Fiona's Trunk Show

After the astounding success of Letitia's Trunk Show last month, the Thursday night girls have decided to make it a monthly affair, working through their gathering alphabetically.  Tonight it is Fiona's turn and just how, I hear you ask, is it possible that you can view Fiona's goodies almost at the same time as the group?. Well, Fiona being a lovely lass agreed to arrive early and give your humble blogger an opportunity to photograph her quilts using the flash.  Don't usually use a flash, it is rather disconcerting when one is presenting goodies to continually be flashed.
This sample quilt is Fiona's oldest intact quilt, she reckons on it being between 16 - 18 years old, and spends its life in the family caravan.  Fiona mentioned that she is planning on updating the Caravan quilts- yes plural -  as she needs to get rid of some scraps from her workroom.

A closer view of the hand quilting on the 3 hearts block, yep, done in the days before Fiona became a long arm quilter.

The Lone Star is one of the patterns that Fiona teaches, we previously saw an example of the class when Lorraine H bought her blue and white Lone Star along to Show and Tell.

Made from Jelly Rolls, this vibrant beauty is only short of a bit of binding to complete it, Fiona is deciding on how to treat the hexagon edges, bind those peaks or slice them straight!,

A lovely swirly floral pattern was Fiona's choice of quilting design.

Remember that 'Caravan' Quilt? and the desire to create new scrappy Caravan quilts?, well here is the first cab off the ranks, this scrappy quilt is soon to reside on Fiona's bed.

Fiona quilted around each hexagon with a curved design using a variegated thread, hard to see on the backing, which depending on your point of view is either the best backing or the worst!

Very hard to pick the quilting on the back.

And just to show us why it is a tad hard for a working Mum to finish her quilts (as if we didn't know -vbg)
Fiona also bought along this beauty that she has just finished quilting for a client.

Beautiful embroidered 'Dinner Plate' designs, with a trapunto effect behind the plates using pellon or thin wadding.  Fiona has quilted around each plate and then done some lovely hearts and swags in the setting triangles and the borders.

 Fiona's quilting business goes under the banner of 'Quilting Fairy' and she can be contacted on 0419713644 or via her Quilting Fairy blog.

 Fiona has just returned from doing some rather intricate classes with Sue Ross at Precious Time in Toowoomba. Sue travels to Toowoomba on a regular basis to teach.

Fiona has hand pieced 9 centers and 9 of the circle borders, and now just/only has to piece them together and attach the block backgrounds.  How neat are those seams?! Looking forward to seeing the completed quilt.
And so ends Trunk Show number 2, looking forward to next month already.

Pinched a pic of this beauty being sandwiched, couldn't resist, fell in love with the appliqued Kimono's in the border.  This is going to be another stunner!

Hope we get to see it in it's finished state.- gosh, is that another hint??

'Forrest' Quilts...one step closer, and some interesting quilt stories....

...to go with some really beautiful quilts.
As some of you have noticed there has been a bit of a rash of the disappearing 9 patch quilts being created in our group, although a couple of quilts have not quite made it to the Show and Tell Table..........who would ever have thought those little suckers could look so wayward unless lined up just so!
Gwen wasn't at all happy with the way hers turned out, won't tell you how she described it.  While still grumbling thinking over her 9 patch, and looking in her various scrap bags for 2.5" strips, (for a totally different project) she found a pile of 2.5" squares........the immediate thought was, "Well maybe I can have a go at disappearing 9-patch using 2.5" squares - and this time get the layout right!"
Well, she did, she created this beauty.

And now the sad part of this story, Gwen has created many quilts in her quilting life, so for her to really love a particular quilt it must be a special one.  These 'leftover' fabrics were also used in her special quilt, a quilt that was sent on consignment to a store and was stolen from that store, at first it was thought that her quilt was simply misplaced, but no, never heard from again!  This little treasure was made from some of the leftover fabric that was used in the stolen quilt and as such holds a special place in Gwen's heart.

