Special Quilts for Special People, Lessons and a Thank You

What a wonderful quilt to greet you as we came through the doors today.  Marcia made this spider web quilt for her Granddaughters 21st Birthday, choosing to piece the webs in rows forming a secondary pattern with the background diamonds.
Marcia and her Darling have just returned from a bit of a country trip away, and look what she spotted in a little gift store window, that great vest she is wearing, well of course she had to have it, and its reversible!! - too good to leave behind.

As Marcia was coming to the end of her spiderweb blocks, she realised that she was a few strips of fabric short - just needed a little extra to make up a couple of blocks - Daughter Leanne (Hiya Leanne - waving-) came to the rescue with just the right fabrics, lovely pale lemons.  Fiona from the Quilting Fairy did another lovely job on the quilting.

Beryl created this very special Aussie I Spy quilt for her young Grandson, machine quilting a row of stars in the yellow borders and a special message for her Grandie in the bottom border.  Every fabric was chosen to tell a story in her Grandsons life.

Sheila then announced some great news, Gwen will be using this quilt to teach monthly classes on pattern drafting and hand piecing - the right way! 

Rumors have been floating around for a bit about these classes and today it was confirmed! Fab for those of us who are self taught and/or have always machine pieced.

A closer look at one of Gwen's blocks. Neat, all those lovely precise corners.

Tiny quilting stitches, and how about the way the sashings meet in points in the center?

Lyn was purchasing some Pellon for the Group this week, the name Buderim Patchwork came up - as it does - and another customer commented on how she loves to read our blog.  If that was you, Thank You for your very kind comments and I hope you continue to enjoy the read.

We had more of that ever popular chocolate and caramel slice for Arvo Tea, along with a delicious Lemon Ring Cake (yep, snaffled a slice of that one), buttered bun, lamingtons and a Mud Cake......oohh I do love Wednesday arvo teas!

Uh huh, that's all that was left of the caramel slice, a few tinsy crumbs, it's a pretty plate though.

Wonderful Memory/Art Quilt and Workshop shenannigans

Janet took a mystery workshop today, everyone was so busy trying to guess what the article was, hints and guesses being thrown around the room and not too much listening being done, Janet found lots of calming jelly beans were needed, well that's what she told us......
Christine thought she had made a right muck up, but no, she hadn't been listening, Sue went crook at her..

...as you can see, she was dreadfully upset........not....

Sorry about the awful piccie, the photographer arrived late and was trying to catch up......oh those suffolk puffs!
And what was the Mystery I hear you ask, these lovely little rolls were, perfectly designed to hold a reel of thread, your thimble and plenty of space for different sized needles.

We all managed to finish our holders in time for Show and Tell.  Cool, a new and pretty 'essential' started and finished in the one afternoon......and you can have your Suffolk Puff facing in or out, Sue put a little star in the center of her Puff, some beads would be nice...no? and wouldn't it be cool to make a matching block roll from Linda's tutorial?  oooh I can see a project in the making here!  We will be putting up a tutorial for this thread roll in the near future.........will let you know when it happens.

 Betty has been playing with the Disappearing 9 Patch again this week, using 3 different 'feature' fabrics she has created yet again a different layout design.  Betty is going to turn this one into a tablecloth for her patio. 

Was heading for the arvo tea table when Barbara mentioned that she had finished her quilt, now she has been a bit shy about sharing, so I grabbed it while she wasn't looking, and with a bit of help from a friend, whisked it out the back to hang it. ......WOW!!!, I was blown away, I am so in awe of anyone who can create such a free flowing memory quilt........

There is a wealth of stories in this quilt, fabric from family members dresses, a blouse, a fave pair of slacks...Then there are the two blocks created from Lyn Ballinger past challenges, 'Pop Art' and 'Be In It'.  

I love the way the mauve frill emphasises the face but then becomes a 'bonnet' by the simple application of appliqued leaves and a little flip downwards.

The hands were an addition from one of the little folk in Barbara's family, I have to confess, was a bit  lot bad with this quilt, was so engrossed some of the story detail just didn't stick, would it have been a Grandie?, Grandaughter even?
The Cymbal player is to celebrate.......'Hooray, Strike up the Band, finally finished!' and Barbara has also included her 'Star of the Month' button that she earned for all the hard work she did, sorting and pricing the Goods for Sale in our recent Cottage Garage Sale.

The two bottom blocks (above) are blocks from a Diane Johnson workshop that we did sometime back, oh all right then, way way back!
And that's why arvo tea was half gone by the time it was snapped.............ah well......sorry 'bout that.

Gwen was then spied showing a group of nibbling ladies a couple of flimseys,

these lovely softly coloured stitcheries just cried out for fabrics from the same pallet,

Gwen had had a little scratch around in her stash and out fell a bag containing these scraps! Perfect!, Gwen was sure she couldn't have got a better match if she had gone shopping! however there was one tinsy little problem, not enough fabric to complete the borders!.....rats with a capital!, Gwen solved the problem by taking a row of pieced squares from the top and one side and Viola!, plenty of fabric.........well, enough anyway.
And what else did Gwen have to show?...........this beauty..........

Now Gwen has a new addition to her family, a brand new Great Grandson..........(saw the piccies and he is just the cutest!)...........sorry, off track there....... well, a friend was stitching this quilt top and Gwen just fell in love with it, perfect for the new Great Grandie, a deal was struck and Gwen will be finishing this off for her little cutie.
And so back to the arvo tea table, those little savouries were yummo, then stretched the allowance and had a square of caramel slice........not too shabby folks!

