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.

October Quilting Weekend

Thank you to all those who came and worked this weekend and put up with my erratic behaviour. Even though we had extreme difficulties with our "King's Highway" quilt which we have now nicknamed the "Suffragette Quilt" because of the colour scheme it has now been completed as a quilt top. Pernilla was visiting from Sweden and had lots of input into the layout and organisation of this process. Thank you Pernilla.

You would not believe that attaching rectangles and squares could be such a problem but it was a nightmare. 

Lesson: trim and square everything at every stage of the process.

We did achieve some positive results and our Green Twister is now ready for in-the-ditch quilting as is our Chocolate Roses quilt. The Green Twister has its binding already hemmed but the Chocolate Roses (which is batted and backed) still needs its binding cut and attached. If anyone would like to help with and of these finishing processes please just contact me. We could do it after about mid November.

We drew the next fabric and block. It is a beautiful shell fabric but there was no name on the parcel. Who donated some lovely shells? I may not have time to write the instructions or post this out until mid November so please let me know if you would like to give this next block a miss and I won't send the fabric to you. We have adjusted the block pattern that came with the shells to suit be size of the print and will use some offcuts from the King's Highway top that go beautifully with it. I'll send that fabric as well.

For our May meeting next year the plan is to spend the Saturday at Kogarah Library to have a Jelly Roll Race. More about that later when we are clearer with requirements.

Our October weekend is the last one for 2012 so Merry Christmas to all those I will not see beforehand. I will send out dates for next year and a possible Christmas afternoon tea later in the year.