Lots of great input for you all today...

 Have to lead with this, how special to be lucky enough to receive this memory.

From Marlene and the Thursday gals.

" Debbie was surprised and delighted to receive this piece from her mother, being the last piece made by her grandmother.  Fine applique with embroidery and some quilting in 1070-80 s fabric and sufficient to finish with nice borders.......we are hoping will be completed in time for Quilt Show"

Jackie has a link for us to soak up over a coffee.

"To all the ladies in our group, I introduced you to Lisa Walton earlier in year when Lisa decided to give one of her patterns to the quilting world, just when we were going into lockdown.     lisawaltonartist.com I have been watching Lisa’s website over these past months, she has been working hard and putting up quilt stories, every time I look there are more stories. I haven’t watched all stories, I am enjoying what I have seen, many interesting master quilters.
Have a look when you stop for a coffee.
Plus other interesting information as well....
Enjoy your stitching."

Janice shared a pic of her F.Q. shopping using her prize of a voucher to Kimz Sewing and Patchwork for her winning entry in our Guess Who competition, but, as we all know and understand, you always have to have a bit extra, Janice just had to have the second two F.Q.'s "because the colours just went so well together"

Sheila is on the home run with the binding on Sappho's quilt extension.

Lainey has once again come to the fore with lots of pics and stories from last Wed for us all.

This is Di's smallest quilt.

Di "I wanted to see how the fabrics looked together as I wanted to make a king size quilt. French General fabric bought in USA in 2019. It taught how important the points are if you are going to quilt in the ditch.'

 

Wendy who likes history has made the Underground Sampler from a book by Eleanor Burns. It tells the story of how slaves escaped to Canada using quilts displayed outside cabins and barns. The back of the quilt has the story with each block explained.

 

Sue was spotted a few days back with blue fingers, the reason why? this beautiful fabric that she used to create a larger version of the fold over pouch Sheila showed us last week.

 

 Easily customisable by adding more or less of the ziplock bagies, depending on what you want to store/carry.

 Marion. "My quilt is an Attic Window design looking out on Morning glory vine and birds. It will eventually go to hang in my daughter's house in France"      (Lainey.(The backing ain't half bad either)

 

 Marion showing us the backing on her lovely Attic Windows quilt.

Lainey. "I was given some squares of sweatshirt material from a  neighbouring quilt group. I tried all sorts of thing to do with them, rag rugs, glasses cases and juggling balls, but after buying a ridiculously expensive new fry pan and seeing the price for anti scratch spacers I had a go with the squares. They worked out well. Now everyone has been given 5 squares to make their own and save some of their delicate china or nonscratch cookware."

 

May and Karen W heads down and busily creating.

May is busy hand stitching a 'Blooming Rose' Purse by TheBirdhouse Patchwork Designs. She might let us see the pieces later. 

Karen, on the other hand is busy making a crochet rug. It will have 63 squares with each one being a different pattern. 

Karen "I have 12 more to go to finish and then they will be sewn together".

 Marlene's brown and gold windmill with roos using Bali Print Jelly Roll. The pattern and fabric came from Kims Sewing andPatchwork in 2016. It is finally together due to the 2020 virus.

 It has been beautifully quilted by Judy of Fur Ball Farm Quilting.

 

First one since February...

What could it be? well meeting day is what it was. Boy oh boy have there been some things churning on behind the scenes while our groups have been in lockdown. The Cottage Management Committee have not been sitting on their hands but have been taking care of business and keeping everything 'Cottage' running. Thank you all, it was great to catch up with all the news via Sheila and Karen at our meeting.

Lots of members, lots of chatter and laughter and lots of wonderful projects to share.

Marie (hidden but looking at Wendy's phone - more on that later), Karen, Sandy and Wendy were very very busy, they were even doing a little stitching

Karen had her Japanese inspired Boro blocks along, there was quite a bit of fabric patting going on while discussing the benefits of sashing each block to set it off or simply joining them all together into one big piece.

Spotted this rather interesting article on Authentic Japanese Boro, Boro mending and Boro inspired Patchwork.