Linda's Perfectly Portable Project Roll- Up ...........

.........a tutorial from Linda of Flourishing Palms.   
Not only is Linda one of our 'Followers', often commenting on the lovely work done by our Members, but she is a very prolific and talented blogger, her blog Flourishing Palms is always interestingly written with a nice balance of her quilting and family life.
Linda recently visited Sydney and while here toddled off to a Sydney 'Scquilters' meeting, where she spied Loz with a great Project Roll Up. 
Linda took pics and notes and created her own roll up and a step-by-step tutorial posted on her 'Stitchin Mission blog for all to follow.  It's a great tutorial, easy to follow with clear directions and piccies.  Click on this link to go to the tutorial, you can download a four page full colour PDF or save the file to your computer.
Then pop over to Flourishing Palms to leave Linda a 'Tar very much'

Quilts for STEMM's Mums

Our newsletter mentioned that the Thursday night group are having a bit of a push to make lots of Baby quilts for the new Mums at STEMM, and we've been asked to dig around the stash and unearth the odd piece of fabric or wadding to donate to help out, well Penny, owner of Patchwork Angel, and a Thursday night member, donated some lovely vibrant fabric and wadding that Janet has turned into these 3 Baby Quilts.

Janet used the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern, (gosh that pattern is proving to be a boon to the quick and easy quilt pallet!)  to create these 3 and she will be delivering them on her next STEMM volunteering day. 

The innovative and wonderful STEMM (Supporting Teenagers with Education Mothering and Mentoring) program is set at Burnside High School in Nambour, here on the Sunshine Coast, with the aim of helping teenage Mums to finish their high school education while acquiring skills essential to bringing up their child.  Several young ladies have not only finished their High School education but have gone on to further their education at the USC. 
The program is a partnership between Education Queensland, TAFE and the University of the Sunshine Coast.  For more info go to the STEMM site here and the USC news and events page here.
Of course none of this program would be possible if it wasn't for the support and work freely given by a wide range of selfless volunteers - (o)  (o)  (o) Big Claps and Thank You's  to all.

A late start to the day and a very late post

There wasn't much activity when our group gathering started on Wednesday, in fact there weren't  very many bodies to be seen..........where were they all??....... well they were at the Kawana Quilters annual Morning Tea and Show and Tell and boy oh boy, wasn't everyone on a high when they finally arrived back in Buderim, a great time had been had by one and all and of course there had been prizes to be won, Beryl being a lucky prizewinners with this bundle of goodies, including 2meters of fabric, an embroidered hand towel and a scented candle.

Everyone who attended was given a little embroidered or beaded envelope pin to keep their raffle tickets in.......cute huh? Beryl chose a red one to suit her blouse.

When the chit chat finally subsided Sheila and Sue gave a tutorial on Fibonaci, and using the Fibonaci Tables in quilting, particularly in borders to get the balance right, as well as using Sudoku in patchwork.

Sue created this simple but very effective quilt using both the Sudoku principal for the blocks and the  Fibonaci tables to get a good balance between block sizing and borders.

 Sue used QAUG construction with the sashing being part of the design on the quilt front.

The block quilting is an echo of the oblong piecing in the blocks, simple, easy and very effective.


Sheila decided on a set of place mats - they will be a gift to one of her lucky family members - using the Sudoku numbering principals

Using 9 squares of 9 different fabrics, and grabing  a Suduko answer from the paper to follow, Sheila will have 9 placemats all the same but every one will be different. Ha! does that make sense?, look at the Suduko answer and it will.

This is the layout of the second of Sheila's placemats, see the subtle difference? Math in quilting at work! clever girl to put sudoku to work.

Beryl had this wonderful vibrant quilt to share with us, started in another class and recently finished, perfect for a wall hanging in a tropical home.

Lorraine I. bought this honey coloured beauty along,  it will soon have perle cotton 'flight trails' stitched into it for a finishing touch and then it will be donated to be raffled.........yep it is to be raffled, and for a very good cause.......

 

 Lorraine is an Apiarist and belongs to the local Sunshine Coast bee keepers association.  To raise funds the apiarists group will be raffling Loraine's donated quilt for only $2.00 a ticket at the Nambour show - June 18th to 20th.  If you would like a chance to win this beauty, pop along to the show to meet Lorraine and grab a ticket.  

Of course if you can't be at the show, Lorraine will be selling tickets at the Cottage, or you could e-mail her via our group's e-mail,  fatquarternews(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'm sure she would love to sell you a ticket.

Sometime ago - before becoming an Apiarist, Lorraine spotted the fun bee fabric and snaffled herself a swag of it, which just goes to prove the old quilting lore..........if you see it and you like it..........grab it!

All those Suffolk Puff flowers in the borders were made using the different sized Clover Suffolk Puff tools,... you know, those ones we have in the Library!......

Arvo tea had some of the yummiest sangers, someone who had managed to miss the Kawana Quilters Do had also managed to miss breakfast and lunch, boy were the worms biting, those sangers were the answer,  egg and lettuce and asparagus with cheddar.

The mini cupcakes recipe with the Hazelnut Chocolate frosting is from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook.......would take a pic for you but my copy is getting a tad ratty, will put the coffee syrup cupcake recipe up in recipes......later........perhaps tomorow?

Judie Bellingham on Bellaonline

Judie Bellingham left us a comment, did you see it?........if you missed it, she has posted photos on the Worlds's Biggest Hexagon Quilt, shown at the Queensland Quilters Picnic last Tuesday.
For a peek at Judy's pics and to read all about the quilt pop over here

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8971.asp