Quilting Weekend in November

 

This last weekend there was lots to do, lots to see and lots to talk about. The first thing to report is that the beautiful red log cabin is ready for quilting and binding  and we have created our 'rules' for a quilt draw amongst ourselves that will allow us to win one of our beautiful quilts and donate some money to charity instead of the quilt if that is the most appropriate outcome.

We spent lots of time completing blocks for our dresden plate sampler and joining our pinwheels together for our pinwheel quilt.

 

There was lots of time to chat and have our 'board meeting' and we welcomed a new member Lian to our group.

Liz's blue and pink flowers are now complete and this quilt will be the first in our quilt draw for 2012 so keep tuned and we will publish the winner when it is drawn at our February weekend.

Then there was a show and tell time. Robyn had a quilt almost finished and I had much to show and tell about my quilting experiences whilst Elaine and I were in Canada and the USA. Here is the quilt top I completed as my project when I went with Marion to her quilting long weekend at Kennybunk Beach, Maine. I collected all the fabrics when I was travelling. They are all fall fabrics as a reminder of the fabulous fall colours we saw as we travelled.

I also demonstrated the twister blocks below that I learned to do at the quilt camp. Everyone is now very excited to be doing a green on green set of blocks for an extra quilt. This is a bit hard to demonstrate for our distance members but if you have a twister template and can follow the instructions below then please do so and send back your experiment including the little offcuts as well.

Fun with twisters

When I attended a quilt camp in Maine last month I learned how to use a Li'l Twister template to make this stunning table mat. At our last quilt weekend I showed those present how it is done so we are all making the starter block. This runner uses 12 x 5" squares of fabric ("charm squares") but we have decided to make blocks for a quilt using only 9 x 5" squares of fabric which will give us 12.5" unfinished blocks. So here are the instructions:

1. Make a 9-patch using 5" squares of fabric in any greens you can find (avoid Christmas fabrics). Add a border of cream (calico or tone on tone cream will be OK). Don't get hung up on the "green", anything that says green to you even if it has bits of other colours will work. Don't forget to use 1/4" seams everywhere.

 

2. Place the template at each point in the block making sure the crossed lines on the template line up with the joins in your fabrics. Draw around the template.

Make sure you draw around every point on the block, even the ones along the border edge.

3. Using sharp and pointy scissors cut out one row of pieces and arrange them just as they were above your block. This step will avoid confusion.

4. Twist each piece anticlockwise until it lines up along the edges of the cut squares. Join these squares with 1/4" seams.

5. Cut out the next row of squares and line them up as you did before. Then twist them anticlockwise and join them. You will notice that you will have small squares of fabric left on your original block. Be careful with these scraps and try not to cut into them as they will be used later in the border of our quilt.

6. Once you have all the pieces cut and joined as rows, sew the rows together to form your block. Remember, for our blocks you will only have 9 stars, not 12 stars as in these pictures.

Hints:

• Small prints work better than large prints.
• Put colours and textures together than contrast with those around them.
• Cut accurately and try not to cut into the left over scraps.
• Keep all scraps.

I have now written the instructions for this Square Dance block and linked it from the Instructions tab at the top of this page.

Patchwork in August

What a productive weekend we have had. Unfortunately there are very few photos of people working but of course I have photos of quilts.On Saturday we had a small but hard working crowd with Linda, Jenny, Wilma, Robyn, Elaine, Mary and me.

Elaine sewed the label on Jane's Birds to finish off that one. I finished off the quilting the week before. We can now donate that quilt to Bezzina House.

After I had completed the borders of Liz's Flowers last week we all worked hard to tack the top to the polar fleece then hand quilt the feature flower fabric. All now complete. Linda attached her first binding to this quilt. This quilt is now ready for hand hemming and Ruth (not able to come this weekend) has offered to do this between now and our next weekend in November. Here is a picture of one of the corners of this quilt. I have now worked out how to avoid what I call 'crappy corners' in the binding so that they consistently turn out beautifully mitred and pointy. I'll put up some instructions when I have written them. Linda did these ones beautifully.

Then there is Suzy's Red Log Cabin. Of course there was some discussion about the arrangement of the blocks then the borders and binding. Here is the progress so far. Mary took on the challenge of trimming all the blocks to size, we designed corners for the border so we did not have to join the border fabric at all. (My rule is if you have to join it make a feature of the join.) We have so many people in our group now that we have enough blocks to make a few cushions to go with the quilt or to add to our next orphan block quilt. Robyn and I decided this one needed to be mounted on batting rather than polar fleece.

During this discussion a suggestion was made that perhaps occasionally we could raffle a quilt amongst ourselves because these quilts are really stunning and we'd all like the opportunity to keep one. Elaine and I have taken on the task of writing up the 'rules' for such a raffle whilst we are travelling together so stay tuned, you might eventually be the owner of one of our beautiful quilts.

