Tea on Tuesdays: April Showers

Count on it banners - Nancy Halvorsen

It seems incredible that we are now in April, this year seems to be flying past. After some ~~unseasonably warm~~ fabulous weather in March the temperature has dropped a bit to more normal for the time of year. In fact weather reports are now reporting snow on high ground and many places in the north have had substantial snowfalls last night.
Despite fears that it may be very wet this morning, the Surrey girls had a sunny journey down to Hampshire - luckily Janet had a full tank of diesel to get everyone here - after filling stations running out of fuel last week there was some debate about whether a Hampshire trip would be viable!

After couple of cups of tea had been drunk and banana and chocolate muffins eaten we got down to work.

Amanda was busy cutting out hearts for the sales table at the Guildford Quilters exhibition in April.
By the end of the day she had quite a collection stitched and stuffed, all ready for the final stitching.

She even had time to make a free form log cabin pincushion too!

Caroline was busy stitching blocks for her 'Stars in the Cabin' quilt. This was started at a workshop with Janet at Needle and Thread a little while ago. it is in the most beautiful blues and browns and is intended as a gift for her Dad - lucky man!

We have all often laughed about our hobby in that we take a perfectly good bit of fabric, cut it up then sew it back together again, Janet has taken it to a whole new level.

Not only does she cut up the fabric and sews it back together again,

using the 'Little Twister' ruler ... I think that is what it is called.... she will then cut it up again ....and then sew it back together again. ... to make amazing little pinwheels that appear to float on the background.
Of course you will have to check back later to see the finished top!

I was handstitching the binding onto 'Midnight Stars' a quilt-top that I did at a workshop with Anne Walker some years ago. It was freemotion quilted with loops and stars.
I have challenged myself to quilt a top each month and to complete a UFO into a top each month this year ....doing well so far ...hope I can keep it up.

All in all we had a very productive day - Chris, you were missed - hope you had a good day out.