Using our Blog

A couple of 'Heads Up' on making the most of our blog.

READING OR LEAVING COMMENTS
At the bottom of each post there is a line stating: Posted by Andrea at (time) comments.

Click on the word 'comments' and a new window will open. You can then view what messages other bloggers have left for us.
If you want to leave a comment (something nice about a friends quilt or work, a thank you for a tutor, anything at all) it is a matter of making sure you have an easily identifiable identity, I tend to use a g-mail address, I found it to be simpler, that's just me. I just open my g-mail account, minimise it and go to the blog I want to read and comment on.

Some blogs have word verification for security reasons, some do not. I took our off to make it easier for folks to comment. So far we are fine.

FINDING YOUR SHOW AND TELL
Finding your work.....did you know that on the left hand side of our blog there is a wealth of information?, constantly changing and being re-arranged, information?(opps, that would be the right hand side(it was late))

Currently under the Sewn banner (A big round RED DOT), there is a FIND YOUR SHOW AND TELL QUILTS QUICKLY AND EASILY section.
Scroll through this and you will find your name with a number (how many items you have bought in to show and tell)
Click on your name, a new page will open, the same Blog Banner - that is the same pic of quilts at the top of the blog will still be there, just scroll down and you will see all the posts your show and tell are featured in. You scroll down through those posts to see your show and tell.

Please girls, use the scroll button, often you think something isn't there and it is just a short scroll away.

Also, if you think a post is missing, try again a little later. I never, but NEVER delete a post or part of a post, if however there is a problem with Blogger, that is out of my control, but I have not ever come across a missing single post, or found any reference to it on any Blogger forum.

Disappearance Fever

The girls certainly have an attack of Disappearance fever, quilts and flimseys are appearing weekly.
Marie had some lovely border print in her stash that she was unsure how to use, inspiration hit with the disappearing 4 patch block that Marcia sent us last week, and so, today, we have a disappearing 4patch quilt.
Marie made the blocks rather large, so the quilt went together very quickly. There are only 6 blocks in the quilt, 2 blocks across and 3 blocks down. How fast is that for a stunning quilt!.
Wendy introduced some of the group members to the disappearing 9 patch in today's class, bringing along a couple of items for inspiration.....
...the cunning 'I Spy' layout above and just because we are also into Crazy Patch, this combination of Disappearing 9 patch with Crazy Patch blocks, cool huh?....
Wendy is also a member of the Machine Embroidery group, which explains the wonderful machine stitches she has used on her beautiful bag.
All the instructions given, all the cutting done and its stitchin' time, Ja` and Christine getting their first squares done.
Wandering back to put another 2 stitches in my 'bring along project' I passed this flimsey, just sort of laying on the table, gave it a little pat whilst admiring the beautiful fabrics, who did it belong to?, no one laid claim, it was a case of 'I don't know' all round.
The show and tell table held this really cute bag, no problems finding the owner, Sue put her hand up very quickly, it had been a kit gifted to her by her sisters. The fabric has a printed hexagon pattern, the braid handles have an unusual edging, lovely and soft but still strong.
Jan is working on this adorable bear, he is currently 'nose-less', and that's not all........
turn him over and lift his jacket, and its there for all to see, his stuffing.... in plain view......
Jan was making this darling for her Daughter, but has decided to make a larger version. Jan tells me that her daughter once had a teddy, a cute, large, lovely teddy, and he, well, he sort of got misplaced, lost, dare I say it....sent off to teddy heaven!
Daughter has lamented the loss of her teddy for awhile now, 40 years actually. Jan has decided - enough is enough - a new teddy her daughter shall have....just not this one.

My two stitches done, went off to see what else was happening, Beryl had finished her blocks and was getting some expert help on placement from Marie, Jan and Gwen
The workshop was going great guns, Marie joined Lorraine and Wendy for a quick discussion on the various layouts that you can achieve with the disappearing 9 patch block.
A few pics of the various stages of those disappearing 9 patches, as you can see, they do just disappear.
Lorraine and Ja`, happy with the way Ja`'s blocks are coming together.
Lorraine dropped a pin on the floor, and promptly used her scissors to pick it up, have you ever done this?, most scissors - no, not all - (I tested a few), but most are slightly magnetic and will collect up a pin that you have dropped on the floor, no more bending right down to the floor while sitting on a wheeled chair and having the rotter shoot out behind you........nasty shock that!
What have we here?, that flimsey has made it onto a screen.........and there is quite the gathering around it, and a bit of 'well, we elect you!' going on.........
Sue assembled this ever so pretty quilt to be, using beautiful Bali Pops, in Greens, greys and golden browns with sky blue splashes. Wonderful Forest colours..........
Just like these actually..................Yep, 2011 is the International Year of Forests.....and as some of you know.....2011 is our next quilt show year.
and of course we always raffle two quilts...........
'Forest' will be quilted by Fiona from the Quilting Fairy, with design input from Sue, but who will be making the label?, who will sandwich and pin?, who will be stitching down the binding in ever so neat tiny little stitches?

