A very special Big 'O' birthday and Charity Quilts

Won't be mentioning which one, but Betty recently celebrated a very special birthday, Marie W bought along a lovely bouquet of roses grown by her Darling, real roses, scented roses. Heavenly

We even had cake, with a candle and all.   Congratulations Betty

Double bed quilt using two jelly rolls and appliqué. Marie W was asked by a friend to make the quilt so she could give it as a birthday present for her friend, mind you there was a ridiculously short period of time involved, like - less than a week! non quilters, what can you do?, sew like crazy and get it done is what.  Great effort Marie and a beautiful quilt.
Marie named it Windmill and Roos

Marie also had another commission to share with us, these two quilts and Marie's story

The orange quilt is called Caravans abound. The fabric was chosen by the lady who wanted it made as they are her logo colours. It is going on her stand at a caravan convention in Melbourne later in the month. And the other one is for the same person and will be given away in a lucky draw for one of her customers. This one is called Camping and caravans. 

For those involved in the conversation a few weeks back, Blue Banded Bees or more accurately Amegilla, yes they do exist! Pic on left was my first encounter with a blue banded bee, photo taken in 2009

Pic on right, taken in 2012, is one of the many lost photos, but the Darling has it as a screen saver on his phone, not a good angle to capture the iridescence of the blue stripes, but you get the idea.

Marcia really started something big with her string quilt, everyone seems to have made one or is making one, such a great way to use up all your scraps.  Val in her new role as Patchwork Group charity quilt co-ordinator has us all organised to make a few for Najidah, hopefully for Christmas.
We all pitched in over the last couple of weeks with workshops at the cottage,
Beryl made a lap quilt  to inspire us..

Strips were cut, organised into colour groups and stitched by many hands

Nothing finished yet but coming together nicely and I'm sure there will be quilts for Christmas.

And in her spare time, Val ran up another two charity quilts, along with these cuties, a mug bag, tissue holder and coin purse, oh and of course, a lovely worded label for the quilts. 

Judy bought us some lovely goodies to show and tell, this Rosella wall-hanging was done in a workshop with talented local Textile Artist, Bernadine Hine.

 
In fact, pop over here to see Judy and the other ladies at Bernadine's class with their beautiful birds and of course to see some of Bernadine's wonderful work, including a new quilt made for her daughter, stunning!.
Judy also bought along a table runner done at the Angel using some lovely fabrics

Some time ago a friend of Judy's traveled to Alaska and bought home little collections of fabric featuring Alaskan wildflowers.  Judy knew she wanted to make something special, but what?.  Inspired by a pic in a magazine Judy just couldn't wait to get home and create this lovely table mat. Works brilliantly!

Using a printed panel, Louise is working on a Christmas Wall-hanging for the Fair,  Can't wait to see the finished hanging.

A day of sadness, memories, and a story of quilters helping their dear friend.

Our first day back at the Cottage was one of strong and mixed emotions, a day to greet quilting mates, get a big 'Welcome Back' from leader Sheila and catch up on the goss.
Sadly, it was also a time to remember Janet, our dearly loved and talented member who passed away on Tuesday morning.
Janet was a member of our group for nigh on 10 years and was always available to help with a quilting question, a chat, a smile and a positive outlook, she was our Workshop Co-ordinator for quite a few of those years, introducing us all to many new techniques and tutors.  Janet was also the winner of our latest Lyn Ballinger Challenge.

Orchids, Janet's favourite flower

As we all know, Janet was a great supporter and volunteer of STEMM, and her family sent us the suggestion that, if you were intending to send flowers you might like to consider making a donation to STEMM in Janet's memory instead. Our group will be sending a donation and if you would also like to, please send the donation marked 'In Memory of Janet Smith,  STEMM,  Burnside High School, Box 5247 SCMC,  Nambour 4560'

Our love and thoughts go to John, Daughter Alison and Janet's other family members at this sad time.

Janet was creating a lovely quilt for her granddaughter Jenna, bit it wasn't quite finished, so with the help of some good friends - Di, who did the final piecing, Marlene who added the border, Fiona who used her longarm quilting skills to quilt Jenna's quilt and Gwen who bound and finished the quilt, it was finished.  We got to see this lovely quilt for a special lass at Show and Tell yesterday.

As a gift for us all at our Christmas Luncheon, Sheila and Lorraine worked to collect a pile of 'Orphan' Blocks, visiting the hallowed halls of the local op shops, and form all accounts, really getting stuck into Lorraine's little orphan stash - well, it's a little stash now! so that we would all have something to challenge us and for us to work on over the break.....and guess what?...some folks did!

