Needles, Knots and Nibs

A wonderful new exhibition is coming to the Cottage soon, very soon, the Weekend of Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th May.

Yep, as the flyer states, those talented folks who weild the Caligraphy Nibs, the knitters who also spin their own yarns to create an array of goodies along with the gals who make those machines dance have all banded together to bring us a festival of wonderful crafted goodies and demonstrations.

'Nibs', the Caligraphy Group will have some beautiful penmanship for you to view and purchase including their ever popular B150 tea towels.

 

these talented ladies and gentlemen always have such handy articles for sale, not only suitable for gifts but also for everyday use around the home. 

'Needles' the Machine Embroiders Group

have been ever so busy preparing for the exhibition, along with the huge array of sale items such as Embroidered Towels, Baby Bibs, Table Runners, Bags, Quilts and other goodies more numerous to mention the group has also created 5, yes 5!, quilts to be donated to Multiple Sclerosis. They will all be on display at the exhibition with a presentation to M.S. on Sunday at 2.p.m.
Marie and Wendy bought this one along to show their fellow patchworkers last Wednesday.

A closer peek at some of those beautifully embroidered blocks, and don't be fooled (like someone who will remain nameless <vbg>), it's not a matter of just flick a switch and the machine takes off and does the job.......oh no, lots of preparation and creation of designs goes on beforehand.

There will be 3 'Basket Raffles' all loaded with wonderful goodies.  This one is a terrific Picnic Basket for 2.

Contains a Table cloth - how cute are those ants!- 2 placemats with cutlery, flatware, wine glasses, bottle of wine, with it's own holder and napkins, just pop in a few nibblies and you are all set to go off on a sunset picnic at the beach (or anywhere else that takes your fancy really!)

There will also be Machine Embroidery demonstrations for you to view. - Lookin' forward to that!

'Knots' the Spinners and Weavers group

have been having a lot of fun organising a 'Yarn Bombing' - nooo, not gonna be chucking balls of wool around, thats what they do for their kitties, no a Yarn Bombing is where they dress up the trees, statuary, and anything else that stands still for too long in knitted and crocheted creations!  (Yep, it was news to me too) sounds like a lotta fun, so keep your eyes peeled as you cruise down main street past our Cottage for a glimps of some bombing!

And I know you are just hanging out to know about the Food...yep, Pam, Fran and their band of helpers will be keeping us all supplied with Hand Crafted Edibles, all with an Australiana twist.  ummm  ummm!! lots of Sandwiches, Toasted or Fresh with optional extras such as tomato, cheese and onions.
They will also have lots of  Hand Crafted 'Sweet Moments', such as scones - (including some of Frannies Date Scones- if you are quick enough <g>), slices, mini muffins and tarts all to be washed down with a delightfully relaxing cuppa tea, or if you prefer a brewed coffee.

Now coincidentally, the weekend of 5th and 6th May is also party weekend for the 150th Birthday of Buderim - hence the Caligraphy Groups B150 tea towels - so there will also be lots of other fun and activities going on in Buderim that weekend.

March Goodies

Whew....what a month, so much going on and so much work done.
The annual Easter Fair was held, funnily enough, on Easter Saturday, lots of lovely goodies were available for sale and fondling.
As is always the case coming up to a Fair, there doesn't seem to be much bought in to share, too many projects being worked on, all needing just that last stitch to be stitched.
However we do have quite a few lovelies for you to view.......and at the bottom of the post, a treatie for you all.

Val was commissioned to create this twisted windmill in Autumn colours,

and being the talented lass she is, she has appliqued a rabble of butterflies flitting across the quilt

 Using her domestic sewing machine Val FMQ'd a lovely leaf pattern along with some innovative flipped machine stitches, that you can see running down the join between the green and tan sash in the pic above. (Just click on the pic to view a bigger photo)


Another of our 'Christmas Orphans' has surfaced.

Gwen pulled a piece of this well know fabric from 'Santas Gift Bag', and of course........she had more of it at home!! Well, obviously the only thing to do was to create a B.B.Q. Apron, using her orphan, her stash, and a little extra white fabric.

While on the subject of Orphans, Val had another creation from her 'bottom drawer orphanage', created for one of the kiddies at Laurel House, Val pointed out the tiny neat stitches on the reverse appliqued wreath and of course the hearts on the Friendship Tree is a great place for names of new friends made. 

Val has used various methods of quilting this one, using the flipped machine stitches as well as stippling and quilting in the ditch.


Marie has discovered the world of Zentangles.........have you yet?, she has created this lovely bag using a Zentangle pattern on her embroidery machine.

