Note to self......

.....Don't yabber on the phone while posting on the blog.....or you just might make a big mistake.
While editing I was chatting, and deleted a bit more than I bargained for, so with apologies to Catti, here is her latest silk ribbon floral embroidery, this week beautiful vibrant geraniums.

 Sorry I almost missed your lovely work Catti, gotta be a bit more careful in the future.

Unsewing with a Change of Plan, and a very useful camera hint.

Lorraine was doing a wee tad of 'unsewing' today,

two rows of this quilt to be have been assembled but are now having their sashings removed and will be reassembled in the QAYG method that Lorraine showed us in her tutorial.
Brilliant idea, the quilt will measure 9' x 9' so quite a bit to maneuver through the throat of her machine.  I saw most of the blocks on Lorraine's design wall, this is going to be a stunning quilt, and when finished it will live on Lorraine and her Darling's bed.

Ja` is one of Gwen's hand piecing students, and bought along her 3 completed blocks to discuss some of the finer points with Caitti, well of course we all had to have a peek.  When finished Ja` will be giving her quilt to a very lucky friend who has even chosen the colour pallet.

Betty wasn't able to be with us today, but we still managed to see her latest flimsey, it's on it's way to be quilted by Fiona.

Betty has swapped at random, patches from the darker coloured rows throughout her quilt, giving the whole quilt movement and sparkle.

Wendy has finished her QAYG table runner from Beryl's demonstration.  Wendy lay the blocks out in both  design options, using her digital camera she took pics of both and made her decision on the design she wanted to assemble her runner.  Great tip Wendy.

Shortbread and Ginger was all the go for a very yummy arvo tea, Shortbreads, Ginger Shortbreads, Ginger Cake and Chocolate Biccies.....

Floating Square Border Tutorial from Lorraine H.

We have another tutorial, offered to us from Lorraine H. Sadly this Tutorial just didn't want to play, let alone nicely.
The shared file would not co-operate at all, tried everything known to man - yep even the Darling couldn't work with it.
So after trying my hand at drawing up sketches, a very sad event (g), decided nothing for it but to make a unit and photograph the steps, easy....but not simple....the fabrics chosen are, believe it or not, tan homespun, dark green and light green, not as they show in the photographs as pink, blue and light green ...WHA??? How did that happen?
So sorry folks, as I am really time poor (destitute almost) at the moment, we are going with what there is, if nothing else you will get a laugh and even maybe perhaps be inspired to try the lovely border that Lorraine used in our 'Forest' raffle quilt.  It may look complicated but believe me, really simple sewing, lots of it is strip piecing and only two lots of seams to butt together in each unit.

So pop up to the 'Tutorials and Directions from Members' Tab under our banner for some inspiration and a laugh......why oh why didn't I check those piccies as I went....ahh well.

Fiona's Trunk Show

After the astounding success of Letitia's Trunk Show last month, the Thursday night girls have decided to make it a monthly affair, working through their gathering alphabetically.  Tonight it is Fiona's turn and just how, I hear you ask, is it possible that you can view Fiona's goodies almost at the same time as the group?. Well, Fiona being a lovely lass agreed to arrive early and give your humble blogger an opportunity to photograph her quilts using the flash.  Don't usually use a flash, it is rather disconcerting when one is presenting goodies to continually be flashed.
This sample quilt is Fiona's oldest intact quilt, she reckons on it being between 16 - 18 years old, and spends its life in the family caravan.  Fiona mentioned that she is planning on updating the Caravan quilts- yes plural -  as she needs to get rid of some scraps from her workroom.

A closer view of the hand quilting on the 3 hearts block, yep, done in the days before Fiona became a long arm quilter.

The Lone Star is one of the patterns that Fiona teaches, we previously saw an example of the class when Lorraine H bought her blue and white Lone Star along to Show and Tell.

Made from Jelly Rolls, this vibrant beauty is only short of a bit of binding to complete it, Fiona is deciding on how to treat the hexagon edges, bind those peaks or slice them straight!,

A lovely swirly floral pattern was Fiona's choice of quilting design.

Remember that 'Caravan' Quilt? and the desire to create new scrappy Caravan quilts?, well here is the first cab off the ranks, this scrappy quilt is soon to reside on Fiona's bed.

Fiona quilted around each hexagon with a curved design using a variegated thread, hard to see on the backing, which depending on your point of view is either the best backing or the worst!

Very hard to pick the quilting on the back.

And just to show us why it is a tad hard for a working Mum to finish her quilts (as if we didn't know -vbg)
Fiona also bought along this beauty that she has just finished quilting for a client.

Beautiful embroidered 'Dinner Plate' designs, with a trapunto effect behind the plates using pellon or thin wadding.  Fiona has quilted around each plate and then done some lovely hearts and swags in the setting triangles and the borders.

 Fiona's quilting business goes under the banner of 'Quilting Fairy' and she can be contacted on 0419713644 or via her Quilting Fairy blog.

 Fiona has just returned from doing some rather intricate classes with Sue Ross at Precious Time in Toowoomba. Sue travels to Toowoomba on a regular basis to teach.

