A Fond Farewell and a Welcome to Newbies

 Spotted Sheila hanging this balloon on the way into the Cottage, gotta know something is up...

Di was surrounded by a group of gals all admiring this great wall hanging.

Sandy and Di spotted the pattern for the Advent Calendar at the recent Brisbane Craft Show and judged it perfect, all that was missing were decorations for the little heart shaped pockets, and that's when they spotted the buttons, lots of lovely wonderful buttons.  Bliss!  It wasn't long however until they realised just how those button dollars were adding up and was perhaps a little a lot on the side of over capitalising for a Christmas wall hanging so settled for some really lovely glittery velcroed christmas motifs.
Di's own design modification is the addition of tinsy little wooden pegs she has numbered for the advent dates.

New member Nelly is working on her own design of appliqued poppies on a pieced backgound.

Nelly likes to up-cycle and has the eye to get a lot of her fabrics and pieces from various local op-shops.

The flower stalks are couched heavy threads and Nelly has used a combination of freemotion embroidery and beads for the poppies and leaves.

Courtney arrived sporting an eye catching bag, actually a lunch bag but such lovely vibrant colours and constructed from that wonderful invention of foam backed fabric that one often sees beer coolers constructed from...have heard a rumor that the beer coolers are made from leftover bits from making wet suits, can't vouch for that though!

Other bags spotted were this tote in a lovely poppies fabric and a blue toile sewing compendium.

Back in 2013 our group visited the QAGOMA 'Quilts 1700-1945 Exhibition' at which Wendy managed to snaffle a copy of the book 'The Rajah Quilt',  no mean feat as copies were in very short supply!  So when Wendy spotted this pattern by quilter Lessa Siegel she decided on making her own 'Rajah Quilt'

Wendy has opted to use a modern twist and pencil in the tiny designs of the central medallion while needle turning the other blocks.

After winning the Expertise Events 'Rajah Award' Lessa Siegele was inspired to create her own version of the Rajah quilt, albeit a much smaller version.  Lessa was then encouraged to sell the pattern of her version.
The Rajah quilt is one of, if not the most important Australian textile artifact and has had many interesting articles writted about it and the convicts credited with it's creation.
Some interesting links are:
'Stitches in Time' an Australian article
Rajah's Grandaughter - a blog by a 7th generation decendent of a Rajah convict
Lessa Siegel's story by 'Addicted to Fabric' blogger Brenda Wood
a story of Lessa Siegls pattern release by Michell Hill
all very interesting reading.

Marcia was busily trying to put the finishing stitches into the binding of this sweetie, destined to fly away to Sweden in the near future, but she kept getting sidetracked.

A 'Star of the Month' award, for so many many reasons, not the least of was the great job done as our Cottage Rental Officer and group deputy leader while Sheila has been away.

Roslyn came along to join us for the day, a very new newbie and planning her very first quilt.  Roslyn was given a few lessons on the importance of ironing and accurate cutting by Pat and Sue.

Mary has been working away on her lovely blocks, applique, needle turn, couching and embroidery, a real smorgasboard of needle crafting.

Julie was a bit shy to share her WIP, being just a few lines to practice on.  Well that's fine, but a few lines of what??  No, not Hardanger.

Slowly the story emerges, and we get a tinsy glimpse of what Julie is aiming to achieve.

Punto Antico.
You can read all about it here at Nordic Needle.
Julie has ordered a book and is working through it, just because she wanted a bit of a challenge -  like Hardanger isn't a challenge?
Helen decided to hit the net to show just what all the excitement is about.

It seems that Gwen is also learning Punto Antico.

Now have you noticed those white LED lights the girls have? they are like rabbits, really they were all over the place, its a Triumph Desktop Magnifying Lamp, ( Thanks Di) tracked them down to a Janome sewing center in Everton Park and guess what? they also come in black, pink and purple but wait, there's more, (chanelling a T.V. shopping ad.) it's freight included, and on sale at $33 was the best price I could find, mine will be here day after tomorrow....service plus! can't wait.  Been on the lookout for something like this for ages. Thanks Gals.

Betty is feeling both hot and smug, yep the temp was up there today but Betty had a head start with a very cute Chinese fan.