Gwen also had two other quilts for us today, the first was created from stitcheries she fell in love with at a quilt show, and thinking the new 'Great Grandchild To Be' just might be a lassie, she created this beautiful quilt.

Having finished the stitcheries, Gwen was going through her stash looking for some inspiration when 'out fell all these left over squares', Perfect!

Gwen's third quilt, a lovely 'bright pastel' in a cunning design, is another donation for Project Linus, one of the Charities that our group actively supports.

 When Lorraine mentioned that the Project Linus group had diversified, with the group now also using up a lovely large donation of wool and the local hospital requesting drainage bags for recovering breast surgery patients Catti was moved to create these two very pretty bags from soft fabrics for the patients.

 Guess what else Catti had stashed away?  her Show and Tell from the Needlework Group, these tiny ribbon embroidered flowers in a pretty green frame.

Beryl bought along this stunning quilt she made in a Judy Hooworth class back in 2002, the class members all made the same quilt design and layout, but with very different fabric choices, the resulting quilts were then displayed on stage at her then group's quilt show, creating a stunning display.

Beryl pieced a label for her quilt, and mentioned she might get around to 'finishing' the label with a little embroidery one day, but not one day soon.

We had both of our 'not quite finished yet' Quilt Show raffle quilts on display today.  With the 'International Year of Forests' theme, they are progressing nicely, Fiona has finished the quilting on Sue's creation with an edge to edge leafy design

The design shows nicely in the border, Julie has volunteered to bind the quilt so it will be finished soon.

The second raffle quilt is up to the flimsey stage, having been pieced together by Lorraine H.
The appliqued squares were made by various Cottage members 15 years ago in a Friendship swap and were recently donated to the group.

After some discussion it was decided to assemble the quilt to be one of our Quilt Show raffle quilts.  Sheila asked Lorraine to assemble the quilt with the brief that 'they be assembled on point and with a design that reflected our Show theme of  'International Year of Forests'.
Lorraine choose forest leaf prints for the random placed sashings to give the quilt a fresh and modern look, leaving the setting triangles clear for quilting motifs.
The border, which is machine pieced, was selected to reflect the design of the quilt blocks, with the lighter square appearing to be appliqued over the darker squares.

There are 2 more unnammed squares left over which could perhaps be made into cushions.  Lorraine I. is endeavouring to track down the creators of these 2 blocks.

The outside border fabric is from the Robert Kaufman 'Fusions range' and was purchased locally at Brian's so more could easily be purchased for cushions. 

Lorraine is moving to Tassie in a couple of weeks and as a parting gift to the group she very kindly donated the fabrics she used to make the applique blocks into such a stunning quilt.  Thank you Lorraine.

 

Lorraine was busily attaching the 1st. border onto her Hexagon quilt, but as we will not see it finished she gave us a sneak peek, pretty 30's fabrics for the flower petals and for a different take on an old favorite, Lorraine has used the background fabric for the center Hexagon.  Hope we get a piccie of the finished quilt...hint hint..

Judy thought the saying on the coffee cup was apt, it reads 'Life's Short, Eat Dessert First', lots of nods of agreement around the arvo tea table....of course, if there was a Grandie around it would be a different story, betcha! Snaffled myself a piece of the lemon coconut slice in the foreground, Yummo.....wouldn't mind the recipe for that little beauty!

Quilt as You Go Tutorials

Lorraine gave a demo last Wednesday on Two Quilt As You Go methods, and has very kindly supplied us with illustrated step by step tutorials for our blog.

Both Tutorials are on the one 'stand alone' page link above, just click on the 'Quilt as you Go, Two Tutorials from Lorraine' link in the bright green Tabs section above.

 If you find these tutes helpful or interesting, please leave a comment to thank Lorraine for sharing.

