Browns and Kayaks

Bit of a slow day at the cottage yesterday,but a lovely pair of quilts from Julie.

Julie created these 'crossed kayaks'  for her Guest bedroom, using the same fabrics with a layout variation

Gwen bought along her finished scarf, she loved the one Marcia created and got busy on her own version.

Part of the charm of this scarf is the varied sizes of the little crochet squares.

Catti had another wonderful piece to share with us, a beautifully embroidered stitching caddy to pop over the arm of your favorite chair as you stitch and watch tellie, possibly while having a little refreshment to make things hum along.

Spotted this handy dandy wrist pincushion - Janice will be presenting a workshop on 'how to' in a couple of weeks, so lots of variations will be floating around shortly

Beryl spent some time burying threads ...........Thank You Beryl!

and that cute little roll on the quilt there??, It belongs to Jackie, strip pieced by hand  26 years ago! - I kid you not!

 Jackie made this little lovely in a workshop all those years ago and then promptly went off and created an entire quilt using her new skills, and yes we have been shown that lovely.

An update on the car park work..........with a bit of a mystery...

 We understand the huge hole (covered with orange plastic) probably a Buderim floater or a tree root had to be removed, we can see the point of the garden bed by our entrance, (nicely rounded concrete corners) and of course the storm water outlets, but no one can come up with an answer to what on earth the last pic is???not a Garden bed, earth is being compacted, and look at those sharp concrete corners!  There have been some wild guesses......and I guess time will tell........but, please don't let it be a toilet block, just to block off a bit more of the view over the escarpment.  (What is it with architects who think it's nicer to look at a brick wall than a view!!??)

Jane's Trunk Show and Tell

Last week the Thursday Night Group had another wonderful Trunk Show and Tell, this time it was the turn of Jane.
There are many, many photos of Jane's wonderful work, so many that I have had to group some of them into a collage, so to get a great view of Jane's work, just click on the pic for a bigger view, use your back button to return to the post, so make yourself a cuppa or pour a wine and really enjoy this wonderful show, pics and story with the compliments of Debby.

Jane had her Trunk Show & Tell on Thursday night. She was a little nervous but did a fabulous job showing a rather large group all the fabulous things she has made over the years. Nice to see so many faces.  

 
Jane showed us her first sampler quilt that she made about 20 years ago. 

Then she started coming to the cottage about six years ago now. Jane showed us her stack & slash quilt which has faded a lot over these few years which means only one thing. that it has been much loved. June showed us how to do this quilt.   Then she made a striped swag quilt.

Look at this gorgeous butterfly quilt (pattern by Lynette Anderson)

& check out all those pinwheels, love the colours and these colourful, Japanese prints.  Oh Jane it’s beautiful.

 Then there is her block of the month quilt that she did at The Patchwork Angel, all done in civil war reproduction fabrics. I think Jane fell in love with civil war repro. fabrics after doing this quilt.
I love this next quilt, Jane's Dresden plate quilt which she put together very quietly & quickly its just gorgeous Jane.

Check out Jane's newest addition to her collection, a Tessellation quilt, wow this is spectacular. 
 

Next Jane shows us what she has done so far with her 1/2" hexy civil war production quilt its also going to be wonderful. She has a few other friends doing this quilt as well some more advanced, others not so advanced!! 

Now Jane's first love is actually embroidery & she has embroideries framed, little needle pouches & lots of absolutely gorgeous little bags. You are amazing Jane & they are so fine & the colours stunning. 

Jane also had a bag addiction not so long ago & once she made one she just kept on making them & making them!! Love the hexy bag how about a lesson Jane?

Here is a cute photo of Jane with the Teddy she made & check out the T/Shirt her friend Jenny gave her " i never finish anyth..." That’s obviously not true Jenny!!!! Jane thanks so much for bringing all your creations in for us to see. You are a very clever lady.

Raffle Quilts, done and dusted...almost...

yep, it's exciting, the cushions have been made for our 1st and 2nd Prize Raffle Quilts. A big Thank You to Sue.

 'Tall Timbers' Quilt and Cushion

'Everlasting Friendship' Quilt with Two Cushions

The almost part of being finished?? just got to bury those last threads.

Catti, had left her latest embroidery Show and Tell from Needlework on the display table, got a snap of that lovely for you.

June and the Girls were having many a discussion on the finer points of layouts with the 'Hidden Wells' workshop. 

Wendy was putting in the last of the binding stitches to show off her completed version

and Val has completed her flimsey of 'Hidden Wells', it will be another charity quilt for Laurel House.

June bought this lovely vibrant quilt along to show us, her words "there is a pattern out there but I worked out my version on how to do it quickly in strips", well, we just had to beg for another class didn't we......so coming soon we will have lots of versions of this quilt.  Wendy is already wondering if you could use 'I Spy' fabrics... and June had a suggestion for a very interesting border variation. 

