A town and country sort of weekend

It is nice to get to the end of a weekend and feel that you have achieved something :-) On Friday night I finally finished the applique for this block. This is one of the blocks from Just Takes Two which was a BOM from last year, mine is all in these two fabrics. There are 100 blocks in the quilt and I think I am about a third of the way through them! It's one I pull out from time to time and do a little then put it away again to mature. Just a couple more and I will have one section fully formed so I'll be able to show it then.

(EDIT) Please go here to see Bea's finished (and quilted) Just Takes Two quilt.

After Saturday sewing at my favourite quilt shop (they hold this once a month) I went into town and down to the Town Basin. The MOML remembers this area as all boat sheds and mess when he was young but it is now a nice little place to go with nice boutique type shops, cafes and restaurants. It is a nice place to take visitors to the city.

Saturday was a drizzly-yuck sort of a day but you can see the marina and
get an idea of the Town Basin.

 Down in the Town Basin is Reyburn House, an old villa that holds various exhibitions. It is currently hosting a travelling exhibition showing the 20 selected quilts from the 2012 Biennial Challenge of the Aotearoa Quilters. The theme for this challenge was Connections and it was really interesting to see each quilt, read the artist's statement for each and study each quilt.

(Only photo I was allowed to take).

I wasn't allowed to take any individual photos but they are all shown here on the official website. 

After visiting Reyburn House I went into The Bach, which is a shop in the same area selling work by local artists (it is a lovely and interesting shop to browse, lots of talented people contributing all sorts of items). 

There is a community project going on there at the moment and a huge loom has been set up for it. Its purpose is for tapestry weaving (as opposed to the weaving we usually picture when we think of looms).

Members of the public are invited to come in, sit down, weave, and ultimately contribute to the finished tapestry.

Working on the tapestry. Beverly was lovely to talk to,
a great ambassador for the project.

This is  what the finished tapestry will look like.
It will be huge!

Showing the spindles used.
All the wool and the timber used for the loom itself has been sourced
from Northland.

Any of you locals, if you get a chance to go and visit them, please do. I intend to go back and sit and do some. I guess the more of us who help the sooner this will be finished!

You can visit a blog about this project here.

Another goodie from the weekend was getting my pinwheel quilt together!!

A group of us did a pinwheel swap last year, and gradually we are all (?) getting them put together.

I am linking up with Scrapbasket Sunday (click here to see what others are doing with their scraps) today as it is a real scrap quilt... it is nice to look at it and not only remember the fabrics that I used, but to recognise the projects my friends have done over the last few years.

It is a decent size! The spare bed is convenient for lying out projects!

Here is a better shot of it.
It may end up with a border - but I am still thinking about what
I would like.

This morning I saw this rainbow from my ironing board. It was about 7am and I was quite surprised to see one so early in the day.

 Thank you for visiting and reading along, I hope you all have a wonderful week, and find a bit of time for some creativeness,