Our First Scrappy Quilt

I have finished attaching sashing to our first scrappy quilt and quite like the overall effect.

You might be able to recognise your own orphan or scrappy blocks in it. Amazing how these quilts can start as a higgledy-piggledy mess and end up looking as though it was planned all along. This one started out looking like this on our design wall:

June Quilting Weekend

This weekend we had Betty, Ev, Elaine, Leonie, Linda, Liz and Mary at various times over the weekend.

It was a very busy Saturday. Ev and Leonie experimented with a variety of suggestions for quilting the Soft Blue Sampler. We ended up using knots through all the layers. The quilt and two cushions are now complete so if you know a good place to raffle it just let us know. The quilt finished as a double bed topper and looks marvelous, fantastic! Thank you to everyone who contributed their creativity to this one.

Linda, Elaine and Mary spent time finishing off their Mr Men and Butterfly blocks under threats of not being allowed to leave until they were complete. Soon we will have all the blocks done and can continue with those two quilts. Until then we can't really afford to draw another lucky dip as that would mean too many UFOs (unfinished objects).

Liz began the block trimming and sashing of the scrappy quilt (seen behind Elaine in the photo above) and I was able to complete that quilt top on Sunday ready for borders, backing and binding at our next gathering. Then it only needs to be quilted to finish it off.

We all missed Robyn who was on her way to Alaska on a cruise. Her expertise and little lessons are always a most welcome part of our weekend.

Our progress at the moment is quite slow but we have discussed a few ways to work the system better. If we draw the lucky dip first thing Saturday morning (first in gets to draw) then it will give us all the opportunity to work on our new blocks during the odd gaps in other work. This might help with getting all the blocks in on time for the next quilting weekend.

Linda's Butterfly Quilt

Our next mystery quilt from our lucky dip is Linda's. I will be sending out instructions with the fabric soon but there are few tricks I thought might be better put in the blog.

Here are the pieces you will need to cut. When you start assembling the pieces of the block there is a small triangle E to add to the corners of B (the butterflies). It is really easy to get this crooked so here is a tip.

• Place the butterfly square on your board to line up with the inch grid and the diagonal line. 
• Draw a diagonal line on the butterflies making a two inch triangle.
• Place the small triangle of E right side down to line up with the inch grid then mark in a diagonal line on this triangle following the diagonal line on the board.

Now place the small triangle to line up with the line you have drawn on the butterflies. Check that it is centred by lining up the diagonal line you have drawn on the small triangle with the diagonal line on the board.

There is a link on the right to a video on sewing half-square triangles.

Even though the measurements I have give are generous my finished block ended up exactly the right size without trimming. If you are worried then make your measurements even more generous but make sure you match points and joins in your final block.

The instructions can be accessed from Google Docs.

Freezer Paper Applique

At our last quilting weekend Robyn brought along one of her quilts to show us where she has used Freezer Paper Appliqué. She then gave us a demonstration so here are her instructions.

1.Trace shape on dull side of freezer paper.

2. Cut out the shape on the traced line.

3. Iron shiny side to wrong side of fabric with a dry iron, allowing ¼ in around shape. It is easier to turn seam allowance if as much of the shape is on the bias as possible. Freezer paper will peel off easily if you make a mistake and can be repositioned and ironed again.

4. Cut around shape including the ¼ in seam allowance. 

5. Snip to within a couple of threads at inside points E.g. inside point of a  heart shape.

6. At outside points trim fabric off to almost the paper and turn sides over. These may also need a little trimming if point is too bulky. E.g. leaf points.

7. Press seam allowance to inside or you can fold as you sew.

8. Pin appliqué to base fabric. If appliqué is large it is better to baste it. If appliqué is very small peel the paper off before stitching.

9. If possible start stitching on a straight edge. Use thread matching the appliqué fabric. Bring thread up from wrong side of base fabric catching a thread of the appliqué under the edge so that it will be unseen.

10. Continue stitching leaving a small gap so that paper can be removed with tweezers. Stitch gap closed.

11. If appliqué is large it is better to completely sew it in place and then make a small hole in base fabric through which to remove paper.

12. It is possible to reuse a freezer paper template several times if you manage not to mangle it in the above process. 

Our previous lesson from Robyn was fusible webbing appliqué.

There are quite a few video web tutorials. I have linked to a few here:

• A search list of appliqué techniques
• Connecting Threads - Freezer paper video

April Quilting Weekend

What a great weekend we have had! We finished Marion's Sickle quilt and I will be delivering it to Bezzina House on Tuesday this week together with Patricia's quilt that we finished a few months ago.

 

 Jane brought along an antique quilt she had recently bought. It looks and feels fantastic and is made entirely of medallions without any backing so it is see through. It drapes so beautifully. Robyn brought along a lesson in using freezer paper for appliqué. I will put up some instructions for that in the near future.

