It's been a while.

Hi all, I have been very slack in adding comments to our blog sorry. I do enjoy getting yours in my email inbox.

I'm currently at the Auckland airport filling in time before our flight to Santiago for 3 weeks as a tourist taking in Easter Island, Iguazu Fall, Lima and the inca trail out to Macchu Pichu.

I confess my group quilt has not moved. I have not achieved a lot of quilting time of late but have finished my 5 year hand pieced Inner City quilt in time to enter it in the biannual NZ quilt Symposium in July.  Have yet hear if it has been accepted. I have also finished my Crystallisation wall hanging started 2 years ago at the last symposium.

A few weeks ago I went to a class by Sarah Fielke. She was with Material Obsession in Sydney but she and Kathy Doughty have parted and Sarah is out on her own now. It was a great class.  We could choose to make any one of her quilts (she has two books plus the two material obsession books). I chose one with 696 flying geese so got very speedy at making them. I found some cool funky bird fabric to go with them. I hope to one day show the top together on this blog, along with my group quilt!

I also have a 21st quilt to make for a nephew by Sept. He wants rich dark blues and greens with a shot of rich reds. So that's got the colours sorted just need an idea for the design now!!!

A lady in my quilting group here has lent me all the bits for a Handi Quilter.  That is a frame you use with a domestic machine to quilt like it is a long arm quilter.  I just have to buy a 3m x 1m board to set it up on and I'll be away - sounds easy!  But how does one get a board that big from the DIY store to home? And there is no instruction book with the Handi quilter. But I'll get there and will be machine quilting to my hearts content before you know it - I HOPE. Its good for getting quilts on beds but my real love is still for hand quilted quilts. I'm keen to get going on hand quilting my big orange and black "One Block Hexagon" quilt. I'm going to use orange pearl 8 thread - a la Sarah Fielke. So much to do, so little time.

Well that's me, nothing to show but lots to tell.  Keep the blog entries going. It's lovely to see what everyone is up to.

Keep quilting, Joanne.

Beach Quilt put together

Hi All
I have spent a productive weekend (a wet one) putting the final border on my quilt and I am so happy with it.  It took me a while to find the right fabric to sash it with and then I completed a border using a lot of my scraps and joining them together.  Now it is the backing fabric and how to quilt it, but we will leave that until next time.
I have not started any other quilting projects at the moment as we have been busy getting the house painted and a few other projects on the house before winter sets in.
Keep posting all your projects as it is great to check out what everyone is doing.
Thank you all again for your wonderful blocks that make my quilt so special.
Regards
Catherine