Christmas Patchwork

Both my patchwork groups had Christmas gatherings - above are the Rainbow Connection Quilters and below are the Kogarah Library Quilters.

These two 'quilts' (actually curtains) have been made for Kogarah Library activity times for small people. They were a lot of fun to make, first each creating one or more of the patches, then working out how to put them together. Thanks ladies for all the hard work that went into these.

 

 

A visit to Springwood quilters

A few weeks ago some of us from Rainbow Connection Quilters and the Kogarah Library Quilters visited a group in Springwood who launched an Bushfire Quilt Appeal for 200 quilts by Christmas. Tracey, who is in charge is on the far right of the photo above. We even got a mention on the Quilt Appeal blog!

Ces and Lorraine drove up with all our quilts (4 from Rainbow Connection Quilters and 17 from Kogarah Library Quilters). Barre, Marion, Karen and I travelled by train and were collected at the station to go to the Salvation Army Hall at Springwood.

As soon as we arrived we were put to work on one of the many jobs there were around the room. The group meets every Thursday to make community quilts.

 

Karen and Lorraine did lots of pinning of quilt sandwiches and I was asked to cut dozens of binding strips then pass them on to another person to sew them together. In fact it was a well oiled production line.

Morning tea was most sumptuous so whenever we needed a break we ate some more. Ces and Marion were snapped as they enjoyed a chat over a cuppa.

Barre has found his calling in a quilt group. As he is tall he got the job of holding the quilts up for each to be photographed. I think his arms ached for days afterwards.

In all we had a great day and a very pleasant train trip. 

Two more quilts and an extra weekend

With a lot of help from Marion (mostly hemming binding) when she visited recently we have now finished two more quilts and donated them to the Springwood Bushfire Quilt Appeal (more on this later).

Linda T's hidden nine patch quilt

Jenny's Poppies

Because Marion was visiting when there was not an official quilting weekend we held an extra one for people to bring their UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and PhD's (Projects Half Done). We had fun and all of us got something achieved.

 

  

A Stolen Quilt

The quilting fraternity are asked to publicise the fact that a quilt has been stolen. Please see the link here.

October Weekend

What a blow! I forgot to take any photos last weekend. But with the help of 3 quilt police and many others sewing and ironing we did get the Linda T's Hidden 9-patch quilt together on Saturday. That evening I was able to sew on the borders.

On Sunday Robyn and I started tacking the layers together so if anyone would like to come and finish the tacking with me just let me know when. We alternated tacking the 9-patch and the quilting of Jenny's Poppies so we did not get bored. Both jobs are only half done so help with the quilting is also waiting if someone wants to try some machine quilting.

I think I was still coping with jet lag and the end of my cold as the weekend was a bit of a blur. Those that were here have discovered that although the 9-patch is easy to do, it is very difficult to put together when more than one person is involved. When a few people are removing pairs of blocks from the design wall there is not a lot left on the design wall from which to check the arrangement of the blocks. Hence the need for three quilt police to check that patches were returned to the wall in the same orientation they left it.

Lots of fun was had by all.

Two Quilts Finished

Marion's Churn Dash

At our July quilting weekend we completed two quilts. These have been drawn and the winners have both chosen to either give them to one of our members who is in love with them or to donate them to charity. I am still awaiting final decisions.

Sea Shells (donor of focus fabric unknown)

We had a small but productive group and are pleased with our achievements.

We drew another fabric this time (Helen Vette's blue flowers) but we also had a fat quarter of fabric given to us from the Quilters Guild (muted pink, green, navy colouring) because we entered our quilt in the recent quilt show. So there are two fabrics to work on. You might receive these soon but there is no rush as I have not written the instructions for Helen's block yet. These two blocks will be due in to me by the end of January.

The Quilters Guild fabric is to be included in a 12.5" 9-patch as follows - it should be trimmed to 4.5" and be placed at one corner of the 9-patch. The centre of the 9-patch block should use one of the colours in the fabric as a solid or tone-on-tone. The other squares should only use the colours in the focus fabric. We will be creating another hidden 9-patch quilt but please do not cut the final blocks this time just send it back as an uncut 12.5" 9-patch block. All pieces in this block will be 4.5" whole squares. Please email me if you need more help with this.

The instructions for Helen's block will be sent out later via email.

Using Polar Fleece Scraps

Here's an idea for using up all those polar fleece scraps that we are accumulating. Make a polar fleece patchwork blanket by using a skip stitch blade to punch holes around the edge then start creating from there... http://www.skipstitch.com/ideas.html

You could even use this method to join scraps to back a quilt top.

Our Sylvanvale Quilt

 

 The clients at the Sylvanvale Sutherland Activity Centre have just finished their first quilt and it looks stunning. Congratulations to all those who worked so well on this project.

Betty's Rules for Practically Perfect Piecing

For those of you that wanted to print out my Rules please follow the link here.

You might like to print them out, laminate them and pin them near your sewing machine.

If you are not sure what my cryptic rules mean just add a comment here where I can answer it for everyone.

Sydney Quilt Show

Our Wilma's Chocolate Roses quilt made it to the Sydney Quilt Show. In the photo above it is row 4, second from the right. It looked stunning from a distance when you could not see the quilting issues. This photo shows about 1/3 of the total exhibition and of course there were hundreds of stalls as well as workshops to attend.

