S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal - Last Blocks

Here are Dianne's blocks - the last to be shown. Dianne had used black and white fabrics with a little bit of bright.

Dianne's quilt - bright fabrics slashed through and more circles added

my quilt - I kept to black, white and black & white backgrounds - it's 'organic'!

Sue's quilt - she has added more black and white fabric and a little bit of colour in the opposite block

Cheryl cut up her block and re-made it into a garden on a hand painted silk background - lovely embellishments here!

Rhonda added more circles and the negative fabric, with just a little bit more colour

Barb's is really jazzed up with lots of bright colours to give the black and white zing!

That's all from our 10 inch block S.I.X. challenge - we are thinking of having a play day next time, but haven't organised anything as yet!

S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal - Sue's Block

Today I will show you what we all did with the gorgeous blocks Sue made for us. Each of us got a different 'animal' which was layered, stamped, drawn and painted as Judy Coates Perez did in the class she took after Tote & Gloat 2010.

my quilt with cave art, Incan art and Indonesian art

Dianne's fish with old designs burnt-out Yvonne Brown style

Rhonda's frog with dyed background and stamping

Cheryl's walls - woven, stamping and other art

Barb's bird on a great painted and stitched background

Sue has centered her block and made other animals in the corners and designs on the borders

All so very different!

S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal - Rhonda's

Today it's Rhonda's block. Here is the original.

Dianne's quilt - steampunk, clocks, cogs, stamping and keys.

Barb's quilt - she saw steering wheels, so has maps and quotes from old atlases

Cheryl's quilt - her cogs are cut out and placed on a wallpaper compass

Rhonda's quilt - actual keys, stamping, old-time photos printed on fabric

Sue's quilt - like old sepia photos on an old wallpaper

my quilt - steampunk time machine with a vortex

 Sure hope you are enjoying seeing the variety of finished quilts from the one block!

Library Opening

Today I made it to work (I've had 2 days on sick leave - how frustrating is that!) to open the Library for all my customers who have been waiting patiently during the refurbishment.
Everyone that came in commented on how nice it looked - some were quite worried, but pleasantly surprised with the end result. I am very happy. It's a much happier looking place - open, bright and with lots of comfortable seating.
I also had 2 unexpected visitors. Last week a fantail came in while we were working, for a look around. Today he was back, and with a friend! They stayed for at least 30 minutes, chasing each other, and checking out lots of things. I managed to get a photo of one as he rested for a short time:

Can you see him on the shelf support leg?
Some say that a fantail inside is bad luck, but I like this poem by Eileen Duggan (1894–1972, OBE, New Zealand poet and journalist)

The Tiwai Waka

See! In the Kauwae-Raro,
O small dancing bird,
Old Kupe says you touched him,
We have his stately word.

And what said Kupe of you,
O small bird of grace?
He said: “The Tiwai Waka
Kept flitting past my face!”

O little Tiwa Waka,
O kind little wing!
I've seen a woman hunt you,
With haste and muttering.

She said it was unlucky,
She drove you out with cries,
For when a fantail flies within
A son or neighbour dies.

Unlucky! It's an honour,
A bird flying through.
He had the whole sweet countryside,
And yet he came to you.




I also got a photo of my new Issues Desk. Previously this had an upstanding, about 12 inches high, at the front - I felt that it was difficult for people to see me (and I them if I was sitting down), plus it was a mushroom coloured laminate which didn't go with the new decor. Ian cut and painted.
Now:

I just need to get lettering on the front, and the returns desk is to the side on the left.
So exciting!

S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal - Still More Blocks

This time I will show you what was done with my block.
Dianne hadn't finished her quilt with it, but here are the others:

This is mine

Sue's quilt - using her photos of the people from around Palestine - crossing borders

Cheryl's quilt - fences, walls, barbed wire and olives

Rhonda's red background making a 'bloody' impression

Barb's quilt - using the flag and faces

We don't usually make political quilts - so this one had them all thinking. For me, it was about the media 'feeding' us information that is politically motivated. I don't particularly have a view about the situation in Palestine or Israel, as I have not been there. But the stuff that is printed in our daily newspapers - one would hope that both sides of the story are given equal airing!