Val pulled open her bottom draw and found a full orphanage! she used some of them to create this colourful kiddies quilt, here she shows us her Christmas Orphan, thanks to Lorraine, the blocks along the bottom of the quilt are all Lynette Anderson stitcheries, and although Val had a story for each block she has no idea where the middle row pin wheel type blocks came from! all in all, a great use of orphans.

Another two orphans turned into goodies, Sue created a cute black, white and red cushion and Julie created a tote.  Both blocks from Lorraine's little stash.

Julie also created this cute little stuffed toy, and some inventive lass created two toiletries bags for our Women's refuge charity.

Another creation from Julie (boy she was a busy little Bunyip over the hols), this lovely coffee table runner, Bronwyn Hayes from Red Brolly stitcheries and lovely fabrics, Julie uses the runner when serving afternoon tea to her stitching friends.

Val was also trimming the stash over the hols, she passed these blocks and fabrics onto Betty who turned them into this terrific quilt.  Another one for Val's charity.

Innes bought along two quilts to share with us, her first quilt and her latest quilt.

The sampler was started a wee while ago in 1992, patterns drafted, fabric cut with scissors, hand pieced and hand quilted.  Innes finished this beauty in 1998.

and her latest quilt, all machine pieced and machine quilted, using Bali Pops and a wide backed Bali Print fabric.

A last Australian quilt...

We have been privileged to have such a wonderful, productive and giving member in Catti, she has kept us in stitches with her stories and greatly amused us with her astonishment at good 'ole Aussie sayings, but sadly Catti will soon be flying home to her native land, something that came home with a bit of a bang yesterday when she presented her last Australian quilt for show and tell, and I suspect she kept the best for last, showing off this superb quilt to us at yesterdays meeting.

 

 Catti was glowing in her praise of Gwen as a teacher and very grateful to have had the opportunity to learn all the different aspects of quilting in the series of workshops presented  by Gwen last year.  

That favourite day of the year for many came around last Sunday, yep, you guessed it, 'Mother's Day', lots of flowers and pressies made an appearance but Janice reckons she got one of the best.  Her Daughter, who does lovely cross-stitch inserted a native kangaroo paw flower into this sewing compendium as her gift.  Janice has just about worn it out with pats!!

 A closer view of the cross-stitched flower and a flimsey of our next workshop that Janice will be presenting.

 and when she wasn't strolling and patting, Janice was stitching down the binding on this lovely quilt, the top was a donation, and Pamela Jones from Kimz Sewing and Patchwork Center in Warana very kindly did the beautiful quilting in between the chains, the finished quilt will be raffled at the Biggest Morning Tea being held at  'Craft in the Chapel' in Nambour next Thur.19th..  Pop along for a cuppa and a chance to win.

 Maree bought along a 3-D wall hanging that she made about 2 years ago through Quilt University, just to show some of the gals what is available as quilting courses with Quilt University.  '4 Elements' is a very textural wall hanging, with silver lightning bolts shooting throug 'Air',and even tiny shells stitched to the sand in 'Water'

http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ is the link if you would like to check the site out for yourself, lots of talented tutors, and there is always a Forum set up for each course so students can communicate with each other and the tutor.  Thank you Maree.

Quite a while back, the gals that generally sit at the noisy err...end table, found a rather enchanting quilt with pattern and directions in one of the quilt magazines from our library, they were so entranced it was decided to do a 'friendship' challenge quilt.  Sadly some have fallen by the wayside but Wendy has finished the first of the challenge quilts with promises of more to be shown at our up-coming (more like up-rushing) TREE-mendous Quilt and Sale Show in July.

 Betty has been working on a Japanese Fabric Hexagon quilt, and bought in the finished flimsey to share with us "Just something I ran up in my spare time" she commented when asked what her inspiration was,  ....and then added "and just something to use up my spare money", bit tongue in cheek.

Heather has been knitting up a storm for her new Grandie to be, the first babe for one of her daughters.  Bub will be born in the middle of winter in Sydney so those cute little cardies will be just the ant'z pantz.

 We were also give the chance to grab some goodies courtesy of Ruth and the lovely folks at Neuendorf Interiors. Ruth came along with boxes and bags of fabric offcuts and ends, just the thing to make loads of cushions, and other house-hold bibs and bobs.  One of our more energetic gals even had the idea of re-upholstering her day bed in a patchwork design!  Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

 Thank you for bringing all those lovely 'treasures to be' along for us Ruth.

