Hanging in Winchester House

Calling into Winchester House for a meeting during the week, it’s a good chance to see what quilt is on show.  And what an elegant quilt it was.  “Layered Leaves” was made by Mary Andrews in a class in 2011, and is just beautiful.  Close inspection showed the 3D flowers and lacy machine embroidered leaves, all done in hues of pink and green, all beautifully arranged on the background fabric.  The berries are little balls of felted wool, stitched in place, and the flowers are finished with beaded stamens.  Perfectly beautiful!

Layered Leaves, by Mary Andrews

April Club Night

Now that Daylight Saving is a distant memory, the evenings get darker much earlier, so does the drive to the hall for club nights.  But never mind, for everything there is a season, and we were lucky that it was a fine evening without any wind and rain.  Sandra welcomed everyone to the meeting, and then Diane explained the theme and size of the club challenge.  Further details about this will be printed in the newsletter.  Ruby and Kathy were the lucky winners of the raffles.

Robyn from Fox’s Cottage took the stage and displayed several of the new up-coming classes her shop will be running.  Next to take the microphone was club member Ute who has recently started an on-line fabric shop.  She related the story of how the family sold up their business and home in Germany, and moved out to New Zealand.  Seeking a home based business, Ute then decided to import patchwork fabrics.  Check out her website on www.thelifestyler.nz

A selection of Ute’s imported fabrics

Show and Tell brought along an interesting selection, as usual, from quilts for grandchildren, table runners, and wall hangings.

Quilt for a new grand-daughter

There was a nice selection of autum toned quilts brought along for our extra show and tell segment, including my Maple Leaf quilt.  I received the blocks in an internet birthday block swap, but it took me absolutely ages to finally put it together and finish the quilting.  Better late than never, I guess.

Made by Mary

Our speaker for the evening was Chrissie Sheed, President of Rose City Quilters, who told us of her quilting journey and how it has changed over the years.  She started off, as most of us do, making traditional quilts, and brought along one of her early examples, patchwork blocks alternated with candle wick blocks.

One of Chrissie’s early quilts

Then she discovered art quilts, with couching, beading, fabric manipulation, using rusted fabric and even papers.  Chrissie taught herself free motion quilting, and does the most amazing micro stippling.  She kindly handed her small art works around the hall so we could have a close look at them all.  I was a bit hesitant to look at the snake, but it is all done with fabric and stitching, and is an amazing work of art.

Chrissie’s realistic snake

It was another great club night, with an amazing speaker, good company, and time to catch up with fellow members.

Guest Speaker at Probus

Yvonne Symonds was “club speaker” at our Probus Club meeting recently, and did a marvelous job promoting Town and Country Quilters.   She explained about the charity quilts made by members, and also the benefit of the heart cushions made by members a little while ago for those ladies undergoing surgery for breast cancer.

We then saw a selection of quilts made over the years, including several challenges made with her “Evening Bags” house group.

Floral Bouquet Round Robin quilt

Dragonfly, made in a Jacqui Carl class

The tiny houses of Happy Villages were started in a class with Karen Eckmeter were just delightful.

Happy Villages

The Evening Bag Challenge 2014 composed of many small circles completed with different stitches in each came in for a lot of scrutiny after the meeting.  As did all the pretty little buttons and charms used too.  “Look at that one, and that one”, people were heard exclaiming.

Evening Bag Challenge of 2014

Thank you Yvonne, for your short talk, it was very interesting, and the ladies (in particular) in the Probus club enjoyed the opportunity to see your work.