Girls enjoying our quilting days at the shop

Nikki and Joy

Marion

A Special Day!!

Sue's doll is finished!

This is Judith and her daughter Vanessa - they are visting New Zealand from Bundaberg in Queesnsland. They are here for three weeks -travelling from Auckland to Queentown, visting all the tourist spots, and because of their tight schedule Judith will have a chance to visit only one quilt shop in New Zealand -and she chose The Cloth Shop. She told me she enjoys looking at our website and blog page and as she loves quilting and doll making she had a great time looking at all the dolls in Jill'c class as well as all the quilts, fabrics patterns etc that are in the shop. Vanessa is holding Maggie - she is the next doll that Jill Maas is teaching at The Cloth Shop in December.

Look what we saw in the classroom tonight!

Today we had a class at The Cloth Shop with Jill Maas - she is teaching Mother of the Bride and Jolene. This is what we saw as we walked into the classroom after everyone had gone home - Sue's Jolene sitting on her little Husqvarna sewing machine waiting for her head and clothes! Doesn't she look great!

Tomorrow she will look a little like these old girls! At the moment they can't belive their eyes!

Comfy Ones!!

Earlier this year Katherine was invited to be a mentor for a Young Enterprise Group from Palmerston North Girls High School. The name of the group is "Comfy Ones" and their plan is to make and sell Onsies - all in one pyjamas with a hood. During the holidays they had a work day at The Cloth Shop to make some sets ready for their launch at the end of July. Nadia and Sarah-Kate cutting out.

Abbey is CEO of the group - she was also the Overlocker Queen at the work day

Here they are at their launch in the first sets of Onsies!

Friday girls goings on!!

This is Helan Chen - she came to The Cloth Shop two and half months ago to learn to quilt. This photo is taken on her last day with us - two of the quilts she has made are on the wall behind her. She loved every moment she was here - so did we!

Pam Smith is our Featured Quilter for August. We have a selection of her quilts hanging on the walls - this is a photo of her and Helan with some of her quilts before we hung them .It is a little like her quilting journey -on one end of the display we have a selection of quilts that are hand appliqued and hand quilted and on the other end we have some gorgeous quilts that are machine appliqued and quilted. The large quilt and the dolls on the wall were made by Helan while she was in Palmerston North.This is a photo of some of the Friday Girls on Helan's last Friday at The Cloth Shop. She has spent the last two and half months in Palmerston North making quilts. On her last day she showed us how to make slippers - they were a great hit!

This is a selection of the slippers.

Don't these dolls look as though they are enjoying watching what's happening at The Cloth Shop. Jill Maas has been teaching a class over the weekend called "Fleur" We have another class starting Monday Morning

Michelle decorated her doll's coat with Big French Knot Flowers. She did a square of knitting and then made the leg warmers, hat and woolly sleeves. She is working on the cuddly cat!

We had an excellent day with Dianne Fussell and Husqvarna Sapphire 870 sewing machines last Saturday -she designed a bag that used lots of different stitches, and functions of the machine. She is showing Helan how to get the most from her new machine

Wendy O'Neill and Wendy Day compare notes

Looking good Wendy!!

Don't worry we will work something out!!!

Behind every quilt there is a story!! Frances and Dot are both making our Block of the Month Quilt"Once upon a Star" Last Week at "Wednesdays are for Quilting" Frances gave Dot her finished Penguin Block to take home so she could see what threads and stitches she used for the applique. When she gave it to to her she said - jokingly - "if anything happens to it you're in serious trouble" but guess what - it fell on to the heater and when Dot saw it - it looked like this.
She was distraught - she brought it into us and after we commiserated with her and then laughed with her, she decided she would make up a new one before she confessed to Frances what had happened! We told her if she traced out all the pieces, fused them and cut them out we would put it together and stitch it for her. This is Dot beginning the tracing ......again......

Dawn helped her put it together. Katherine did the stitching and.....

This Wednesday Dot gave Frances her burnt penguin block! Her frst reaction when she saw it was "Don't worry we will work something out! " and then "Dot - you poor thing -that's the kind of thing that usually happens to me!"

This is Frances with her finished new block!