Excitement plus on Wednesday...

...yep, the Cottage was jumping off its stumps on Wednesday, the lovely Wendy had done the research and got us another 'Mystery' project, this one to be completed within the afternoon, along with all the excitement and buzz of the workshop we also had a special afternoon tea planned with this cutie.

Kevin came to collect the donation to Smart Pups, although he let Patricia do the necessary of accepting the cheque and thanking our Group for the lovely dollars raised from the Quilt Exhibition raffle quilts.

Kevin was busy with other important doings.

Smart Pups Assistance Dogs have 90 'task specific' dogs trained and paired with special needs children throughout Australia. The pups are trained in four different assistance categories, Autism Assistance Dogs, Seisure Response Assistance Dogs, Mobility Assistance Dogs and Medical Alert Assistance Dogs. Patricia left a brochure with so much information, a little too much to transfer to here. Established in 2011 the organisation does not receive any government support, relying on donations. To help or for more information ph. (07) 5485 0031 or email them at enguiries@smartpups.org.au

Courtney was busily working on another of her embroidery projects.

and Cheryl shared this little project, tooth savers that she is running up for the littlies at the upcoming Ironside State School Fete in Brissy, reckon the Grandie will be chuffed.

Finally, after some instructions and good advice from Wendy, everyone was off and running,

There were those that pinned, and those who didn't, and impossible to tell the difference with this clever pattern and Wendy's instructions, the seams nested together nicely allowing everyone to get their points all lined up and well, pointy.

A couple of us managed to forget to 'step down' the fabric strips and had to do a little reverse stitching, Sue's expression says it all when it comes to reverse stitching.

Great fun to see all the different runners coming together. Lyn decided on using two lightly patterned fabrics as her focus fabrics and the patterned fabric as background for a different look.

Wendy was moving along at a great pace,

mind you, she had done a couple previously, hung for our inspiration and edification.

First past the finish post was Di with this pretty pastel runner, Di wanted a shorter runner and worked out that the length of the runner is easily variable by simply adding or subtracting a set of 2 strips in the body of the runner.

Lots more lovely Hospital donation quilts being admired.

Val of course had two for her charity of choice, Laurel House

She has also pieced the backings, giving the quilts extra interest.

Gaye had been very innovative, using all donated fabrics from our donation table of a couple of weeks ago to create two small and two of the larger size quilts, both with pieced backings .

Modern Quilts and Traditional Blocks with a modern flair....

A number of our members have been bitten by the 'modern' quilting bug, some beautiful modern quilts are making their apprearance. Lorraine is working away at this design, great for showing off large pieces of fave fabrics.

Coming or Going? These two beauties from Pat were being cycled through the Atrium. There is always a number of quilts and smaller patchwork articles available for sale in our amazing gallery/gift shop.

So, you're rummaging around in the U.F.O.'s and find this piece, what do you decide to do with it? well Chris has decided to disassemble it to create another version before completing it, Really, those little suckers are fiddly enough to get together in the first place without disassembling them! but aren't they cute?

Barbara is creating another of her wonderful hand stitched creations, could be a cushion or perhaps a wall hanging, thinking a cushion would be just the ant's pants, I am lucky enough to have her Cat with the golden whiskers, the littlest Grandie makes a bee line for it every visit, loves the textures.

The pile of hospital donation quilts is increasing with this two adding to the pile.
Sheila likes this layout, nice big slices of 'I spy' type fabric to capture the imagination of small person confined to a hospital bed.

Jackie scaled down this design of the Southern Cross from a New Zealand magazine, the inspiration to use the design came on a recent trip to an 'Out Back' observatory.

Charities, and the quilts we make to help them

Quilters, what makes them so generous?
Is it the continual efforts to decrease the stash, if only to make room for new fabric 'loves' or is it the excuse chance to try out a new pattern, perhaps even to refine an old, much loved pattern or is it just their big hearts?
Many of our members make quilts in support of their own fav charity groups as well as the charities that the group supports.
Val purchased the fabric and pattern for this lovely while in Hawaii, reckons it's the hardest quilt she has made in awhile as the turtles and the first border are a single piece of fabric.

Another charity quilt from 'the house of Val'

and yet another.

Lorraine created this 'charity cutie'

Sandy answered the call for hospital baby quilts with this lovely.

While Marie created this little sweetie in answer to the call for kiddies quilts for the hospital.

