Charging into the New Year and a Great Idea

Wow, such enthusiasm, the Wednesday arvo gals were all a-buzz with catch up chat, 

sharing new projects and ideas, searching our library for inspiration, and of course sharing an array of Show and Tell.

 
That blur - over there - top right?

That's our assistant treasurer, busy as a one armed paper hanger!  She did however, pause long enough to blow a raspberry, but oh dear, struggling with the new 'hand me down' I managed to get my digit in front of the lens...sigh...


Sue. in her role as our Najidah/Sunny Kids liaison person had this lovely letter to share with us. 

What a lovely Christmas story, thank you Chris, it's inspiring to get feed back and appreciation.

Sue has one of those big '0' birthdays coming up fast, so we helped her get a head start on the celebrations with not one, but 2 birthday cakes, and seeing as how she is such a bright and sparkly lass it seemed fitting to have a sparkler '0' on one cake, not mentioning the other cake's decoration!
Pat and Janice presented the cakes to Sue while leading us in singing happy birthday. 

Ailsa is getting ready for the Christmas Fair - yep, you read it right, Christmas, she has started work on this lovely Sashiko Celtic Christmas Tree.  Can't wait to see the finished piece.

Purchased the kit at the Brisbane Quilt Show last year with the Christmas Fair in mind, but which Christmas?

Using a printed panel gifted to her along with the backing fabric, Ailsa created this lap quilt for her Church's Easter Fair, Jackie mentioned she recognised some of the fabrics from the 80's, she has the same designs in pinks!

Jackie had Lorraine help with her show and tell, everyone is shy these days, both hiding behind 'Chantelle' (Show and Tell)
Using lemon brights, Jackie created this strip pieced quilt and sprinkled it with Friendship stars.  It's to join with the Thursday evening groups charity quilts for STEMM.

The inspiration for the chenille table runner came about through chatting with another Lorraine, an ex member who although now living in Tassie is in fairly regular contact with group members.  Story is that Lorraine uses various leftover fabrics to create chenille lovelies to fill her 'instant gift' drawer.
Jackie thought it was a great idea to share on using up some of those pesky leftovers.  However, not having access to a chenille cutter Jackie did it the old fashioned way, using a pair of scissors to create the chenille.

If you are wondering how it's done, cut a backing fabric to the size desired, lay it face down, and then top with a couple of layers of same size fabric or butted together scrap fabrics, stitch 3/4" - 1" lines across, edge to edge, either straight or echo curves and then cut the layers of fabric between the stitching, making sure not to cut the backing or all you will have is ....a whole bunch of strips instead of a lovely table runner - mat - small quilt or whatever else takes your fancy.
The pic above shows Jackies backing and a little of the front of her runner, the raw edges ruffle and open to display the various colours used. Jackie bound her runner using the same fabric as her backing.

Val bought in 2 more quilts for her charity of choice, Laurel House.
First one is constructed using 9 large disappearing 9-patch blocks, Using a different colour combination for each block gives the quilt a whole new look and the whole is nicely set off with the three borders.

 The second quilt is a scrappy quilt as you go wedge quilt in lovely earthy tones

Sheila has been promising her daughter a quilt for her place of work for quite some time now, always thinking 'someday', well someday arrived with a jolly big rush.  While installing some shelves in one room the workmen managed to use far too long a nail, you can guess the result, spikey little nail ends all over the adjoining room's wall!!
A Wall hanging just had to be created immediately, and so it was.

The only request was that the colours should be purple and green.  Sheila used a simple one patch design, and then meandered various colour and weight braids over the surface, adding little touches here and there such as the sweet little button engraved with 'made with love'

Sheila used the beautiful peacock blue and green for her backing.

A Great Idea.
Sue just happened to be in earshot when someone mentioned that they wanted to get rid of some Bias Binding...  'noooo'  says Sue, big mistake, use it on Q.A.Y.G scrappy quilts as raw edge sashing or joining strips, and just to prove how lovely it can be she whipped this lovely up to share with us all today.

Now someone who shall remain nameless was so taken with the idea and was busily playing with just how lovely and fluffy the bias was, kicking up the edges beautifully

Sue was not impressed, there was even a suggestion of smacking fingers! really!  So here is a pic of the bias laying sweetly, flatly against the quilt surface.

So whadda ya reckon? flat or fluffy? me - I'm for the fluffy.  Another great idea.

Lorraine had a few quilts to show at the last meeting of the year, only just now making it to our blog - sorry bout that - they are all for the one family, and hopefully this is the right order,

    Left, Dad....Middle Young Son...Right, Young Daughter.

        Bottom Left, Tweenager...Middle Young Son...Bottom right, Mum.
Thanks for the pics Lainey, great quilts and what a lucky family.

A little update on Ollie's charity quilts and his stay in the neonatal unit - its been just over 6 months, he has come such a long way from being born 3 months premature (qualified him as a micro premmie, not a title to be hankered over)
Just got the news, home is getting closer, could be as soon as 3 weeks!!!  Doesn't he look pleased with the news?

Some of our large donation of fabric (thank you Derrick) was Christmas themed and not suitable for year round charity quilts, it was decided to sell the fabric to group members to buy wadding for the charity quilts.

Some of those fabrics, were used in the making of 6 Christmas themed quilts for the babies in the Grantley Stable neonatal unit of the Brisbane Royal and Women's Hospital, including one for my youngest darling grandie, Ollie.  A very special 'Thank You' to Marie for the labels, machine embroidered and each one a different colour! 
Thank You Marie, you made the quilts special.  Being seasonal quilts they were offered to the bubba's families as a memento of their stay in a very caring and special ward.

Thank you to all the members who have asked after Ollie and his big brother over this trying time, Thank you for your well wishes and a big thank you to Barbara, Karen and Marie for your very special gifts to the boys, they are treasured.

Thursday night....................

Yup, you guessed correctly - these little hexies do belong to Debby!

Jules had her cat quilt to show us.

Close up.

Jules also bought this quilt on line.

All she has to do is pop it on her bed.

This is a bag from her last trip to the States.

Jackie bought in some old newspapers for us to read.

From 1988.

Jane also had hexies on the go.

Letitia was going through her scraps.

Her water bottle was wrapped in a tea towel that belonged to her grandmother (I think that's what she said.)

Jenny was hand quilting a quilt made by her son's girlfriend.

Jackie's chenille work.

A close up.

 

Till next week.