Marcia is busily crocheting a knee rug for friends she and her Darling will be visiting next week, yep, next week!, and although she was busily telling a rather hilarious tale from her last holiday, as you can see, those fingers didn't stop for a second.

 Crocheting is really 'The Thing' at the moment, Marguerite is also making a knee rug, sadly I chopped her head off in the pic!........no I didn't!, I just had a flat battery in the camera and by the time I took a pic of Marguerite everything was way way fuzzy, but heres the goodies anyway.  Sorry Marguerite.

 And as some of us know, Lorraine is an apiarist, she often supplies us with lovely local honey, always a different flavour and colour, depending on the flowers and seasons, well, long story short, the talk yesterday got around to bees and our local blue banded bees, yep blue bees, or blue bottomed bees, or even Amegilla Cingulata if you want to be flash!, however you say it, it's a bit of a startlement when you first clap eyes on one I can tell you, so if you have never seen one - here is a pic

 Took the pic (and a few dozen others) out through the window the other day.  Pleased to see them back and active.

Our Easter Fair Extravaganza and New Members

The excitement is mounting in our neck of the woods, our big Easter Fair is only days away, on Saturday 23 April and we are all looking forward to showing off our new kitchen extension, the Cottage renovations and updated Garden Entrance.......mind you, there is a bit of a push going on to put the finishing touches into place with a working bee this Saturday to lay the pavers, and of course we all have our fingers and toes crossed that the car park is finished in time.

Jackie O. joined our group a few weeks back and promptly took herself off on a bit of a holiday, she joined us today and bought along this beautiful Baltimore quilt.  Although it took Jackie 2 years to create, each block only took between 7-11 days to complete!.  Jackie was shown how to do needleturn applique and as so often happens, she was hooked.

Many of the blocks in Jackie's quilt are her own designs, with others inspired by traditional Baltimore Album designs.  Hopefully Jackie will be bringing this wonderful quilt along to our up coming Quilt Show for you all to have a drool over 'in the flesh' so to speak!
Jackie quilted around the design in each block but had a friend machine quilt the borders in a double heart design.

End of day, Jackie's Darling came along to help pack up the quilt, couldn't resist getting another pic, this time including the top row.

Janet's Daughter gave her a book on 'Skinny Quilts' for Christmas, and Janet set herself the challenge of making as many as possible using her stash only!  This vibrant creation is Janet's second from her book and stash with number 3 already in the works.

Two new members joined us yesterday and were settled in and  made to feel welcome by Fran, our charming 'welcome committee'.
 Lynn bought along her scrap pieced flimsey, made by request for her Grandson who is moving out of home in the near future.  Using many 'memory' fabrics from her scrap pile, Lynn created each block from a central hexagon, adding strips by just diving into her scrap box and sewing her little heart out.

 

 Our second new member, Jenny bought along some lovely Beatrix Potter print fabric to work on, looking forward to seeing Jenny's completed creation.

 Welcome Lynn and Jenny.

Christine also bought along a flimsey to share with us, made in a one day 'Stack and Slash' workshop down at the Angel, Christine decided to join the blocks using a gold bias tape.

She then choose some nice wide bias binding to be incorporated into the borders, but wouldn't you know it, it was one tinsy little inch too short!...what to do....while playing around with the problem Christine thought of popping a little embroidery over the bias binding join, she liked the effect so much she did the same in each of the corners.  Brilliant solution Christine.  Hopefully the completed quilt will be for Sale at our Easter Fair.

Betty bought along another 2 Quilts of Love for the Selengor Hospital, she is also working on pieces of Hardanger, "Oh just using up some leftovers" she airily told me........have you ever done Hardanger?...it doesn't start with Hard for no reason!

 Sue has very kindly offered to deliver the Quilts of Love to Selangor for us on her way through that neck of the woods.  Thank you Sue.

Friendship Quilts and the story behind 'Everlasting Friendship'

A very special meeting for us this week bringing together some of the ladies who created the blocks used in our raffle quilt 'Everlasting Friendship' from the friendship quilt swap way back in....well, a few years ago shall we say.

As is often the case with Friendship quilts, indeed with many quilts - after all, where would we be without our collective collections of UFO's?- Beryl never managed to form her needle turn applique blocks into a quilt, preferring instead to keep them in a safe place, perhaps taking them out from time to time to pet, pat and admire, until current times when downsizing meant finding a new home for her blocks, which is how our group managed to have the blocks given to us.
Unfortunately Beryl wasn't able to join us today, so her Darling, Allan came along as her representative.

