A really important lesson

 Lynne from Patchery Menagerie has a lot of quilts quilted by others and was applauded for her excellent quilt tops (flimsies). Her lesson for us all is...

"If there are any of you have don't believe the stories you've heard, here it is writ large: Press your seams, trim your threads. Make sure your work is square and lies flat without any ripples. It makes a big difference."

No quilting today because

 

Colour, Value and Intensity

 Here is a link that will lead you to some brain stretching about these things...

https://patcherymenagerie.blogspot.com/2024/09/a-lesson-in-color.html 

Progress in September

We were only four ladies on Saturday but we did tie up a lot of loose ends.

Our scrappy quilt top had backing and binding chosen but it will need to wait for quilting because it really needs to be done on Stephanie's machine as there are so many small pieces to hold down.

 We then focused on Heather's Spots. It was all ready for Elaine to attach the interesting corners and it now is ready for sandwiching.

It will be backed in a flowery yellow that we found and bound with lime green. It actually looks stunning and all those tiny half-square-triangles you sent back have been incorporated.

We were one short for Sue's Daisies so Karen spent time making one more. They are now ready for trimming and joining. We'll probably need a border on this one as it is only small. 

Elaine did a lucky dip draw and it is Karen's contribution. We think it is Wisteria and she included a block design. All I have to do now is write the instructions and post out the fabric. It will come eventually as I am still quite exhausted from my recent trip away.

Our Zoom also had 5 people online - Elaine (who went home early), Karen and I (who were still at mine), Heather (NZ) and Lynette.

If anyone has any ideas about new ways to run our weekends please contact me and we'll put our thinking caps on.

Our August first Saturday gathering

 It was a small group that gathered last Saturday. Just Elaine, Stephanie, Glenda and I.

Our zoom in the afternoon brought in Karen (with Covid), Jeanette, Linda and Heather.

Despite the fact that I have no photos, Jeanette did show us her progress on Jack's Chain with its 1.5" squares and 3.5" hexagons. No doubt she will send through some photos soon but a quick image search on Jacks Chain Quilt with show the variations that are possible. I can see me doing one of these soon. Jeanette is using white as her circle effect and all sorts of colours for her other parts.

So what did our tiny group do? We introduced Glenda to the art of creating pale slabs to fill in the few blank spaces in our latest scrappy quilt. We also trimmed all the blocks to 6" and arranged them in a pleasing manner ready to sew them together.

Our Heather's Purple Spots is coming along and we will be able to incorporate all those 'waste' half square triangles that you all sent back. Thank you.

Our latest block (Sue's Daisies) has been sent back by most people so if yours is still not with me please send it or deliver it soon. Next time we'll put this top together.

Elaine was really quite confused with her latest creation so brought it along to be sorted out. 

It is supposed to look like the one below but to get that the blue spot half square triangles needed to be turned 90 degrees in the blocks Elaine made. We decided that was too much like hard work but hers will look great anyway.

A great day was had by all and of course the food was delicious. See you next time.

A pop-up quilting day

 Our new member Sue came today to learn patchwork from the beginning. Stephanie also came to help. 

Sue learned lots about 1/4 " seams and leaders and enders and finished her block for our current project.

Stephanie made a few more pale blocks for our latest one on the design wall.

Stephanie also enjoyed a tiny birthday celebration before Sue arrived.

It was a lovely day for the three of us.

July Zoom together

 On Saturday, because I had the flu, we cancelled our gathering at mine and had a zoom in the afternoon. I forgot to do a screen shot which is annoying. It was all a bit of a hoot because I coughed a lot, Stephanie was in the shadows for half the zoom and Elaine could not unmute herself. We also had Jen (Mudgee), Karen (Balmain), Christine (Noosa) and Jeanette (Geraldton).

Some people had show and tell...

• Jen showed us a 3D card she had made
• Christine has been doing paper piecing
• Karen has created 3 blocks for her new BOM
• Elaine could not show us what she had been doing (update is now that having uninstalled and reinstalled Zoom on her tablet she can now get onto Zoom)
• Stephanie, despite her illness, showed us one finish and one quilt in progress 
• I did not show anything.

Jeanette zoomed from her car on a windy day trip to Kalbari to see the Murchison river flowing. Because it was so windy she could not show us so sent me photos later in the day which I include here.

She said they'd seen about 20 whales out to sea.

Jeanette also included some photos of the fauna that existed long ago and left tracks now fossilised. I've seen the tracks of this one.

Jeanette also corrected the caption she sent last time calling one of her quilts a winding ways quilt. It is actually called Walkabout. Thanks Jeanette for all your pics. I'm glad you beat the storm home and were not swept away in the raging torrent of the Murchison.

A show and tell from Jeanette

 Jeanette says...

Our patchwork group had a Stay at Home Retreat last weekend in Dongara. Very productive. I completed the quilt top "Turning  Twenty- Again ". Now to back it & quilt it. 

I finished quilting "Spinning Stars" & " Winding Ways" 

I love the quilting on the Spinning Stars Jeanette.

A June Get-together

 Last weekend on a very very wet day we gathered to have fun with patchwork again. We had a new member, Sue W.,  and quite a few absent members but some of them joined us on zoom later in the day. Kerrie also joined us. She was on her way to a hang-gliding adventure when it was called off so she decided she was closer to my place than her home so came for the day here.

We spent the morning making scrappy squares for our next quilt so the table looked a mess.

It is looking quite good so far.

In the afternoon we drew out our next fabric and spent a while choosing an appropriate block design and hunting through my stash for fabrics that will be good with the Focus Fabric.

 

Everyone arrived home safely even though it was raining cats and dogs when most people left. Thanks for a lovely day.

A Pop-up May gathering

 Heather (NZ) and Jon came to stay for two nights at the weekend. So I called a pop-up gathering and we had lots of fun together. 

On Friday afternoon, soon after they arrived, Stephanie came and we started creating our scrappy crumb blocks for our next challenge. And yes, it is a challenge. Stephanie stayed for dinner as well so we had a great time getting to know one another.

On Saturday Stephanie returned and Elaine came as well so more scrappy crumb blocks were made and we all learned a lot about not 'over-thinking' the process. Just join bits in twos then twos in fours and so on until you get a 6 1/2" trimmed block. Lots of mistakes were made but we all learned in the process.

Then we started discussing the tiny pieces that we trimmed off our block and Stephanie showed us what can be done with such pieces. I am now saving these for her and then the absolutely unusable pieces I am composting.

Lunch was a fun affair and was created by again just putting all available and donated food on the table and tucking in.

At the end of the day we have a beginning of our Scrappy Crumby Quilt and it is looking quite stunning.

Elaine brought back our Ballerina quilt all bound and it is now ready to donate once I put a label on it. If you would like it then please let me know.

Heather was so taken with the Tessellated Stars Quilt that we asked her to take it home to quilt and bind and keep it.

So now we only have Heather's Spots to put together at our next gathering and lots more scrappy crumby blocks to make.

A fun and full weekend.