New Zealand Adventures~ The Stitching Post, Arrowtown

A Kiwi quilt top

Another Kiwi quilt with Kiwi fabrics

Sunshine Quilters ~ Lake Tahoe Retreat

This weekend my online quilting guild, the Sunshine Quilters are having a retreat in Lake Tahoe, CA. Sadly, due to other vacation plans later in the year, I couldn't join them for a weekend of quilting, eating and having an overall good time.  Those of us at home have been invited to sew along. Here's my first top made of the simple block designed for the retreat.  More to come...

Flower wallhangings

To many years ago to remember I become a fan of Eileen Sullivan flower wallhangings.  She has designed some very realistic flowers that are made using the technique of paper piecing.  To find her designs her website is http://www.thedesignersworkshop.com/

As her patterns (for my use) were a little narrower than I wanted, I took her pattern and added to the sides to make them wider.  This was done by either moving the borders out or in the case of her daffodils I added 2 more daffodils to the side.  The Poinsettia and Iris wallhangings (I made) hung in my Mother's apartment for over 10 years. Mom's been gone almost 4 years now.  It's sad to say in all those years I had never finished the daffodil top.  I wasn't happy with the border and one of the iris leaves was waving in the breeze and wasn't anchored to the ground.  I got this top out on Thursday fixed the waving foliage, took off the border I had added and put on 2 new borders. I have now quilted it and it's almost ready to be hung on my wall.

Tortured Tyvek Postcard Swap

 My online fabric postcard group is having a swap called the Tortured Tyvek swap.  Here are some of my postcards.  First I painted pellon with watered craft paints.  I also painted the Tyvek with metallic paint.  Let both dry well. Then I randomly cut apart the Tyvek,  placed it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and ran a hot iron over it.  The hotter the iron gets the more the Tyvek melts.  You can see some interesting results.  I then glued several of the Tyvek pieces onto the pellon and added a back to the card.  Two of the cards I decided to try free motion quilting on top of the Tyvek. It worked wonderfully so I should have done this from the beginning.  For safety you should melt the Tyvek outside so any fumes are disapated outside and not in the house.

Lenten challenge

A Sunshine quilter challenged us to make blocks - one for every day in Lent which is 42 blocks.  I took that challenge and decided to make blocks plus I added my own challenge of making 1 quilt top for each weekend of Lent which is 6.  I have 50 blocks made which are made into 3 quilt tops plus I have made 4 other tops.  I really want to make 2 more quick pieced quilts this week so I feel that I have met my personal challenge.  Here is the top made from scraps of a very kid friendly quilt.

Super Sunday Sunshine Quilting

My online quilting group decided that instead of watching football on Superbowl Sunday we would have a special quilt retreat with each of us in our own homes but talking online as we worked on our projects.  We were challenged to see how many quilt or quilt tops we could make in one weekend. We decided any tops made during Friday, Saturday or Sunday would count in addition to tops already made but quilted during the weekend.  By Sunday's end we had 19 tops that were quilted and 39 tops that were pieced plus 61 blocks were made.  I made these 2 tops in addition to a top I'd made earlier in the week which didn't count in  the totals.

New charity quilt tops finished

Here are some recent quilt tops I made and quilted for different charities. There are 2 close ups of my quilting plus the back of the wild animals top. I like the back as much as the front. I am getting good at using panels. I have 14 quilts done so far for 2011. I am hoping to complete and average of 3 per month. I have barely used any of my stash and have lots left to use. I might actually break down and buy some greens for blenders.

quilt tops

I have made 5 quilt tops so far this year. 2 tops are the Disappearing Nine Patch and are cut from my scraps. I must say they are colorful but I prefer a more organized scrappy top.

Christmas Holiday Needlepoint & Quilting

About 30 years ago I decided to make my family needlepoint stockings. I started with Mom(Jeanne) & Dad(Cliff). Each stocking was choosen with their interests in mind. Next was my husband's. Russ had always wanted to live at the shore and so I had a stocking designed of Santa feeding the gulls at the beach. We finally made it to live at the beach a few year later. Now all 3 of them are gone and so I put their stockings up in their memories.

I also made stockings for a sister, niece and nephew which they used every year. But I actually never got one made for myself. Maybe it's time to make one for me.
Over the years I have made many holiday wallhangings that I bring out each year to enjoy. I have also received a couple as gifts from penpals that I have in Australia and New Zealand. The Christmas Tree through the Window was made by Philippa from NZ in 1994 as my Christmas gift. The Poinsettia is a pattern by Eileen Sullivan that I used and altered to make it larger. I really love her patterns. I have also made her Daffodils and Iris and plan make more. The Happy Holidays wallhanging was made not long after my purchase of combination sewing/embroidery machine. I enjoy what the machine can do but remain a quilter at heart! I machine quilted both tops.

Where does the time go?

I really can't believe how fast time goes by. I had every intention of posting to the blog weekly but I just haven't been able to post. Oh, for more time in my days! Now the end of the year is looming upon us.

This summer I participated in ALQS4 which is an exchange of art wall quilt tops that follow rules the organizer has set up. She is an internet friend whom I "met" through a group of fabric dyers. Kate lives in England though she is originally from the US. I made my quilt and sent off the photos to be posted to her blog http://anotherlittlequiltswap.blogspot.com/ .


Then when the date arrives for all the quilts to be in to her we each get to chooose several we would like to own. Kate does the hard part assigning a quilt to each person. I love the quilt that I received from Cathy whose blog is http://cmwinter.blogspot.com/ .

