Friday, March 25, 2011

Blankets of Love and Library Bags

Everyone is a busy as a bee at the moment, lots of lovely quilts being made for our up-coming TREE-mendous quilt show, workshops and a bit of a rush on making Library bags for some of the kiddies from the Ipswich area who were badly affected by the Queensland Floods as well as some very pretty Blankets of Love for one of our local hospitals.

June's Pinwheel workshop started this week.  June was busily explaining the finer points of creating this wonderfully bright tessellated quilt, lots of cutting was needed with Catti,  Heather and Christine, hard at it, while Val sat by the window doing a little needlework while watching the class unfold - can't show what Val is working on....it's one of those Secret Squirrel things!

Val donated 2 blankets of Love, 1 patch in pastels, very pretty.  Got some help from Janice to display them for us.

Janice's Blanket of Love is a lovely soft blue 9 patch, sashed and bordered with the same fabric as the 9-patch center.
Betty sent along this pretty pink for the Blankets of Love project,

Maree created this lovely Dresden Plate quilt using a Jelly Roll.  Maree set the plate blocks on point and used a black sashing to set them off, quilting a Dresden Plate design in the central block.  Maree then used her Machine Embroidery skills to applique a smaller Plate in each of the border triangles, using the colours from the Jelly Roll on a black background
Yep, you're right, got distracted and didn't get a pic of the quilt hanging........hope you can see enough in the preceding pics and the collage above 'cause as you can see it's a beauty!

There has been a start on the Library Bags for the Ipswich kiddies, Denise very kindly held these up for us to see, and the red bag?? no he wasn't wagging school.
 Andrea cut the fabric to make a bag, but on a weekend sleepover, the Grandie decided he would like to make a bag to help out.  He choose the design, choose the fabrics and did all the stitching.  All on his own!
Am I proud?, you bet your little button up booties I am!

Marcia bought along this pretty pastel quilt with a 9-patch design using Machine Embroidered feature blocks, she made it as an 80th Birthday gift for a dear friend.  Lucky friend!

Like all groups, we get donations of leftover fabrics and semi-finished projects.  Sheila found these Machine Embroidered pieces in the box.  Just the ant's pants for some Blankets of Love.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Crazy Patchwork Expo

Popped along to the Crazy Patchwork Expo that was held at the Patchwork Angel last Friday and Saturday.
Wow! talk about a sensory overload!, the workroom was chock-a-block full of wonderful beautiful pretties to drool over.  Here are just a few pics of the lovely work taught by Jenny and created by her students.









There were many, many more wonderful pieces on display, and I am sorry that this is all I am able to post at the moment, if your lovely has not been included, I apologise, I will work away at posting all of the pics over the next few weeks.
Entry to the expo was by gold coin donation, the proceeds to be donated to the Cancer fund for Breast Cancer research.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Green Fairy Quilts....sometimes words just aren't enough...

 ...what to say???......I just stumbled upon this Blog.  A self taught long-arm quilter of extraordinary talents who has just spent 70 hours quilting a Dear Jane quilt,  the quilter has used Kaffe Fassett's  fabric, and the Green Fairy has used a different quilting design for each block.
And you know what....Green Fairy is happy for you to use her pics for a peek!!! what a lovely sharing lady.
So pop over here for more loveliness.....
but really, can you tear yourself away from this quilting???
Please...go visit, go read.  Astounding.   Oh and the Green Fairy has some rather interesting Tutorials as well, Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A blast from the past and Julies tinsy hexies

 If you are one of the early birds to read today's blog, there has been a whopper of a mistake.....Pop down to the bottom to read about Wendy's Library Bags...........not only has there been help making those wonderful bags but more help is needed.  And to the wonderful Machine Embroiders Group who made the bags........so, so sorry for my mistake.

Noticed Marcia and Meg in a huddle over one of the magazines Marcia had bought in to share around, Meg flipped it around to show.........It was an article in Down Under Quilts on the 1988 Caloundra Quilt Show, and there, in pride of place, was a pic of Meg's quilt!