Lorraine shared her latest finish, a double sashed H.S.T. lovely that Lorraine will be giving to charity.

The backing is as stunning as the front of the quilt.

Now where is Sheila off to???

Yep, It's cake and song for Marcia

Could be it's one of those Big '0' birthdays

Sadly, Jenny, one of our Thursday night gals and a co-author of this blog has decided that she isn't able to be a part of our group any longer.  Jenny has a very busy career teaching 'Crazy' at various local quilting stores, writing quilting books on crazy patchwork and is of course author of her own blog Sew So Crazy.
Thank you Jenny for the input to our blog of all the work done by our 'Thursday-nighters'.

This is for you Bailey...

Bailey's Gran tells us that she has been wondering why such a gap between posts, so here we go Bailey, your Grans latest quilt along with some other little items of interest.

Spotted these cuties all lined up,

So cute, so sweet
















Turns out they are to be a very special Birthday pressie. Deanne's Mum turns 101 this week, yes, 101st. Birthday, so a gift made with love was the way to go.
The original birdie was given to Deanne awhile back, and proved the perfect inspiration to create a gift for her Mum, happy birdies strung together with beads. a perfect pressie.

 Congratulations and Best Birthday wishes to your Mum Deanne.

Wendy bought along a stunning cream quilt to share with us, a combination of candlewicking and machine embroidered crazy patchwork squares, lots of pin-tucking, in various modes, lace inserts and ribbonwork, all done using the Q.A.Y.G method and sashed with ecru cotton lace.

 Here are some closer views of some of the blocks, of course, cream and white are notorious for not photographing well so played around with the 'shadow & light' settings to show the beautiful stitching a little better.

Deanne insisted that her fave block be included, and held out the quilt corner just right to enable a snap!

The colours on the above snap are closer to reality. 

Talking of machine embroidery, Marion, one of the gals from our Cottage Machine Embroidery group has decided to join us and step off the edge into the world of patchwork, hoo boy!
Marion was rather entranced by a plastic bag of half finished blocks and cut outs, it is one of the U.F.O.'s that was included in Derricks gift of his late wife's stash.

yep, it's a wedding ring quilt, not the easiest project to start off a patchwork learning curve with.
There was lots of discussion and help to guide Marion along the way and explain the layout.  Librarian Jackie - quick off the mark again - put her hand on the very book needed with a great pattern and step by step tutorial.

While on her recent holiday in Tassie Sheila came across fabric prints of thread painted native animals and turned them into 4 place mats.

The work is from Textile Artist Cindy Watkins of Deep Peace Studio in Deloraine, Tasmania, pop over to her site to view some of Cindy's amazing work, and while you are there check out Cindy's amazing quilted screens, (tab at the top of her page).  Cindy is also involved with 'Elemental Artspace' a gallery that supports over 80 Tasmanian artists and craftspeople.  A great slideshow of the various works by these talented Taswegians.

A little while back we caught Karen,  just putting needle to fabric for her inaugural step into the world of Hardanger, or as some call it Hard-anger,
Well, with excellent tutoring from Mary, Karen has completed her piece.

and with the help of these lethal looking snips and the addition of a silk tassel the piece is ready for the framers.  Rumor has it that it will be hung in pride of place for the requisite ohhing and ahhing.
No ohh or ahh, no cuppa for you, (can't see it being a problem, really, it is a beautifully stitched piece.)

Another U.F.O. from Derrick's darlings stash was a pile of 3 dimensional bow ties, 

 Val assembled them, added borders and created this vibrant quilt - yet another charity quilt.

 There is a great pictorial tutorial on Delaware Quilts using 5" squares and 'The Gourmet Quilter' has a very easy to follow Youtube video here

Julie has another charity quilt in the works, this one is a donation through her other patchwork group, the ladies from Palmwoods.  a printed panel of botanicals, Julie has embroidered each panel and popped a border on the piece ready to be sandwiched and quilted.  Looking forward to the finished quilt.

This amazing quilt has quite a story behind it to do with it's name.  Pat called it 'Lets go for a Surf' but the recipient wasn't fussed on that for a name so the label has been/is to be replaced.

Beautifully hand quilted all over, including the meandering in the border.

