Rainbow Quilts by the Rainbow Connection Quilters

 Wow! What  a busy day we've had today. As people arrived they were instructed to take from the Gram inheritance table. I suppose about half the bits disappeared.

Then it was time to create borders for our pebbles quilt and it is just on ready for them to be added next time we meet.

We had 3 machines going to make strings of 2.5" squares  to go between calico strips. 

During our zoom session we had Jo, Janice, Linda, Liz and four of us at mine - Stephanie, Elaine, Karen and me. 

We had fun looking at all the rainbow strips members have sent us so far. Keep sending them in. We each received a random bundle of 6 colours to create a rainbow quilt from.

Over lunch we discussed a set of constraints for our finished quilts:

• strip sets will only be given to people who can collect them in some way as postage of such large bundles would be too great
• do a search for 'rainbow strip quilts' to get inspiration for your finished quilt(s)
• use the strips you are given to create one or two quilts of maximum size 56" x 56". They can be smaller in either or both of these dimensions so can be square or rectangular
• strips do not have to be in rainbow order and not all strips have to be used in the same quilt
• you are free to choose your own sashing and borders, batting and backing, and quilting style
• finish your quilt however you wish then photograph it and label it before either returning it to Carlton or donating it to your favourite charity

If you have any questions please put them in the comments section below so everyone can see them.

Meeting together last Saturday

 At our last gathering on Saturday we all had our various tasks assigned and while Karen was sewing on labels (see later in this post) I did some quilting and machine binding.

Stephanie trimmed all our pebbles blocks and then joined them into a flimsy.

Elaine machine bound the flowers quilt.

We have received more of our rainbow strips (thank you ladies) and they look stunning hanging over the bannister.

I have now purchased some woven labels for our donation quilts to make the labelling job quick and easy. These are the labels Karen was seen sewing on above. I think the others were labelling as well.

During our Zoom we had a show and tell and I have now photographed all the quilts that are finished and awaiting a new home.

Shadows 2

Ivy and Betty's Pink and Blue using orphan blocks.

Flowers 

The Pebbles flimsy that Stephanie constructed.

Now we need to add borders to the Pebbles and decide how we are going to divvy up the rainbow strips to finish those quilts as the year progresses. Of course we have not received all the strips yet but we can still start. According to the number of active members in the group we should end up with about 10 quilts eventually.

Placemats for Meals on Wheels St George area

 After seeing so many quilters making placemats for Meals on Wheels I rang the NSW branch many years ago and they did not want to know. Susan at Susan's Sewing Space suggested I ring my local Meals on Wheels. Ha success! The manager had never heard of it but thought it was a great idea. Basically she said 'how many have you got?' 

So here we go!

Anyone who has eaten at my place may remember the ones I use.

If you are looking for a little project or want to try out a new technique or use up some scraps. Ring your local Meals on Wheels and see if they'd like some to send out with their meals for birthdays or other special days.

I made some for my grand girls when they were small to teach them about setting the table.

Perhaps I will make a few to practice my machine binding rather than hand hemming the binding.

Thank you Susan for your inspiration.

Our last get together of 2025

 Last Saturday, all in Christmassy mood, we joined forces to label our finished quilts and get them off to their new home at the Cancer Day Centre at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse via Karen

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Our next quilt top has been built and is waiting for perhaps a border of the pale blue. We have decided not to put the extra corner diamonds between each block as it looks so pretty as it is...

I have still not quilted our second shadow box quilt but that is perhaps a January job. 

 Then after our lunch we were joined upstairs by Linda and Jess for some fun with bunting.

This allowed for lots of discussion and laughter about options.

Then we decided to put our last quilt blocks of 2025 up on the design wall to see how they work together. It looks rather good and we all agree that it needs a calico border and then perhaps a border of the small squares with calico binding.

Then of course there was the zoom together with more of our group. Janice and Heather were able to join us for that and Elaine was able to show her latest finished quilt.

Karen had two Japanese Knot bags that she had made. So simple but very effective.

Thank you to all those who have worked so hard this year on our joint projects and have kept me and others sane.

Our latest quilt finish

 When Kerrie was visiting this week she saw our orange quilt and just loved it. I did point out all the faults in the quilting but she still wanted it. So I cut some binding of her choice and there was a lesson and experiment about machine sewing on the binding. It worked relatively well.

So this quilt has gone home with Kerrie and she has give our group a donation towards more supplies. It turns out that orange is Kerrie's favourite colour. 

Thank you Kerrie.

Elaine's creation from Jenny's 'scraps'

 When I was at Baradine in April Jenny gave me lots of scraps, many of which were triangles left from a quilt she had made. Elaine loved these triangles so I gave them to her to play with. Here is the finished quilt...

It really looks great in real life too and will probably be donated to the cancer patients that Karen has contact with.

Just remember - Scraps are not Rubbish!

Windows are finished and more show and tell

Elaine delivered the finished small knee rug I am calling Windows today. 

If anyone wants to suggest where this one should go please let me know.

 Elaine and I also worked today to get this far with our Brown Quilt...

And I also sewed together the Blacks and Brights blocks that Stephanie and I are creating.

In all a lot of homework is done ready for the next steps.

Bags from Baradine

 Stephanie and I had a great trip to Baradine and lots of bags were involved. On the way up we stayed over at a friend's in Mudgee and she donated two bags of treasures as she is downsizing her patchwork activities.

She also donated a floral fabric that I am now using in one of my projects so it does not appear here.

Di donated a huge bag of bits but unfortunately most of them were too small to work with. Scraps need to be big enough to trim to at least 2" square or 1" strips. So these scraps will go straight to rag waste and used by someone else to stuff dog beds. These now fill two large shopping bags.

This is the pile saved from the waste.

Jenny donated another bag of 'bits' but these were much larger pieces!!!

They are all now flattened and there will be lots of usable pieces. Di's pieces are on the top right and Chooky's and mine are the tiny pieces on the top left.

Stephanie had been given lots of fabric so before she came she cut out lots of bags to make at Baradine. They look fabulous and the ladies she was making them for will be able to raise money for their causes.

Of course there was a show and tell session and I photographed quilts that I could use all these scraps in.

Stephanie's 'Oh my gosh' top

Janice's Hexie quilt

Brenda's Hexie quilt

Raewyn put together two of these quilts from blocks we had all made from our scraps and they will be donated to Macquarie Home Stay.

Brenda was a great sewing buddy who was able to solve a lot of my issues with my projects which I will put in a separate post. Thank you Brenda.

And Jo was my other sewing buddy who had such a lovely attitude to using scraps and making mistakes. Here she is knitting up some of the tea bag strings that we all save for her. Thank you Jo for your ideas.

And thank you to Chooky who hosted and organised the group and all the other ladies who came to enjoy working and chatting together.