Winners, Fun and a Lovely Lunch

So much excitement to see just who had won the challenge this year, some years there are clear winners but this year it was very close and Lyn did a great job of judging the entries.
Thank you Lyn, not only for judging our challenge but also for including the display of our challenge in your Fiber Arts Exhibition which enabled cottage visitors to vote for Viewers Choice.

3rd Prize Judged winner is Marie with her embroidered, beaded mask with ribbons.

Sandy is 2nd Prize winner with her entry of satin, pearls and feathers.

And the number one judged prize winner is......insert drum roll here...
Marion.
With her inserted angeled block of vibrant fabrics, fringes, beads and even a diamond clasp, well it could be a diamond, right?

Viewers choice winner, for the second year running is Pat, with her felt, feathers and angelina.

The buffet table was full of delicious dishes to choose from, a refreshing punch and desserts to follow.

All in all, a great day was had by everyone.
Thank you to everyone involved, the gals who organised the lovely luncheon, those who set up the room, Lyn for Judging and Penny for the prize vouchers.

Challenges and a Doona Cover...

...yes, really, a quilted Doona Cover.  Yes, it can be done!
Evidence Cheryl with her completed stunner.

Cheryl's D.D. (darling daughter) informed her she didn't want a quilt, but would love a doona cover,
well, challenge accepted and done.

Cheryl used a pre-quilted muslin, like in the pic above, as a liner/base behind the front of the doona cover, and completed the envelope using velcro tabs.
Soon to be winging it's way down to Victoria along with some complementary pillow cases and cushions to make one D.D. a very happy lassie.

25 gals accepted the Lyn Ballinger Challenge this year, an array of concepts produced this great display.  The Challenge winner will be announced at our Luncheon next Wednesday.

Thank You to Penny from Patchwork Angel for the prize vouchers.

The Fabric Arts group has once again welcomed us into their wonderful exhibition to display our challenge.  The Atrium is a glorious jumble of colour.

Lots of fantastic displays as well as goodies for sale.

A challenge involving masks

Wall Art

Wearable Art

Not wearable Art - Coffee?

Yep, this stunning creation features coffee cups, lots of coffee cups!

There was a very special birthday this week, Inge marked her 85th. with a yummy chocolate mud cake. Congratulations Inge.

 Ankie had a geometric challenge to share with us, again, created without a pattern.  Ankie used a selection of her scrap black & white fabrics with oranges, browns and yellows in graduated colours, getting lots of visual movement in her quilt by alternating the geese directions.

A Q.A.Y.G version, Ankie joined her blocks using leftover strips from her scraps, "Got to use it all"
Ankie will be leaving us shortly to return home, she has enjoyed visiting with us as we have enjoyed having her company.

Karen bought a flimsey in to share and get a little 'wadda you think' input about borders.  Teddy stitcheries bordered with some beautiful fabrics but just take a peek at the ric-rac, yep, tiny little embroidered french knots line the ric rac, and those 3-dimensional little flowers? formed with tinsy pieces of merino felt and stitches.

Some of the stitches are formed using just one thread of embroidery floss, how neat is that!

Karen also shared her story and pics of beanies, lots of beanies being knitted for the family and friends, this blue one for one of her grandsons, although he wasn't too fussed on 'the hair' (pom pom) to begin with.  Of course with the State of Origin games she had to very quickly muster up some maroon, in football parlance, blue being for cockroaches and all.

Courtney continues with her second table runner, this pretty one will be gifted.

Getting some machine help from Mary.

Michelle also attends the Thursday night group and sent in a couple of pics and a story.  Thanks Michelle.

Leanne with her beautiful shades of blue patches. Leanne made the quilt for her son in Darwin. The quilt was machine quilted by Latitia another member of the Thursday night group.

Fiona had moved from 'hexies' to 'octagonals', this is way beyond me!

