Hamilton Trip Part 2

The purpose of the Hamilton was of course to attend the Craft and Quilt Fair to get inspiration from the quilt show and the merchants, and to shop :o)

I actually didn't take a lot of pictures, I think I was enjoying looking too much, but these were two of my favourite quilts.

The squares are made with the chenelle technique, using different colours for the underneath layers. The effect was incredible and made it look like the top fabrics were different. I think you should be able to see what I mean in this close-up.

The 2nd quilt was called "Rhubarb". I loved the bright colours and strong shapes.

The other highlight of the trip was the chance to visit my favourite quilt shop, Grandmothers Garden at Gordonton. At this shop it is not just the fabric that makes the visit worthwhile, though there is certainly plenty of that. Hazel who owns the shop is an enthusiastic cook, and when there are big events on she serves homemade scones with jam and cream, and cups of tea in beautiful china cups and saucers. These are served free throughout the day, and her scones are just divine. We visited 3 times (once a day for the 3 days were there) and were lucky enough to also partake of Hazel's vegetable soup on the Friday night. This shop is a joy to visit - it is busy and vibrant, the staff are lively and helpful and there are inspiring quilts everywhere. The only fault I can find with Grandmothers Garden is that it is not closer to where I live! Mind you, I bought quite a good selection of their fabric home, so it feels a little bit like I am there anyway!!!

Hamilton Trip

At the end of September we drove to Hamilton for the Craft and Quilt Fair (more about that later). We were lucky enough to have some beautiful weather for the drive up through the Desert Road so we took some photos that I thought I would share.


Just a week after our trip Ruapehu erupted! Only a "minor" eruption - it blew large rocks up to 2 km from the crater.

We stopped at Tokoroa because I had read about a quilt shop there (it helps to have a book called "The Crafty Girls Road Trip Guide" because you can read about quilt shops everywhere you go).

The quilt shop had a fabulous selection of Christmas fabric which I just had to indulge in (!!!), and I found a really cute baby panel which will make a quilt for a colleague. But possibly even better than the quilt shop (oh okay, maybe just as good as the quilt shop) were the Talking Poles - Tokoroa's version of totem poles. The town has been holding and an carving symposium for several years, and these poles are the outcome of it. They are a great symbol for the town which has been built up around the forestry industry. I especially liked the one with leaves and flowers on, and have some ideas for a wallhanging based on this.

Quiet but quilting

This quilt is going in the mail to my friend Sandy tomorrow (I hope she hasn't found my blog or this will really ruin the surprise). Sandy and I both participated in a swap several years ago where each participant chose the block they wanted to receive and the others made it for her on her birthday. This quilt is made from Sandy's blocks - she gave them to me because I was looking for quick quilt ideas to make into samples for the quilting business. Finally, 2 years later, I've turned those blocks into a quilt which is going back to Sandy for her birthday.



The Sunflowers are now hanging in the hallway. I wont say they are finished because when I walk past them I see places where I could do some more stitching but I'm trying to take a "wait and see" approach.

The last picture is the layout of a baby quilt I'm making for a friend at work who is about to become a grandma to a little girl. The border fabric is pink, purple, orange and lime with hearts and flowers - very girly, and something of a challenge to work with, but I'm hoping it will all come together.

Birthday Quilt done

At the beginning of this year I decided that instead of buying birthday gifts I would give people quilts. It wasn't a decision to make them all quilts, instead I would use tops from my stash that were sitting waiting to be quilted. Some of these tops have been waiting a long time to be quilted so this was just the motivation I needed to make sure they got finished, and I could find homes for some of the ones that I had made "just because" with no particular recipient, or use, in mind.

This week I finished this Lone Star for my sister for her birthday on Sunday.





The good thing about using tops that you have already made, as opposed to making quilts as gifts, is that you don't feel any pressure to choose the perfect pattern and fabric, and make a perfect quilt. For example, this sister is very difficult to choose for. I have thought about making her a quilt for several years, but it's hard to pin down just what she likes, she doesn't have a favourite colour, her house doesn't have a particular style, and I could never picture her actually using a quilt because it just wouldn't be right. But going into my stash of tops it was easy to choose this one for her. She is an engineer, so the geometric design of the Lone Star will interest her, and she has just bought a natural coloured couch for her new apartment. Because I haven't painstakenly chosen the pattern and fabric just for her, it doesn't matter if this isn't absolutely the most perfect quilt for her cos I just feel really happy that is a nice present. And possibly most importantly the stash is reduced by one more!!

I had forgotten how snuggly

... flannel quilts are.

Today we had a new customer drop off a quilt for quilting. It is a really country log cabin style quilt, with lovely big feature blocks in the middle, and it is flannel. She wasn't sure whether to put flannel on the back of the quilt, or ordinary cotton, because we had a cotton backing fabric that she really liked.

It took me a while to remember that our flannel quilt was tucked away in the trunk in the corner of our room, but whe I did I brought it out to show her. Well as soon as she touched the snuggly flannel quilt with flannel on the back she was sold on flannel.

And I was sold on the idea of putting this quilt back on the bed very soon. Winter has definitely made itself known over the last few weeks, and this quilt will make a difference at night.

The quilt was an attempt to use up my stash of flannel after making a couple of flannel quilts. It is a copy of quilt that Sam (Mum to Arnold the blogging Jack Russell) made, and I loved the design as soon as I saw it.

The funny thing is, that as soon as my friends heard I was making a scrappy flannel quilt they gave their own flannel scraps. This really added the variety in this quilt and I really appreciate their kindness. As you can probably guess, by the end of the project I still had lots of flannel scraps left! I've made a couple more scrappy flannel quilts, and I've shared the flannel with my friends, for yet more quilts. It's like a little stash that never ends.

I'm off to check on the lamb shanks that have been slowly cooking for a couple of hours now - it really must be winter.

Sunflowers

Well I have been quiet haven't I!!! Over a month since I last blogged. But I have been busy. I went to a 2 day class with Mary Transom to learn how to make this sunflower quilt and I've been working on it ever since. I've made some more progress since this pic - everything is actually sewn down now, and the borders are on, but I can't find the cable to download pics from the camera.

The only other thing I've been working on is the first row for a row quilt swap I signed up for. I left it to the last minute so had a big panic not knowing what I wanted. I finally chose an oriental theme, made some stars with geisha girls in the middle and deep teal, orange and purple points, and fired it in the mail a couple of days before the deadline.

Hidden Treasure

Isn't funny what you find when you start tidying up?

I've been doing some reorganising of our photo files, and in the process I came across this picture of Amish blocks which I received in 2 different swaps a couple (or more) years ago.

When I saw the photo I was reminded of what striking blocks they were and how much I liked the quilt I made with them. A split second later I started to think "hold on, what quilt did I make with them?", followed by "and what did I do with it?".

Slowly the cogs started turning and the brain kicked into gear. It came back to me. I made two (yes 2) of the blocks into a bag to carry my cutting mat to classes and retreats. Here it is without the top binding or handles but you get the idea.

I felt a bit sad to think I didn't have a quilt made with these blogs, but then I realised the fun part - I still have 23 blocks sitting in my cupboard. Now if I just make 2 more, that will give me 25 and I'll have enough for a quilt. Maybe it's time I did something with this project. Now why do I feel like I'm been here before?

I'm off to find the actual blocks!