Robyn and I volunteered for 1.5 hours of 'white glove' duty and our quilt was in Robyn's section. It was great fun doing the duty because we really got to look carefully at the quilts we were in charge of and by finding out the answers to all the questions asked we learned a lot about various techniques.

I'll certainly be happy to volunteer for white glove duty again. And well done ladies for a lovely quilt which will now go to Robyn who was the winner of the draw and has decided to keep the quilt.

A quilting weekend in June

This weekend we had a small but very productive group at our weekend. Robyn brought a new quilt she has recently completed. It is magnificent! We thought this would be a good challenge for one of our next lucky dip fabrics that doesn't actually have a block  in the parcel. Robyn's quilts are so inspiring for us all.

We have started quilting the Seashells quilt. It is a small quilt but should be just beautiful when it is finished. Our last job yesterday was to tack it to its backing before quilting then I started the quilting last night.

In this photo the two quilts over the banister are two more that we were able to put together this weekend. Jenny's Poppies is just waiting for another border and then for me to buy the fabric for binding. Marion's Churn Dash has beautifully mitred corners done by Karen and is now ready for tacking onto its backing for quilting.

Linda and Elaine both had an opportunity to do a little more on their current quilts too. A lot of progress was made! We did not draw another lucky dip as there were just too many quilts awaiting finishing but now there is only the Linda T's Hidden Nine Patch to finish. This means we'll choose another block soon.

A Jelly Roll Day

 Today we met for our quilting weekend at Kogarah Library hosted by Jenny and Wilma. Our task was to have a Jelly Roll Race. (Jelly being American for Jam - Jelly Rolls look a bit like fabric Jam Rolls).

 Pam (Qld) and husband Bryan were here for their first quilting weekend so Pam had to start with the cutting techniques. Much concentration was needed. Bryan kept himself busy until lunch time out in the Library.

 

We all enjoyed our Thai lunch just near the Library and ended the day with a quilt top each. All the tops were so different! What fun we had.

 

Two more quilts finished

We have made a great start to the year with two more quilts complete and ready to go. That is three this year so far. Mind you some of them have been waiting a long time.

Our Green Twister hand quilting was finished by Ruth and Lian and was won by Suzy in the UK. Suzy has decided to have this quilt redrawn. Ruth was our next winner who has chosen to donate it to charity.

Wilma's Chocolate Roses quilting is now complete so Robyn will be able to claim it once it has been exhibited.

Our Next Block

The instructions for our next block are under the RCQ Instructions tab.

Here are the basic rules...

1. Focus fabric is in the centre.
2. There must be at least 4 other fabrics that go with the centre fabric.
3. No solids or blacks.
4. Squares should be cut to 5".
5. Centre square will end up 4.5" finished.
6. Do not trim block to any size.
7. Cut vertically and horizontally through the centre.
8. Take time to play with rearranging the four small blocks before you return it to HQ.

The fabric and block design was donated by Linda T from Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for the challenge Linda.

Kings Highway Quilt

With the extra help from Jeanette and Liz after our last weekend the King's Highway (aka Suffragette) Quilt is now finished. Because Liz (NZ) was here I was able to draw the quilt with a witness and it was won by Linda who has chosen to donate it to charity rather than keep it. Linda will then remain in the draw for our next quilt.

Our first get-together for 2013

Our first meeting of 2013 was a busy one with four quilts quite close to being complete. Lian is completing the hand quilting on the Green Twister (Ruth having done quite a bit already), we have hemmed the Chocolate Roses which now just has a little more quilting to be done. We have sandwiched the King's Highway and Jenny's Poppies is nearly a complete quilt top.

Jeanette and Graham came to join us from Dongara, WA. Having only had a day of lessons when I visited them last year, Jeanette was pleased to be able to move on to the next stage in her patchwork and quilting. Lots to learn and lots to remember.

Robyn won the Chocolate Roses Quilt raffle and has decided to keep the quilt. It is most amazing that this is the one she won as she had such a huge part in decisions to use batting instead of polar fleece. She has decided to keep the quilt.

The baton system worked a treat with only a few changes to be made for next time. Thank you everyone for rising to the challenge so well.

On Sunday evening Ellen, Rod, Alex and Luke arrived early for dinner and the boys were most disappointed that they could not do some sewing this time. Alex is already asking for a sewing machine of his own. However, they did enjoy looking at Ma's special pop-up books.

Rod was able to get on with some soldering once he found Surrey's soldering iron. Unfortunately the stool he was sitting on broke during the process so he could be rather sore from his sudden drop.

 

Thank you to all who came and made the weekend so enjoyable. Thank you to Graham who cooked a beautiful baked dinner for Sunday night. I think Jeanette and I will be exhaused for a few days yet but now we have her next lesson ready - binding the King's Highway quilt which she and Linda finished quilting using the walking foot yesterday.

Patches and Quilts

I have now completed the update of the various Instructions tabs on this blog.

For my classes following the Patches and Quilts 2013 program there is now a tab called Patches and Quilts with links to instruction pages and websites to help you each week.

For the Rainbow Connection Quilters group I have put our blocks in the RCQ Instructions tab.

Take a look around and see what you think. All feedback is welcome.