The TOWRAGS quilt show

Well, I only got to go to one quilt show after all.  The Stonestead Outdoor Quilt Festival on Sunday had to be cancelled again due to poor weather.  I hope they have better luck next year.

Fortunately the TOWRAGS quilt show at Old St Paul's was wonderful.  Who would have thought that 7 busy women could have made enough quilts to fill a church!!  These ladies have jobs and families, but just squeeze in quilting at every available moment.

Here's some photos I took of the quilts draped over the pews.

please note: This old Anglican church is no longer used as a church - that's why we call it "Old St Paul's", There's a new Anglican cathedral just round the corner with a lively congregation.  Old St Paul's is still be used for weddings and funerals, but it's a historic place now, rather than a sacred church.

 

The church was built from native timber by English settlers in 1865. The stained glass windows are just wonderful.

Here's some of my favourite quilts from the exhibition:

Some of you enquired about the raffle quilt I showed in my last post.  The pattern is by Kathy Doughty if you want to search it out.

Attention Wellington quilters

It's a big weekend for quilters in Wellington, New Zealand.  There's two quilt shows on this weekend - yes, two!!

 Firstly, there's this crazy bunch of ladies I know through Capital Quilters.  I don't know what possessed them to strip for this photo, but here they are.

These TOWRAGS produce amazing quilts, and they've made enough to fill historic Old St Paul's in Mulgrave Street.  Their show is on this Saturday and Sunday and I really encourage you to pop in for a look.  They tell me they will be wearing clothes, so you're safe.  Admission is only $6 - it's cheap!! Here's a link to find out more. 

They will be raffling off this gorgeous quilt, with proceeds going to Wellington Free Ambulance.


Secondly, it's the Stonestead Outdoor Quilt Festival on Sunday up at Te Marua, Upper Hutt.  I really  hope it doesn't rain, because I really want to see the quilts flapping in a gentle breeze and partake in a delicious Devonshire Tea.  I've got two quilts in the festival and want to see what else is on display.  Here's mine from two years ago.  I vowed to go bigger next time, and I have this year.

I've entered my two biggest quilts so I hope they have high enough ropes and they don't drag on the ground.  I'll report back next week with photos.

My embroidery priorities for 2017

I've just chosen my embroidery classes for 2017, so I can now write my list of things I'd like to make this year. Once again, I'm going to keep it simple and list my top priorities only.  I'm tired of listing the same things year after year and never doing them! Maybe one year I'll suprise everyone and just quietly make one of them when no one is looking.

1. Holey Moley

photo from Nancy's Stitch Studio

This will be six classes at Nancy's Stitch Studio spread out over the year. I haven't done this type of Jacobean embroidery so it will be very interesting.

2. Textured Floral Extravaganza

Photo from Nancy's Stitch Studio

This will be another set of six classes spread out over the year, with homework in between the lessons! Once again, I see new techniques that I haven't tried previously.

3. A Treasured Time

I started this Dimensions Gold kit in October 2016 and would really like to have it finished and framed before Christmas. I love this scene, especially as we have Christmas in summer in New Zealand.

Here's where I'm up to:

4. Peacock at Sunset

I'm more than 50 % done on the Ehrman tapestry, so I plan to finish it in 2017.

5. Twelve Days Ornaments

This is a gorgeous range of wool felt Christmas ornaments designed by Larissa Holland.

I stumbled across them on Instagram (@mmmcrafts) but you can also see them on Larissa's blog here. I've already made a tiny start, just to try out the method and test my Sulky Solvi.  Now I need to decide what colour felt I'm going to use. I can see this taking up a lot of time as I keep adding extra touches.

So that's it! Five main things to work on this year.  Plus my quilts of course (which you can see here).

Tussie Mussie

I couldn't resist any longer - I started the Tussie Mussie quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy.  I've collected a lot of beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabrics over the past two years, and I had enough purples and greens in my stash to make this lovely pattern.

I remembered the things Kaffe and Brandon had told us at the class I attended a year ago, and just used whatever fabrics I had on hand.  I didn't try to match my fabrics to those in the pattern. If I really like a fabric, I cut more of it.  Those I wasn't so fussed about, I used less of.

I have a Bloc Loc HST ruler for 6" finished blocks, so I made my blocks slightly smaller than the pattern. My quilt will be 60" x 60" rather than 80" x 80" (unless I decide to add more blocks).
 

In my mind this was going to be a green quilt, with purples in the background, so I laid out the blocks by pairing up the green fabrics (see below) . I knew it wasn't looking as good as I hoped, but I couldn't think why after a long day making 100 HST blocks.

I sat down to relax and immediately realised that I should have paired up the purple fabrics because they were stronger colours. The next morning I tried again and was far happier with the layout (see below).  It looks much cleaner now that the focus is on the purples.  The greens still glow in natural light, but the purple diamonds work far better this way.

I've now started joining the rows, but once again I've had to pack it all up because this is my kitchen floor and we need to eat! It's bringing back memories of when I made my Tropical Hexagons quilt and had the same problem.  Must be a thing with Kaffe Fasset quilts.