Now we are up to the Pinwheel Quilt but as some of the blocks have not come back yet we have thought no more about that one. Please remember to add a 6.5" piece of the centre plain fabric when you return the block. Here are a few of the blocks we have had returned so far.

Finally we had our next lucky dip draw. Actually this was done as soon as the second person arrived on Saturday and was drawn by the first person to arrive. Linda drew Penny's Dresden Plate fabric. Linda and I had discussed an idea to have another 'Sampler Quilt' so we all thought it a good idea that rather than everyone doing a Dresden Plate block that Penny could do that if she wants to (as it was her choice) and it could take centre stage on the quilt then we could all do a block of our own choosing to go with it. You can do a Dresden Plate if you'd like to try it too. It won't matter if we have more than one. We have chosen a cream fabric to go with the focus fabric then everyone can choose other fabrics in the colours supplied. In fact we might even end up with enough blocks for two quilts or some cushions to go with it.

So stay tuned for details of the raffle (it will only be amongst group members). And have fun making the next block. I hope to have fabrics posted before the end of the week. All Pinwheel blocks are due by 1 November and all 'Sampler blocks' or 'Dresden Plate blocks' are due by the end of January ready for our first quilting weekend of 2012. Gosh does time fly! If anyone has any ideas for the structure of our quilting weekends next year please let me know. Our membership comes and goes but now we have about 20 active members (about 10 locals and 10 overseas). There are also a number of members who are not active for various reasons but who we consider part of the group also.

June Weekend

Last weekend we had a great time and it was extremely productive.

We have now finished hemming Jane's Birds and I am now quilting it (done in the wrong order but it worked best that way). Evelyn and Robyn were Trojans getting all the hemming completed.

We then had our usual discussions about how to arrange Liz's Pink and Blue Flowers. As we had an extra block, the extra one has become a frame for our label on the back of the quilt. It looks fabulous with the usual label sewn in the centre. I have just received another one of these blocks which will be saved for one of our orphan block quilts.

Then there was another discussion about framing, borders and binding and here is what we have ended up with. It actually looks quite stunning.

There will eventually be a thin blue binding around this border.

The next task was to put all the Red Log Cabin blocks that have been received onto our design wall. As we still have quite a few to be returned, this will be arranged properly next time. People have found this block very challenging due to the need for absolute accuracy in squaring, sewing and trimming. Funny that such a simple looking block is such a challenge. The trick is to not just trim it straight each time you add a strip but also to trim it square with the centre block. Another trick is to cut the strips a generous width (extra 1/8") then trim them to size after they are sewn on.

The final activity was to draw the next lucky dip which was some fabric donated by Jane in Connecticut. There was no block design with it so Jenny (who drew the lucky dip) chose a block design. Instructions for this one will come soon and you will receive your pieces of fabric which will become the background fabric of the star.

All in all a fun weekend with lots of patchwork, eating, chatting and good company.

Thank you all.

Quilt Pictures

I have now added the pictures of our Rainbow Connection Quilts since 2007 when we started. I have also added pictures of the three we have finished so far this year. Use the tabs at the top of this page to find the images.

April Quilting Weekend

Last weekend was a very active quilting weekend. With a lot of work from members in the weeks prior (see previous post) we have now caught up on some of our quilts and have completed the Mr Men and Linda's Butterfly quilts. Now we are back to only having three quilts on the go - Jane's Birds (borders are now being attached), Liz's Flowers (awaiting two more blocks) and Suzy's Log Cabin (fabric pieces and instructions will be posted out soon).

I reverted to being school marm this weekend. Some blocks needed to be redone because 1/4 inch seams were not accurate and therefore the final blocks were wrong sizes for the quilt top. Of course I just changed any overseas blocks but those who attended spent time altering blocks or catching up on unfinished blocks.

In the photo below Jane's Birds in on the design wall and looks great (so does Linda of course). It is amazing how a block with prominent straight lines to start with can create diamonds in the finished quilt!

Evelyn and others used our number four sewing machine in our small sweat shop. This one was donated by a friend from her grandmother's estate. What a bonus! We now have four active machines and at least three of them were in use at the weekend, each threaded with a different colour.

Marion from Massachusetts has spent hours hemming and pressing so that quilts could be finished. Here she has the binding for Linda's Butterflies.

I will put up photos of the finished quilts soon.

We had up to 6 people (always a few different people in the mix) at every meal so it was quite a busy, noisy group as we discussed quilts, block arrangements, block designs and other things. A great weekend again.

Finishing Quilts

April has been a busy quilting month.

Robyn and I went to Tamworth on a quilting bus trip (see previous blog), Elaine came to create borders for the Mr Men quilts, Linda came to finish the butterfly quilt top and Marion is staying with me and has just on finished hemming the binding on both Mr Men quilts.