 To see more of this fascinating effect pop over to Zentangle creators Rick and Maria's blog to see some lovely mini quilt samples.
Also quilt tutor Jane Monk has classes on Zentangle quilting and has some of her class samples and work here 


Now you see it, now you don't was the case with Janice's lovely 'Musical Quilt', using lots of music themed fabric, this beauty was sold as soon as the final stitch was put into the binding!  not even making it to our meeting for a farewell pat.

Judy Davidson, of Furball Farm Quilting, and one of our group members quilted the Musical Quilt for Janice with this wonderful all over design.

Pop over to Judy's blog here http://furballfarmquilting.blogspot.com.au/  to see more of her lovely work.

The 'Go Anywhere' Bags are still making appearances.  Wendy and Chris bought these two in to show. Yep you guessed it, Wendy's is for one of her Grandies.

Now isn't this the cutest calendar ever?

It has everything!, a new award winning quilt and it's story each month, an inspirational block at the bottom, all the quilting events and a cute little saying to bring a smile. 
It's a gift from Rose, who had such a wonderful time visiting with us from South Africa last year that she sent us the calendar for remembrance.  Thank you Rose, we will certainly remember you each time we gaze at the calendar, we have hung it right by our notice board.

Fae has certainly found her quilting mojo, with the discovery of just how easy it is to rotary cut on the higher cutting tables.

Fae bought in this lovely to share, all in beautiful soft florals, set off with a matching striped 1st border and binding.

So what do you give a daughter who has everything?  Well you finish the set of worked Linen Tea Towels started awhile back.  Heather's daughter now has a tea towel for every day of the week...bet none of them see a dish up close and friendly though!

 

How cute is it that Wednesday is stitching day, the very day Heather spends at Needlework and Patchwork!

And the treatie??

Well someone sent me this link to Design Seeds a wonderful tool to help with colour selections.

Pop over and be astounded by all the various ways to search out that perfect but elusive colour for your next quilt, or anything else you want to add colour to your life.

There is a wonderful 'Search by colour value' segment where you use a slide bar to change the search colour, then up pops photo containing the colour and others that suit, you will find colour chips at the bottom to print out and a section to see similar colours if you want a variation.  Great way to waste some time!!!

Libby's Trunk Show

Libby bought her lovely created goodies along the share with the group for another great Trunk Show.
Many thanks to Debby and her helpers for supplying the photos and descriptions.

Libby started the night off with two of her hexagon creations.

I see Libby loves hexies as well.

A very colourful crazy star quilt

 

Two 9-Patch based quilts, the first, a colourful 9-Patch with alternate blocks of appliqued flowers and the second quilt yellow and blue 9-Patch with country fabrics, lots of appliqued birds, bird houses, butterflies, and other country motifs even down to the washing on the line.  It's lovely Libby.

 

 A very loved and cosy red with green flannel scrappy rag quilt with a matching bag

 Bag to tote the quilt or happily made up from leftovers??

We all made one of these scrappy quilts a few years ago and the blue border Libby has used brings out all the lovely coloured fabrics.

Two more quilts, firstly, Leanne's Garden.  This is gorgeous Libby.   Libby's hand stitching is so neat and lovely.  Well done.

and the second quilt of Boats, boats and more boats, this definitely belongs to one of her boys!! 

Stitchery blocks with a garden them, this WIP will be a special quilt when done.

Two stitcheries of 'Friends' angels in different colourways

Libby has a wealth of pretties to house her stitchery tools, cute totes to store work and goodies, a great 'quilt as you go' envelope for her rotary cutter and the greatest needle case, with a sweet 'crazy' heart on the front, it opens up to display pouches for all the different needle packs with a flanel flap to store the needles in use.  Best needle case ever IMHO.

Cute Bee-hive decorated sewing bag that zips fully open to display more applique flowers and even a bee!

A button bag created from hexies, two appliqued journals, a mini quilt WIP and more stitcheries.

 

Vibrant wall hanging with a stitched daisy border and a lovely pastel cot quilt in different sized 4-patches.

Another of Libby's stitcheries, this one of daisies and butterflies, all beautifully coloured within the stitching lines and two large tote bags, the first with a large pocket on the front and  the second in blues and yellows with a combination of pieced and applique blocks.

Two vibrantly coloured quilts, both in blue/green and yellow but both different in their own way, a great child's quilt and a throw/wall quilt.

This flimsey of a crazy log cabin in black and white features a red and a black border.

Another black and white quilt, this one beautifully set off with mauve and a 'sewing room' wall-hanging in basically blues.

 'Bars of Gold' quilt made with Japanese fabrics with a red border.  Lovely Libby.

Beautiful Creations of February

Perhaps I should explain, ...blog postings have been changed to a monthly posting for awhile and the wonderful Marie is editing the pics for us all, no reasons to worry about.  However....did you know that when you get one of those little plastic lens popped into your eyeball you see colours differently? I kid you not! apparently as we age our vision changes, becoming slightly yellowed........so now I have the lovely bright white on one side and the fuzzy yellowish on the other, really gives a whole new dimension to choosing fabrics.  Enough goss...onto the wonderful goodies created by our talented members.

