What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Christmas is almost here so I need to put something festive on the dining table.  Sometimes I use a quilt, but this year I decided on my Christmas tablecloth.  Just a simple one really, made by yours truly.  Somewhere or other I had purchased a pretty piece of Christmas fabric, featuring small panels of Christmas trees and  wreaths, and some musical notes scattered though some of the designs.  Wonder is it is "real" music, Christmas carols perhaps?   Much too pretty to cut up, I decided, so I simply hemmed around the edges and soon turned it into a tablecloth.  Don ...

 Memory tablecloths, and memory quilts, seem to be my thing, as I've made several over the years.  My latest one was to commemorate a trip away up to the far north.  Robin and I had been planning to go there next Christmas/New Year, but with losing him,  that would not be happening.  So when I saw the "North of the North" coach trip advertised, I decided to be brave and go on my own.  

Bay Tours Coach

My bag was packed, and I included blocks I'd stitched for my memory tablecloth plus a Micron marking pen.  My ...

What's on the table at the moment is a pin wheel quilt documenting our 3 month long trip to England in 2008.  Such a long trip  took a bit of planning for me and Robin, and I took along a big pile of half square triangles, one side patterned and one side plain, together with my  Micron archival pen for people to sign blocks for me as we travelled around.  The first block was signed by our travel agent Petra, wishing us "Bon Voyage".

My 2008 UK Holiday tablecloth

Several blocks were signed on our flights to Singapore, where ...

 There is a pretty hand embroidered tablecloth gracing the table this time.  Lovely floral embroidery worked on linen.  I collected this pretty cloth from my MILs linen cupboard after she had passed away.  I really didn't want it to end up in an Op shop and wanted to give it a good home.

I'm not sure who worked on this cloth.  As far as I know, Robin's mum Bonnie didn't do needlework.  I suspect it may have been passed down from her own mother, Robin's grandmother.  Bonnie already had some things from her mother, pretty ...

 This tablecloth dates back to 2012 when we traveled to the South Island with three other caravans for a three month trip.  I took along some pre sewn  rail fence blocks made up of strips of New Zealand inspired fabrics alternating with pale grey and my Micron ink pen. 

Table cloth documenting our mammoth South Island trip

 Our old cat Muffy was 16 years old back then and we had always placed her in a cattery when we traveled.  But I worried that at her age she might die while we were away, so we took her on  her very ...

Another tablecloth, another story.  This tablecloth was purchased as a kit, way back in the mists of time.  So long ago I can't even remember where and when I bought it.  I thought it was lovely, the design was marked on the linen fabric, the lace edging was attached, and all the threads were ready and waiting.  But, I'm not really an embroiderer, and long ago I decided that I really didn't like working with stranded threads.  So the kit sat, lonely and forgotten, and I seem to remember it was discovered when we moved homes from ...

 What's on the table today?  It's one of my "holiday" tableclothes which was started during our 2018 summer caravan trip touring the South Island. 

Ooops, Blogger wont let me turn the photo

 I prepared little blocks using New Zealand designed fabrics, with plain cream to write messages on.  Each evening after our adventures, I wrote where we stayed, and places of interest that we visited. 

These are the blocks I prepared for our trip

While we were travelling around I started stitching the New Zealand floral wreath blocks.  I can remember sitting outside under the caravan awning, stitching ...

I was thrilled with the birthday gift I received from my daughter Nicky.  Several years ago I had purchased  a partially completed embroidered tablecloth with unused threads from a fabric fair. That would be a good project to finish, I thought.  But…… time went by and I didn't do a single stitch, so asked my daughter Nicky if she could complete it for me – sometime.  Out of sight, out of mind, and I truly had forgotten all about it.  We got together for a birthday lunch on Thursday and Nicky presented me with a parcel, it was the completed ...

My birthday is coming up fast (during the weekend) and my daughter Nicky suggested we meet for lunch up in Feilding.  What a good idea we thought, and drove up on Thursday.  We were meeting in  Delish Café,  a new to us place, and they certainly were busy.  We were a little early grabbed a table, ordered a coffee each, and waited for the family to arrive.

Lunch time

It was so nice that both grand-daughters could meet us for lunch as well.  Megan took a couple of hours off from work, and Emma had the whole day off, because ...

We had beautiful warm weather for our caravan club Christmas Rally, for the most part, anyway.  As often happens, the heavens opened and the rain came down on our last day.  But never mind, it didn't dampen the Christmas spirit.  Our caravan was decorated with the Christmas Cushions, and Santa Bear was perched on the corner of the sofa.

Christmas Cushions and Santa Bear

I found my Christmas Coins tablecloth, safely tucked away, and this was inspired by Jocelyn of https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/   I made this when I saw something similar on her blog some time ago, using ...

This is always my favourite part of a project, sitting quietly somewhere while I hand stitch the binding down on my pinwheel quilt/tablecloth.  Slow stitching at its best.

Finishing off the binding

It’s a nice sunny day today for an ourdoors photo shoot.

Front and back

There, it’s done.  Let’s see what it looks like on the table.  We can check out the messages while we are sitting here.

On the dining table

It’s fun to check out the messages on this.  We had a stop-over at New York on our return trip, the “city ...

We woke up to cold temperatures this morning, rain and strong winds.  Our Spring here is often temperamental with rather changeable weather.  It was a good morning to have a nice warming breakfast today, a nice bowl of porridge!

With the stitch in the ditch completed around the pin wheel blocks, I then decided to do some serpentine stitching along the diagonal lines.  Although there is no batting involved, I felt it was easier to use the walking foot, particularly as I had to stitch over areas where all the seams came together.

Serpentine stitching

It’s been such fun ...