Patchwork Film for you to watch

 A National Film Board of Canada tribute to the unique art form of patchwork, made in 1996 and inspired by the films of Rene Jodoin.  Interesting pattern play.  The film runs for just under 7 mins.

Just click on the  'Courtepoint by Gail Thomas' link at the top of the sidebar.

As usual, (and no I don't know how to fix it) the video screen overlaps out into the 'blog skin', so use your slide bar at the bottom of the screen to bring the movie screen into view, this will give you access to the 'full screen toggle' (two oblongs, one inside the other' at the bottom of the movie screen.  Click on full screen for more viewing pleasure.  Just hit the Esc (escape) button to return to the blog screen

It's all go at the Cottage.........

...as the saying goes, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, and boy oh boy, do we have broken eggs!! lots of upheaval while the cottage renovations and extension take place, and just to keep things interesting, the Council is sealing the car park!  Thankfully there is a temporary car park created across the road.

One of the first positive things to come from the renovations is the relocation of the Potters wonderful wall mural from inside the Atrium to the external wall by the side entrance, the most often used entrance where it will be visible to everyone passing  from the car park into the cottage or through to the Church next door.  It looks terrific and was certainly the object of much admiration from some school kids and adults yesterday. 

Created by the Pottery Group in 1984 and dedicated to Jeane Cameron it 'Depicts the joining together of the people of Craft Cottage in the love of their craft - the fellowship it creates - and the beautiful environment' - a lovely and so true sentiment!

The Quilts at Show and Tell were all so very lovely, firstly we had two charity quilts from Val made for  'Laurel House' an 'Angels' quilt in vibrant colours....

and a larger string pieced Q.A.Y.G.

Lorraine took over 9 months to get this one from idea to completion, she blames the colour selection!, made from scraps it was originally a 'Take Along' project for her quilting groups, Lorraine tells us that although the blocks were from scraps and therefore 'free' the borders and backing cost a bomb!

Helen also had two quilts to show us, both originated from the one idea in that she bought a lovely Layer Cake and proceeded with stitcheries in complimentary colours.  However, once the stitcheries were completed the Layer Cake colours were far too heavy! which of course meant.............yeah, of course, more fabric had to be purchased...........now isn't that a sad story - not.
Helen's beautiful stitchery quilt, made just for herself, and inspired by a similar quilt made by Julie.

 A closer view of some of the lovely stitcheries by Helen

 The Layer Cake fabrics were much admired by Helen's Stepdaughter, so taking the 'Crossed Kayaks' pattern, Helen created this beautiful quilt for her.

It was day one of June teaching the 'Hidden Wells' quilt, all those doing the quilt bought along their fabric stacks for colour selection help from June - and of course all the other gals had a say as well, great fun was afoot in the front room colours discussed, patterns drafted, and a wee tad of homework to be done.
June also bought this wonderful African inspired quilt that she had made for her 16 yr old Grandson along to show us, all of his favourite earthy colours with animal prints.

June has appliqued tigers across the borders into the quilt body, a very effective and fave trick of hers.

Men at work.........well Men discussing work, 3 Builders/Tradies working out the best way to attack the next step.

and then there are the guys taking out the post and rails edging the car park in preparation for the next step.

You can see the stump from one of the many lovely big shade trees that have been removed in the foreground.
When I think of Buderim I think of lovely big shady Camphor Laurels and Poinciana trees along the streets, sadly these are being phased out, but that's a whole different story!

Quilt Show Dates, Free BOM........

The dates for our Biennale Quilt Show have been announced, so feel free to pencil ink them into your Diaries, the show will open on Friday 1st July and continue over the weekend on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July....   sooo exciting!

The lovely and talented Val Laird has a new free BOM available for us, pop over here to read up on 'Consider the Tulips', why Val choose the name and to see a few sneak peeks of what the finished quilt will be, it certainly promises to be another beauty.  There is also a link in the sidebar for future reference.

 One of the pics of 'Consider the Tulips' from Val's blog.

Talking about BOM's, Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor for Bella Online, who keeps us all in touch with quilting news from across the net with her free e-mailed Newsletter has posted 2 links to user pays BOM's, pop over here for the first group and here for more links.

Busy and Productive....our first day back

Yesterday was our official first meeting day for the year, and what a day!,
Everyone busy chatting, catching up, planning new projects, etc..etc..

Sheila must have been influenced by the lovely racing red top she was wearing, busily flitting from person to person, asking, suggesting and just generally getting the group on track for our upcoming Quilt Show, in fact she was so fast she was just a blurr scooting 'round the corner.

Some of the girls had unofficial get togethers over the Christmas break, and others just beavered away at home so lots of Show and Tell to get us inspired.

Caity, who did a workshop on Brazillian Embroidery with the Needlework group last year, decided that she would love to have a go at Elizabethan Embroidery, so with the help of the net, she taught herself the stitches and methods to create this wonderful rooster.

 Caity also finished off two other wonderful pieces that she had started in classes last year, a lovely circle of Brazillian Embroidered butterflies used to make a cushion and a lovely 3-D wheat field scene that she has framed.