Glue...meh, but with an unexpected bonus

Been sucked into joining Wendy and Di, two ladies who do beautiful work, in the Homespun B.O.M., 'Foxley Village', Wendy has opted for machine blanket stitch, and Di is giving needleturn a run, while moi has decided to give fusible with a turned edge a bit of a go, this entails glue.  Watched a youtube vid. that suggested Elmers School Glue, yep got some of that! so off I went and being the dainty little fairy that I am, managed to get glue everywhere, including the dog (but that's another story for another day)
Phoned the ever helpful Kim from Kimz Sewing and Patchwork who suggested glue sticks.
and
talk about lucky day, Kim is having.....

a 30% off SALE...........

REALLY!!!!
30% off!
got the glue stick, got the refills, got a new ruler.....oh happy days!
The sale is on until Saturday 28th, so if you need something or even just want a little treatie, pop on down, Kimz is on Main Drive, Warana

Lots of fabric and some finished pieces from last weeks dyeing workshop.
Sheila, who had been to a party luncheon, wearing her silk hand dyed outfit, had lots to share with us. 

such as this lovely supper cloth she had created from her hand painted piece of damask.

 Sheila also shared her other finished pieces, some were scrunched into jars and some had interesting effects created by stitching and removing the stitches as well as using clips to resist the dye.                                   

On the Show and Tell table we were treated to...
 a super block created from several fabric layers,

beautiful brights, 

 Assorted other fabric pieces, each a one only piece.

A Q.A.Y.G. string quilt, wouldn't one of these look stunning in dyed brights?

now...glue...gotta go conquer (or be conquered!)

Almost more excitement than a Bunyip can bear!

The Dyeing workshop was so much fun,
There were detailed instructions with a demo...

Lots of pondering for the newbies,

while the more experienced, like Sheila, knew all the tricks and ploughed straight in.

Courtney was curious, so Lainey 'outfitted her in dye protection', (draped her in a towel) and set her up to watch Sheila.

Courtney got the Dyeing bug and had a go for herself, creating a really pretty piece, Lainey hung it on the official Cottage Dyeing Drying Line, a spare tree in the carpark, so it was all set to go home with Courtney.  What will she create from it? Lainey is plumbing for a cute little pinnie, could be!

Some gals painted or scrunched in a tray, some even added a layer of salt

While others went for the plastic bag and jar immersion technique.

Can't wait for next week to see the finished pieces.  Thanks Sue for a great time and informative lesson.

Elsewhere in the Cottage the rest of the gals were carrying on as usual, some were just carrying on, it was great to see Cheryl back with us and Louise also popped in to say Hi.  Great to catch up with this lovely lady whom we all miss.

Julie was working on some buttonhole applique blocks in a beautiful soft femine palette, this will be another Charity quilt, for Project Linus.

Bit of a confession surfaced, Julie loves doing the Linus quilts because....she doesn't do the quilting!!
Yeah, really, doesn't like the quilting journey! the lady who runs the local Linus group has a longarm and is only too happy to do the quilting! Win, Win.

Sue W had one more secret squirrel handed in up until one of those rareties, a Hubby in the Cottage, arrived with another secret parcel.  Not too many days left now ladies!

 Remember this piece Karen was working on?

Finished! So so pretty, adorable really!

All scrappies from the stash, except the zipper, and yes, it too is pink!
But how about the zipper puller?, a little flower embroidered on either side, two halves joined with an embroidered Palestrina stitch and a plaited floss zipper pull.

Karen found the dome button at Lynette Anderson's Little Quilt Store in Marcoola.  Karren did tell me what she used but I forgot, a simple enquiry to the store got me heaps of info. from the lovely Summer.  The dome buttons not only come in assorted sizes, but you can also use just one half to stitch to a project, or team it with a strap parts pack to use as a zipper pull as Karen has done. 

Karen is still working on her Shashiko piece, looking forward to seeing the finished item.

Some exciting news, Sheila won a bronze medal in her Swim Meet last week, and she has promised to bring her medals along to share with us. 'Maybe I might one day' can be a promise, right? right!!