Then there are these, beautifully done reverse applique blocks have been donated to us, just the ticket to start the second quilt.......
Gwen, Betty, Sue, Sheila and Jeanette were in hot discussions over layout, colours, and quilting designs to incorporate these beautiful blocks into a stunning quilt...........stay tuned.......it will be another beauty, betcha!
Arvo tea I hear was lovely, when I made it to the table there were a few lettuce leaves, 1/4 of a sanger and a few anzac biccies..........I really have got to get there faster! - the 1/4 sanger was great though, thoroughly enjoyed it!

A Very Special Birthday and an Orphan Block....among other things....

Happy Birthday Sheila 

It is Sheila's birthday this week so of course we had to have cake, Chocolate cake with Vanilla Frosting...........yum, .  Couldn't contain myself, such an important Birthday just had to be the start of todays post.  Hope you enjoyed your day Sheila and that your Birthday is all that you desire.

Big sign on the door when we arrived today, 'please use the back door' !? ........there were little men installing new lights in the Atrium, no they weren't small men, but 'little men' as in Penelope Keith's catch cry to her butler in the BBC show 'To the Manor Born' of "Bravenshaw, get a little man to do it!".......do you remember that show?, it was a fave of ours.   -    sorry, I digress, must still be on a high from all the fun and cake. It's always great to see improvements being made to our Cottage.

Lorraine H was busily finishing off the binding on this wall quilt, a gift to newlywed family members

last stitches in, then a quick pic - Lorraine, shyly(?) peeking over the top, but see these co-ordinated sandals and slacks? remember them for later.

Val was bitten by the re-cycle & tidy up bug, she dug around and found a couple of orphan blocks, some left over triangles, a Row x Row that just didn't work and a few other bits and pieces and created 2 wonderful quilts for her charity group.
This one with a few Row x Row rejects...who would have thought rejects could make such a great quilt!

Val had some pinwheel blocks 'at the bottom of the re-ject bag' joined and sashed them and added the two Crazy Patch borders...because, well you know, we are all practicing our Crazy Patch round here at the moment.

Val particularly wanted us to know that Marguerite gave her the wonderfully vibrant fabric to back both of these quilts.  When making charity quilts, all donations are appreciated, but lovely donations are treasured.

 

I found this poor little orphan block, lying sadly by itself,  with no one to claim it, 

 

 on the floor, by the muddy door...........oh the pathos.

Marcia! put that phone down!....now please!.....I'm sorry...I fib....will you forgive me????

Marcia wasn't able to be with us today, she sent this ever so easy but ever so brilliant Disappearing 4 Patch block along with Wendy ....there has been so much talk about the disappearing 9-Patch (also bought to our attention by Marcia) and now we have the disappearing 4-Patch, both make wonderfully easy quilts with a great repetitive design, easy assembly and just the ant's pant's for a quick quilt.

Our ever so talented Sue created this quilt from one piece of fabric!!...I kid you not!!....she very cunningly cut the floral component and the dark and mid blue sections and assembled this wonderful quilt that draws the eye to the center of the quilt, well I guess if you want to count the sashings and border, she technically used 2 fabrics.

Wandering up to the back room, I found Ailsa had just finishing pinning her Row x Row Quilt on the tables.

 

 and the view from the other side of the table...

Isn't this a great set up?, plenty of room and light, all we need now is to get a system for raising the table heights to save the dear old back whilst sandwiching the quilts. - Ideas are in the works....

There is a rather exciting exhibition in the near future, Val gives us a sneak peek with this lovely cross stitch.

there is more info and pics coming soon. - It's going to be a great exhibition!

Now Lorraine H., after finishing the blue and white quilt binding had got stuck into this beauty, an open house gift for another couple of family members, Adam and Kate.

