Monsters and Jellyfish...

...were just a couple of the goodies to feast our eyes on yesterday, but the 1st cab off the rank in the amusing department was Fran....yep Fran did the morning tea for the Needlework ladies and of course she just had to dress for the part, including a beautiful Tiara that she must have borrowed from a friend in England, it was just so stunningly beautiful, although there was a rumor running around that it was plastic from Cheapie Charlies, but we will just ignore that rumor.

Val created this 'Construction' quilt for her 6 year old Great Grandson for his Birthday.
The roads were Lorraine's idea to make it more authentic.

Another one of Lyn's bed cushions for her Grandies, this is cushion number 5, there is only one little grandie to yet have a birthday and then Lyn will be looking around for another idea for pressies.

Lyn has based all her Birthday cushions on a pattern from Kellie Wulfsohn from 'Don't Look Now'.

Lorraine has been away on 'Retreat' and as she usually does, came home with some lovely creations, this first was designed by Lorraine for a special lass in her life, as Lorraine tells the story..
"Jazmin is my very first Great Niece and I felt all gooey when she was born and made her a luvverly Sunbonnet Sue and friends quilt. It has been well worn and hopefully loved. A couple of weeks ago at another niece’s baby shower she told me her quilt had been lost, along with quite a few other things but that didn’t interest Jazzie, when the family moved back from WA. She asked if I could make her another one.

As she is nine now I thought Sue was a bit young for her so her current passion is the ocean and not wanting to make something as twee as a dolphin I had some left over crystal organza and it instantly shouted jelly fish. Lots of ribbons and silky shiny embroidery thread for quilting and she will soon have her own jellyfish. I know the organza won’t stand up to much wear and tear but, hey, it is for a kid anyway and if it wears out, well I’m happy cos it has been loved.

By the time this one wears out she will be a teenager and something more sophisticated will be needed."

The group project was this great travel bag, of course we are all envious and want to know all about the pattern and where to get our own.

Erk....I was so focused on getting a great pic I chopped of Lorraines head....... sorry Lainey.

Talking of heads, what were Marcia and Marguerite up to? apart from lots of giggling that is

Marguerite was showing Marcia how to crochet her little squares together,

so that they sit nice and flat!

Gwen had some goodies to share with us, firstly a lovely Scots themed table runner, thistles with a tartan border.  Gwen saw a photo in a magazine and just loved the runner, she didn't have a pattern and just 'played it by ear'.

and this smocked coat hanger, which was her show and tell for the Needlework Group.

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.

Christmas Fair and our Blog's Anniversary

Well there was certainly a lot of excitement in the air today, mountains of patchwork goodies were arriving for the Christmas Fair, fabric leaves were being cut out, and hopefully the cotton ends snipped off those that needed it (sorry girls, bit slack there) and Sheila had a big surprise for us all,

This wonderful cake to celebrate our blog anniversary.
Can you believe it, another year has rolled around, and over us, honestly I have no idea where the last 3 months disappeared to.

Heather and Sue, busily snipping those leaves apart for Caity to count.
Gwen, Wendy and Marcia stitchin up a storm.
The cake getting it's first cut.........can you make a wish when cutting a group cake? I did, for a very successful Christmas Fair, well, it was a no brainer really, I love to say I made a wish and it came true! don't you?
Betty telling Sheila all about her flimsey she bought in to share with us, since retiring as Cottage Treasurer and the myriad of jobs that that entailed, Betty now has time to make lots of quilts, and a good thing she has lots of time too, this little treasure was created after Betty discovered that she had cut a whole pile of squares ....the wrong size, dontch just hate that!

Lyn bought along her finished friendship quilt.  It didn't get finished in time for last Christmas due to a packed calendar - read gadding about on a wonderful holiday - but its all ready to go for this Christmas.

Sheila had a great idea for a Christmas gift for her Grandies, Pillow cases to match their quilts!
Some of the inspiration came from one of our recently acquired library books, lovely kisses on a case to go with the hugs and kisses quilt for one Grandaughter.

  7 pillowcases made, and only one to go, brilliant idea.


Betty and the troublesome flimsey, Betty shared that she has made a pattern for the next attempt, and it will be right!

Jackie shared her latest quilt, made with wonderful Kaffe Fassett Fabrics,  and all ready to have the binding attached, a little job for the holiday break.

Last week we all thought it was pretty impressive to have your long arm quilter deliver your finished quilt, well guess what,  same happened this week, yep Judy bought Jackie's quilt along to the meeting, now that's service!
Showing the girls the  floral quilting design.

and here is a bit of a closer view.  Judy used a lovely variegated thread in reds for the quilting.

Jackie had another quilt to share with us, a lovely soft 'Shabby Chic', simply quilted with a cross design

Sadie stitched these lovely Princess skirts with glitzy tiaras as a donation to Val's charity group.  Val and her Monday group have been making charity quilts for some time now.

A couple of weeks back Lorraine gave us a demo on QAYG methods, Wendy, who is also a member of the machine embroiders group, decided to have a go at the technique using some lovely Babushka doll stitcheries that she has created.  Showing us how easy it is Wendy had to pause to remember just how to deal with those corners.

