Finishes, lots of 'em

The gals have been busy busy over the past weeks,
First finish spotted, well, almost finished was Courtney putting the last stitches into the binding on her table runner.

Next finish spotted was Marcia, no not the quilt finished, the sandwiching finished, another 'I Spy' for another Great Grandie, with more really cute backing, snaffled at a recent sale--- gotta love a good sale!

Julie also had some finishes to share, these two amazing pieces of Reticello, the Italian version of Hardanger, same methods but with different stitchery patterns.
There are some great tutorials/demonstrations on Youtube, but mainly in Italian, so bonus, you get to learn a new hobby and brush up on your Italian!...or maybe just buy the book

Gwen bought her book of Il Reticello along some months back, Julie was captivated and created these two pieces.

A stack of finished charity quilts.

All ready to have their labels attached.  These are to join the masses of toiletries donated by local residents to join the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners for drought affected families in Western Queensland.  The initive was organised by local resident Pat Morris in conjunction with local M.P. Steve Dickson who's office is being used as a collection point.  Toiletries can still be dropped off up to Tuesday 10th May.  Wendy has machine embroidered the quilt labels and latecomer quilts can have labels attached next Wednesday 4th.

Last stitches done!

Courtney finished the binding, table runner all ready to go!

Julie is working on a 'charity quilt to be' for her other quilt group which was also lucky enough to be the recpients of a no longer needed stash, this piece is designed to be embroidered and Julie is enjoying the journey, a great bring along project.  She also had the cutest wooden box for transporting all the necessities and niceties, like the tinsy little change purse and cute little tin of mints both gifted by friends.

Jackie is beavering along on her Jack's Chain inspired pattern. Love this fussy cut hexie.

and now, time for a little in house bragging.
Remember a couple of years ago when the needlework group held their exhibition and yarn bombed everything in sight?
One of the many things that leader Pam bombed (apart from the family SUV) was a table converted from a chair, when Pam and her Darling were downsizing, the table was given to her grandaughter, who almost managed to keep it!
Mum, an optometrist, opened her new office in Maleny, and positioned the bombed table in a corner to create a kiddies reading area, it was spotted by a teacher from the Maleny Community Kindergarden who promptly commissioned Pam for another.
Sharing the finished commission with fellow yarn and fiber artists, said table was spotted by Cottage President Jan, who promptly took a pic for Graham to use in our newsletter, just had to share it with others who would appreciate the wonder of this piece. Thanks Jan and Graham.

If you want to see it in the flesh, you know where to find it, at Judi's optometrist in Bunya Street, just opposite the Maleney School, mind you, it might cost you a new pair of glasses, close examination of tiny stitches may be mistaken for bad eyesight and away you go...new glasses!

It's all about the small and the busy...

...there seems to be a few 'story' quilts surfacing these days,Wendy has fallen in love with this one from the February edition of Homespun magazine.

Created by Natalie Bird of 'The Birdhouse',
So far, progress for Wendy has been choosing the fabrics, always a bit more involved than you first think!, so looking forward to watching this lovely evolve.
If you want an easy way to get the Homespun digital editions, you can catch up with the past editions and subscribe over at Zimio
While we were drooling over Wendy's fabric choices, someone mentioned a lovely little quilt that has been creating quite a fuss in the quilting world for some time now, Jen Kingwall's 'My Small World'. 
Marcia immediately popped up this pic on her ipad for us to wonder at and drool over...

Yep, her very talented daughter Leanne has created her version of 'My Small World'.  You can pop over to Leanne's blog and see her pic of this wonderful quilt.  Leanne is yet to quilt her top but if you subscribe to her blog no doubt you will be able to see the finished quilt in the near future, after all, it is listed on her 100 days to finish challenge!

Chatting about finishing...

Karen was snapped last Thursday night, finishing her reels of thread holder, a U F O of 18 years.  Gotta love a finish.

Marie V. shared this innovative Q.A.Y.G, I Spy quilt with us, wonky log cabins, with the cutest prints at the center, alternated with diagonal strip blocks.

