What I Did On Friday Night

Another lovely, sunny day in paradise and after a good evening spent sewing I'm up early and off to visit friends in Tauranga.

I started my Friday Night Sew-In sitting on the verandah in the evening sunshine so I thought I'd get a photo taken to promote a little envy in those of you in the wintery Northern Hemisphere, although I understand there are definite signs of Spring around and that you've been enjoying some warm days in England at least.

I'm working on a quiltlet for my trip project, this one is based on North Island, NZ and I'm using fabrics I bought at The Country Yard near Whangarei in Northland where I also bought a lovely selection of Aurifil threads.

The Country Yard (above) is in a great setting and is a very friendly quilt barn.  There was a quilting group there when I visited and several people also popped in to buy, show and tell.  These are the Aurifil colours I bought for starters and I have to say I am really enjoying using them.

I'm hand sewing and the thread is really smooth through the fabric and doesn't seem to tangle as much as other threads I've used.  I've not brought my beeswax with me so the threads are being tested au naturel!

This is what I got done on Friday night - I came inside soon after the photo (it's Autumn here, with cooler mornings and evenings) and settled down in my dressing gown with some yummy things to eat including Whittaker's chocolate peanut slab and a whole 1 kg punnet of apricots that were a bargain at about $6, plus a couple of bottles of lemon, lime and bitters!

Two adapted log cabin blocks (why the colours look different from one photo to the next I don't know, I took them about 30 seconds apart) and I am going to applique a nikau palm silhouette on top in dark green Fossil Fern fabric.  I've cut out the templates as you can see but I need to buy some of that iron-on double sided adhesive that I saw being used on Simply Quilts this week - my BiL found it on the Sky Living Channel for me and has been recording it, what a star.  Nikau palms are only found in Australia and NZ, here's one:

They're quite iconic trees here and used in a lot of designs.  The young shoots can be eaten and Captain James Cook wrote of doing so, they're called miko.  I'm glad I went for the chocolate and apricots though!

I had a lovely Friday sew-in and now I'm off to look at what others got up to - it's such a great feeling to know this is something happening all over the world, thanks Heidi and Bobbi.