Jeanette's Hexie Vest

At our zoom on Saturday Jeanette showed us her hexie vest. She was finishing the binding on the arm holes as we chatted. She has now finished it and sent us pics...

 An amazing job well done! Thanks for sharing Jeanette. We also learned that all Jeanette's hexie work is with 3/4" hexies!!!!!!!

Rainbow Show and Tell so far

 For the last 6 months we have all been working on our rainbow strips and quilts. Jo has written the process story on her blog.

I thought I would now add images of our quilts so far. We each had to create a quilt from an assortment of strips made by different members...

Betty's quilt is a simple strip quilt bagged with no binding.
It is backed with polar fleece.

Elaine sewed her strips together  then cut the quilt top diagonally.
She has backed it in yellow and rainbow polar fleece
then bound it with rainbow diagonal stripes

Stephanie decided not to use all 6 strips then
added a coloured diamond to the bottom (top)
to lengthen the quilt. 
It is backed with polarfleece.

Karen removed one block from each strip
and inserted them as diamonds as a diagonal feature.

Jo used her strips to create a corner feature. 
She had to make a few more bits of purple and blue.
She used all the trimmed off pieces to create a binding for the quilt.
Find her process on her Butterz blog.

Carol has taken a set of strips home at our last gathering and will create another quilt for our collection. Janice also has a set of strips but will probably donate her quilt to her favourite charity.

I am still waiting for the strips that Deana made before we divvy up the remaining strips.

Rainbow Progression

 Progress with our quilts went a little further last Saturday. We had a small group with Stephanie, Karen, Elaine and a long awaited visit from Carol.

While we on zoom I did my usual walk around showing off our finished Pebbles flimsy and tacked it ready for quilting and also two quilts I am currently working on.

Thank you to the ladies for helping me sandwich my Surrey's Shirts quilt.

Then there was a show and tell by Elaine - a quilt using lots of half square triangles donated by Jenny at Scrub Stitchin'. The quilt looks like a Persian Rug.

Jo joined us on zoom while she was teaching at a quilt group in Mildura. She was able to show us progress on many different zig-zag quilts. See them on ButterZ. They are just amazing! What a stunning way to use up more scraps.

Karen brought along her finished Rainbow quilt to add to our collection.

Soon we'll be able to have a virtual show and tell with everyone's contributions.

Once Deana's rainbow strips arrive from Utah we'll be able to divvy up to make the remaining quilts.

Thanks to all those who joined in either in person or virtual. It was a fun gathering.

May Gathering

 Last Saturday our small band of hard working ladies all cursed me. I had brought home lots of scrap fabric from Baradine donated by the Scrub Stitchers. So I set the task for the day was to cut the fabric pieces into standard sized squares or strips for use in later projects.

We had our usual Show and Tell over Zoom with Jo and Janice and here are a few below. I forgot to photograph Elaine's quilt.

Stephanie's inspiring new blocks

Karen's version of Leaders and Enders

Three finished quilt tops and quilts and more strips to put together

The same block that Stephanie is making but this one is made from Surrey's shirts.

We welcome our possible new members Sue (Victoria), Tina (Campbelltown) and Deana (Utah).

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.

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 recent day together

 On Saturday our group met together both in real life and on zoom.

Our latest challenge is to create a strip each of each of 6 colours in any way you like. It is a real stash buster challenge. In 6 months we will have enough strips for multiple quilts and can spend the rest of the year putting them together. The strips can be any width but at least 56" long. Our display so far is quite impressive and the only one of our colours not represented in this photo is orange.

In the afternoon we had our usual zoom but unfortunately quite a few people were late getting on which is an issue when I can only book a 40 minute zoom session.

I was able to do my usual walk around the room showing progress so far on some of our projects.

Then of course there was 'show and tell' (more on that later).

Stephanie's mountains, here held for display by Alec, was amazing. Foundation paper piecing.

Elaine had been given all these strips an created this colourful queen size quilt. We were all pleased that Alec was here to hold it up with Stephanie.

Stephanie's show and tell is an Easter Egg bowl.

My grand daughter Ivy had helped create the flimsy for this quilt and Elaine was able to bind it.

Stephanie has almost finished the binding on our second 'shadows' quilt after I quilted it in the morning.

Karen put the final border on our flowers quilt and we have chosen binding for this one too.

There is one flimsy left to complete next time we gather.

In all it was a lovely day together and the air con worked so we did not expire upstairs.

So our homework is to finish our strips at the rate of one per month and be there next time either in person or on zoom.

Happy stitching and stash busting.

Another play date

For the last 2 days Kerrie and I have been playing upstairs in the cool of the air con when she came for a sleep over from the Blue Mountains. The temperature outside was in the high 30s so it seemed like the best plan.

 We continued with my current project making some bunting to hang around the house now that I know such a quick method and the results it can give.

The process is so easy. First you tip all your strips and ribbons that are Christmassy onto the table. Then you cut a square of any fabric into squares of about 6.5" to 10". We found that any bigger is too big and any smaller is fiddly.

Next you attach an assortment of coloured ribbon (or fabric strips) diagonally onto the square of fabric.

Next fold the square diagonally ensuring the top point is fairly empty of decoration and the bottom point has no decoration right down to the point (for ease of pushing out the point when joined).

Turn inside out and fold the top point to the inside.

Admire the effect on either side and choose the side you like best as the display side.

All done! 

Christmas is coming!

Time I started to panic. I had an urge to make some Christmas bunting, not because I like it more than anything else but as a way to take some shortcuts with decorations both for myself and others. 

I found lots of sites online encouraging detailed embroidery, using doileys, and using up scraps. So I decided to experiment with some ideas. These are the three options so far using just random scraps. There is also an idea to attach some of my decorations.

The first decision was the size - I just guessed at 10" high x 6.5" tops cut size. 

The next decision was raw edge or turned inside out to hide the seams. Although the second idea appealed more it was really fiddly trying to turn through the point so I've abandoned that idea and gone for raw edge.

I even pinned on a decoration to see how that would work.

The hidden seams option was too too fiddly.

In my final plan I am doing raw edge with a fancy stitch all the way around. I then turned over the top for threading onto the ribbon. The three can be compared in the top photo.

I guess after lunch and a webinar on biology I'll get on and do some real Christmassy ones with red, green, gold, silver, yellow fabrics and features.