Saturday, May 29, 2010

Rightly or Wrongly....

Rightly or wrongly..... I decided to have a go at quilting the "Butterfly Enclosure, " quilt myself. The reason being, I need the practise and to pay someone else to do it when I am not that thrilled with it swung the decision. So,on Thursday, backing fabric all washed, I enlisted some help from R to straighten all the layers ( found a clean broom useful )and crawled around the carpet while I pinned the 3 layers ( cotton/ bamboo batting ) together.
 Here I have started stitching in the ditch around the straight lines working from the centre panel first then out to the borders from there. Surprisingly, so far, so good.
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Yesterday was so wet in the morning that it was surprising that 29 ladies came to P and Q group. I got there really early and had the heaters on, so we had a pleasant day which became fine by home time.
S one of our newer members, but already a good helper, has years of experience ( is / was a trained Elna technicion ) and has done commercial sewing for 20 years, gave a really informative talk on "Getting quilts to hang straight and how to straighten your fabrics."
R a quilter of only 4 years, but prolific, told us of her quilting journey so far. I asked her to pose with one of her many quilts. This cat one is such fun.

I just have to show you this quilt that N has finished the top for. It's for a friend who wanted a quilt with "The Lady of Shalott," on it. Wow!

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 So far during May we have had 267 mls  or 10 . 5 inches of rain! ( that's what happens in BOP ( Bay of Plenty ) whatever we are getting ; sun; wind or rain we get plenty of it at one time )
Right now is a slack time for us on the orchard so apart from gardening ( leaves! ) and shelling nuts we have time for hobbies; R's  medical appointments; renewing drivers licences( mine ) and all those extra things.
 In R's case, buying a new big ride on mower ( Huslter ), that he will spend hours using over the next few years.

Have a happy weekend everyone and those in the Southern hemisphere I hope you stay dry and warm.

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

I would be interested to see how you find working with the bamboo/cotton batting - I nearly bought some the other day, but was undecided.

Meggie said...

I have used some of the bamboo/cotton, & I like it. Nice & stable, but then I am no fancy quilter.
That cat quilt is wonderful!!

Meggie said...

I also meant to say, the Lady of Shallot is gorgeous- what a daunting project! So well done!

Tracey Petersen said...

Good luck with the quilting. It's always really satisfying to do it all yourself..
Hope you stay warm and dry too!

Joyce said...

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the bamboo batting. I haven't tried it yet. The Lady of Shallot quilt is amazing. Is it hand appliqued? If so it's even more amazing.

julieQ said...

Waht awesome quilts you shared!! I like the bamboo batting I tried...thin with a nice drape.