Now how do we know it is Lorraine?, remember those beautifully co-ordinated slacks and sandals?, the very same peeking out from the bottom of the quilt?.
Adam and Kate are rather cleverly embroidered on the 'gate post' (should that be tree post)? of 'Happily Ever After' what a wonderful gift.

 Another WIP from WA, Heather is helping a friend learn the art of quilting, creating a 'shabby' 1 patch design using lovely Amy Butler fabrics.

Finally, time for lots of 'Happy Birthday' singing and a wonderful Arvo tea, beautifully prepared by Fran, Janice and Lorraine I. 
But first, the cake had to be cut.......then the happy singing and on to tasting and enjoying the wonderful array.

There were so many goodies to be tasted and enjoyed, savoury twists, lots of sangers, egg and lettuce, ham and tomato, curried egg etc.,  Frans famous bicckies, both the jam variety and the ginger ones, (well, it was a special day) and what Janice's Grandad used to call 'wobbly cake', yep, we had a marshmallow cake, chock full of jelly squares and chocolate chunks......bliss....

Cottage Visability on Fair Days

We are all aware of the stories from people who have been unaware of our existence on Fair Days, 'Oh I didn't know you were here' is a common one, or 'Gee, I thought you were just a Tea Room!'.
At our meeting on Wednesday, the situation was yet again broached, with members being asked to put on our thinking caps and come up with some suggestions to improve both our visibility and crowd flow into the Cottage, with that in mind I thought you might find these pics helpful, taken at our recent Easter Fair, at about 9a.m.-  as you all know it gets a lot busier and more crowded as the day wears on.

This first pic was taken from the bottom of the Memorial Hall stairs, we really are not part of the scenery, appearing to be a building beyond the edge of the Fair.

As the tents form a circle it would be natural to assume that what you see is what there is, there is nothing to lead your eye further on.

This pic was taken from the top stair of the Memorial Hall, Our sign is barely visible above the tent, and disappears as you descend the stairs, you have to actually pass the tents to see the sign, and frankly, by that time the eye is more likely to be looking at the tent displays.

The other problem is accessibility, once folks have wended their way down past the tents the access through our gate is often crowded, as people are funneled through a narrow opening.  This makes it difficult for the 'new explorer' to get through, they are then presented with getting through the tea room crowds, another obstacle.

This pic gives an idea of just how screened off we are.                                                        

 Looking from our entrance back into the grassed area.

  

A WIP in WA, workshop, help given and a wonderful Charity effort.....

.....gosh, we are spread about, aren't we? so many projects, so many learning curves.  This is the time of year, after the Easter Fair and way before we start to think about Christmas, that I really enjoy, lots of new techniques tried and investigated, workshops, both formal and informal.  A good time for all.

Sheila is back from her family hols, great stories of wonderful family times at the beach, and Ja` is back from her break away, although she has stitched some great tessellated blocks on her break and bought them along today for a little layout advice.


Betty was up to her ears in admin jobs, but gave me a sneak peek at these two blocks, a QAYG stack and slash, lovely oriental fabrics joined with black bias,

Betty has used a different machine stitch to quilt each block section, although the same stitch for the same section on each block.....does that make sense?  See the Blue Koi above, they are quilted with a meandering stitch....

and the same block section, the burgundy with purple flowers, is also quilted with a meandering stitch.  Clear as Mud??
Some of the interesting stitches that Betty has used.

 Eventually there will be 9 patches transformed into a beautiful quilt.

Do you remember this lovely lady??

of course you do.....the talented and giving Judy Bellingham came along and gave us an informative and logical talk on Copyright back in June 2009 enforcing the view that really, what it all boils down to, is plain old fashioned good manners...
....well in the spirit of giving, Judy is launching the Sunshine Coast chapter of the Linus Project - a project started over 20 years ago in America to give blankets to children in hospital.
This project is not just for accomplished quilters... as Judy's Press release asks us :-

'Have you ever thought of making quilts for children and others in need who live in your own community?'

'Are you interested in being involved in the creation of quilts for those in need, even though your not an experienced patch worker?'

'Do you have a stash of patchwork fabrics that you no longer need and would like to donate with a view to helping others?'

The Sunshine Linus group is holding its inaugural monthly gathering on:

Monday 7th June 2010

at the Patchwork Angel Patchwork Shop, Mons Road, Forest Glen

The gathering will commence at 9:30a.m. and finish at approx. 2:30p.m.