And lastly, a 'heads up' for Wendy and a bit of excitement in my sewing room.
It's arrived.

from the ever so helpful Deanne of Fabric Pixie my fabrics for Homespun magazine's Foxley Village B.O.M. have arrived.  Deanne cuts the fabrics to a supplied layout so you get just what you need for this great project, the fabrics even come with the corresponding letter labels as per the magazine.
Deanne also mentioned that her store is planning on continuing to cut the kit packs or even part packs for as long as gals want to order them, so if you are having problems sourcing the Tilda Fabrics for Foxley Village, pop over to see Deanne.

In the News...

...well, sorta.
At the last meeting of the B.W.M.C.A. our Cottage rep Sheila was quite tickled to see a reference, with pic, in the report from our local M.P. Steve Dickson to our recent charity quilt push for the drought affected farming families of western Queensland.

We manage to get 16 lovely quilts assembled at short notice to go with the collected toiletries on the next Burrumbuttock Hay Run.
Wendy did a terrific job of machine embroidering the labels as well as stitching them onto a few  of the last minute quilts she was delivering to organiser Pat Morris.

All ready to be packed up and delivered.

Jackie was spotted on L.Q.S.  Kimz facebook last week,making a tuffet.  Yeah, a tuffet, (boy that took me back a few years- you know, little Miss Muffet, sat on... etc) moving on, back to Kimz, Tuffet, etc.
Pics from Kimz facebook, fabric selections, Jackie slaving over a hot machine and getting some help from Terri with the finishing touches.

Kim presents an amazing range of tutors and classes in her store, including 'Tuffet making with Terri'  and I did notice in answer to a readers question that Terri will be doing another class, however, scrolling down Kimz facebook page to re-find the info just got me distracted, so much going on, so many goodies, so many laughs, even some eye opening info, like those little drop down cavities on the front of your machine, not as some thought for storing dust and gizmo's, no, not at all...

Obvious really when you think about it.  Thanks for the 'heads up' Kim.

Jackie shared a pic of her finished Tuffet, legs and all.  Really cute! who wouldn't just love one of these in your sewing corner!

The gals up on the 'quiet and Crazy' table, are all busy as beavers, Michelle is stitching a crazy elephant, he will be framed and hung,

Stella was being facetious about the enormous amount of work done so far on her 'amazingly huge' embroidery piece, there are more stitcheries, and lots of hexies are making an appearance.

 Karen J had a finished quilt to share,

made reversable with the clever use of a crazy patchwork printed backing.

Karen D. was putting the binding on a U.F.O.  - a 35 year old U.F.O!  It's also her very first quilt, a sampler, (aren't most samplers our first?).  

After the birth of her first child, Karen's Sis came to visit, and bought along her current quilting project, Karen was fascinated.  On returning home, Sis, shopped for fabric, patterns, all the needed equipment and parcelled it all off to Karen who hasn't stopped quilting since.  Mind you, it was a bit of a challenge in the early days, Karen was at that time living outback, not too many stores around, certainly no fabric stores within cooee. 

Marlene is also working on a U.F.O. one of the terrific Millamac Australiana patterns, these patterns are getting hard to find, there is a lovely blog post by boot camp quilter, showing some of the patterns, with a link to Quiltessentials in Eatons Hill.

Marlene's version is using raw edge applique with a finishing paint outlining the applique.  'Rudolph' the red nosed kangaroo looks very smart with his gold and glitter outline.

Denise was choosing a binding for this Charity quilt, created with triangles found in the donated boxes of fabric from Derricks darling.  First time stitchine triangles, a challenge conquered.

Talking of challenges, Sue W had a few more secret squirrel entries to our Lyn Ballinger challenge handed in last week.
Nah.  No need to panic, we have heaps of time to the cut off date! just about 2 weeks still to go...GULP!!

 

 If you are one of those folks who don't operate best under pressure, feel free, PANIC!

Perhaps one could make use of Sue's dyeing workshop, paint up a carnival storm.  B.T.W. we will be gathering at 11.30 for a 12.00 start for this workshop.

 Which one? Both!!

News from Pat, enjoying her holiday immensly, going from quilting shop to quilting shop, unable (unwilling?) to choose, can't wait too see what Pat comes home with!