See the June postings for the details on what she did to make her quilt. Her quilt is called Big Foot, Framed. It is about 15" by 20". It is a really neat piece and I am proud to be the owner of it. Now there is ALQS5 which stands for Another little Quilt Swap. I haven't signed up yet but there is still time so what to do....



Then this fall I received a bulky package from The Netherlands. A while ago I had been in a quilt swap using a spring theme with another dyer from our group. At the time Cobi wasn't able to finish her top for me. That happens sometimes because life interferes with our hobbies and pleasures. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found a fantastic quilt top measuring about 15" square called Spring in the Valley. Cobi has far surpassed any expectations I had about receiving this top and she put a lot of love and work into the quilt. Both quilt artists shared a love of doing unique tops. Art quilts are so interesting and the materials used are great. Both quilters used silk flowers in the tops. There is yarn and beads on the one Cobi made. So a big thanks goes out to both of them for brightening the walls of my house with their art work!

Bev Bennett, Quilter Extraordinaire

The Internet has broadened my horizons plus it’s made the world a smaller place. I've met and made some wonderful friends over the years......via the Internet. With an online dyeing group I went to a retreat in MT seeing Yellowstone while with them. I’ve reconnected with HS and nursing school friends. I planned my nursing school class 30 and 35th reunions…..via the Internet. Last Thursday I received a message that made me stop and realize how the Internet has changed communication, too.

Back in the 90’s I joined an online quilting group as my life dictated that I needed to spend more time close to home. I loved piecing quilt tops and talking with my “quilting family”. Little did I know how joining that group would change my life. Our original leader, BillieJean had to withdraw and another quilter, Bev took over as the motivating force behind our group which we called Sunshine Quilters. Last week I learned (again via the Internet) that she passed on to kinder pastures. She's been ill for a couple of years, ruptured brain aneurysm, a growing aortic aneurysm, heart and lung disease, but her passing is still a shock.

Bev Bennett was little lady who was an optimist, no matter what her situation... ...she never slowed down, either. A retired Army nurse, she devoted her later years to quilting for children around the world. I don't know how many children have enjoyed the fruits of her labors...... ...thousands, literally. She was our "Mother Hen." She was one of our quilting angels....she' d take quilt tops made by others and quilt them on her home sewing machine, bind them and mail them off to children world wide. Even when she was still working outside the home she was quilting 200 to 300 quilts a year! Her finished quilts have gone to Siberian orphanages, 3rd world countries where children are receiving Rotoplast surgeries, US Indian Reservations, plus many, many more children in various places. Sunshine's motto is "Keeping the World Warm - One Quilt at a Time". That's exactly what she did!

Bev loved her kitties and dog, too. We all enjoyed her stories about KC Kitty, amongst others. She posted pictures of moose peeking in her window while her dog sat inside and watched. We'd shudder when she'd write about it being 40 deg. below zero during the winter, and wish for the lovely sunshine she'd describe in the summer. She'd mention stopping along the roadside on the way home from work to watch the Northern Lights. She talked about the beautiful Alaskan wildflowers. She loved Alaska!

Widowed over 25 years ago, Bev still talked of wonderful times spent with her husband Don. When my husband, Russ died almost 4 ½ years ago she was one of the first to email me and sent numerous notes to help me through my grief. Even though I never met Bev in person I felt like I knew her and that she was a friend. I mourn her passing though now she’s at peace.

RIP dear Friend. You may be gone from this world, but not from my heart.
Bev Bennett, Quilter Extraordinaire

Making the Quilt Blocks

Here the the steps to what I did to make a block. First I took 2 squares 8.5" and drew a grid on them. The first line was down 1/4" from the diagonal middle on one side to make large triangle with the second line 3/4" down on the same side. The third line goes halfway across the block 1/4" on either side of the diagonal middle of the square. These are all sewing lines.

Second I drew the cutting lines -shown in red and cut the block apart on those lines. After you make a few of the blocks you won't need to put the cutting lines on the blocks.


Pictures 3 & 4 show the square being cut apart into 1 large and 4 smaller triangles.


Picture 5 shows the blocks being trimmed with a bias square ruler. The large triangle will be trimmed to 6.5 inches with the 4 smaller blocks being trimmed to 3.5 inches.

The last picture shows the block sewn together. To get there I sewed the 4 smaller triangle squares together repeating this step twice. Then I laid out the 4 blocks together into the pattern and did the final block piecing.

Quilting & UFO's

After I finished the top in my previous post I got out the top I had planned to finish in 2009. I orginally was going to make the top for a double or queeen sized bed but now maybe I'll make 2 twins quilts. I have 24 blocks sewn together with about the same amount made and another 10 blocks or so in the works.

Changing focus - back to some piecing/quilting

I started a quilting group about a year after I moved to Cape May County back in early 1987. My husband, Russ named it CAMACO (first 2 letters of the county) Quilters. We have been a fun and active group. We give back to the community by making quilts, placemats and quilts for different organizations.
Our meeting was Wednesday andd I came home to dig out a project. The first one I found is from at least 15 years ago - wild animal squares I had cut out but were languishing in a box. Yesterday I finished the top. It's the perfect size top for another organization I am active in called an online group Sunshine Quilters. We make quilts for Wrap-A-Smile and Wrap Then in Love. I make the tops and send them to a quilting angel, Bev in Alaska to quilt and bind the tops.