Joint projects

 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...

This was made from all the 'rubbish bin scraps' gleaned from other quilters at Scrub Stitchin' 2024. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Now we need another joint project and have decided on using only fabrics with a black background. This should be fun too.

Stephanie's latest flimsy

Stephanie used a different sashing technique for her latest quilt top and says it is so much easier to put it all together.

 Instead of joining the long columns together with a single strip of sashing she has sashed the bottom and one side of each block individually. This makes it much easier to line up the blocks on the column edges, especially when the blocks don't actually line up anyway.

A really important lesson

 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."

No quilting today because

 

Colour, Value and Intensity

 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 

Progress in September

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.

 We then focused on Heather's Spots. It was all ready for Elaine to attach the interesting corners and it now is ready for sandwiching.

It will be backed in a flowery yellow that we found and bound with lime green. It actually looks stunning and all those tiny half-square-triangles you sent back have been incorporated.

We were one short for Sue's Daisies so Karen spent time making one more. They are now ready for trimming and joining. We'll probably need a border on this one as it is only small. 

Elaine did a lucky dip draw and it is Karen's contribution. We think it is Wisteria and she included a block design. All I have to do now is write the instructions and post out the fabric. It will come eventually as I am still quite exhausted from my recent trip away.

Our Zoom also had 5 people online - Elaine (who went home early), Karen and I (who were still at mine), Heather (NZ) and Lynette.

If anyone has any ideas about new ways to run our weekends please contact me and we'll put our thinking caps on.

Our August first Saturday gathering

 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.

Our Heather's Purple Spots is coming along and we will be able to incorporate all those 'waste' half square triangles that you all sent back. Thank you.

Our latest block (Sue's Daisies) has been sent back by most people so if yours is still not with me please send it or deliver it soon. Next time we'll put this top together.

Elaine was really quite confused with her latest creation so brought it along to be sorted out. 

It is supposed to look like the one below but to get that the blue spot half square triangles needed to be turned 90 degrees in the blocks Elaine made. We decided that was too much like hard work but hers will look great anyway.

A great day was had by all and of course the food was delicious. See you next time.

A pop-up quilting day

 Our new member Sue came today to learn patchwork from the beginning. Stephanie also came to help. 

Sue learned lots about 1/4 " seams and leaders and enders and finished her block for our current project.

Stephanie made a few more pale blocks for our latest one on the design wall.

Stephanie also enjoyed a tiny birthday celebration before Sue arrived.

It was a lovely day for the three of us.

July Zoom together

 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...

• Jen showed us a 3D card she had made
• Christine has been doing paper piecing
• Karen has created 3 blocks for her new BOM
• Elaine could not show us what she had been doing (update is now that having uninstalled and reinstalled Zoom on her tablet she can now get onto Zoom)
• Stephanie, despite her illness, showed us one finish and one quilt in progress 
• I did not show anything.

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.

She said they'd seen about 20 whales out to sea.

Jeanette also included some photos of the fauna that existed long ago and left tracks now fossilised. I've seen the tracks of this one.

Jeanette also corrected the caption she sent last time calling one of her quilts a winding ways quilt. It is actually called Walkabout. Thanks Jeanette for all your pics. I'm glad you beat the storm home and were not swept away in the raging torrent of the Murchison.

A show and tell from Jeanette

 Jeanette says...

Our patchwork group had a Stay at Home Retreat last weekend in Dongara. Very productive. I completed the quilt top "Turning  Twenty- Again ". Now to back it & quilt it. 

I finished quilting "Spinning Stars" & " Winding Ways" 

I love the quilting on the Spinning Stars Jeanette.