Farmers Wife on a Thursday

Marie and Pat popped off to Thursday night patchwork to see about workshops for next year and found this fantastic quilt, of course Marie just had to take a pic to share with all of us.  Thanks Marie.

Farmers Wife with Extra Blocks

Marilyn had bought it along to show and share along with the quilt's story.
It was started by a good friend of June S., sadly the friend passed away suddenly and her husband gave the quilt to June to finish - and she has, isn't it a darling?

If you feel you can't live without a Farmers Wife quilt in your life here are two links to the book written by Laurie Aaron Hird, referencing a 1922 survey by 'The Farmers Wife' magazine.  The magazine received over 7,000 replies to their question "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" Some of the replies are featured in the book.  I wonder what the answers would be if the same question was asked of todays farming wives.






 Book Depository and Amazon 

Soooo, what other workshops are on the horizon for next year?? can't wait to find out!!

The excitement is bubbling over...

...Four quilts from two of our members were hung at the recent Queensland Quilt Show  at the Craft and Quilt Fair in Brisbane, yes I know, four of them, the entire Patchwork Group is so excited and proud of our achievers Fiona and Pat....and...wait for it...there is more!!

Fiona's quilt 'White House Hexagons' won ribbons....yep plural

and...Fiona got the news on Monday, 'White House Hexagons' is one of the 5 quilts chosen by Queensland Quilt Inc to be part of their display at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne next year!! such excitement and joy!

Congratulations Pat and Fiona

Now, just how many Buderim quilters will be scooting down to Melbourne next April??

'White House Hexagons'
'Best Traditional' quilt winner
3rd place in 'Professional Pieced'
Chosen by Queensland Quilters Inc for inclusion in the Queensland display at the 2016 Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne.

Fiona took just 2 years to complete this quilt, working on it while traveling and watching her son Kart Race.  The layout is called Honeycomb Mosaic and her inspiration came from the book 'Quilts of Virginia 1607-1899 featuring a quilt started by U.S. President James Munroe's daughter Maria.  Maria was also the first Presidential daughter to be married in the White House, sadly Maria never managed to finish her quilt.

Fiona's second quilt is 'Jacks Chain' started in a class with Lessa Siegele last year with the aim of conquering 'set in' seams.  The block is a hexagon surrounded by 9 patches and triangles.
Both of Fiona's quilts were hung in our recent Quilt Exhibition with 'White House Hexagons' taking out 2nd Place Viewers Choice behind Gwen Mitchell's white whole cloth quilt and 'Jacks Chain winning 3rd Place Viewers Choice.

Pat also had two quilts hung at the Queensland Quilters Show in Brisbane and both of them were in our recent Quilt Exhibition.
'Takayama'

Pat purchased the kimono fabric at the Kyoto Kimono Museum on a trip to Japan and the background fabric here in Aus.
The quilt is a tribute to the people of Japan and their traditions, culture and food.

Pat's second quilt 'Throw of the Dice' was an adventure into using solid fabrics and matchstick quilting with different weight and types of threads which then created the rainbow effect on the grey background.

Marie brought along a fantastic quilt to share with us, hand applique and custom machine quilted by Marie, it is a Michele Hill pattern ' William De Morgan Sampler' and can be seen on Michele's web site, just visit the quilt gallery and pattern section and scroll down to the 7th pic

Marie is a long term William Morris fan and just could not resist purchasing this pattern while in W.A.

A couple of closer views of the applique blocks.

My fave block is the cross looking creature having a bad hair day, kinda looks familiar somehow, something to do with mirrors - reflections- ...

Marie shared a story of luck involving a couple of her family members, who on passing a Patchwork store thought they would buy Marie a little treatie, bit of a rush job and the lass - not a quilter - grabbed what she thought was a pretty parcel of fabric.  Everyone was happy but not as happy as Marie on receiving the goodies, you guessed it, a parcel of William Morris fabrics, could not have chosen better. 

Marie didn't have a plan for this quilt, until one of her daughters spotted it and decided that 'those beautiful blues would go beautifully in my lounge room Mum'

Now if any others out there are struggling to keep their U.F.O's and W.I.P's under control then you might be interested in this post from Lit and Laundry on just how she is beginning to get her (so far) 94 projects organised. 
I thank the lassie who put me onto this blog, the organising system shows promise but really, 94 W.I.P's??  and it seems from others comments that 94 isn't so unusual, but I tell you what - it has put a smile on my dial and made the guilt recede somewhat, I mean...really...94?? I'm laffin'....how about you? how many ufos are squirreled away in your many hidey holes?

It's all Good....girls stitchin' and havin' fun

Well, it's been awhile but that doesn't mean the Patchwork gals have not been busy busy and havin' lots of fun times.
An afternoon tea was held to raise funds for cancer research and the guest speaker was one of those rare birds, a gentleman quilter, Les and his wife Joy joined the group to share Les' work.

Thanks to the delightful Marie there are lots of pics for you to enjoy.

Sheila welcomed our guests and got the afternoon off to a fun start with a little brain work in the form of a quiz.

To get the 'show and share' part of the afternoon rolling, group members were asked to bring along items that they had made for the men in their family to share with us.

Marilyn brought her 'Bug in a Jar' quilt.

Janice shared a little baby boy quilt.

Lainey made this amazing ipad stand, just the thing for a guy off camping.

Stitched for her Son, Lyn shared this blue and white stunner.

A 'Drunkards Path' layout variation was Pat's choice to share.

Sheila used some of her darlings 'memory' t.shirts to create a very special warmer...designed to help keep his beer brew at the right temperature in the colder months.

June put a novel spin on the H.S.T blocks we have been using for some of the charity quilts with the addition of an appealing border.  Not sure but possibly H.S.T's on point??

 Courtney brought her patchwork scottie dog to show and share.

 

Marcia shared her vibrant Double Wedding Ring quilt.

Gwen brought along the pink hardanger tablecloth she has been working on these past months.

Wendy and her version of 'Hidden Wells' an in-house workshop the group held.

It was then time for Les to tell his tale of how he became interested in quilting and to introduce his many wonderful works.

Les' darling Joy was on hand to help with the displaying of this treasure trove of wonderful quilted goodies.

a closer view of two of the stained glass squares.

More beautiful stained glass wall hangings.

Some of Les' smaller pieces, of which there were many, just look at how piled the table is.

Les has an eye for our Australian bird life.

Ribbons, laces, embroidery, pin-tucks and piecing, all in creams, go to make this a stunning quilt.

 with matching pillow shams.

Blue and white quilt, again with pillow shams.

Joy showing another wall hanging, this a reverse applique butterfly and leaves on black.  Stunning!

Lastly, this amazing Feathered Star quilt

It was a wonderful afternoon with so many lovely quilts and other goodies.  A big Thank You to Les and Joy

Today the girls got down to some co-ordinated sorting and stuffing assembly line style.  Yep, it was time to fill another batch of toiletry bags for one of our charities, Najidah.
Najidah is a local Women and Children's refuge that our group supports with toiletries bags, quilts and an open Christmas Tree, funnily enough, just prior to Christmas.