Inspired by a quilt designed by Barbara  (?? gosh...how embarrasement...I have misplaced the ladies name.  I will add it as soon as I find it again- sorry.) and based on a log cabin block, it was a very heavy quilt.  When Meg dropped it off to be hung she mentioned to the co-ordinators that it was heavy........little did they realise just how heavy.  It just about bought down the house....literally.  I bet there is someone out there who can fill in that story!
Meg no longer has the quilt........it is one of the many that she has given away.
The pic was taken by B.A. Moore

We were all very interested to see Julie arrive today, clutched under her arm was a 'square' surrounded by bubble wrap.  Yep!, it is her finished wall hanging.  Some of you may remember pics in the past of the tinsy little hexies that Julie has been working on, all to create this wonderful piece. It has been stretched over a frame ready to hang in what is becoming quite a modern trend on quilted wall hangings.
Some closer views of the 'vine and pot'
Heather bought along her current flimsey, borders are the next step for this vibrant kiddies quilt, though Heather spent today knitting tinsy things, yep, good guess, Heather has a new grandie in her near future.
Sue was back with us today, lots of excitement in her world with goodies arriving and being unpacked, it's amazing what you find..........and just how long ago did you start these place mats Sue????
 Sue also bought along her recently completed 'stars and clouds' quilt in blues and white with splashes of yellow, to share with us.

Janice was presenting a workshop on wrist pincushions, Marcia was particularly taken by the cardboard barrier to prevent pins sliding through into the wrist.........didn't stop someone (who will remain nameless) from grabbing the cushion for a better look and sticking themselves on the needle though!
Catti came prepared - and with a brilliant idea - pop a curly girl (or a stainless steel scourer if you don't come from my neck of the woods) into the center of the wadding.  Keeps the pins sharp!!
Sheila had a go at the disappearing 9-patch when it was all the go in our group, and wound up with this little orphan, she teamed it with a pretty floral border and backing and...viola, a pretty cushion for your sewing room.
Caught Jan doing some extremely scientific and accurate measuring, not just once but twice, and then she was off, more crocheting to be done.
More needlework in the 'creating' phase, Marguerite left this pretty block lying on the table, just had to bring you a pic of it and Christine is back-stitching around the design on a sweet quilt panel.
Wendy has been busy making Library bags for some school children, with their names embroidered to boot.  Wow! Lucky kiddies.
My humble apologies to the lovely Ladies from the Machine Embroidery Group for the inaccurcies of the Library bag story.  
The Machine Embroidery Group was asked to make Library bags for 30 children, names were supplied and as you can see, the Ladies got out their machines and promptly created these lovely bags.  

As we all know, Ipswich was one of the many badly flood affected areas, and these bags are off to one of the schools in the area.  There is now a request for another 60 bags for another 2 schools, no names this time, so Wendy bought some of the finished bags along to Show and ask the Patchwork group if they would also be willing to create some bags as there is a rather small time window to have them completed by.  
The bags will need to be handed in to Wendy by Wednesday 30th. March, just 2 weeks away!!
Each Library bag needs to measure 16" x 18" with a double pull cord closure.  They don't have to be lined and any strong fabric is fine, including the rubber backed curtain fabric as some bags could then be used for 'wet bags' for swimming activities.  Wendy has also suggested that you could use any orphan patchwork or applique blocks to decorate the front of the bags.  
Hopefully we can all pull together and present a pile of lovely baggies to Wendy for these little kiddies who have lost so much.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Betty's Lovely Quilt

Kayly wondered if there was a chance of more pics of Betty's quilt, well Kayly here they are.  Betty very kindly popped the quilt over a bed for me to get a few more shots.
Hope you enjoy them.
The center medallion is based on a pattern in the quilt book 'Birds of a Feather' by Barb Adams and Alma Allen.
The quilt spread over a bed, showing the lovely deep borders and block layout.

A closer view of some of Betty's Kaleidoscope blocks.

Betty did mention yesterday that she is considering putting the quilt up for sale, so if anyone is in the market, leave a comment or shoot off an e-mail and we will put you in contact. (e-mail address is in the sidebar)

Friday, March 11, 2011

How exciting....The Paducah List is Out!...

The American Quilters Society list of quilt contestant semi-finalists has been posted on their site.
Pop over here to see how many Aussie names you recognise.

And while we are talking about those who achieve.  One of our Thursday night members, Jenny indulges her love of Crazy Patchwork by tutoring at the Patchwork Angel, where some of our members are continuing their journey down the crazy path with Jenny.  They have been doing some amazing work and so they have decided to give a Crazy Patchwork Expo in the workroom of the Patchwork Angel next Friday 18th March and Saturday 19th March.
Pop over to the Angel site to view some really lovely work from these talented ladies.
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