In her travels, Sue saw the cutest soft toy ball, complete with enclosed rattle, of course Sue had to meet the challenge and work out the design to create her own ball.

It is a combination of Polygon and Hexagon shapes to get the lovely round shape.  And of course if you don't happen to have a little person in your life at the moment, you could always use it as an earring!?.....

Balls were certainly a large part of Sue's Christmas Break, she gathered inspiration from one of our Library books to create this vibrant 'balls' quilt, with gently curved inserts in the larger balls.

June will be teaching the Wednesday arvo group her 'Hidden Wells' variation in the near future and bought some samples along to show us.  This is the original Quilt June made using this pattern, as she says, "I did this quilt the way I was told in class...."

The quilt has a lovely pieced backing using up the left over blocks with a deep border.

And then of course the fun began, June is not one who generally follows instructions or patterns, so she immediately made several other quilts with variations of 'Hidden Wells',this being one variation

The blocks are assembled by strip piecing, cutting into squares and then umm.....what was that you said again June?........oh well, will let you all know when June takes us for our class.
The design is created by flipping the blocks by quarter turns, one block is the area shown inside the white dotted line in the piccie below.

This version was made by June's daughter Maureen, using fewer fabric choices for a totally different look.

Another version, using 'Oriental' fabrics, June has appliqued kimonos onto the border,

 and echoed the kimonos in the border quilting.

Betty bought along her latest flimsey to share, a tesselated design that she tells me is really quite simple when you get going. 

There is quite a bit of 'updating' and 'improvement' works going on at the Cottage, more storage space being built, among other things, so everything is a bit topsy turvey, stuff pulled out of existing storage and put in rooms for tempoary storage, the result is that we couldn't get at the screens to pin up our quilts, so lots of hands on deck to help out.  Thanks in particular to Janice for her efforts.

Spotted Inge using this lovely little felt and fabric needle case book and the tinsiest little  Cathederal Window pin cushion made for Inge by her daughter Betty.  Inge commented "Betty doesn't have time to make quilts, she does 'little' ". Well yes, she does, we have all seen some of the beautiful little miniatures and things that Betty has created.

A Pretty in Inge's sewing world.

Donations to Queensland Flood Victims

Wondering about the best way to go about supporting our quilting sisters who have been affected by these dreadful floods? read on....Queensland Quilters Inc. have the answer!!.
As we all know, so many Queensland quilters, quilt shops and quilting groups have been affected, some only mildly but so many have lost everything, and as you can imagine, it's not an easy task to co-ordinate the donations and then the distribution of the donated goods.

Kim Boland, President of Queensland Quilters Inc sent an e-mail to a quilt shop, it was then forwarded to a Scquilter who posted the e-mail on the Squilters site.   It's a bit hard to try and condense such an e-mail, so here it is, copied in its entirety for your information.
Oh, and the flowers? just a little something to cheer us all up, they were a pressy many many moons ago, see, flowers can be forever.......well for as long as the hard drive hold up anyway.

E-mail from Kim Boland

January, 2011.

Hello everyone,

The recent floods in Queensland have caused terrible loss and grief for a
lot of people.  The size of this devastation is unimaginable.  Queensland
Quilters Inc. is organizing the collection and distribution of comfort
quilts for flood victims.


We would appreciate the donation of quilts.  The preferred sizes range from

1m x 1.50m (40”x60”) to 1.2m x 1.80m (48”x72”) but anything you are able to
give is appreciated.

We are also asking for donations of the following:

# Quilt tops not yet quilted

# Cotton quilting fabrics for tops and backs

# Cotton wadding to make and finish quilts

# Quilting books and magazines in good condition


We have many Affiliated Groups, members and sponsoring businesses in
affected areas.  As they live and work in these areas, we are using this
network to assess the need for these donations.

If your group would like to prepare sewing related care packs we will accept
these also.

We are also offering some financial assistance to our Affiliated Groups
making quilts and we anticipate that they will use these funds to purchase
requirements within their local communities.  We currently have 70 groups
across the state.  One group we have heard from had their premises flooded
and has lost their library, among other things.

If you would like to contribute financially this would also greatly assist
us.


Please send all donations and contributions to:

Queensland Quilters Inc, GPO Box 2841, Brisbane 4001.

Sincerely

Kim Boland

President

 

Hope this makes it easier for anyone who is able and would like to help the flood victims.

 

Cream of the Cloth Exhibition

Cream of the Cloth Exhibition at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.

Currently on show until January 30th 2011, but for those of us who just aren't going to make it, here is a video of the collection.  Runs for just over 13 mins. So make a cuppa and grab a treatie, sit back and enjoy.
First quilt shown is by one of my fave quilters/dyers/knitters of all time Melody Johnson, there is a link to her blog and sites in our side bar.
Enjoy
oops....had a bit of trouble embeding the video, so try the link below, it will take you to the Quilt Show site and you can view these lovely quilts from there.

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