Standing in front of both raffle quilts, some of the original swap group, from left to right, is Fae, Jan, Dorothy, Rose, Jill, Allan and Joyce.
There were a few missing faces, times change and folks move on and up but there were many happy stories so that those missing were rememberd and 'introduced' to those of us who had not met them.

We were treated to some lovely Show and Tell from our Guests, Jan showed off her love of Crazy Patch along with some other patchwork pieces.

Kangaroo wallhanging with the curved piecing showcasing the colours of Australia, the red center, dusty deserts, greens of the bush, purples of mountain ranges, not forgetting the vibrant blues of both sky and seas with of course the sporting Kangaroo.
More examples of Jan's work, the wonderful fabric flowers that she is renowned for creating, a lovely appliqe linnen tunic top, a reverse applique wallhanging of snowflake designs and a W.I.P. of the cutest lady Giraffe, Jan has used tiny black buttons running down her neck to depict the mane.

Another WIP from a workshop Jan did, the leaf is about to be framed.  More of Jan's flowers adorning a Crazy Patch cushion and a Christmas stocking worked with beautifl Crazy Patch using lots of lace and flowers.

Jill bought along her Crazy Patch teddy with the crinkled nose and told us the story of entering her lovely bear in a show only to have the judges write back that although they loved the work, they weren't impressed with the wrinkly nose....a nose Jill had gone to quite some effort to achieve!

Rose had her journal of the first ever quilt assembled by Cottage members in 1986, before there was a patchwork group.  The quilt was raffled and won by a Brisbane male nurse, Andrew Tucker.  Andrew was from a local family and the quilt was in the family home here in Buderim until recently and is still in the families posession. 
The quilt was named the 'Buderim Cottage Quilt No. 1'.  Not only because it was made by Cottage members but also because of the local cottages and historical buildings Rose used for design  inspiration of the appliqued cottages in the quilt.
Pages from Rose's Journal, thats Rose on the left admiring the finished quilt.

Another pic of the finished quilt taken from Rose's Journal.

The day started off with the Girls who are working on June's 'Pinwheel' workshop discussing various setting out designs and quilt sizes.....
Marguerite has decided to stick with the current size of her flimsey, setting the whole on point with some lovely vibrant green fabric.

Christine is also trying out the on point setting idea, using fabric from some of the pinwheels for continuity

As you can see, all those in the discussion think it's looking pretty swish.

Marcia was also getting advice on her pinwheels, she has opted to make a larger size, using more colours.  Gee, doesn't the fabric stick well to the back of the vinyl tablecloth? By the by, that tablecloth is from Marcia and her Darlings caravan, and the pinwheels I hear are to make a replacement tablecloth for the van...how special will that be!.

Heather and Catti have their pinwheels a little further on, sandwiched and ready to be quilted.

Spotted Wendy having a little sticky at the back of Catti's quilt.....what could it be? a great label?

Yep!, Catti used her printer to print out the words and then embroidered over the printing, adding a little posy of suffolk puffs...
which brings us to the front of the quilt...Catti is flying home this year and wanted a boquet for her Daughter.  She has created this special Topiary wall hanging to be delivered in person.

Using suffolk puffs on the Topiary and in the vine border, with lots of lovely needleturn leaves topped off by bluebirds.  Catti crosshatched the center of the quilt but had her first ever go at stippling in the border.

A couple of years ago Lyn was lucky enough to be holidaying in Sweden, where she saw, and of course bought, a length of fabric with a printed design of Swedish Horses.  Lyn had the idea of making a tablecloth......Well, Lyn wasn't that fussed on just running a hem around the fabric and calling it quits, over the past two years she has used the Broderie Perse method to applique the Swedish Horses to a length of fabric, and using more horses has created a table runner for the center of the table.

The pic is a little misleading, the cloth is folded in half and just the end is in the pic, it is rather a large cloth, and you see why it took 2 years to complete!
Lyn has decided that all the Grandies are getting pillows for their birthday this year - yes they all have quilts- so cushions to follow.  Using a pattern from Kelli Wolfshon Lyn has created the first cushion for her 2year old Grandaughter's birthday.

Betty spotted an appealing quilt design in a magazine piccie, and decided to re-create the same design, using these vibrant fabrics, well she tells us this is the 3rd effort at getting the design right.  Sometimes the simple looking designs just aren't.

Betty went for a simpler design to create this apricot Quilt of Love, and Andrea used one of the Machine Embroidered pannels unearthed by Sheila last week to make the blue quilt.

While Inge stitched and created these two purple and lemon Q.O.L's with the cutest little baby Dragon motifs.
Afternoon tea was a special affair in honour of the occasion, lots of yummy food, sweet and savoury.