Lorraine's demo pics and instructions are on one of the 'stand alone' page links just under our banner, just click on 'Tutorials and Directions from Members' and scroll down.

If perchance you will be in our neck of the woods this weekend, please pop in and say 'Hi' to the Patchwork Girls, we would love to see you.  The Fair gets off to a start on Friday night, and will run over the Saturday and Sunday.  With 13 groups of crafters and artisans there is always an enormous range of quality goods for sale.

Words for today...........Delicious and Exciting

......they cover it all!
There was a wonderful blue and white quilt hanging up on display, I did a double take........surely I had seen this quilt before???? in a book even already????

 Yes! we have been given a pre-owned Lee Cleland quilt!, circa 1992,  one that is pictured in her excellent book 'Quilting Makes the Quilt', it is Number 5 of the Single Wedding Ring design on Page 90, and as much as I have drooled over the wonderful quilting that Lee has done in her book, I gotta tell you girls, the quilt is on another plane altogether, it was such a thrill to actually be up close and touch such a wonderful quilt........oh and the Delicious bit about this quilt....(as if there wasn't enough already....) we have to make a decision on what to do with it!, Raffle it?, in house?, at the quilt show next year?, auction it? the only criteria we all agree on is that it has to go to a quilt lovers home.  A decision will be made, I'll let you know what the group decides to do.

Val presented another wonderful tessellation quilt workshop from the book of Tessellation Quilts by Christine Porter, another great book full in inspiring and wonderful quilts. Val had two examples to inspire us at last weeks meeting, one of which is the cute gold, purple and pink number in the pic below.

There were moments of intense concentration, lots of laughter, and the odd 'how the heck did I do that'??!!

 Looking forward to seeing some lovely finished quilts in the near future.........and the lassie with the mistake, well, the piccie has been compared to the book, not seeing any mistake.  You're just gonna have to fess up and kill the curiosity!

Sue made another bag for us, for our upcoming workshop,  this time showing a geometric pattern fabric, very Bollywood in colours - lush.  No background spaces needed with this fabric as is in the botanical fabric on the left.  Lots of choices for this wonderful bag workshop.

After a wonderful trip overseas, Lyn is back home with us.  Sheila presented her with her 3rd Prize Certificate and goodies bag for her winning entry in the Lyn Ballinger Challenge.
It didn't come as a surprise to Lyn, she spotted that she was a winner while in her Instanbul Hotel, catching up on e-mails and group news via the Blog.
And yes, just had to use such a wonderful quilt as backdrop.  

Sue needed to created a cushion for a friend, friend's colour choice and out of Sue's comfort zone.  Sue came up with this wonderful creation, vibrant, and fresh.

A closer view of some of the appliqued fabrics Sue has used.

Now more of the 'Delicious'.   Arvo Tea was just to to delicious, there was a chocolate mud cake and Catti had made us a Linzer Torte!, such warm spices flavouring the pastry and also the cutest little Palmiers.  Major Yummo folks............(hanging head in piggy embarrassment)....I ate 5...yep 5 of those palmiers and a slice of Linzer Torte.  The Darling wanted to know what was for dinner, Dinner??? had mine mate!  (Not to worry, fed him and he is happy   ;o)

Show'en off, catchin' up and spreading the good times.

Well lots of showing off all the finished goodies from the weekend Retreat today, Ailsa and Fran did a 'model walk'  to show off their caddies, Fran decided that a 'sporran' wasn't what she wanted after all and put some pretty little tucks in her neck band to shorten it.

Some rather cute reversible coasters from Sues Sunday tutorial, cunning huh! they are very flat, not gonna get a glass to wobble on these beauties.

Remember Lorraine and her 'running away from home' bag?  the beautiful Log Cabin butterflies created at the Retreat?, well here is the quilt that inspired the bag, now we know why she needed such a big bag, when Lorraine said Queen size, I think she meant the 'giant economy' Queen size!!!

Sue is under that quilt,...somewhere,... helping to hold it up for the piccie....

Lorraine has used a pink Toile as the very center of her quilt, and is hand quilting the design lines to pick out the detail.

Lyn has created an 'I Spy' Quillo for her Grandie, using the disappearing 9 patch design and some left over 'I Spy' squares from previous quilts.  She was zooming off to watch him play sport after a quick cuppa, but Grandie has to wait for the Quillo......why?, well Lyn has to make a label..very important things, labels.

When Lyn got home with the backing fabric, she found it to be 2" too narrow....arrgh, what to do, well Lyn solved the problem brilliantly, she used some more of those 'I Spy' patches to put an 'I Spy' line down the back of the quilt, with a smaller line of blocks down the center of the Quillo pocket.

Sheila had a bit of a change of heart about her doggie mat for Julius, poor poor Julius, its the cold floor for you mate, after having success with the machine quilting and following lots of encouragement and advice from the girls, Sheila has decide that this should be a throw for one of the family, not a family pet...Good decision!.

 But I really wanted to show you Sheila's Jacket, now isn't that the best winter wear for the Sub-tropics?, we do get cold up here........and today was! brrrrr....


Arvo tea was a bit of a quiet affair, there had been a sumptuous Luncheon at the Cottage to celebrate the life of Silversmith Leader Irene Marshall who sadly passed away last week.

Lots of variety and some really delish slices.