Some time back Beryl presented a class on a 'stitchery roll', I'm sure you are all familiar with the trials of taking stitcheries and blocks to and from home to class/meetings and back again.
This amazingly simple but effective roll uses a postage tube as it's foundation.   Heather has finished hers and bought it along to share/inspire us, the embroidery on the closure is fabulous.

Lorraine was missing in action for quite a bit of February, she tells us she was on a quilting retreat and bought this along to prove it....Lorraine's group pop off on a retreat on a yearly basis and each year one of the gals presents a 1 day tutorial, last year was a wonderful 'go anywhere bag'...more on that later, but this year it was this rather intricate looking table mat.  Now the girls know that something is going to be happening but what?, well, that's the surprise.  This year Lorraine chose some lovely yellows, reds, and oranges, but the sad part of the tale is those colours will not be comfortable in her home on the dining table, no, not at all...but not to worry! Lorraine will use this great table centrepiece on her patio table. Perfect!

Lorraine's Darling also pops off on a 'guys camping trip', you know the type of thing, hunting, fishing sitting around the campfire yacking...great stuff.  They decided that instead of pulling the caravan on these sometimes rather long trips that scaling down was a good idea.  Of course keeping warm was number one on Lainey's mind, so she made this amazing quilt for her Darling, and just to keep him 'company in spirit', all the fabric squares have a tale to tell in their life, sort of an 'I Spy' for the grown ups, and its a 9-Patch design, yeah really! clever gal Lainey.

and how cute and loving is the label

 and yeah, that is a pic of the ute.....cool huh???

Ailsa was the latest lass to bring along her Christmas Orphan block, Ailsa created a lovely cushion, adding a narrow yellow border with a darker green outer border and back.
The button bag came into being when Ailsa was given a button design FQ, she felt she just had to make this button bag based on one that she was given sometime ago that she uses to this day.

 

 Fae got a request from a long time friend to create a knee quilt, any colours except greens, well, green is Fay's fav colour so choosing fabrics required a few second thoughts with some of her favorite fabrics having to be returned to the stash.  Her friend is delighted with the finished quilt.

 

Sue has returned to the Sunshine Coast  and has been working away at putting the finishing touches  on her friendship quilt from some years back ('bout 18 years back). Sue also created a lovely reverse applique pillow sham to tie the friendship quilt with the other quilt in her guest room.

 

A closer view of some of the lovely work done by Sue's friends, the two owls represent Sue and her Darling, complete with a lovely sparkler on the pink owl's 'finger' to represent Sue's engagement ring!

Since the inspiring talk from Lorraine awhile back its all about scrappy in our quilts, Lyn has created this stunner in pinks with a too cute heart border that tones in perfectly.

Julie bought along this flimsey to share, it's all about the Teddybears Afternoon Tea, done with buttonhole applique. Looking forward to seeing this one quilted.

Sheila's Darling is into home brewing and as those that brew know, the mix has to be kept warm, well not any old rug would do, Sheila created a quilted cover with fabric mementos of her Darlings fave places and trips.  The cover even has a contoured opening to go around the tap.

 

What would be the most romantic day of the year to become engaged? yep, Feb 14th. but as Sheila pointed out, back in the days when we all became engaged Valentines Day wasn't the big deal it is now, so getting engaged on Feb 14 was more a co-incidence that just happened for her and her Darling but to celebrate that wonderful day 48years ago, Sheila created a strip pieced scrappy quilt for her darling to snuggle under, complete with a row of hearts and lots of Valentine Red, all folded up and tied with a big red bow, would have to be the bestest Valentines Day Gift ever.

Val has been to that orphanage in her bottom drawer again, creating these two quilts for her charity, Laurel House.

some of the gals want to visit this orphanage in your bottom drawer Val, we think it has a portal to 'the nether'. (Who's Grandies play Minecraft? )

Back to Lorraine's retreat and the 1 day tutorial, year before last the tutorial was for a 'Go Anywhere' bag, Lorraine's has seen a lot of use and bought it in to Show and Tell a few months back, well of course we all wanted one, so off goes Lainey, drafts a pattern, prints it up - very professional looking and then presented a workshop, lots of Go Anywhere bags going everywhere, lots of Grandies now have their own 'Go Anywhere' bag.
Julie with her bag and Marie with 2 bags she created

Wendy creating one of the 3 she made with advice from Lorraine and Marcia with her creation.

It's a very easy to assemble design with 2 side pockets and a pocket on each end and can be folded into your suitcase for trips to bring home all that shopping we all love to do on vacation as well as a great overnight bag.