arrived in the post (I will post a picture of it soon for all to see).  Thank you all!

By the way, I was in Brighton to cheer for my husband Pete who ran the marathon and raised £1600 for the children's charity ChildLine - I'm very proud of him.

And today I've started packing my suitcase for my long-awaited trip to New Zealand on Sunday.  I'm off to see Joanne and Susan (and hopefully meet Lucy) - can't wait!

Jackie

My block for Jackie

I hope Jackie likes my take on a "single red heart". I raw edge appliqued the hearts onto the background and for good measure added a layer of batting to the back. After the applique was done I very carefully cut the excess batting away, which results in a sort of Trapunto effect. 
Cheers
Vreni x

Jackie's Heart

I have just completed myheart block for Jackie,  decided it had to have a New Zealand influence so I hope you like it Jackie.  I really enjoyed doing it over the weekend in between oiling the outside furniture ready for summer.  Not that summer is fast coming at the moment.

Over the Easter break we had an insightful five days in Krakow Poland, it was a real walk into history for us all while we visited the Jewish quarter of  Krawkow, the salt mines and Auschwitz, truely amazing and very heart wrenching. 
When we got back home I also finished sewing the top of a cot quilt for my neighbour.  Now I am going to machine quilt it, something I have never done before so if you have any tips please pass them on.

I hope you all had a great Easter break and I look foward to what will  turn up in the post for May.

Take care

Catherine

Jackie's Block finished

Hi Jackie

Here is your block, I thought I best send you a photo of it before I change my mind and decide to keep it!

I hope you like it but if you would prefer me to make one out of the fabric you sent then I can do that. I loved the fabrics you sent but when I read your specs I immediately thought of making a red heart with buttons. I have been wanting to have a go at this sort of project for a while but didn't know what to make. Now that I have done this I might have another go and make a cushion block for myself.

Susan x

Jackie's Block

Hi all,

I am back in Auckland and back at work... which is ok but it means limited time for stitching. Also, our clocks have changed, so by the time I have made dinner and cleared up afterwards the light has long gone outside.  I will have to get myself organised and have colours and patterns decided and picked at the weekend as I find the artificial light distorts colours too much.

I am having a dilema with Jackie's block as I am swinging between two different blocks.  I absolutely love the whole idea of what Jackie has chosen.  I can't wait to see what the rest of you are going to come up with. I may make both of my ideas and see how they look afterwards. Luckily the white backing fabric Jackie sent must have been from her Korean stash as I have the same one, some of you would have used it in my Stack of Books block. 

Jason and I are going to the Jersey Boys show this afternoon. He was lucky enough to see it with his Dad in London last year and when he heard the show was coming here really wanted to go again. At least I will get to see it this time too!

Some exciting news for me this week, I had a letter from the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants confirming my admittance into the College of Chartered Accountants. So I can now call myself a Chartered Accountant, or Susan Brettschneider CA.  There will be a ceremony held in the next month or so where all new CAs will be awarded their certificates, can't wait! it has been a long and at times tough road, but I got there! Now time to enjoy my hobbies again.

Have a good weekend all,
Susan x

Easter greetings

I am so impressed with how industrious you all have been. I had lots of good intentions but have had a sewing free weekend so far. It is lovely to see the photos you have uploaded as it brings it all to life, it is so nice to put faces to names. Unfortunately my IT skills aren't quite that good so I will restrict myself to messages. I was going to do Jackie's block this holiday but got distracted as the weather has been better than expected, so had two days out - one in Dartmouth and one driving over Dartmoor, seeing the Dartmoor ponies, quite a few with foals. Today is wet, but I got involved in watching Phantom of the Opera on TV, so no sewing yet! When I went with the other ladies to the exhibition at Westpoint in Exeter I was reassured that all quilters seem to have lots of UFOs, so I don't feel so bad that I have not finished all my projects. Love the T quilt that you are doing, that must represent many hours of work but looks superb. Back to work tomorrow unfortunately so no sewing this week! Enjoy the rest of your holiday. Jennie

My Easter Project

This is what I have been working on over the last couple of days.  I bought it as a kit so that I wouldn't have to cut all the strips.  I still need to stuff them, but was thinking of making them into doorstops and putting some rice inside.  Jackie

Happy Easter!

Hi all,

Susan and I thought you would like to see what we have been up to for the last few days...

This is us relaxing on the terrace. I am busily knitting more of my rug and Susan is quilting a quilt top she made at Wendy's a couple of years ago.  Susan has finished quilting circles in the main part of the quilt and has only the border to do now. It's beautiful!

This is my son, Devin, showing how much my rug has grown. Unfortunately, I need to cut more strips from my stash. These rugs use lots more fabric than I was expecting!

Aren't these little chickens cute? They were so quick to make and make a lovely little gift for Easter. I made these in no time at all. Wish handquilting was this quick!!!

Here I am finishing putting the last of the blocks together for my 'One Fabric Quilt'. I learnt this technique at the Queenstown Symposium last year. I am currently handquilting the one I started at the symposium so will post a photo of this when I have finished. I loved the class so much I have since taught it to others including Jackie who whipped one up when I visited her last year.

This is 'Frostie' my non-wandering cat enjoying Susan's quilt. Marmite has disappeared on his tenth trip back to our old house. We are expecting a call any day now from our old neighbours to say that he has turned up again.  We were hoping he would have grown tired of all that walking but no, he's getting trimmer and fitter with every journey! Susan has now started quilting around the books so they are popping out.

Susan helped me baste together this quilt, Inner City, that has been a long time in the making as I started it a few years ago after being inspired by my Shanghai quilt group. Each 'T' shape has 6 pieces to it and they are all hand pieced. It's been my handbag project so been worked on around the world. It's a bit big to take out now, about 2m square.

So all in all a very productive weekend. And Russell got lots of water blasting done today too. We have both had a problem with our jeans shrinking over the weekend - or was it too much good food and wine! Including Chocolate Hot Cross Buns Jason made for us, yum.

So what have you all been up to. We want to hear about it and see photos if possible.

We're looking forward to more quilting adventures when Jackie arrives on the 24th. We have 2 nights in Auckland with Susan. Sadly the 25th is ANZAC day, a public holiday - what a panic when we discovered this. But have phoned the 4 quilt shops in the area and 1 will be open in the afternoon and another will open for us if we spend - what a shame! Cant wait.

Looking forward to the arrival of Jackie's fabrics this week. Rumour has it the UK ones have started to arrive.

Happy quilting, Joanne and Susan.