Horrockses Dress and Canvas work

I haven't done any more stitching on my extended nine patch but thought I would show you the dress I wore on my way out to New Zealand.

Well, it makes a change from a flower!  This photo was taken at the Botanical Gardens, Sydney on the last port of call before Wellington.  You can see the pattern quite clearly and understand why this particular piece of fabric has special meaning for me.

I had intended to post a blog yesterday evening, but I had a phone call from a friend - we haven't met for a while as she works long hours so we had plenty to talk about and before I knew it the evening was far advanced and there was not time to do anything except get to bed.  Saturday is the day I cannot lie in because of teaching at the prison.  Things went well today and I have brought out another couple of quilts to show at Pinestream Meeting this Thursday.

Before I got hooked on quilting to the exclusion of almost everything else, I belonged to a the 127 Group and we did various kinds of fibre art and were lucky enough to get commissions to do a series of canvas work pieces.

The first one was Vale - Wellington, designed by Gill Williams

Here is a plan showing who did which of the pieces that made the whole -

My contribution to this piece was the Michael Fowler Centre

Much of the wool we used was dyed using vegetable dyes and I worked from a photograph.

Just to include some quilting, here is my 1001 Nights - have you ever joined in with a group event for making a quilt in a night?  Capital Quilters [the Lower Hutt guild ] used to run these and this was the pattern they chose, Arabic Lattice I think it is called - well, I was travelling quite a bit at the time so used to pop my little Elna Lotus machine in my car, plus a box of the fabric, tools etc. and when I stopped making calls on Quilt shops, I had the rest of the time until the shops opened next day to sew to my heart's content.

I used that time to make all the four patches and do lots of cutting; the main sewing took place one weekend when my husband was away playing golf - so Quilt in a Night it certainly wasn't!

It was pretty tricky to put together with all those partial seams!

So this time I'll finish with a flower picture -

I know it's not coriander but don't tell the polyanthus!  the pot was just handy when I brought this plant indoors, it has survived the snow and the hail storm so thought it needed a little pampering.  And what about that supercilious driftwood dragon!?   And the plastic bird has been around a long while, it is the kind you put water in and then blow to make warbling bird calls!

The thought for Week 2 was "Have not thy cloak to make when it begins to rain."


Nice talking with you
Have a good weekend
June