Quilt Discussions and some Lovely Gifts

Remember Marguerite and this block from just a couple of weeks ago?

Well, be impressed, yesterday Marguerite bought the finished flimsy in for some input on borders from her fellow quilters

All beautifully hand appliqued, Marguerite did mention (lots) that her needle finger was "just a tad sore!"

Julie shared this 'I Spy' variation with us, its a gift for her Grand Nephew who is shortly moving into his first bed.

Julie machine quilted her quilt using a wandering stich in a cross hatch pattern through the quilt and into the borders.

Beryl is working on her 'hexies', all with a lemon or yellow center on a variety of different beige/cream backgrounds.  As Beryl said, with a variety of backgrounds it then doesn't matter if you get totally involved and your little collection of hexies becomes a large collection of hexies, and she is certainly on her way to large with over 120 blocks done so far.

Marcia had some lovely gifts from her talented Daughter Leanne to share.
A really cute 'Chook' pin cushion..

and a lovely Mug Mat.  Just what she needs by her fave sewing machine.

How about a visit and a demo Leanne???

The Girls from Hibiscus Quilters ..

..came to visit us, bringing along a feast of Show and Tell of some of the wonderful quilts and rugs that they have made for their selected charity 'Laurel House', a refuge for sexually abused children on the Sunshine Coast.

Val, who formed the Hibiscus Quilters a few years back, told us that to date they have made 464 Quilts and rugs, 328 Bags, 240 Toys, stuffed, knitted, etc, 67 Worry Bags and 121 Hand Towels and Washers.  Plus they have raised $500 from raffles.
What a great job, so with thanks to Lorraine for the pics, here are the quilts the group were treated to.

3 of the crocheted rugs made by this talented group

Colour Streams Kit Raffle

First visit back to the group yesterday and what a delight! really missed the fun while I was away, not to mention the wonderful arvo teas...but more on that later.
The Cottage runs a 'Winter School' each year where we invite tutors from various crafts to hold classes that all are welcome to be a part of.  This year one of the tutors was the very talented Robyn Alexander of Colour Streams and as a 'Thank You' Robyn donated one of her fabulous kits to the Cottage to use as we desired.  Well how do you share that out....brilliant idea. Raffle it!!, so the Cottage members are all invited to buy a ticket  and hopefully win this wonderful kit.

Thank You Robyn for this great opportunity.

Marguerite has been inspired by the quilt show to finish her version of the Garden Quilt.  Some of the girls  started this as a friendship quilt last year, with some even making it into the Quilt Show!   The push is on for those unfinished quilts to make it into an exhibition later on in the year!!

We often have a 'Buy' Table, donated curtain leftovers, and bits from the odd stash here and there, sometimes one wonders just what to do with a little piece of fabric, well Sue has solved the problem... make a bag.
This cutie has a top zip closure, inside pockets and Sue has used thick cording to make the handle rings.

Lorraine has a new phone, and as always happens, you want to protect that little newbie. Being a knitter as wall as a quilter, Lorraine knitted herself a phone sock...in purple of course!.

 Afternoon tea saw a presentation of some lovely goodies, including a few Gluten free items, - Thanks Christine - but the big hit was this delicious cake made for us by Tessa's Darling..major yummo.

 There will be a bit of catching up to be done with the blog, there are lots of lovely quilts still to be shown from our Quilt Show, as well as pics from two Trunk Shows.

Our Raffle quilts went to great homes, and the proceeds were presented to Harold, the First Officer of the Ilkley and District Fire Brigade at an afternoon tea.
We even had the local tellie folks come along and film the presentations as well as the gals from the group showing off their knitting quilting skills.

Part 4 TREE-mendous Quilt Show 2011

Opening time - day one...lookin' good! and not just the quilts!

Lorraine
'Lawn Hill'

"Lorraine Carthew came to the Cottage for one of her fabulous workshops.  This one was creating landscapes using fabric to 'paint' the picture.  Hundreds of tiny little pieces were cut and arranged to create a 'photo' of a favourite scene.
This one from a recent holiday to Lawn Hill National Park.
Machine quilted in varigated thread to add highlights to the design".
N.F.S.