Fiona has hand pieced 9 centers and 9 of the circle borders, and now just/only has to piece them together and attach the block backgrounds.  How neat are those seams?! Looking forward to seeing the completed quilt.
And so ends Trunk Show number 2, looking forward to next month already.

Pinched a pic of this beauty being sandwiched, couldn't resist, fell in love with the appliqued Kimono's in the border.  This is going to be another stunner!

Hope we get to see it in it's finished state.- gosh, is that another hint??

'Forrest' Quilts...one step closer, and some interesting quilt stories....

...to go with some really beautiful quilts.
As some of you have noticed there has been a bit of a rash of the disappearing 9 patch quilts being created in our group, although a couple of quilts have not quite made it to the Show and Tell Table..........who would ever have thought those little suckers could look so wayward unless lined up just so!
Gwen wasn't at all happy with the way hers turned out, won't tell you how she described it.  While still grumbling thinking over her 9 patch, and looking in her various scrap bags for 2.5" strips, (for a totally different project) she found a pile of 2.5" squares........the immediate thought was, "Well maybe I can have a go at disappearing 9-patch using 2.5" squares - and this time get the layout right!"
Well, she did, she created this beauty.

And now the sad part of this story, Gwen has created many quilts in her quilting life, so for her to really love a particular quilt it must be a special one.  These 'leftover' fabrics were also used in her special quilt, a quilt that was sent on consignment to a store and was stolen from that store, at first it was thought that her quilt was simply misplaced, but no, never heard from again!  This little treasure was made from some of the leftover fabric that was used in the stolen quilt and as such holds a special place in Gwen's heart.

Gwen also had two other quilts for us today, the first was created from stitcheries she fell in love with at a quilt show, and thinking the new 'Great Grandchild To Be' just might be a lassie, she created this beautiful quilt.

Having finished the stitcheries, Gwen was going through her stash looking for some inspiration when 'out fell all these left over squares', Perfect!

Gwen's third quilt, a lovely 'bright pastel' in a cunning design, is another donation for Project Linus, one of the Charities that our group actively supports.

 When Lorraine mentioned that the Project Linus group had diversified, with the group now also using up a lovely large donation of wool and the local hospital requesting drainage bags for recovering breast surgery patients Catti was moved to create these two very pretty bags from soft fabrics for the patients.

 Guess what else Catti had stashed away?  her Show and Tell from the Needlework Group, these tiny ribbon embroidered flowers in a pretty green frame.

Beryl bought along this stunning quilt she made in a Judy Hooworth class back in 2002, the class members all made the same quilt design and layout, but with very different fabric choices, the resulting quilts were then displayed on stage at her then group's quilt show, creating a stunning display.

Beryl pieced a label for her quilt, and mentioned she might get around to 'finishing' the label with a little embroidery one day, but not one day soon.

We had both of our 'not quite finished yet' Quilt Show raffle quilts on display today.  With the 'International Year of Forests' theme, they are progressing nicely, Fiona has finished the quilting on Sue's creation with an edge to edge leafy design

The design shows nicely in the border, Julie has volunteered to bind the quilt so it will be finished soon.

The second raffle quilt is up to the flimsey stage, having been pieced together by Lorraine H.
The appliqued squares were made by various Cottage members 15 years ago in a Friendship swap and were recently donated to the group.

After some discussion it was decided to assemble the quilt to be one of our Quilt Show raffle quilts.  Sheila asked Lorraine to assemble the quilt with the brief that 'they be assembled on point and with a design that reflected our Show theme of  'International Year of Forests'.
Lorraine choose forest leaf prints for the random placed sashings to give the quilt a fresh and modern look, leaving the setting triangles clear for quilting motifs.
The border, which is machine pieced, was selected to reflect the design of the quilt blocks, with the lighter square appearing to be appliqued over the darker squares.

There are 2 more unnammed squares left over which could perhaps be made into cushions.  Lorraine I. is endeavouring to track down the creators of these 2 blocks.

The outside border fabric is from the Robert Kaufman 'Fusions range' and was purchased locally at Brian's so more could easily be purchased for cushions. 

Lorraine is moving to Tassie in a couple of weeks and as a parting gift to the group she very kindly donated the fabrics she used to make the applique blocks into such a stunning quilt.  Thank you Lorraine.

 

Lorraine was busily attaching the 1st. border onto her Hexagon quilt, but as we will not see it finished she gave us a sneak peek, pretty 30's fabrics for the flower petals and for a different take on an old favorite, Lorraine has used the background fabric for the center Hexagon.  Hope we get a piccie of the finished quilt...hint hint..

Judy thought the saying on the coffee cup was apt, it reads 'Life's Short, Eat Dessert First', lots of nods of agreement around the arvo tea table....of course, if there was a Grandie around it would be a different story, betcha! Snaffled myself a piece of the lemon coconut slice in the foreground, Yummo.....wouldn't mind the recipe for that little beauty!

Quilt as You Go Tutorials

Lorraine gave a demo last Wednesday on Two Quilt As You Go methods, and has very kindly supplied us with illustrated step by step tutorials for our blog.

Both Tutorials are on the one 'stand alone' page link above, just click on the 'Quilt as you Go, Two Tutorials from Lorraine' link in the bright green Tabs section above.

 If you find these tutes helpful or interesting, please leave a comment to thank Lorraine for sharing.