Marie also had a lovely quilt to support Fae with her charity of choice.

Marie also had this almost completed beauty to share with us, a 50th Birthday gift.

Marion has been bitten by the Bargello bug and bought these along to finish the bindings and share with us, the lovely in mauves and purples for her Darlings cousin's 80th Birthday.

and the stunning Black and White with a different layout for her Daughter in Law.

Pat had this stunner to share, made for her Grandson's 8th Birthday just because he loves all the planets.
Pat even popped the moon phases across the top and bottom of his quilt so that whatever way its on his bed, its the right way up!

Marcia had an ipad pic to share, and ask for an opinion of layout options, the first ever quilt she is making for Oliver....for his 31st Birthday...yep hang in there Oliver, its on its way.

Cheryl flipped her ipad open to share this stunner with us, her quilt posted awhile back on Pinterest has thousands of pins....yep, you read it right...don't you just love Pinterest!?

2017 Lyn Ballinger Challenge Luncheon

The girls from the self-styled "Naughty Table" offered to slap up a bit of lunch for us. The tables were set with a real party theme including funny hats, poppers and lots of chocolates.

The food looked very good and tasted even better.

Sheila welcomed our Challenge judge, Audrey then the eating got underway.

There were several 'stars' involved in making our Quilt Exhibition such a success and Sheila handed out 'Star' awards to Karen J, Sandy, Wendy, Sue W, Karen D and Sue A.

Audry anounced the winners of the Lyn Ballinger Challenge.
1st Prize winner is Gaye with 'Candles'

2nd Prize winner is Sue W with 'Celebrate'

3rd Prize winner was this cutie,

created by Heather, who was unable to attend the luncheon.

Inge is now the current holder of our perpetual trophy for the Lyn Ballinger Challenge Viewer’s Choice award.

The other trophy to be presented today is the 'Bossy Stitchers' perpetual trophy in memory of our past member, Janet Smith.
Marlene was the viewer’s choice favourite for best quilt in show and Gwen proudly handed her the 'Bossy Stitchers' trophy of a quilt stand.

Once again a great show is over. We all had a wonderful time with over 600 visitors passing through the doors, a significant cheque will be presented to Assistance Dogs Sunshine Coast from our raffle quilts and our winners will be enjoying spending their vouchers donated by our merchants Penny from Patchwork Angel, Forest Glen and Kim from Kimz Sewing and Patchwork Warana.
Thank you Lorraine for the pics and words to make this post possible.

2017 Quilt Exhibition - Part Five

Our Cottage is holding the Annual Buderim Winter School this week, so no Patchwork meeting for us--sob sob.
To help us all over the disappointment, here are the last of the Exhibition quilts, but before we zoom down the lines of lusciousness, there are more Very Very Big THANK YOU's to Sue Andrew and her team of helpers for the splendid job they did setting up the exhibition and Wendy Tame and her team of helpers for their equally splendid job running the kitchen and suppyling the delicious eats, without these hard workers the Exhibition would not be the success it was.


Sandy King
'Paris Meets St. Kilda'
I made this quilt in a class conducted by Ann Ferguson. I love the design and have since made another one for a friend.
Pattern design by Ann Ferguson
Quilted by Liz Traynor

Karen Wikman
'Teddies At Play'
Everyone loves Teddies! I really enjoyed doing the embroidery blocks. Then add Lynette Anderson fabrics and what more can you ask for!
Inspired by love of embroidery!
I love the result and hope you do too!
Pattern Design by Libby Richardson
Quilted by Karen Wikman

a closer peek and two of Karen's beautifully stitched blocks.

Marlene Hogan
'Poppies'
I had no plans for more poppies until I saw this fabric in spotlight. I saw half of this pattern in an advertisment on Facebook. I took a photo and then did lots of sums
It proved a good exercise for the grey matter.
Pattern design by Marlene Hogan
Quilted by Fiona - 'The Quilting Fairy'

Jackie Swan
'Blue Star'
This quilt looked easy when I saw it on "Pinterest". The best part - I had all the fabric in my stash!
Pattern design by Pinterest
Quilted by Letitica Turner

Lorraine Irvine
'Chain Reaction'
I was reading McCalls Quick Quilts and this one just jumped out at me. I just had to make it
Designed by Audrey Wright
Machine pieced and Quilted by me
Quilted by Lorraine Irvine

