The weekend just been saw a small gathering of club members take over Lonsdale Park for our annual Spring Retreat. We just squeaked in for Spring as Sunday was officially the first day of Summer! Grab a cup of tea and enjoy the photos.
So we sewed and talked and laughed and ate and slept (when the smoke alarm wasn't randomly going off!) and we even took care of a few feathered friends.
Steph does a lot of bird rescue work and this baby finch needs feeding every hour or two so he had to come along for the ride.
When she wasn't feeding baby birds, Steph was making pretty embroidery on her machine,
or trimming and stitching some Princess Mary Quilt blocks. They were a product of a workshop our club ran recently.
Or she was keeping an eye on Ziggy, who was getting bored at home so came for a visit on Sunday. What a character!
Carol had a thing for squares this weekend. She rustled up the two bassinet quilt tops pictured above - they will be donated to the local maternity unit when they are done.
Then she converted this rather large pile of squares into the HUGE scrappy quilt top below. I think it's destined for a friend's bed once it's quilted.
Ingrid was carefully foundation piecing the beautiful star above. She made two of these then turned them into placemat rolls - a placemat that has a pocket on either end for cutlery and napkins and has ties so you can roll them up for camping or travelling.
She was also working on some Princess Mary blocks and got to the quilting stage.
We had a talented embroiderer in our midst. Aida has been steadily working away at these blocks at her Friday stitching group meetings and was figuring out how to put them together into a quilt. They are framed with sweet floral prints, including lots of liberty fabrics.
Sorry about the photo quality - it was night when I took those shots. The lupins are made up of hundreds of french knots!
Aida was also busy finishing this quilt that she started at the Taupo Symposium in July. She was brave and attempted her first free motion quilting on it once it was basted and I think she did a great job - sorry, I didn't get a photo of it, but she hopes to have it in our January exhibition.
I tried to work through my UFO pile. This kokako was started in a Hollis Chatelain workshop in January and all it needed was the quilting finished. That got done so it's on to the binding next.
I made the top of a table runner that I plan to use as a sample for some beginner patchwork classes.
And I got the backing for my HUGE blue and white quilt pieced. They have a wonderfully large floor in the hall - just perfect for those big projects.
And the bassinet quilt above started as an orphan block that was too cute to stick in the scrap pile so had been lurking in my UFO shelves for a few years. This will also be donated to the local maternity unit.
Every retreat I manage to snap a shot of Darryl not quilting! Sorry Darryl (she does actually get plenty accomplished!) The quilt below was her project for the weekend and Sunday found her sewing on the binding - almost finished.
Alison was also working on roll up placemats. There's that Princess Mary block again.
I wouldn't mind handwork if I had such beautiful scissors and pincushions to keep me company.
This is more of Alison's work. These panels are made on her embroidery machine.
Stephanie was attacking her UFO pile too. This colourful wall hanging got quilted after languishing for a few years.
She made two cute Christmas coasters. They'd made a neat little handmade gift or stocking filler.
Stephanie also worked on quilting this project from her UFO pile.
And putting on the binding on this table topper made for her Mum and quilted by Leeanne from quiltmekiwi.
And last but not least, Mathea was impressing us with her thread painting skills. It was a pleasure to see her sheep come to life.
Our next retreat will be in Autumn of 2014. Have a wonderful and safe Christmas everybody and see you next year.
