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Christmas crafts
For the best part of a year now, ex-Mrs Up the Hill has been trying to get me to go along to another quilting group that she's a member of*, but it meets on a Saturday and whenever she's mentioned that there's a meeting in a few days I've been away or has visitors coming.
It's a more organised group than Little Quilt Club, run by a woman who does a fair bit of teaching. Every month she has a Project, which you can do or not as you prefer, and once a year it's a Charity Project. (To be fair, we occasionally have that at Little Quilt Club, but at what I shall probably take to calling Organised Quilt Club there are handouts and everything.)
* There may well be an ulterior motive: Big Quilt Club is set up so that members of a dozen or so different local quilt groups host each session, and are in charge of things like making the tea and tidying up. I'm not a member of any of those groups (Little Quilt Club isn't involved, although there is some crossover of members), so I get to skive off those duties**. Ex-Mrs Up The Hill values me greatly for being able to do things like move tables around, and I'm sure would have a use for me at Big Quilt Club. And Organised Quilt Club has all those tables to put away at the end of the session as well....
** I'm an Independent member, and ever so often there is tutting about how there are more of us every year, and how we should pull their weight. It never goes anywhere, probably due to the obvious difficulties of organising a group of people who don't know each other and have no leader or way of contacting each other. It has to be admitted that most of the younger members are Independents, and very probably Something Should Be Done, but on the other hand No Taxation Without Representation and we get treated very shoddily in some ways because we aren't allowed to go to the committee meetings and don't have a group rep who is allowed to, but Mike made me promise when I joined that I wouldn't end up running it, so. Anyway.
This month, my seeing ex-Mrs UtH and one of OQC's meetings came close in time, and I was free, so I went along. The Project was Christmas themed (intended to be a two-session one, although next month is Novacon), making either Christmas cards or a table runner with a Scandi Gnome theme (apparently, this is a Huge Thing, although it's passed me by entirely. They are quite sweet).
My Christmas cards (pah! amateurs!) were very nearly finished before the session, and I decided that if I tried to do a table runner the way that she intended then it would have to have masses of blank sky to fit my table, so I thought I'd make a wall hanging. Further consideration revealed that, mostly on account of bookshelves, windows and doors, there aren't actually many places downstairs where I could put a wallhanging other than on the side of the stair case, so I've ended up with a slightly oddly-shaped design (and am quite impressed that it fits given that I eyeballed it while not able to see the staircase).
Here's where I've got to so far:
(That right-most tree isn't bizarrely deformed, there's a fold in the fabric!)
I still have to quilt the background: swirly things on the snow and hilly things on the mountain should be easy, but... I seem to have ended up with masses of blank sky. Sigh. I've got some nice silver/shades of teal slightly metallic variegated thread that I think might make quite a nice aurora around the trees on the horizon, although I'm not sure. I could stick some stars on it, or I could chop it off, or I could do something else entirely. Anyone have any suggestions?
It's a more organised group than Little Quilt Club, run by a woman who does a fair bit of teaching. Every month she has a Project, which you can do or not as you prefer, and once a year it's a Charity Project. (To be fair, we occasionally have that at Little Quilt Club, but at what I shall probably take to calling Organised Quilt Club there are handouts and everything.)
* There may well be an ulterior motive: Big Quilt Club is set up so that members of a dozen or so different local quilt groups host each session, and are in charge of things like making the tea and tidying up. I'm not a member of any of those groups (Little Quilt Club isn't involved, although there is some crossover of members), so I get to skive off those duties**. Ex-Mrs Up The Hill values me greatly for being able to do things like move tables around, and I'm sure would have a use for me at Big Quilt Club. And Organised Quilt Club has all those tables to put away at the end of the session as well....
** I'm an Independent member, and ever so often there is tutting about how there are more of us every year, and how we should pull their weight. It never goes anywhere, probably due to the obvious difficulties of organising a group of people who don't know each other and have no leader or way of contacting each other. It has to be admitted that most of the younger members are Independents, and very probably Something Should Be Done, but on the other hand No Taxation Without Representation and we get treated very shoddily in some ways because we aren't allowed to go to the committee meetings and don't have a group rep who is allowed to, but Mike made me promise when I joined that I wouldn't end up running it, so. Anyway.
This month, my seeing ex-Mrs UtH and one of OQC's meetings came close in time, and I was free, so I went along. The Project was Christmas themed (intended to be a two-session one, although next month is Novacon), making either Christmas cards or a table runner with a Scandi Gnome theme (apparently, this is a Huge Thing, although it's passed me by entirely. They are quite sweet).
My Christmas cards (pah! amateurs!) were very nearly finished before the session, and I decided that if I tried to do a table runner the way that she intended then it would have to have masses of blank sky to fit my table, so I thought I'd make a wall hanging. Further consideration revealed that, mostly on account of bookshelves, windows and doors, there aren't actually many places downstairs where I could put a wallhanging other than on the side of the stair case, so I've ended up with a slightly oddly-shaped design (and am quite impressed that it fits given that I eyeballed it while not able to see the staircase).
Here's where I've got to so far:
(That right-most tree isn't bizarrely deformed, there's a fold in the fabric!)
I still have to quilt the background: swirly things on the snow and hilly things on the mountain should be easy, but... I seem to have ended up with masses of blank sky. Sigh. I've got some nice silver/shades of teal slightly metallic variegated thread that I think might make quite a nice aurora around the trees on the horizon, although I'm not sure. I could stick some stars on it, or I could chop it off, or I could do something else entirely. Anyone have any suggestions?
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I am much amused by Mike telling you that you're not allowed to end up running the quilt club - this is the same kind of concern that Phil has about me when I join things, and I got mugged at a recent school event for A2 to join the PTA there now as it's apparently pretty tragic and in desperate need of new blood...
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It is difficult, when people are so obviously in need of being taken over and run competently! The real problem with Quilt Club is that it's run by lots of little old ladies who've been running it forever, and they're stuck in a 'this is how we run it because we run it this way' loop, whereas I suspect that with PTAs it's more reinventing the wheel because the people who've already made that mistake have moved on and there's no institutional memory. (cf Worldcon vs Picocon!)
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Teddy
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It's very sweet, the sky definately needs somehign in it.
Dragons among the stars (I know, it's not pern either but there are lots of types of dragons, and some of them sdurely must interact with gnomes)
Teddy
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(Has he tried the Rainbow Fish books? Also ACTUAL SPARKLES!)