It was an exciting gathering today, so many winners to be announced, so many gals to be awarded one of Sheilas 'gold star awards' and all that rather delish food to be fanged into!
Found this trio looking rather pleased with the way everything was unfolding, they claimed no knowledge of the luncheon set up, fibbers....
Mind you, they may be the 'overlords' but there were lots of helpers for all of the various jobs that make a self catered affair run like clockwork, Jan and Sherrye got an early morning call to set the tables, did a great job too as you can see, then of course there were the gals who cleared the tables and lastly, the bit no one likes doing, the big clean up!
So many happy faces, all chattering away and catching up... well yeah...no meeting last week because of the Winter School, so... withdrawals...
The Lyn Ballinger Challenge this year was to make anything at all, 2 D or 3D, but no larger than 40cm using recycled denim, (courtesy of Sheila's op shop) and one other fabric, and by way of a change, we got to keep our creations instead of donating them.
What an amazing array of entries we had.
The Challenge winners, voted for by our quilt exhibition visitors are:
First Place Sandy King with her darling pearl wearing roo. # 14 in the pic.
Second Place went to Lorraine Irvine for her rather snazzy handbag, #1 in the pic above. Lorraine was happy to receive her voucher donated by Kim of Kimz Sewing and Patchwork Center
Third Place went to Yolanda for her cathederal windows cushion. #4 in the pic above (bottom right). Yolanda also received a voucher donated to our group by Kim of Kimz Sewing and Patchwork Center.
As winner of the Lyn Ballinger Challenge Sandy also holds the perpetual trophy of a lovely quilt stand.
It was a difficult choice for visitors this year voting for the quilt of their choice. First Place winner is awarded the perpetual trophy of a quilting hoop, donated in honour of past member Janet Smith by a 'friends' group of members who gathered for some extra stitchin' time.
First Prize winner Pam Stewart with her amazing quilt, Black Opal
2nd Place winner is Fiona Bell with Sally Park. Fiona will receive a gift voucher donated by Penny of Patchwork Angel
3rd Place winner is Michelle McGrath with her golden quilt based on Gustave Klint's 'The Kiss'. Michell, who is busy doing all things 'new grandbaby' a.t.m. will no doubt be thrilled to zing on down to the Angel to spend her voucher, courtsey of Penny, when she finally drops back to Buderim Earth.
4th Place winner is Sandy King with her lovely needle turned quilt, 'Burst of Colour'
5th Place winner is Janice Souter with her quilt Lone Star
6th Place winner is Beryl Darby with her delightful assembly of doilies and pastel fabrics, 'Doily Memories'
While chatting to Sheila the dawn came with a bit of a clunk, those amazing and graceful young ladies who delt with counting out the votes of both the Lyn Ballinger Challenge and Best of Show Quilts have been doing the same job for us for years, since they were just primary schoolers, always visiting their Gran on Quilt Show weekend to help out, this year, Allison counted, Zoe cooked dinner for them all. Well done ladies.
And back on the home front....there was dessert...
'cause, after dessert you have just gotta have chocolates...
And just before we all got too complacent, the Energiser Bunny (thanks Wendy, spot on description) and fellow overlords sprung a surprise on Sheila, not knowing if Sheila was a choccies or a flowers gal, they covered all bases and presented Sheila with both, with all of our thanks, for being such a tireless group leader and having guided us through one more Quilt Exhibition.
A heartfelt big Thank You to all the gals involved in making today run so smoothly and deliciously and those stalwalt souls who at the end of the day just dug in and did the cleanup.
Couple of things to finish off the post, first a wholehearted appology to Jackie Swan, she had a really terrific quilt in our quilt show, a hand stitched labour of love following a Jen Kingwell pattern. My first pic was well...unsatisfactory, so I decided to get another pic on my next little duty stint, you can see whats coming can't you? I forgot. No excuses, just forgot. So hoping Jackie can either send pic or bring quilt to cottage. Here's hoping...its a great quilt.
Update
Jackie came through, here is her pic of her lovely quilt
Diamonds Forever
Jackie Swan
'This quilt is made from a Jen Kingwell pattern and who does not love Jen! The shapes are interesting. I hand Stitched the quilt. It was a real labour of love.
Quilted by Fiona - the Quilting Fairy
Now about those hard to win 'gold stars' from Sheila, they are usually a star on a fabric background, given to those who put in an extra effort, such as the extra effort for our Quilt Exhibiton.
The 'Set Up Team'
Yvonne
Sue (2) - created 2nd prize quilt as well as set up
Rita
Michelle
Pat (2) - machine quilted a prize quit as well as set up
Lorraine
Others for various jobs
Karen Daniels
Sandy
Janice
Marie Made 1st Prize quilt
Lyn
Kitchen
Karen Doyle
Wendy
Di
Our Quilt exhibition was bady affected by the awful rainy weather, visitor numbers were down, however, our quilt sales were up...yeah a real up not a 'feels like' up, but a cold hard dollars up, our tea room takings were up, so frankly, we are all feeling pretty darned pleased. Hope you have enjoyed the journey through our quilts, our tea room and our celebratory Challenge Luncheon.
Next Post....
getting on to more of our push to create Charity Quilts for those in need..
There was a great start to our group charity quilt push a couple of weeks ago... just look at the concentration and busy-ness of these gals