Debby
'Never Ending Quilt'

"This is a Wedding Ring Quilt, 14" rings, 8 rows x 8 = 64 rings.
My friend Katie and I decided we would like to make a wedding ring quilt each, so on the 6/4/05 we went fabric shopping and found this fabric in the last shop at Indooroopilly.  We both were very happy with our purchases and drove home.  8 months later I said "Katie I think we should start our quilts or we may never finish them".  So we started meeting every fortnight, except during the holidays.  We cut fabric, read instructions, drank lots of tea, a glass of wine here and there over 6 years! giggled a lot and our quilts started to come alive.  My son Josh actually named this Quilt "The Never Ending Quilt".  He saw the fabric when I purchased it, we saw 100's of pieces of cut fabric in my sewing room and then he went overseas for nearly five years.  Before he left he cheekily said "Gee Mum it looks like this could be the never ending quilt the way your going"!  Josh returned home twice over this period for a week or two and it became a bit of a joke about my Never Ending Quilt.  Even on Skype he would ask "How's the Never Ending Quilt going Mum?!!"
Anyway I was determined to have it finished by the time he returned home but no, it wasn't quite finished.  Then Katie found her receipt with the date we purchased the fabric and I said right, I'm finishing it before 6/4/11 and the Never Ending Quilt was finished two weeks before this date.  I machine pieced the quilt.  I wanted to do some trapunto in the rings for a different effect so our lovely friend Gwen showed me how to do that which ended up being a very big job.  I hand quilted the whole quilt and I loved stitching every stitch.
N.F.S


Leanne
'Nostalgia'

"I found the quilt design in 2009 whilst looking through the February 2007 Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.  The quilt was designed by Rachelle Denneny and it caught my eye as it was in my favourite colours of pink and green, green being the most predominant colour.
Anybody who knows me knows that I especially love pink, so as I wanted this to be the predominant colour, I swapped pink for green in the pattern and added my other favourite colour - cream.  I love the 'olde worlde' look of the design with the 'Dresden Plate as the quilt centre, hence the name 'Nostalgia".  The quilt is machine pieced and I found the Seminole border especially challenging but very rewarding.
My quilt has been quilted by Fiona Bell, 'the Quilting Fairy' and after the quilt show will take pride of place in our bedroom, along with the matching pillow shams and cushions that I have made to go with it.
N.F.S.


Wendy
'Life is a Celebration'

This quilt was a block of the month in the Homespun Magazine last year.  I loved the blocks because each of them were about something in my life that was important to me".
N.F.S.

Val
'Funny Farm'

"Design by June Gilchrist.  Made for a great grand daughter (not mine)
Applique and piecing by machine."
N.F.S.

Beryl
'Just Go For It'

"A quilt made for a display in the Shoalhaven Art Gallery at Nowra.  My thoughts were 'If its to be 'arty' just go for it and do something out of the square".  The fabric told me how to do the quilt.
I designed it, machine pieced and machine quilted by owner, with some trial and error.
N.F.S.

Ivanka
'Springtime'

"The quilt is a combination of hand stitched and machine pieced blocks.  The flower pattern was taken from a really OLD book borrowed from a friend.  The flowers were appliqued with blanket stitch by hand and the rest of the quilt just evolved from there.
It was completed in November 2010 after many years left sitting in the cupboard unfinished, waiting for the final border.
Machine quilted with additional hand quilting around the flowers".
N.F.S.

Jacqueline
'The First Dream'

"Joining the patchwork group to be with friends, I was pressured after sometime to start "something" rather than just chatting.
Not being a needlework, or crafty person, I was handed materials and designs by Desrae, my mentor, to make a cushion, which was rather daunting.
However, 3 cushions later, the thrill of the challenges and the pleasant outcome I decided to turn the work into a quilt!
Playing with colours and choosing patterns from the book 'Baltimore Bouquets' by Mimi Dietrich and designing my own patterns became a joyful and relaxing time.
The final quilting design on the border was worked by Rosemary, a professional machine quilter, giving the quilt a rather romantic touch.
N.F.S.

Jenny
'750'

photo courtesy of Janet.
"750 Suffolk Puffs using 1930's fabric. 
My first love is crazy patchwork.  It's a very intense, very complicated and very beautiful form of patchwork.  Every now and again I like to do something mindless and I just sit and make endless Suffolk puffs.
N.F.S.

Part 3 TREE-mendous Quilt Show 2011

A peek around the corner from the Atrium showing more beautiful quilts and floral arrangements. 