You will need to take along: Your Lunch; your great ideas; your enthusiasm, and your willing fingers.

A wonderful and worthy effort, do toddle along if you can,... meet Judy and other gals from the area.

My mobile rang while at the cottage....yeah, I know......almost unbelievable......must be 30 years since it last rang....
It was a call from Heather, way over in W.A., well that mobile phone went from Marcia, to a big halloo from Wendy, to a bit of a goss in the carpark with Gwen......
When I finally got home Heather and I started chatting on Skype, great invention that, Heather had many interesting tales to tell, of Red Bulls and planes landing on the front lawn!!??  but the best bit of news was this wonderful WIP, a 'quilt to be' for her Son

Not a real good pic, ... it was my first go at the Skype 'take a pic' thingy.......I was lucky to find the blessed saved file, really I was.  So, ...what you are seeing,  - the left of the pic is the unit's  living room, then the WIP, well, at least a fair whack of it, and that little elfin face peeking around the WIP edge, well, of course that is Heather.  Heck folks, I have to tell you that the colours on the Skype screen were so much richer.

Marcia is finally going to explain the intricacies of the Disappearing 9-Patch to us in a workshop on 28th April.  It's suggested you pre-cut your 9 patch squares prior to the tutorial.  See the notice board for details...

Janice made this version to bring in to show us.

And then gals, it was time  for arvo tea,

See that pikelet, that one right at the bottom of the plate, he he he,....mine!!, I grabbed that goodie as I scooted out the door.  Sadly, no talking 'round the tea pot today...had to go shop, Yeah! of course fabric!

Continuous Line Prairie Points

  Ever thought of doing a line of prairie points around your quilt but been put off by the thought of keeping all those little points in a row?  well fellow Scquilter Faye from Faye's Place has this brilliant tutorial on prairie points in a 20"continuous strip, would certainly make things easier.

These are just a couple of Faye's Pics, pop over to her blog for a full tutorial on how to easily assemble these little beauties, and why to keep to a 20" strip.
Faye came across the original instructions in an American magazine about 20 years ago, modified them to her style, and has been sharing ever since.

Tiny little gathering .........

Gosh, you could have shot a cannon down the length of the cottage today, a combination of getting over the fair, Easter and of course some Grans looking after the Grandies........but we still had some great 'Chantelle'

Janet brought along this amazing quilt, created for her Son and his Bride

As Janet's DIL is a New Zealand lass, she was thrilled to be able to find and incorporate a few New Zealand fabrics and motifs, such as the fern with the letters NZ, as well as the Maori symbol of ferns in white with black and mirrored in black with grey (last 2 fabrics, top right)

Fiona from the Quilting Fairy did a lovely job of machine quilting for Janet, using a curved design, reminiscent of the Curled Fern pattern.

Janets choice of backing goes beautifully with the quilt fabrics, however the quilting design is hard to pick out.

And here it is, the pic as promised of this wonderful quilt beautifully displayed on a bed, thank you John......sorry about the delay, had to get help from the Darling.......


Lorraine's friend is about to become a new Gran, and not being a sewer at all asked for a baby quilt, Bub is due in a few days, so time was of the essence.
Lorraine decided to used these vibrant 'stack and slash' blocks that she had made while teaching a class recently.

Of course, no time to hand quilt, so Lorraine tried out her new sewing machine, a Janome 6600.
With the extra throat width Lorraine was able to lay each block flat for quilting, making this lovely sun pattern a breeze to quilt.

Awhile back Lyn made a 'How Tall Are You' wall hanging for her Grandsons.... between them.... you know the story that is coming don't you?, yep, call from Daughter, that wall hanging kept being kidnapped (wallnaped?) by one or the other of the Grandies, now I won't say they were fighting over it, (we all know our little angels don't fight now, don't we?)  but things were getting a tad sticky.
Using a patchwork magazine pattern for inspiration, Lyn reduced the pattern by 50% to create this beauty,

Now this should certainly stop any fussing, don't you agree?  It is off to its new home, a freshly painted blue wall.

A closer view of some of Lyn's creative work, my fave is the elephant, or maybe the X-ray.
Lyn has used 'numbers' for N, this little guy new his numbers when he was 2 1/2 years old, I guess Mum being a Maths teacher would have something to do with that <g>.
Did you see the sunrise this morning?.......fab, fab, fab, such glorious colours.