Chinese Whispers and Darth Vadar's pencil box

Nothing says spring more clearly to me than the kowhai blossom, particularly against a clear blue sky.

I remember a time when I wasn't quite as flattering about the blossom - a friend, Ronnie, sat near me in a design class and she took this flower as her inspiration.  I remarked that her design looked just like Caspar the Friendly Ghost!

You have to be good friends with someone to be able to say something like that about their work.........

I have just come into the house from my sewing room and am enjoying a glass of pinot noir - I am exhausted and shall be off to bed early.  My sewing room is tidy!!!  Floors swept, rubbish removed and all the fabric tidy - or at least out of sight.  I even sorted through several plastic containers - I discovered I have one full of mending type fabric, zips etc.

There are two piles of quilt tops, those with backs already pieced and those without - oh and a smaller pile of backs that don't seem to go with any of the tops........

This is the third, and last, canvaswork panel I helped make at the 127 Group, again designed by Gill Williams and called Wellington; Capital City

My panel was the BNZ Centre - otherwise known to the locals as Darth Vadar's Pencil Box.  It was the most difficult for me of the three panels.  Trying to get light reflections was a challenge; of course when it came to the little domes and the artwork at the base, I made no attempt to keep the correct proportions.

Here is a close up

Have you ever seen a quilt at a show or a meeting maybe and thought you'd like to make one like it?  Then when you get home and start sorting fabrics some of the details are less than clear, but you press on.  I did that when I was stitching with friends and one of them was hand quilting a scrap quilt, I thought the pattern was railroad crossing maybe.  No problems with me doing one, so at home I sorted a pile of strips into different lengths, joined them and then cut into three inch columns.

I found a sort of burgundy coloured plain fabric for the squares, and put everything up on the design wall - oh dear, it didn't work.  The zing I noticed in Sandy's quilt was missing from mine - it wouldn't even be revived by fancy hand quilting in the plain squares.

Now, I thought maybe a flower in the square, but I don't do applique if I can help it - but, aha, I remembered a fabric I had bought from Shaws years ago, I located it, fussy cut some squares and sashed with the three inch columns - and this is what I ended up with -

It's named, "It's a Jungle Out There" - I was watching re-runs of TV series at the time.

I couldn't waste the squares I had previously cut out, so made half square triangle blocks with the sewn strips, and came up with this setting -

Sandy and I showed our so-different tops at a club meeting - and she said the quilt she thought she was copying was actually quite different, as she found out when she got a photo of it.

Yesterday was the meeting of Pinestream Quilters, Jenny of Romany Quilters always does a great write up so I will leave it to her but the last item on a very busy meeting was the presentation of two Bernette sewing machines to me as Convenor of the Shut-in Stitchers quilting programme of Arohata Prison.  These machines come with a walking foot each which will make such a difference to the quality of the quilting.  We are so grateful to Pinestream for their generosity.

Tomorrow I will check with the women and if permission is given I shall be able to share with you some of the quilts they are making; thanks to the marvellous team of volunteers and the help of quilters who donate so much lovely fabric.

Not quite sure what to make of the weekly thought from my diary, "Be sensible, though sympathetic".

Thanks for dropping by
We will talk again soon
June