Memo to self - take pictures!!!

No flowers today but aren't these apples great looking - and what do you think of the effect? - like an old scruffy photo - taken with the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone.  And I love the bowl, must get one that shows the inside; I bought it recently at Stonestead tearooms in Upper Hutt, pure retro with line drawings of fruit and vegetables.

It was another great Tuesday spent with my stitching friends and on the way there, there being Paraparaumu, Denise asked if we would mind making a detour to the Bernina shop in Raumati!  Would we mind?.....   She wanted to pin a quilt that morning and needed more pins so we forced ourselves!  It was the Knitting group morning and I had a chat with the ladies of that group, and so admired what they were doing.  Memo to self - take photos you nincompoop - remember, with a blog, a picture is worth a thousand words!!

So, pictures! here is the last item from the A&C Fair - and I have of course, saved the best for last.

I have looked this one up on the net and found one exactly the same up for auction in the states.  It is beautifully made, look at those inset hinges and the little fingerhold, and the dovetailed ends.

What a great quarter square triangle!

And the lid has a stamped cutout saying Patented February 19, 1888

The whole thing folds out to lie flat and is lined with purple.  I have downloaded a photo of the tools and parts that should be inside and will compare what I have amongst the bits and pieces in the bottom of the carton, then see if I can refill this lovely container.

Here are some of those bits -

The tin is an old one of mine.

Last week I renewed by subscription to the New Zealand Quilter for another three years and was delighted to receive a fat quarter of fabric, a lovely gesture I thought.

It will be no hardship to think up a use for these colours and shapes - this is a blatant advert for the magazine and no disclaimer because for those of you who have subscribed for a while, you might remember the earlier editions -

 

If you click on the picture you will see it is Number One and under Advertising there is my name!  I used to stitch with a group when I lived over in Wellington and Anne Scott belonged to that group.  When Pacific Quilts folded Anne told us she was going to produce a quilting magazine to replace it - I was keen to support this venture and as my husband and I travelled quite a lot, I was given the oh-so onerous job of visiting all the quilt shops for their advertising.  I had a ball and most reluctantly vacated the position when Anne's children were old enough for her to take over.

The magazine has gone from strength to strength and I make no bones about recommending it to quilters - what a showcase it is for the unique Kiwi style!!

Recently there was some talk about what inspires us to make a particular quilt - one of mine was because I saw a photo of a gorgeous antique quilt in black, white and that deep old lolly pink - I couldn't find that colour but did have lots of the red, black & white in various combinations.  My method was to put a big basket in the middle of my sewing room and  go through the cupboards, boxes etc. and pull out anything that seemed to be suitable.   It so happened that Anna Prussing was teaching her class for Pinestream so I took  my fabrics along to make one of her Churn Dash variations, when you team the CD block with another.  The 'spool' block was a happy accident when I turned to put my block onto the design wall and half square triangles matched up.

I had so much fabric sorted for this quilt, that when I had the top finished I decided to do another but a different design.  A friend said she had heard of a good idea, you take your 25 or so fabrics and cut all the pieces for a simple star block from each fabric, label some paper bags 1 to 5 [or however many pieces there are in the block] then give them a shake and take one piece from each bag and stitch the block!  So I have done that, and pieced one as a strippy quilt with a border print from my stash.

I find it fascinating how different the block looks depending where the various fabrics are - I still have the same number waiting - I had forgotten all about them!  any bright ideas of a setting for them?  they all have red in the corner squares as the ones in this top all have grey/black.......

I must have had some idea of putting dark green with them!
Nice talking with you, keep warm,

June