Pinmoors........they're all the rage

Just what are they I hear you ask, well, they are a revolution, in fact they promise to be as revolutionary as the rotary cutter!!  Designed by Loretta Ivison over many years, they are designed to take all the effort out of pinning your quilt.

Using your own straight pins, slide the pin through to the back of the quilt, along and back up through to the front, press the pinmoor onto the pin end and presto, done. Any straight pin will work, glass heads, plastic flower heads, whatever you usually use, although I think a longer pin would be easier.

Judy Hall of Punch with Judy,  has offered us the opportunity to purchase the pinmoors at a discount and with large savings on Postage, which will certainly help to make the Pinmoors so much more affordable.
They Retail at $20 for a bag of 50, and it's recommended that to pin a large quilt you would need 2 packets. Currently the colours offered by Judy are red, orange, yellow, white or bags of mixed colours.
Hopefully I will have a Pinmoor to show anyone who is interested next Wednesday.

 Another view of Pinmoors, Judy doesn't offer the blue or green colours
  

If you think you are interested in the Pinmoors and would like to know more, visit the designer, Loretta Ivison on her website at http://www.pinmoor.com/about.html,
where you can also watch a presentation video of Loretta pinning a quilt.


The discount that Judy is offering is dependent on the total of sales, the good news is that we can purchase any goods from her website not just the Pinmoors to qualify for the discount.

Treasure Found, Sneak Peek at a W.I.P and other lovelies

Christine bought along her 'blue' quilt to show us today, she started collecting the blue fabrics a few years back, about 20 of 'em actually, the idea being that she would make a quilt for her Son, well she has made a stunning quilt with some advice and following a pattern from Monica down at the Sewing Basket.  DS has sadly missed out on this one.

Christine had envisaged that the quilt would go rather nicely in the spare bedroom......a.but her Darling had other ideas, its now proudly in use in their bedroom....I guess you could say he rather likes it!

 Christine had her quilt machine quilted by Fiona using a variegated thread in a swirly edge to edge pattern.

As a bit of a change from the blue and black, Christine ventured into the world of the vibrant with this bright quilt,

all sandwiched up and ready to go, she bought it along today to ask for quilting ideas.  Louise very kindly helped hold the quilt out while we all put in our tuppence worth.  Christine went home with quite a few designs, books and ideas.  We will all be interested to see the finished quilt and what Christine decides as the final quilting design.

Sadie, back from some time away bought in her flimsey from the Tessellation workshop she started with Val, soft apricot in the blocks is echoed in the border print fabric.

Caitti made good use of the Q.A.Y.G. demonstration that Beryl shared with us last week, creating her own version of the Q.A.Y.G. table runner,

The runner is destined for use on the patio table, not too far from the flower bed with blooms of the same colour palet as the runner.  Catti also made a wine bottle coaster and two coasters to complete her table setting.

Spied this rather unusual piece being worked on, just a little peek at a WIP,

Can't wait to see the finished.......(well that would be telling, now wouldn't it!)

Fran, famous for her one quilt every 10 years philosophy, started this beauty in Val's first Tessellation workshop, she finished the blocks at home, but assembled the flimsey at our Retreat and has since had it beautifully professionally quilted by Wendy.

It will be put to very good use for the Grandies to snuggle under when they visit.

The show and tell table had quite a collection of Christmas goodies,  they are all samples of what we will be working on in our upcoming mini Retreat,

Lined Christmas Stocking, tree baubles, and machine pieced and assembled hexies for a christmas table runner, oh yeah, and a mystery project.........no sneak peeks on that one yet!

Caity has been off to the Op-Shop, and found this little cutie, an embroidered linnen drawstring bag, cost her the princely sum of $1, don't you just love a bargain??

The Napkin holder is all Catti's own work, beautiful silk ribbon embroidery.
There is a matching book mark in the making as well,........ just picture it, lounging back reading a book with a beautiful marker to keep your place, sipping a pleasant cup of tea from the finest china, munching on the tinsiest little cake or pastry and helping yourself to a napkin from this beautiful napkin holder....Bliss!!