Liz, Marion, Ruth and I met up at various times to finish our latest blocks for our next quilt and Elaine came to experiment with the freezer paper mosaic blocks.

By next weekend (our next quilting weekend) we will be well on our way to completing 3 quilts ready to donate and can put together Jane's Birds quilt and examine the blocks for Liz's Flowers.

I also started as facilitator of the Kogarah Library Quilting Group. This will keep me busy too. 

Tamworth Quilting trip

Last weekend I went with Robyn and 30 other quilters on the Quilter's Guild of NSW away weekend. It was a coach tour to Tamworth and back visiting all sorts of points of interest to a bunch of quilters. Our driver, Clayton, was fantastic and put up with us all very well, said we were by far the cleanest group he had ever taken anywhere.

Whilst on the coach there were jokes and tidbits from the organisers, games, prizes and chatter between ourselves.  We had to take something for show and tell, some fabric pieces to donate along the way for 'I spy' quilts and some magazines to donate along the way as well. Then there were the stops...

Friday 1 April
We met at 7:30am at Sutherland and had another pickup at Strathfield.

Blueberries at Wyong - where I bought the Australian Patchwork Directory giving lists of all the places of interest to quilters throughout Australia. We had a 10% discount offered so prices were good.

At Singleton we joined the Singleton Quilters for lunch and had a show and tell of quilts from both the Sydney members and the Singleton members. One particular young member did not seem at all interested.

Then on to the Country Capital Motel at Tamworth. After a fabulous dinner which included the most tender fillet steak I have had in a long time, some of us went to the West Tamworth Leagues Club for some country music and line dancing. We were really a group of novices who giglled and tripped the whole way through. A courtesy bus was provided to and from the motel by the club.

Saturday 2 April
After breakfast at 7am we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Quite interesting to see displays of all the people that I own CDs by or have heard in earlier years.

Morning tea was provided by the Inspirations patchwork and gift shop in Tamworth where lots of ladies bought lots of fabric at 10% discount offered.

Lunch was provided by the Tamworth CWA and hosted by the Tamworth quilting group. The gathering was at the Community Centre where we had lots of chat, eating and another show and tell. Other groups were there and included Grafton, Nundle, Singleton and more.

Then there was a short drive to the Tamworth Regional Craft Centre, a tin shed at the other end of town. Here was a wonderful display of woodwork and other locally made crafts for sale. I bought a stained glass panel for my laundry window. I have been looking for one for ages so am overjoyed. It even arrived home in one piece.

Then there as a wine and cheese event at the Tamworth Regional Gallery. There focus is fabrics but there was also a great visiting exhibition of Aboriginal Art. We had a special tour of the storage facility where we were shown some of the quilts not on exhibition.

Back to the motel for dinner and an early night. We all had to remember to turn our clocks back for the end of daylight savings.

Sunday 3 April
An early start this morning so that we could fit in three more visits before heading home.
First stop - Nundle Woollen Mill where there was a tour of the mill itself and a very expensive shopping spree for beautiful woolen clothes not available in Sydney. I bought two very fine woollen jumpers with V-necks to wear with my shirts and pants.

Then on to Cottage on the Hill out of Nundle. I only bought one fat quarter there. It is a fantastic shop and the owner also has weekend sleepover classes. We were treated to scones with jam and cream for morning tea.

Muswellbrook was the last stop in our trip. We were again treated to lunch by the Muswellbrook quilting group and CWA and had another show and tell.

In all it was a fantastic trip and I will certainly look forward to the next one.

2011 Begins

Last weekend was our first quilting weekend for 2011.

Our first task was to tack the Mr Men quilts ready for quilting. This job is so much better when done by a crowd around a table.


We had two new members Wilma and Jenny who were both very keen to see our quilts and try their hand at anything.

Then we had another tacking job. Leonie has made a quilt for her parents (seen here hanging over the bannister). Our next job was to tack that quilt sandwich ready for Leonie to quilt and bind.

At times there was standing room only with those attending being: Leonie, Elaine, Mary, Evelyn, Linda, Robyn, Wilma, Jenny, Ruth and of course me. I made a bit of a blunder on calculating the size of the small squares so all the sewing that Elaine did had to be unpicked. She looks happy here but that did not last when we realised it was wrong.

Robyn brought along one of her magnificent quilts that she had recently finished. Unfortunately I have no photos of her show and tell. Thanks for the inspiration Robyn.

Of course there was the usual beautiful food and lots of time to chat around the dining table.

The weekend was extended to include a trip to the Craft Mailbox on Monday morning for Leonie, Robyn and I and there were lots of fabrics on sale. Needless to say we spent all our allowances. We now have the sashing, borders and binding fabrics for the butterfly quilt if anyone feels like coming to start that process.

In all a fabulous and exhausting weekend again. Thank you to those who came and those others who support us from afar.