A visit from Stephanie saw the borders on our Daisy quilt top finished. It is now just waiting for a sandwich.
Meanwhile, lots of blocks have been returned for our Tulips, our Little Frames and our 2-4-6 stained glass quilts so we have 3 lots ready to become a flimsy when all the blocks are received.
Elaine bound our Heather's Spots quilt and attached the label. It really looks great and all the tiny left-over 1/2 square triangles were used.
They are now all packed and lots of broken plastic containers have been moved on elsewhere. I was most grateful to Elaine and Stephanie for their help with folding and discussing how to organise the new drawers. This was started before our movie night then continued the next day with Elaine.
Stephanie quilted this one for Elaine and it looks stunning.
On Saturday last four of us gathered and early in the day Elaine and I chose another fabric because we realised that with Christmas coming and my hip op in January followed by rehab, we probably won't be getting together for another quilting day until March 2025. We have therefore designed a block that is simple enough but with a bit of quirkiness to keep life interesting.
The base block is known as a Magic Numbers block because it is based on 2-4-6" finished squares which tessellate into a 14" block. However, because I like the idea of Stained Glass we've added some black leading. If we were to add it as strips the maths would all have to be redone. So by making the leading as peepers there are no maths challenges.
The basic block design comes from Sew Katie Did at https://www.sewkatiedid.com/2011/08/21/magic-number-quilt-tutorial/
We made our Lilac Flowers quilt back in 2014 using this technique which was introduced to us by Jenny. It is most appropriate that the fabric donation this time also came from Jenny. Those who were here were able to raid my stash of cut patches to include in their blocks.
Now it is time to gather together all the finished blocks for our last three quilts as they come in so that when we get together again we can do the next steps to create beautiful quilts. So keep your blocks coming in.
It was also great to meet up on Zoom with Jenny, Linda and Lynette on Saturday.
As soon as I had collapsed in front of the TV and eaten my early dinner on Saturday I had an email inviting me to a short zoom from Chookyblue. It was great to meet up with those quilting friends and have a bit of time to sort fabrics to post to distance members of our group.
If anyone would like to text or ring to book another pop-up patchwork day please do so. I'm happy to negotiate.
Jeanette (Geraldton, WA) has sent photos of her latest projects.
She explains I've completed the 2 raffle quilts for our club .... 75"x66". I also made hexi mug mats with caravans as centres, but decided I didn't need more of these so put them together as a table centre.
The two quilts for the club are the same size.
I like the caravans Jeanette!
Stephanie and I work well together on joint projects and I learn so much from such a guru of patchwork.
Our latest finish is Baradine Bits by Bubble Buddies...
Stephanie used a different sashing technique for her latest quilt top and says it is so much easier to put it all together.
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."
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
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.
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.
A great day was had by all and of course the food was delicious. See you next time.
Our new member Sue came today to learn patchwork from the beginning. Stephanie also came to help.
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...
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.
Jeanette says...
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.
Everyone arrived home safely even though it was raining cats and dogs when most people left. Thanks for a lovely day.
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.
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.