Marcia and Mary hard at work,

well, chitter chatting is a vital part of patchwork - and what are they working on?
these lovellies...

 Marcia is building her flower garden 1/2" at a time and will let us know what it will be when she finishes it. Like, if she continues to love these little 1/2" hexies you could be looking at the beginnings of a king size quilt, or perhaps a table runner, time will tell.

This is block 4 of Marys project, promises to be another stunner.

 A couple of catch-ups for you. 
Diane started this quilt back in the 90's (if memory serves me right), beautifully hand quilted blocks, the floral also have hand quilted designs but that quilting only shows in real life, - pics? no so much.

 

a closer view of some stunning stitching.  Diane stitched each block separately and used the Q.A.Y.G method of assembling the blocks.  

Another one of Sandy's finished blocks, she is really churning them out, can't wait to see the finished quilt.

Fair Excitement and a new Star

Yep, it was all fun and laughter at the Cottage as everyone was either putting in the finishing stitches on goodies for the Easter Fair or starting on new projects - some for the family - some for our Quilt Show.

Lyn is starting on her version of the 'Mayflowers' quilt by Joanne Ridley from her book 'Jelly Roll Inspirations'.   Many of our group have made their version of this captivating quilt, a number of which were on display at our 2013 Quilt Show.

The original pattern has the flowers cut from pieced yardage, that is 2.5" strips stitched into a wider strip, then using the flower template to cut a shape.  It's such a versatile pattern that flowers cut from yardage is just as pretty.  Lyn has chosen to use blanket stitch to applique the vliesofixed  flowers to her background, thoughts are perhaps a button center?

Pat is busily cutting Drunkards Path pieces from solid yardage in assorted colours, the background is a lovely soft grey, not lilac as is showing in the pic, in fact all the colours are a whole lot nicer than in the pic...it's a lighting thing..?  Pat explained the 'quilt to be' layout, can't wait to see more as it progresses.

Courtney, with tutoring from Mary, is piecing 2" scrappy squares to create one of those lovely Scottie dog toys.

Sandy is onto another block from her 'Sweet Daisy Dreams', a Robert Kaufman pattern.

Julie bought along her Hardanger piece, she has been working on it intermittently for a while now, and completion is just about within touching distance.

The pic on the right is manipulated to show you the beautiful stitching, trying to get cream or white to show nicely sometimes just doesn't work all that well...sigh...

Marguerite has almost finished her version of 'Leanne's House' , naming her quilt 'Happy Days' and using vibrant colours for another take on this wonderful pattern.  Marguerite bought her sandwich along to get a little help with the pinning. Now, just gotta quilt and bind it, oh yeah, and label it

Marguerite has chosen to embroider her label onto a piece of the backing fabric which will then disappear into the backing, just leaving the stitching visible, what a great idea!

Marguerite had an amazing Montmellick needlework caddy with her.  Created some time ago.  "wouldn't have the patience nowadays" was the comment.  Well patience or no, it is magnificent.

Marguerite has even embroidered her initals on the inside cover. (Bottom Left)

Now Wendy has been doing the whole 'one armed paper hanger' thing....being as busy as, she purchased this cupboard, padded up a larger piece of timber and created a large ironing surface, she then got her darling to create this gizmo and attach it to the cupboards side...

 ...a hanging rack!!, as you press your strips, you hang them over the rungs and keep everything in order!  and if that's not enough, the rack also folds down out of the way when not in use.

Don't know about you, but I'm voting this the 'bestest Gizmo evah'!!
Guessing there will be a few requests being made to some Darlings over this one.
Wendy has created this adorable wall hanging for the Easter Fair.  Just finishing up the binding.

Darn, another pic for the fuzzy collection.  But you get the picture...pun intended!
The fabrics are very similar to the ones in this quilt, a pic Wendy just happened to have on her new ipad.

Saving the best for last.

Sheila presented Wendy with one of our coveted 'Stars' for assembling our wonderful second prize raffle quilt "Cream Fantasy'

 

Beautiful, yes? and no, there is no difference in the creams, again, it's a lighting thing...or a camera thing, but never the photographer...

In an attempt to show off the fab candlewicking here it is in a Black and White shot