  

Evelyn made a patchwork birthday cake for me. Such fun! Thank you Evelyn.

 

Of course as per usual we enjoyed lots of food together and after dinner on Saturday night some of us stayed up long enough to watch a DVD - 'Julie and Julia'. Jane came down from Toowoomba and stayed over for Saturday night.

 

Our first task on Saturday morning was to bind Marion's quilt to finish it off. This job is always done quickly with a crowd of people around the table chatting as they go.

 

Liz (from NZ) was our newest member this time and used the treadle machine to work on a quilt she was making. Liz was really excited to receive a text to say her new grandson Callum was born today.

Our biggest project for the weekend was the Soft Blue Sampler. We progressed from this...

 

 To this...

  

Next time we meet we will be backing, binding and finishing this one off. It is actually looking so stunning that we might even raffle it rather than donate it to Bezzina House. We have two spare blocks and will make matching cushions from those to go with the quilt.

Great work ladies, we are really achieving quite a lot in our global quilting group.

February Quilting Weekend

 

We were just a small crowd this time for our quilting weekend. Evelyn, Elaine, Patricia and I are here all smiling because we have full tummies.

  

Mary was able to practice the scrappy block techniques we started last time. She was joined by Leonie to make quite a few more scrappy blocks.

  

Notice Leonie's patchwork skirt. I think I'd like to try this very simple pattern for one of the throws I am planning to make from Surrey's shirts.

  

Robyn came on Sunday and we had fun creating our first scrappy quilt layout from both orphan and scrappy blocks. It should look great when finished.

It was a really hot weekend and we had the airconditioner on for most of the time.

I was able to get my new sewing machine working and am using it here to quilt Marion's Sickle quilt. It is really looking great!

We now have another rule...
Do not buy any fabric unless you absolutely have to. We have such a huge stash of both large and small lengths of fabric as well as a box of scraps that I should be able to supply the needs of all our quilts and new blocks. Please just ring and we can make a time for you to browse the stash before you go out and buy.

Our next quilting weekend is 10-11 April so please let me know if you are coming.

We did not draw another lucky dip fabric and design this weekend because we have 4 other quilts in progress:

• Marion's Sickle
• Soft Blue Sampler
• Scrappy Quilt 1
• Mr Men Quilts 1 & 2

If you have any outstanding blocks can you please forward them to me to arrive by the beginning of April ready for our next quilting weekend.

Another quilt finished

Patricia's quilt is now finished, labelled and photographed ready to donate to Bezzina House. Well done ladies!

November Quilting Weekend

Well it was an extremely hot weekend with temperatures up to 42 C in Sydney. Upstairs in our sewing space with our new tiny air conditioner it only got to 34 C and was just below 30 C for most of the time. Luckily the hottest time was on Sunday afternoon as we were about to stop anyway.

It was still a most productive and fun weekend, interspersed with hospital visits to see Surrey. He was very poorly and died a week or so later, hence the lateness of this post. We will miss his smiles, his music and his cooking on our quilting weekends.

We actually had 8 people working upstairs by lunch time on Saturday, 5 on Sunday.

I presented everyone with a copy of our book "Rainbow Connection Quilts - 2007-2009". If anyone would like a copy of this book just contact me or leave a comment here. They are $10 plus postage for non-members.

We have now finished Patricia's Cross Quilt and I'll send out a picture for the quilt book via email. You will be able to complete one DIY page in our book.

We arranged and joined the blocks for Marion's Sickle quilt. Because one block was not returned we had the wrong number of blocks. We decided to leave out two blocks and we will perhaps use pieces of those blocks for the corners of the borders yet to be added. We were amazed at how these blocks created more patterns when put together, especially if we did it without sashing.

Our next task was to finish off some of the Soft Blue Sampler blocks and arrange them on the design wall. There are three blocks still to come before we can put it all together but it looks great already.

Our long distance visitor this time was Jane from Toowoomba. It was great to see you Jane. Both Jane and Leonie stayed overnight.

We drew our next lucky dip and have drawn some Mr Men fabric. I will send that out to everyone and will email the instructions as soon as I have written them. I will also put up photos of the three quilts we are working on in the next post.

St George Hospital Markets

Yesterday I stumbled upon the Market Day at St George Public Hospital. Wow! It is well worth a visit. I bought two lovely back rests for my chairs - they are very comfortable. There were lots of other Christmas shopping ideas for people who have absolutely everything.

There are two more this year - 11 and 18 Dec 2009 so try and make a visit. They pack up at 2.30 so make sure you get there on time.

Adding Images to a Blog

I have a few friends out there who would like to add images to their blog so I have written some instructions. If you click on the image here it should appear in a large enough format to read or even print out. Hope these instructions work. Let me know if they help.