Fabric Art, Surface Design, Paper and Fibre Group
The girls from Fibre Art have an exhibition every second year, same as we do, but as the exhibitions are on alternate years the Fiber Arts gals display our annual Lyn Ballinger Challenge at their exhibition and we display their Group Challenge at our exhibition, a great system that suits us all, mind you, over the years these talented ladies have increased the types of mediums they work with and so of course their group's name has also had to expand, encompasing all their many talents

2017 Group Challenge
This year the groups challenge was to contribute to an instillation based on the theme'Seasons'.
Each member had to create leaves or flowers in their chosen medium. These were then used to construct a work which could be used as a window pelment or wall hanging.
The finished work is a credit to the 30 members who contributed. All materials were hand dyed and handmade. Mediums used include, felt, silk, cotton and paper.

Our Mystery Quilt.
On a visit to a local sister quilting group's exhibition many of our members were taken with the display of a mystery quilt the Mooloolah Valley quilters had done, they proudly displayed their quilts on stage showing off the many variations derived from the one pattern. Our members present promptly elected Wendy to co-ordinate and organise a quilt for our group to create, luckily she agreed, mind you, we did get her to say the words 'I agree' before we fessed up to what she had agreed to. Wendy did a stirling job, from a rough sketch of a block given to her by a 'Pinterest' surfing group member she wrote the assembly directions and even gave us a couple of block layout options and quilt sizes. Wendy also decided to make the directions 2.5" strip friendly for those of us wanting to use a jelly roll as well as being easy for those who wanted to do a scrappy quilt. These are the amazing results, we all had a ball creating our quilts. Thank You Wendy, for all of your hard work.

Marion Dempsey
Mystery Quilt
A number of members of the patchwork group at the Craft Cottage were given directions over several weeks by Wendy Tame (Workshop Coordinator) to make a quilt - without seeing the complete design. This is one of them!
Quilted by Marion Dempsey

Yvonne Palmer
Mystery Quilt
This was a fun mystery quilt project by members of the patchwork group under the guidance of one of our enthusiastic members.
I chose Japanese fabrics for this.

Karen Wikman
Mystery Quilt
This was a Mystery Quilt organised by one of our members for the group. It created a lot of interest amongst our ladies.
Portions of the instructions were released at 2 week intervals
A lot of the members participated and we had a lot of fun
Quilted by Karen Wikman

Susan Webb
Mystery Quilt
Along with several others in the group - I followed the instructions given for the Mystery Quilt. I followed the same colour theme throughout and I love the result.
This is a gift for my husband to stay warm during the winter months
Quilted by Karen Doyle

Di Stark
Mystery Quilt
This was a group project that we made over a few weeks
Quilted by Di Stark

Sandy King
The Mystery of Scraps
This quilt was made as a project in our Patchwork Group. I used fabrics I had for the entire quilt and didn't make much of a dent on my stash
Quilted by Karen Doyle

Marlene Hogan
Batik Mystery Quilt
This was a group exercise organised by Wendy Tame over 4 months.
Lots of fun talking and bonding. Thank you Wendy
Quilted by Fiona - 'The Quilting Fairy'

Lyn Solomon
Mystery Quilt
A purely scrappy quilt.
I followed the directions of the mystery quilt challenge.
Quilted by Lyn Solomon

Beryl Darby
Out Of The Stash
Myster quilt from our own Patchwork Group
Helping empty the qulting fabric drawers
Quilted by Beryl Darby

Lorraine Irvine
Mystery for a Service Person
Wendy created a mystery quilt for us to tackle. I found this bundle of gorgeous fabrics from the same fabric range in my cupboard. They had been there for awhile and there was no pattern, no notes or no picture of what they were for.
Because of the different amounts of each fabric with several of the fabrics being the same amount it looked as though I had bought it for a purpose. Well, life gets in the way sometimes and the purpose of these fabrics is long gone. I decided to use them for the mystery quilt then made extra blocks. It will be sent to a person serving somewhere overseas for Australia under the Aussie Hero Quilt program. I hope that someone gets good use from it and knows that they are thought of for the work they are doing for me and everyone else. There is also a matching laundry bag to go with the quilt so it will be easy to find their clean clothes when they come back on the trailer.
Quilted by Lorraine Irvine

Wendy Tame
Mystery Quilt
This is my mystery quilt done with our group in 2016
Quilted by Wendy Tame