S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal - More Blocks

Today I will show you Barb's blocks.
Barbara was the only one not to have finished her blocks, but here are the others:

Dianne's quilt - block cut up and reused on a painted background

My quilt - bright shapes on the other 1/4s

Sue's dotty quilt - Barb's block cut up

Cheryl's quilt - brights added to the cut up block

Rhonda's quilt - block cut up, background stamped and painted

S.I.X. Challenge - Reveal

WooHoo! today the six of us got together for the reveal on our 10 inch challenge. Now I can post photos of what the others in the group have made.
We'll start with Cheryl's block.
So here we are:

Cheryl's quilt - curtaining between gauze

my quilt

Dianne's quilt

Sue's quilt - felted background

Rhonda's quilt - cuttlebug shapes using thermal curtaining

Barbara's quilt - stamped and painted

Library Refurbishment - We're Almost Done!

Sorry I didn't get to post yesterday. By the time I got home (it was dark and I hadn't fed the chickens) I was pretty pooped. But I did get a photo of the teal painted wall:

Actually I think it is the same colour as my kitchen! Funny that :)
Today help arrived from town (Palmerston North City Library) and with extra hands for an hour or so, loads of books got on the shelves and they are mostly in the correct order.
At the end of the day we had a little celebration and thank you for some of the people who have helped - here's Jo being the perfect hostess:

There are a few of us working tomorrow, even though it is a holiday (Easter Friday), but it means that if everything is finished; books tidied, floor vacuumed, windows cleaned, painting finished and the last of the shelves put together with the extra stored away, we can relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
We have borrowed a couple of sofas and with the central area carpeted like a fashion runway it looks so beautiful! There has been a suggestion that we could hold movie evenings - I think I will have to do some research and pull a few strings of my own to loan out some suitable DVDs - ANZAC Day is coming up and there must be something suitable :)
So, after tomorrow I hope to be able to take some panoramic photos to show you the new and classy Linton Community Library!

Library Refurbishment - Day 3 Painting

Oops - I forgot to take a photo of the walls that were painted today :(
Never mind! I really need to show you this:

This is Hayley and Jo scraping away the old paint from the windows. These windows were painted when the place was a supermarket - that's about 17 years ago - and covered the bottom half of the windows (6 panes of glass). I have really hated this - apart from it being dark, the colours didn't relate to anything now, and the paint had been painted on with a brush - not nice!
The biggest problem was that the top 2 bands of red and white were a water based paint, so could come off relatively easily. The large green band was an oil based paint. I was loathe to use a paint stripper, apart from it being caustic, it isn't good for your health and it is messy to clean up afterwards.
Hayley did a Google search and found that Mr Muscle window cleaner could help in the scraping. Sure enough, it helped to soften the paint and was much easier to scrape off.
Well done girls - a fantastic job!

Library Refurbishment - Day 2 Painting

Today was yellow wall day. This is the biggest wall and will have the picture books and other children's books plus the play area. So, 2+ coats of paint in Dulux Karaka Bay (unfortunately looking a little dull - you can catch a better glimpse in the next photo, top right):

I'm so loving it!
Here are some of the fiction books in waiting. Their shelves have to be re-configured and shifted from the current toast rack style.

And this afternoon, I managed to get the stack Military books back on the shelves. Because of the height, the supports are attached to the wall. All the other shelves will not be at this height, but it is not expected that these books will be issued frequently. Plus I need to go through them and delete some, which I'm sure are irrelevant or there is something better.

Don't you think that the Monza red looks fantastic?
Tomorrow 2 different coloured paints, and I'm hoping the walls will be finished :)