A quilt show and a bit of rambling

I was lucky to be in town when the Tauranga Patchwork and Quilting Group held their show in June. It was a beautiful day, in a beautiful setting with beautiful quilts and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'd been staying at my sister's and the show was just a short drive from her house :-) 

There was a great variety of quilts and of course I took far too many photos so I'll share just a few here. (And in no order of favouritism, sometimes it's a case of which photos turned out better!!)
I was pleased to meet Ali Honey (of quiltingorchardist) who had alerted me to the fact that the show was on. Here's her piece Fancy Flowers - 

I love the wee real feathers sewn in —

Below is a clever FPP piece by Karen Livingstone - trying to work out the actual blocks was a challenge - I think they were triangles.
I thought it looked great in these fabrics —

There were several versions of Sarah Fielke's Coming Home quilt - a group of (at least) four had sewn it together and each quilt was different to the next. I really liked this version in Tilda fabrics.

(There were two more 'Coming Home' quilts around the corner I didn't photograph.)

Sound Waves by Jackie Southam (from the book Simple Modern Patchwork Quilts) —

The Rowdy Flat Library Book by Helen Purllant —

For the Love of Hexagons by Julie Brittain —

Gossip in the Garden by Ruth Couch —

Moody Blues by Julie Brittain —

A Skitch a Day by Chris McIntyre (Gourmet Quilter BOM) —

Unscrappy Windmills by Lynda Warn —

Also by Lynda Warn, 'Orange Into Vintage' —

I said it was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting. The venue, The Tauranga Yacht Club, is on the water's edge and I don't think you could have had a better setting than this......

Enjoying a cuppa and a piece of slice.

That mountain (Mount Maunganui) was in my view for part of June/July as I stayed for a bit while mum was in hospital (and then home) healing from a nasty leg infection. 

The area was a place of many happy childhood memories as my grandparents had a bach there. A lot of Mum's family (and my sister) live there and it's always comfortable visiting the area.

(This blogpost has been in the works for nearly 6 weeks!) 

I flew home and was really delighted to get some decent photos from air (I seem to always be over a wing when I fly so I don't see much!) which showed the Mount, the township, the harbour and the ocean off really well —

You see the ships in the above photo; back in March bloggy friend Janet, roguequilter, was visiting NZ on the big cruise ship below (in the same harbour) —

Julie, mythreadbearlife and I met her off the ship. We walked around the base of the Mount —

We talked, drank coffee, talked some more, splashed in the harbour - 

We had a fabulous day - my life has been so enriched through blogging- events like this remind me how special this whole thing is - and why I have to keep blogging!!!!

We exchanged gifts (of course).

Here is the special package from Janet —

The pineapple mug rug is amazing and showcases Janet's legendary small piecing beautifully!

And a couple of her handmade soaps —

Julie and I decided not to swap gifts. 

Here is what I made for Janet; a kiwiana themed pouch —

(As we are both Coeliac, I did some Gluten Free baking for her, wrapped in the tea-towel)

Okay, enough rambling, thank you for reading along!!

Happy stitches,

Raewyn