Well, its a girly-er (is that a word??) scenario than the actuality, trying to peer around a cat that has just discovered that sitting on the computer desk and snuffling into your coffee is really quite rewarding....it really makes the hooman snitty!

Arvo tea was Mud Cake, Ginger Spoges and choc bikkies, all on pretty plates on a white cloth. 

Busy Ladies with wonderful quilts to show

Thursday night saw a small but very busy group meeting with 13 ladies present.  June kept some of the group busy making the 22 charm square bag and also helping Heather with a panel quilt, while others of the group were busy working on their paper piecing projects.

Show and Tell saw some lovely quilts being displayed.
Dianne with her Japanese Quilt top. Showcasing a center medallion and other fabrics with an innovative sashed layout

Elaine with her sashed quarter square triangle quilt.  Elaine used a Moda 'Garden Party' layer cake and jelly roll to create this lovely quilt and had Fiona quilt it for her.

Leanne with her flimsey 'Nostalgia', Leanne found this pattern in a back issue of Aust. Patchwork and Quilting.

June showing her latest 'Hidden Wells' quilt.  June incorporated folded and gathered flowers in her borders and pieced her binding.

 Thank you Marlene and Maureen for the lovely pics and report.  - A

Great Demo from Beryl, lots of Quilty Goodies and one very lucky Grandie

Some time ago, Beryl bought in a rather innovative and reversible QAYG table runner.

Today she gave us a demo on how to create our own, below Beryl is demonstrating the stitch and flip method she used for the QAYG blocks, which then have a quarter circle cut from one corner to create the runner design.

 Some closer views of the runner, as the background and two pics of the blocks. Perfect project to use up some of those left over strips.

Some of the Machine Embroidery girls have been mucking about with a couple of rather inventive templates, Marie used the small template to make blocks for the front and back panels on a carry bag she has created.  The bag is to house the cute little sewing machine she has bought for her 6 yr. old Granddaughter, there are also pockets on the bag's inside, for extra storage.

The machine has a press button start/stop function, runs on batteries, and also has a foot controll. Perfect for a little sewer to be.  Marie has also added a sewing notions carousel with lots of threads and gizmos for her lucky little Grandie.

Christine has finished her beautiful pink and mossy green tessellated quilt and bought it along to share with us.
Colour co-ordinated for the showing in her pink T - how often does that happen?, lots I can tell you!

Catti has also finished her version, adding an extra border with tessellations in the cornerstones.

We are all making fabric 'leaves', these are some of Catti's...........why leaves? well that little secret will be shared with you next year!, yep a project in the making.

Marcia has a new project in the offing, this little lady was part of a recent wedding and Marcia had her Darling copy the piccie onto a pre-treated fabric sheet, the plan being Marcia will do some of her lovely stitching and then give the finished embroidery to the little one's Mum.  Hope we get to see the finished article.

Marguerite spied this lovely bright bag, with all it's felted flowers and leaves, while holding it up for a pic and to find out who it belonged to - It's another one of Marcia's - Guess who flew by behind her.....

Yep, Lorraine, she is back from the U.S. and will be with us for some weeks before decamping to live in Tassie, we all hope she will be coming back for visits, and we already have plans to go visit for a quilting retreat.....v.e.g. (remember those pics of her Tassie holiday home??!!)

Marcia has almost finished her stitchery, just these two to go and then it will be assembly time.......so, Leanne, Put those Puppies down and get stitchin' girl!...yeah! we know, 9 weeks and not a needle touched!   (Gee don'tch just hate a dobber!)

On her way out the door at end of day, Wendy spied Catti with another bag, made from 2 tea towels she told us, Wendy was very taken with the little fans.  Cute as...

Sadly, arvo tea was just about over by the time I made it to the table, so much talkin' (read gosspiping) to catch up on, after all, it's been a week!