Civil War Quilts, as soon as someone says those words you know exactly what to expect, the muted colours, the simple designs with a small amount of quilting, these quilts were generally made in a bit of a rush, to be ready to go off to war with loved ones.
Well not so long ago, while on a trip to the U.S., Pat visited an exhibition of Civil War Quilts and was inspired to create this lovely 'Grandma's Flower Garden' quilt using a bundle of fabrics she purchased at the Museum.
Pat teamed her new purchases with some fabric from her Stash for the block backgrounds, The 'flowers' are English paper pieced, Pat's first experience with paper piecing, and then appliqued onto the background squares, and of course the quilting is hand done, a simple design of quilting around the outer edges of the hexagon flowers.
Marie needed a quilt for her B-I-Law's 80th Birthday, so created this quilt from a piece of fabric from her Stash. Her B-I-L is a country gent who mows lawns for a lot of people - hence the mowers on the fabric. The circles on the border are edged with bias. How clever is that!-A
And while we are on the subject of clever, here is a wonderfully clever hint from Sue. Another use for those thin plastic cutting mats we all buy from the 'cheapie' stores, when they become a little worn and tatty give them a new lease on life by using them for templates!.........I tried this yesterday with a flower shape for quilt marking, works a treat! - Thanks Sue.
And here's another 'clever'.........one of the lovely ladies from the China Painters group happened to be wandering past with this wonderful tiered cake tray in hand.
It will be one of the pieces for sale at the upcoming ARTEXPO that the Painting and China Painting groups will be holding next weekend (the 11th and 12th August)
For more info and a sneak peek on what will be happening pop over to the
Buderim Craft Cottage site. Click on the Blue 'Exhibition Painting Group' button and read of the innovative art that Olga and Rod will be working on throughout the exhibition, or for some peeks at the delicate work done by China Painters, click on their button on the left hand side of the screen...go..enjoy...but don't forget to come back, lots more for you here.
Sue made this quilt for one of her charities and bought it in to show us. It's a new take on Q.A.Y.G. without having that very obvious join and binding running down the joins.
Constructed in 4 segments, Sue appliqued the fabric squares to each background piece, sandwiched each quarter and quilted with the red stitched lines. The four sandwiches were then machined together at the front. Next, Sue appliqued extra fabrics overlapping some of the joins and finished off with extra quilting, still using the machined red lines. The backing seams were then slip stitched together for a lovely flat almost invisible finish.
As you all know, Janice was the winner of the Viewers Choice in the recent Lyn Ballinger Challenge, but as she was out of town for a bit wasn't at last weeks meeting to collect the trophy.
Sheila took the opportunity to make sure the engraved plaque was in place and presented the quilt stand to a happy Janice on Wednesday.
Julie and Marie were spotted with their heads together over a collection of blocks. Investigation found these!
Yep! we are going to have a workshop on these cute little 'Cathedral Window' style blocks, can you imagine an entire quilt??
Left the sad til last. Sad but still a lovely warm story.
Back in 1997, the patchwork group were doing some lovely Friendship Quilts for each other, as groups do, but May didn't really want another quilt that she would only bring out occasionally, she hit on the idea of a 'Friendship Wall-hanging' something that she could hang on her lounge room wall and look at every day to remember her Cottage friends, and that is how this beautifully worked piece came into being.
May's family, knowing her strong ties with the Cottage and her friends there, has donated her much loved wall-hanging to the Patchwork Group. It will be hung in the Garden Room where we can all enjoy it and remember a very special lady.