 Some of those cute little prints.

Marie's design gave Patricia a lightbulb moment, she has some nice little prints herself that she would love to use, this design is just perfect!

Courtney is making great progress with her table runner, getting a little guidance here from Mary. 

Some of the gals have been tripping around on boats, large boats, well cruise ships really, and having a wonderful time of it if these eye glasses are anything to go by.

spotted them on the notices table and just had to share the giggle!

Sue W, who just loves applique, created a this wallhanging for a special friend living over in W.Aus. 

Posted off before it could be shared with us, Sue was delighted to receive this pic from her friend, who couldn't believe her luck when she walked into the LQS and spotted the perfect hanger.

Susie A, one of those who has been floating about, took a piece of her beautiful hand dyed fabric with her to create her entry into the Fiber Arts group challenge of course couldn't take a pic of the entire WIP- that would be giving too much away to the Fiber Art gals, but did manage to get some snips of the lovely fabric.

Sue, who used to have her own fabric dyeing business will be presenting a fabric dyeing class to our group in May.  Really looking forward to seeing some beautiful creations.

Marcia, was busily putting the finishing stitches into the binding on this very special quilt.

For her Grandaughters new baby.  Yep Marcia is going to be a Great Granny!!!, not once but twice!!

Yes, two of her Grandaughters are expecting bubbies this year......oooh, can't begin to tell you of the envy around the table when that topic popped up!

Lots of lovely I Spy fabric sashed with plains, a brilliant combination of the busy and the restful.

Sheila snapped some of the girls at work last Thursday night to share with us,

Marlene  getting more 'kites' ready. Gluing faster than tacking?

 

Leanne finally onto the binding of her 1 inch square large quilt

 Thank you Sheila.

Fae had another one of her lovley quilts to share with us.

 and yes, that is Sheila hiding behind the quilt!, talk about a scrunched down leader!

Rita was one of the gals giving us our afternoon tea, and bought her cake along in this very snazzy holder.

The handle threads through two loops for an easy closure, when not in use the entire carrier lays flat for storage, could even do double duty as a table runner?

Sheila had a 'memory lane' pic to share with us, she took 3 of her Granddaughters to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane a few weeks ago, she took their dads there about 40 years ago.

Oooh, Cake...

...gotta love cake, expecially birthday cake.
Beryl had one of those Big '0' birthdays and so of course to help her celebrate there was cake, yummy cake!

Many happy returns Beryl, hope your birthday was really special.

Val got a donation of half a dozen lengths of strip pieced fabric, and never being stuck for an idea on how to transform any fabric assembly into a charity quilt, she promptly sliced up some triangles to make this spiderweb quilt,

as well as this cutie - still using the same fabric strips...

as well as this version of a rail fence design, there was even enough pieced fabric to use for the borders.

She then machine quilted these three using various widths of serpentine stitch.

Val also had the finished version of her quilt from the recent Jan Phillips workshop to share,

wanting to add interest to the solid fabrics, Val opted to applique spotty gecko's across her lovely.

No, not those annoying imports of the Gecko world that like to set up home in our quilting stash and create havoc, our own little outdoor native geckos, spots and all!

Anika, who enjoys the journey of creating quilts using fabrics from sources other than the LQS found some fabrics at the local op-shop and created this lovely.

Anika strip pieced lengths, cut them into squares, cut on the diagonals to create 4 triangles, arranged a pleasing design and Voila! another beauty.

Anika also had this Q.A.Y.G to share with us, following guidance from Stella and creating another vibrant charity quilt.

Who's Gran has been under the pump?

...the recipient of these two beauties is who.
Remember this lovely from last week? Lyn made it, with its matching cushion cover as a birthday quilt  for her little Grandie in Adelaide Perth, (how wrong can you get it, the're thousands of K's apart and not even in the same State!)...sorry guys.

so this week Lyn bought this quilt along to share.

