Friendship Quilts and the story behind 'Everlasting Friendship'

A very special meeting for us this week bringing together some of the ladies who created the blocks used in our raffle quilt 'Everlasting Friendship' from the friendship quilt swap way back in....well, a few years ago shall we say.

As is often the case with Friendship quilts, indeed with many quilts - after all, where would we be without our collective collections of UFO's?- Beryl never managed to form her needle turn applique blocks into a quilt, preferring instead to keep them in a safe place, perhaps taking them out from time to time to pet, pat and admire, until current times when downsizing meant finding a new home for her blocks, which is how our group managed to have the blocks given to us.
Unfortunately Beryl wasn't able to join us today, so her Darling, Allan came along as her representative.

Standing in front of both raffle quilts, some of the original swap group, from left to right, is Fae, Jan, Dorothy, Rose, Jill, Allan and Joyce.
There were a few missing faces, times change and folks move on and up but there were many happy stories so that those missing were rememberd and 'introduced' to those of us who had not met them.

We were treated to some lovely Show and Tell from our Guests, Jan showed off her love of Crazy Patch along with some other patchwork pieces.

Kangaroo wallhanging with the curved piecing showcasing the colours of Australia, the red center, dusty deserts, greens of the bush, purples of mountain ranges, not forgetting the vibrant blues of both sky and seas with of course the sporting Kangaroo.
More examples of Jan's work, the wonderful fabric flowers that she is renowned for creating, a lovely appliqe linnen tunic top, a reverse applique wallhanging of snowflake designs and a W.I.P. of the cutest lady Giraffe, Jan has used tiny black buttons running down her neck to depict the mane.

Another WIP from a workshop Jan did, the leaf is about to be framed.  More of Jan's flowers adorning a Crazy Patch cushion and a Christmas stocking worked with beautifl Crazy Patch using lots of lace and flowers.

Jill bought along her Crazy Patch teddy with the crinkled nose and told us the story of entering her lovely bear in a show only to have the judges write back that although they loved the work, they weren't impressed with the wrinkly nose....a nose Jill had gone to quite some effort to achieve!

Rose had her journal of the first ever quilt assembled by Cottage members in 1986, before there was a patchwork group.  The quilt was raffled and won by a Brisbane male nurse, Andrew Tucker.  Andrew was from a local family and the quilt was in the family home here in Buderim until recently and is still in the families posession. 
The quilt was named the 'Buderim Cottage Quilt No. 1'.  Not only because it was made by Cottage members but also because of the local cottages and historical buildings Rose used for design  inspiration of the appliqued cottages in the quilt.
Pages from Rose's Journal, thats Rose on the left admiring the finished quilt.

Another pic of the finished quilt taken from Rose's Journal.

The day started off with the Girls who are working on June's 'Pinwheel' workshop discussing various setting out designs and quilt sizes.....
Marguerite has decided to stick with the current size of her flimsey, setting the whole on point with some lovely vibrant green fabric.

Christine is also trying out the on point setting idea, using fabric from some of the pinwheels for continuity

As you can see, all those in the discussion think it's looking pretty swish.

Marcia was also getting advice on her pinwheels, she has opted to make a larger size, using more colours.  Gee, doesn't the fabric stick well to the back of the vinyl tablecloth? By the by, that tablecloth is from Marcia and her Darlings caravan, and the pinwheels I hear are to make a replacement tablecloth for the van...how special will that be!.

Heather and Catti have their pinwheels a little further on, sandwiched and ready to be quilted.

Spotted Wendy having a little sticky at the back of Catti's quilt.....what could it be? a great label?

Yep!, Catti used her printer to print out the words and then embroidered over the printing, adding a little posy of suffolk puffs...
which brings us to the front of the quilt...Catti is flying home this year and wanted a boquet for her Daughter.  She has created this special Topiary wall hanging to be delivered in person.

Using suffolk puffs on the Topiary and in the vine border, with lots of lovely needleturn leaves topped off by bluebirds.  Catti crosshatched the center of the quilt but had her first ever go at stippling in the border.

A couple of years ago Lyn was lucky enough to be holidaying in Sweden, where she saw, and of course bought, a length of fabric with a printed design of Swedish Horses.  Lyn had the idea of making a tablecloth......Well, Lyn wasn't that fussed on just running a hem around the fabric and calling it quits, over the past two years she has used the Broderie Perse method to applique the Swedish Horses to a length of fabric, and using more horses has created a table runner for the center of the table.

The pic is a little misleading, the cloth is folded in half and just the end is in the pic, it is rather a large cloth, and you see why it took 2 years to complete!
Lyn has decided that all the Grandies are getting pillows for their birthday this year - yes they all have quilts- so cushions to follow.  Using a pattern from Kelli Wolfshon Lyn has created the first cushion for her 2year old Grandaughter's birthday.

Betty spotted an appealing quilt design in a magazine piccie, and decided to re-create the same design, using these vibrant fabrics, well she tells us this is the 3rd effort at getting the design right.  Sometimes the simple looking designs just aren't.

Betty went for a simpler design to create this apricot Quilt of Love, and Andrea used one of the Machine Embroidered pannels unearthed by Sheila last week to make the blue quilt.

While Inge stitched and created these two purple and lemon Q.O.L's with the cutest little baby Dragon motifs.
Afternoon tea was a special affair in honour of the occasion, lots of yummy food, sweet and savoury.