A big thank you to Inge for her 'garden trimmings' (I kid you not! garden trimmings is what she calls the swathes of greenery and blooms bought along to brighten our quilt show, arranged with help from her daughter Betty.)

Gwenyth
'Please No More Grapes'

"Bought the pattern at the "Quilting Bee" about 14 years ago.  Also paid to have it traced and sandwiched and started quilting at a great pace but really tired hen I got to the bunches of grapes.
Re-commenced this year.
Washed twice to get the many years of flotsam and jetsam from it.
N.F.S.

Elizabeth
'Hexicans in Japanese Prints'

"This is a hexagon design I copied from Jenny at Patchwork Angel and machine pieced it in Japanese Prints.
The quilt was machine quilted by Fiona the Quilting Fairy"
N.F.S.

Marguerite
'Dresden Delight'

"I finally got around to making a Dresden Plate Design Quilt!
I chose my favourite colours of Blues and Greens in some very pretty fabrics.
The plates are needle turned and the quilting has been done by hand".
N.F.S.

Lorraine
'Tiffany Owls'
very prettily displayed on our Lyn Ballinger quilt stand perpetual trophy! so how did you score that one Lainey??

"My niece rang to tell me that she was having another baby and that the new nursery was Tiffany blue and owls.  As I am her favourite quilting aunt she wanted to give me plenty of warning for the new baby quilt. 

What on earth is Tiffany blue??

I'd never heard of it either so onto the web and looked up Tiffany and Co in Ney York and found their website is a pretty aqua colour.  Hopefully this is what Meredith means by Tiffany blue, 'cos that is what she is going to get. 

P.S. I was given 7 months notice, I think I heard before the grandmother".

N.F.S.

Janice
'Don't Bug Me'

"Cute and colourful.  Ideal Boys quilt.  Can you count how many bugs there are?
$95

Lynne
'Xmas Around the World'

"This quilt was made with my daughter Samantha for the wonderful man in her life whilst she was courting, he in Sydney and she on the Sunshine Coast.
She wanted to bring some Xmas Joy, in July to her darling man, and piecing the quilt made the whole household joyous.
It brought together the traditional design and the newer colour wash techniques.
The design comes from a colour wash class I did, with the famous Yan Pring in 1996 in the northern suburbs of Sydney.  This design, is taken from the book, Colourwash Quilts, by Yan Pring and published by Express Publications 1995
It has been machine pieced using the strip piecing technique used in Yan's book and machine stippled on an old Singer treadle sewing machine born in the 1930's.
There are 9 different Xmas theme fabrics rescued from a Xmas stast, and very fine cotton wadding has been used so the quilt can be used as a table throw as well as a wall hanging".
N.F.S.
Marcia
'Dr. Seuss Strikes Again'

"This is an Eye Spy quilt made for a child's bed.  I loved all of the Dr. Seuss books as did my children and when I saw the fabric I could not resist.
However all my children are too old for this quilt so it is for sale.
It has been machine pieced.
I had it machine quilted by Carmen Brown".
$200

Betty
'Blue Harmony'

Machine pieced, appliqued centre panel.
The fabric for this quilt was given to me by my daughter-in-law as a birthday gift.
Professionally machine quilted"
N.F.S.


Diane
'Friendship Quilt'

"Fabric given by friend Jayne.
Blocks by friends of the "Bossy Stitchers" group.
Made and machine quilted by me
Hand quilted by friend Gwen"
N.F.S.

Lorraine
'Tees'

"I had a bundle of beautiful Japanese fabrics in my stash for awhile and not wanted to cut into them.
Val ran a workshop on tessellations and I suddenly had the inspiration for my lovely fabrics.
$120


Ailsa
'Patchwork Coat'

"This coat was started at a workshop at the Craft Cottage.
The coat was eventually completed with the help of Sue 3 years later.
All my favourite colours are in the coat.
N.F.S.

Janice
'All that Jazz'

"Having some left over 6" blocks from another project, I decided just to add some borders.
I love red, black and white.
The musical fabrics makies the piece look very unique.
Machine pieced
Quilted by Judy of Furball Farm"
$250

Jacqueline
'Cat Antics'

Photo courtesy of Janet
"What a relief being able to use up small scraps of materials and mini pieces, through a book called Cat Craft Collection by Better Homes and Gardens.
Using their designs and some of my own ideas was great fun.  The cats seemed to become life like with their own personalities and antics, which are much loved by the children".
N.F.S.