First meeting for 2013...

and in spite of Mother Nature taking a swipe at us, along with some members still away enjoying holidays, we had a good showing of faces.

Our beautiful state of Queensland has once again suffered massive floods and damage from strong winds, the kind of winds that blow trees down, not shrubs, huge trees, bringing down power lines and crashing through roofs and flattening cars.
Our hearts go out to those who are once again facing the huge cleanup and heartbreak of this disaster, especially those who have lost loved ones.

Found Louise cutting out these cute Matryoshka or Babushka Dolls.
Louise has fused the dolls to fusible web and was busily cutting them out but claimed she is open to suggestions on just what to do with them.  Being the talented lass she is she will come up with something out of the box.

Sheila bought along 2 dinosaur toys to be stuffed - just get a look at the size of that bag of stuffing-serious stuffing will be taking place!, anyway, Betty was only too happy to volunteer to help out with the stuffing of these cuties, one has tinsy prairie points down his back and the little pink one has perfect machine embroidered dots.

 Marie bought her Library Quilt along for an update, she has changed the 'Look at me Daisy', unpicking the embroidered faces and placing them on top of the petals, she is also adding leaves with tiny squares of mirror running up the centres.

 

There are some exciting additions to the quilt, like this really vibrant dressing table, complete with hand mirror and comb.

Continuing the Nautical story there is now a Pirate Boat.

and get this, there is also an Island, complete with a Palm Tree and a swashbuckling Pirate!

Great progress being made, so looking forward to watching these innovative quilts coming into being.

Val has been busy over the holiday period with two commissions, this one is for her Niece's little girl, each of the ladybugs has a her own facial expression.

This disappearing 9patch with the Teddies border is for a friend who wanted a 1st quilt for her new little Grandson.

There were some lovely bags on the Show and Tell table, this innovative one had us stumped for awhile,

Until we found the zipper opening in the bottom, of course, no way to have sticky fingers dabbling in your purse!

Lorraine bought along this cutie to share with us, bit of a fan of bags is Lorraine, (Ooops, had to type that bit twice, had the words bags and lady a bit too close together)  I've heard the rumor that Lorraine has piles of bag patterns!

 

Ailsa bought this bag to show and share, wonderful bead detail on the clasp and stacks of pockets.

 

Thursday night

A small group gathered on Thursday night for the first meeting of the year, although a keen carload did arrive the previous week but seeing that everything was locked up headed off to the local for a wine!! Not mentioning any names here!!!!!!

Leanne spent her evening binding her pink and green cushion......................

Debbie is working on a pretty table runner..............English paper piecing and applique.

Jules and Jane iPad stalking!!!!!

1/2" hexies - one of Jane's many projects on the go..................

Fiona had many stories and photos of her recent trip to the States - this little bag of fabrics and papers  accompanied her on her adventures..............

Linen and hexie flowers - Jenny's WIP.

Hand piecing and vibrant colours for Judy.

Letitia worked on her Scrappy-trip-around quilt....................she will be giving a tutorial on this very quick quilt on Thursday night...........

This is Jenny's completed Scrappy-trip-around.................

For those of you who would like to join in please bring the following on Thursday night:
6 pieces of different fabrics - 2.5" x 17"
Sewing machine
Rotary cutter, ruler and mat
Basic sewing requirements

Here's hoping for a creative 2013...........

2013.......let the fun begin!

An early start back at the Cottage today with a special workshop to make tactile Quilts for the littlies reading corners at our local Sunshine Coast Libraries

Lots of planning, patterns being drafted, cutting, fabrics chosen and of course, the vital work of lots of sewing

Marie has made great inroads over the break on this great quilt, with a lot of the 'I see you, I see me' themes.
Heather, Sue and Wendy were thoroughly enjoying themselves coming up with extra ideas.

How cute is the big yellow daisy, it has a little mirror  center (I see me) and when you lift the petals, a discovery of a machine embroidered face looking back (I see you)

Marie also has two seaside themed activities, 'Under the Sea' with (so far) a turtle and a stingray, both of which are velcroed to the quilt, and a beach scene featuring lots of cute teddies enjoying the surf and sunshine, looks like a day at Mooloolaba Beach to me!

Sue has also been hard at work over the holiday break working on her Library quilt, check out the amazing car!

and from the looks of things, Sue just had a 'light bulb' moment on just what to do with those colourful metallic pot scrubbers.

Jackie and Marie just had to have a play, and who could blame 'em.  Jackie had fun with the robot while Marie was rather taken with the beach bucket and the clever use of beads to represent the sand.

Jackie is putting in some solid thought on the pool noodle arch, will it be part of a ball game or perhaps a rainbow???
Marie was rather taken with the 3-D box, what a delightful little hidey hole that will be.

Great progress to date on these wonderful quilts, I'm sure they will be an enormous hit with the kiddies.  Can't wait to see more, can you??

The competition was such a resounding success with a bunch of Fatties going off to Linda for her guess of a, candle, and b, beeswax.  Yep Linda, they were beeswax candles, they came with a pencil and a pad for those fascinating and wonderful ideas that come to us all in the middle of the night.  Just light your candle and make a note......