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.

Christmas Afternoon Tea

Some of us had a great afternoon get-together for a Christmas afternoon tea last Saturday. For those who were unable to come - Merry Christmas from us all.

October Quilting Weekend

Last weekend saw the completion of our first Scrappy Quilt.

The structure of the weekend worked better this time. On Saturday we all started making our blocks for our next mystery quilt. This is Jane's birds fabric and an Amish Cross block design. It was great to do it together as this allowed everyone to help everyone else and it meant that the issues with the instructions I had created were ironed out before they were posted.

On Sunday we hemmed the binding and attached the label on our first Scrappy Quilt which is another great group activity.

This time Leonie, Elaine, Linda, Mary, Robyn, Betty and our newest member Ruth came for long and short times during the weekend.

Leonie forgot her sweetpeas so has taken a photo so that we can all smell the virtual sweetpeas from her garden.

As usual, much fun was had by all with lots of chatting and food added to the quilting mix. Leigha, who is staying with me at the moment invited two of her friends for lunch and they rearranged our butterfly blocks into a more pleasing layout.

I will be posting out fabric in the next few days to those who have not yet received theirs by hand. I will email instructions to everyone too. I have now bought Electric Quilt 7 and am experimenting with creating our instructions using that software.

There will be a Rainbow Connection Quilters Christmas afternoon tea in December so if you have not received an email about that and would like to join us please let me know.

Happy Christmas and have fun with your patchwork and quilting from us all.

A quilt auction

Frankie Magazine is auctioning a quilt with blocks by various artists including Catherine Campbell, one of our distance members.

Visit the Frankie Blankie site to find out more. You can see some of Cath's artwork in the header of the Frankie page as well.

August in the Attic

Our achievement for the August quilting weekend was to construct our Mr Men quilt tops.

This process involved pinning the blocks on the design wall then discussing their arrangement.

Then we auditioned various fabrics and colours for the sashing. We ended up choosing black.

We then created a production line of Robyn, Liz and Betty on Sunday to piece the two tops. There are 6 blocks left over so the thought is two matching cushions again.

Of course all the blocks had to be trimmed to size (Elaine enjoyed the challenge)

and the trimmings made such a spectacular pile that I had to photograph them.

One very important lesson was learned from my mistake. When you sew borders to a quilt you should measure at the centre of the top and mark the borders to the correct size then pin and ease the edges of the top to the size of the borders. This avoids a border that ends up too big for the quilt. Difficult to describe but easy to see the wavy borders in the previous blog entry on the scrappy quilt. We have now unpicked all borders on the scrappy quilt and re-attached them correctly. The top is now tacked to the polartec back ready for quilting. No-one else volunteered so I will complete that by our next quilting weekend. Here is Leonie ironing our newly bordered scrappy quilt.

One task accomplished this weekend was completing some extra butterfly blocks needed then arranging that quilt on the design wall ready for joining up. We don't think we'll add any sashing to this one.

Of course there was also plenty of time for food and chatter during the weekend as people came and went according to the never ending balancing acts of work and families.

Robyn officially completed our Soft Blue Sampler by sewing on the label. It is now ready to sell or raffle - any suggestions would be greatly received.

Robyn also chose our next lucky dip parcel as she was first to arrive. Linda (next to arrive) was witness to this. Jane D's birds and flowers was chosen. Some discussion ensued about which part of the block would be done in the mystery fabric. Once I have completed the instructions I will send them out with fabric for those who have not already received it. These blocks will be due by the end of January.

Again we had an excellent weekend of patching, quilting, chatting and eating. See you in October (16-17).