It is also a birthday quilt, for her Grandson in Perth, the Grandies birthdays are a few months apart but as the family is packing goods and chattels and moving overseas for a bit, the rush was on to get both quilts delivered A.S.A.P.
Lyn was busily stitching down the binding on the matching cushion cover with a bit of a sigh of relief this arvo, just a few more stitches and these two special birthday pressies will be winging their way to their lucky recipients.

 Those two little pieces of fabric resting on the back of the cushion cover?? all that is left of the 'car' fabric! guess who was feeling a trifle smug about that.

While chatting about what a lovely idea it is to make a matching cushion cover, Lyn fessed up that not only do the Grandies get matching cushions for their quilts, they also often get extra cushions, it's just one of the things they love about visiting Gran, taking home another cushion to layer on the bed or to play with, their theory - 'Can't have too many cushions Gran'.

 Sue will be presenting a dyeing class in a couple of weeks time, so of course fabric dyeing is rather on everyone's mind. 
Denise found this fab example of a tie dyed dress 'at the back of the wardrobe' and decided to give it an outing just to take us all down memory lane, to that place where we all had a tie dyed outfit or two, clothed the kids in tie dyed T-shirts or gave tie dyed articles as gifts, every piece was different and all were a work of art & love.
What isn't showing in the pic is the bodice is trimmed with cotton lace and ribbons, very feminine.

Back at the beginning of the Christmas break Sue wanted a project to keep her fingers busy, preferably one she could take along with her on visits and excursions, she also wanted to trim down on her scrap bag stash, all in all, she thought this pattern from an old quilting magazine would be just perfect! and so it has been.

It certainly kept her busy over the break and made a great 'bring along' project for our Wednesday meetings, but reducing the scrap bag, well, Sue says that is a bit of a line ball call, you see she had to buy extra fabric for the sashing, and the border, and the backing, so of course, more leftovers! Darn, aint life difficult? guess she will just have to start another quilt....  ;o

Gotta say, love the 'Q' block, its a quilt of course!

Made with love for a Grandie...

Lyn has been working on this beauty for awhile now, we have seen snippets from time to time but today was the big unveiling.

It will soon be zooming over to Adelaide to make one little lassie very happy and when in the near future the family re-locates to an overseas posting it will travel with her to remind her of home and the love of her Gran.
Lyn always makes a matching cushion cover for the quilts she creates for her Grandies.

 Inspired by 'May Flowers' a quilt pattern from one of our library magazines, Lyn choose to cut each flower from a single piece of fabric, fussy cutting many of the flower centers and strip piecing the alternate blocks.  The original pattern had the flowers cut from the strip pieced fabric, both variations make for a stunning quilt.

While on holiday recently, Lyn was taken with the lovely colours in this fabric length and chose to quilt it in a single piece for a wonderful memento of a great holiday.

Marlene shared this lovely with us today, following a Leesa Chandler pattern found in the Quilters Companion #76 Magazine, published last year.

If you don't have a copy of this mag and would love to make the quilt there are copies available from Leesa's online store 'Chandlers Cottage'

Marlene chose some beautiful australian floral prints for her quilt and a rural toile fabric for the backing

Fiona, of 'Quilting Fairy'  and a group member, followed Lessa's suggestion of an all over gumleaf pattern for the quilting design which shows up beautifully on the background blocks.

Farewell Irene

A big 'Thank You' to Lainey, she took the pics and wrote the words for your enjoyment.

Sandy made this lovely for someone really important - herself. 

She bought the kit at the Houston Quilt Show, but who’s dropping names, and had to buy an extra suitcase to bring it home.

Karen is a new soon to be member. She has moved up here from Bribie. This bright quilt is from a design by a fellow member of the Bribie Island Quilters. She has had this fabric for some time and just had to give it a go.

Irene has been in Australia on holidays and proved to be a really nice temporary member. Unfortunately her time with us is over as she heads back to London next week. Her last offering is this gorgeous needle turned wall hanging that she made from a book of Baltimore Album patterns.

She will use it to cover over a painting on her wall to protect it from fading.

Lastly a pile of bags for our Najidah filling in a couple of months.