Sandy & Di were chatting away, while stitching on their projects, Di just sighed and said, "Its been on the blog before, I still don't know what it is going to be when it grows up!!"

Sandy is happily stitching another of her beautiful blocks.

Wendy is stitching another couple of hundred hexies and had her completed dodecahedron box, complete with a cute little closure. You can see Wendy's box of hexies in the background. Put your glasses on and look closely!! promise they are there. Lots of beautiful pink this time around.

Now here's a little trip down memory lane for you, awhile back, well quite a few years back (2013 in fact) Wendy made a great quilt for her first Grandson Harry, it was all about 'H', a bit of a quick scream through old posts and we have it here for you.

Well, little Harry is not so little anymore, he has grown into a strapping young lad who has joined the Australian Army and is currently serving in Victoria, helping out with the Corona virus outbreak. Masks are a very necessary addition to the uniform and his proud Gran made masks for Harry, in camo of course. Keep Safe Harry, we are all thinking of you and grateful for you and your fellow digger's service.

Karen W. also had her dodecahedron, not quite finished, still some decorative stitching to finish around the joins. Karen bought these fabrics a few years back but could never manage to bring herself to slice into them, along with never being quite convinced they 'played well' with other fabrics in other projects....we all know that feeling, so finally the perfect project for a happy ending.

Ailsa and Sue W were both working on their pieces, Ailsa continuing with her Sashiko, and Sue is working on her speciality of Japanese Ladies in Kimonos.

Sue A gratefully accepted 4 patched pieces stitched by Marion for the Zonta drainage bags Sue makes. Thanks Marion.

Our Lyn Ballinger Challenge this year was to create a pot holder featuring fruit or seeds,and this year we get to keep our challenge piece. Well in an effort to convince someone who isn't fond of potholders to take part (she keeps setting fire to the suckers) Sue A explained about a tutorial she had seen, where a pot holder from the dollar store and some ziplock bags was used to create a holder, well lo and behold, Sheila had the very same holder at the Cottage yesterday. Sheila had spied hers at a craft store while on holiday, and being the intrepid little stitcher she is, created her own.

Sue mentioned that the tutorial had used bias binding down the center join to hide the bag ends.
Might make a cute little gizmo for the Novelties table at the Christmas Fair.

Talking of the Novelties table, more suggestions on shapes to use for Sue's Christmas tree lolly holder/tree decoration, christmas baubles, hearts, wreath? star. To see Sue's pattern and tutorial pop back to here. Marleen made some real cuties to share and I missed them, hopefully she will send some pics with the Thur pics...please Marleen.

Lainey arrived a little later into the meeting and promptly started knitting, of course we all wanted to know what she was up to so she gave us a demo..

Sue A offered to show a different style suggestion, Lainey wasn't too sure about that!

Its all about the virus and masks!
Lainey has also been busy learning on her new long arm quilting machine, quilting up lovelies for our Charity Quilt stash, Karen was kind enough to hold them up for us all to enjoy.

and this cutie with quilted daisies.

Now anyone who is a facebook follower of quilting groups will probably have seen this great Tidy Tote, its all over the place at the moment and a real thing of organisational beauty to drool over. Its actually the brain child of a talented Aussie lass Anita Ellis from Hillside Quilting, follow the links for more info but can you imagine the excitement when our very own May doddled into our meeting with her own version.

May tells that she and a couple of friends from Machine Embroidery Group got their patterns and work shopped one each. There was a few nerves at the beginning, it does look a little daunting but May assures us that the instructions are very clear and you just follow through on step by step.

Being a great one for supporting local, and for our convenience, May tells us that she was able to get her fabric from Brian's and most of the other requirements from Kimz Sewing and Patchwork. May and the Machine Embroidery gals ordered their patterns in hard copy thinking that they would get an actual pattern but the hard copy really is just the same as an online P.D.F., a pattern is not necessary as the fabric is cut according to measurements, so if you are able to order online and print out your pattern that might be a way to go, however keep in mind that the pattern is best printed in colour, there are different directions for different sizes printed in a different size (Pink small, green large), not an insurmountable problem, you could print in B&W and physically mark the print out, going off the download. Oh yeah, there are 32 pages to print out - so choose the best option for you.