William Morris Fans

 Not a quilt in sight here, but some lovely fabrics from Liberty London on a video shot in the William Morris rooms at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Curator Stephen Calloway introduces the exhibition 'The Cult of Beauty' devoted to the Aesthetic Movement of Britain between 1860 to 1900.
If you love to see beautiful things and listen to some lovely music, follow the link.  The video runs for just under 4.30 mins,
http://www.howtospendit.com/#/articles/3814-fashion-shoot-genius-in-beauty

Gum Tree Designers and a Free BOM

The talented girls from Gum Tree Designers are offering another FREE BOM, but it's a BOM with a bit of a difference, to read all about it, pop over here to pick up the link to their wonderful new Newsletter.
The BOM will be posted on the 1st of the month, starting February and will run for 10 months.
First block is from Jennifer Reynolds from Jenny of Elefantz and block one can be downloaded from this page, just scroll down past the newsletter link, past the pic and enjoy!

Many people are organising various ways to help our many flood victims, the Gum Tree girls hit on a brilliant way to help with a 'New Beginnings' sewing kit.  The kits will be sent to quilting groups in each town for distribution.  For a list of what the girls would like in each kit and links to free sewing caddy patterns pop over here.    The dates have been extended to 15th March and will now encompass Cyclone Yasi and Victorian Flood Victims.
Vicki, from The Pickledish Patch and Dawn from "As Sweet as Cinnamon" are presenting a joint 2011 free BOM, pop over to their blogs to check them out.

Hidden Wells, Handy Hints, a Hat and another Lucky Grandie

Remember the homework June sent the 'Hidden Wells' group home with last week?, well some people just didn't know when to stop!
Maree was so excited by the way her colours were coming together, she completed her quilt, and as you can see from the block in her hand, she is off and running on quilt number two.  As June said, we were all warned, this is a very addictive little quilt pattern!

Maree will be giving the quilt to her Grandaughter to take on her big adventure, the starting of her University education.
Wendy was another one who didn't know when to stop, she has half her blocks assembled...

but what is this?? Marguerite checking out the neatness of Wendy's stitching? measuring her 1/4" seams?
or just hiding from the Camera?

Whatever...it gives us a better 'look see' at Wendy's flimsey.

Lorraine has a very handy 'Hidden Wells' hint, stitch pairs of your completed and squared stage 1 blocks together with 1/4" seams all round

then cut the blocks diagonally from corner to corner to form 4 completed blocks, you can easily fluff out and fold your uncut blocks for an early and easy audition.

This method helps to cut down on the chances of stretching those Bias edges.  Thanks Lorraine.

One of our groups Christmas presents to Sheila year before last was a lovely Jelly roll, her first.  The Jelly roll was much admired and petted by family members, but one lassie in particular just fell in love with the colours.  A search of patterns on the net and Sheila created this lovely.

Not wanting to quilt such a large quilt on her machine, Sheila assembled the quilt in two halves, quilted each half except for the 'overlap' in the center, she then joined the wadding by hand using a herringbone stitch, machine stitched the two front panels together and hand stitched  the overlapped backing.  The leftover fabric was then pieced to form the binding, which she then stitched down by hand!....We were all very impressed with all the 'by hand' parts of the creation process........Sheila isn't known for her love of hand stitching, quite the opposite in fact.

Maree has recently returned from a trip to visit her Daughter and Family.   Daughter is a mad keen convertible fan, and can be seen whizzing around town in a little black number.  After a few trips in said machine Maree thought a jazzy little cap would be the go and so created this wonderful little number.  We all want one!, but sadly, don't qualify, not a convertible in sight in our collective garages.sigh!!.  

Marguerite modeled the cap for us and was rather slow in relinquishing in, suits her down to the ground.

Lorraine has finished quilting 'Friendship Forever', one of our raffle quilts for the Quilt Show in July, but wanted a volunteer to help bury the quilting threads.  Lorraine has a Janome with that ever so handy little button that does a couple of 'tying off' stitches, so threads don't have to be tied, only buried.  Andrea agreed to help out using the K Grace Howes thread burying method and found that the method wasn't that well known within the group (Must have been Andrea's secret - no one else had come across it).
So, just because it is sooo, sooo easy here is a couple of piccies to give you a rough idea of how it is done, for an in depth tutorial, waddle your mouse up to the top of our page, click on Tips, Handy Hints and Good Ideas, slide down the page to 'burying threads' and follow the links to RedBarn Studios and the Burying Your Quilting Threads Video Tutorial

Dont'ch just love the net?!, all that sharing and knowledge available with just a click of a mouse.