A quilting event

On Saturday the Wellington Quilters Guild hosted the 'Coast to Coast' quilting event.  The five Wellington region quilting guilds usually have a quilting event every two years.  

It was held at Wellington Girls' College and there were merchants, show and tell, jelly roll competition, speaker and three challenges.

My entries for the challenges:

Cat not included

Flag - to redesign our New Zealand flag.

Bloke's block - circle of jandals
All the blocks will be joined into a quilt/s and donated to the Wellington City Mission.

Child's block - noughts and crosses on blackboard fabric
All these blocks will be put together as a quilt/s and donated to the Women's Refuge.



I won first prize and viewers choice for my flag.  Hmm there were only three entries!  My prize included a New Zealand flag and a voucher from Sawmillers Quiltery which I redeemed for some Aurifil thread.  

The flag was created with freezer paper stencils and coloured with paintsticks, textile paint would have been easier and faster.  To get the colour more intense required quite a few applications fortunately we had a few sunny days.  I find the paintsticks a bit messy for using inside. 

paintsticks, freezer paper (white)

Selection of the challenge block entries ...
 

 kids blocks








blokes blocks












Interesting to see the final quilts.

Wannabe Longarmer

Recently I've been reading blogs about using rulers, that longarm quilters use, for freemotion quilting on a domestic sewing machine.  

It was clear that using the freemotion (darning) foot and an ordinary quilting ruler wasn't going to work.  I'd read enough that I wasn't even tempted to try and see if I could get it to work.

The blog I keep going back to is Amy's Freemotion Quilting Adventures in one post (here) she talked about using a combination of Janome feet on a Bernina.  I thought there must be an easier way.  

And there is .. an Australian company Westalee Design has designed a foot and rulers for domestic sewing machines.  After watching their video, I ordered the foot and ruler and a week later it arrived. 

Westalee foot and ruler

For the foot to work on my Bernina 440 a Bernina 'low shank adaptor foot' is required, which I already have. Following their great instructions, attached the foot and was off ...
 
... had a bit of a play ...

Then onto a mini neonates quilt.  While I could have achieved the same result with a walking foot, it was a great trial.  

using Aurifil 50wt thread

I found it easier to hold the ruler when it was on the left handside of the foot.   On the righthand side it tended to move abit - probably as I'm left handed. Would also help it I stuck on the non-slip strip that came with the ruler!

So now more practice and experimentation, although this will need to wait until I've finished my knitted quilt.

Mini success

Each February Sawmillers Quiltery, in Te Marua (~40 minutes north of Wellington), host the Stonestead Outdoor Quilt show.  Which I have yet to get to!  

For the show last year I started an entry for their challenge, a table runner.  I got as far as piecing the top that needed to feature a sawtooth block - the block that appears in all their logos.  

 
The challenge for this year was a neonates quilt for Hutt hospital.  The dimensions were 17" by 29" and again had to feature the sawtooth block.  Before Christmas I made one block, had my plan drawn up ... and not a lot happened.  A week or so before the due date put a bit of effort in to complete the quilt. 

A week before the show I delivered the quilt and my daughter's hockey quilt for the youth section.

Neonates quilt

'Hockey Rules'

 






The show was on Sunday 8th February and due to the kids various activities we weren't able to make it - so maybe next year.

It was worth the effort we both won prizes!

 







What I also discovered is that Sawmillers are stocking Aurifil 50wt and hopefully soon will have 40wt and even better they will post it out.

Aurifil in Wellington!