Sting Ray Quilters

Deltaville VA: 2 Aug 2010  

Martha busy at work guarded by Buddy & Otis

Martha and her husband own a NAPA (car bits & pieces shop) just off the road to Deltaville Marina.  Over a side door is a sign for her business, “Martha’s Long Arm Quilting”.  I had been meaning to stop in and now wished I had made the effort a lot sooner!  Martha is a member of the Sting Ray Quilters, the local Deltaville quilting group meeting monthly at a nearby church hall.  I was invited to come along and meet some very keen quilters. 

Sting Ray Quilters

This popular group (nearly 40 attended that night) makes block of the month raffles, raffles a monthly mini-quilt and gives out birthday fat quarters, offers regular workshops for its members and supports charitable quilt making. Phew!  That’s a busy group.  And despite all this activity, some ladies even manage to make a quilt or two for themselves as well.  Jeanne Rose gave us a lesson on woollen penny quilts that night and I was surprised with a Garden Blossoms kit as a gift.  Sue kindly drove me (and my bike) home to C Dock.  It turned out Sue’s husband had made the frames for our solar panels.  As they say - it’s a small world.

Show and Tell with Sting Ray Quilters

Whilst at Martha’s I had a quick look at her computerised Gamil and peeked at various patterns that she was able to program into it to create rather nice quilted effects. I'm having thoughts about bringing some UFO's back with me next year as sadly I doubt I could fit one of those enormous machines in my garden shed!  Martha is keenly supervised by Buddy and Otis, two very stately hound dogs and guests are closely eyed by an alert blue heeler.  Now, that’s just what I need to keep the boys out of my garden shed! 

Designing Woman

Let's hope it will fly

Just to let you know that I’ve actually had some technical input into floating home, WJ3.  I’ve spent many a day with crayons and photocopies of sail patterns to “design” our new spinnaker.  Here it is finally, flat out on the grass – at this stage we aren’t even afloat so seeing it in full flight is unlikely for a while.  Don’t hold your breath.

(Also don't hold your breath for a photo or two.  We are sitting in Starbucks, Staten Island - yes, NY is but a breath away - anchored in Great Kills Harbor.  Starbucks has internet but I can't sit here all day, so posts first and photos later when we can get wifi at anchor - somewhere, anywhere!!!)