Stars galore!

 One of our works in progress asked for any sort of stars with the centre of our focus fabric and the background of calico. What an imaginative bunch of quilters we have...

The arrangement at the moment is just random pinned on our design wall but this is looking like fun! And there are even a few tiny ones to fill in gaps where needed.

Sue is tickled pink (or blue) with her new quilt

 Sue sent through some photos of her quilt on the bed.

She loves it!

The instructions for this one were to zoom in on one of the flowers in the flowery fabric and applique or embroider it onto the blue fabric.

Karen's finished table runner

 After showing us her unfinished table runner last Saturday, Karen has now finished it and provides these pics for us.

Karen prints her labels and then attaches a border in the backing fabric to make it much easier to sew onto the back by hand. The printable fabric is often really stiff and difficult to get the needle through.

Heather's finished top

 During our zoom last week Heather showed us the finished paper pieced borders for her latest quilt. She has now finished the quilt top and removed all the papers.

It is truly amazing! Next steps - sandwich and binding, label and photo. Then I think a glass of bubbly would be in order.

On a hot day in February

 Several of our members enjoyed our gathering last Saturday.

After Sue chose our next project focus fabric from the Lucky Dip basket we spent some time selecting a block design. Then Stephanie arrived and pointed out an issue with our choice - the chosen fabric is directional and the block design we chose was not and would destroy the lovely direction in the fabric.

so we chose another block design and discussed colour choices and other options for some time. Of course this means I now have to write some instructions.

We were joined by Ivy (and Heather) for some time while Mum and Dad loaded their car with more stuff to take to their new home.

We all thought it was hot in the sewing room until we went downstairs for lunch and found that downstairs was much hotter.

I have now sent out all the fabric for the new block and will get instructions done as soon as I can.

At 3pm we had a zoom and were joined by Heather, Christine and Lynette.

There was lots of show and tell from Elaine and Karen and we found homes for two of our quilts. Kathryn likes the Nautical Quilt and Sue likes the Appliqued Flowers Quilt so they have taken those. Stephanie took our Exploding Stars quilt to donate to the St George Palliative Care Centre. This means we now have $100 to donate to charity at the end of the year already. She show and tell set off much discussion about little tricks and tips re using up scraps of batting (Elaine) and flying geese (Karen). All  our finished quilts can be found on the Pages list along the top banner of this blog.

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed our time together and all those who sent apologies. And thank you Karen for the photos.

Karen's Temperature Quilt

 Sydney Temperatures 2021

Here are pics of the front and back of my weather quilt, tracking the daily maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall (> 5 mm) for Sydney in 2021. I used the weather data for Sydney Observatory, which is the closest BOM site to us. The quilt has the biggest label that I've ever made with the key to temperatures, etc. 

The 'Sydney 2021' label on the front of the quilt was an experiment, using waxy paper from the wrapper of a ream of paper ironed onto the pinkish red fabric so that I could put it through the printer. It worked fine - a handy hint for anyone else wanting to print on their own fabric rather than on the ready-stiffened calico one can buy. 

And another hint for the standard label on the back, sewing a frame of the backing (or another suitable fabric) around the printed stiffened label makes it much easier to hand sew the label neatly to the back. In this case I used the bird fabric as the frame for  my big label.

Six ladies in person and another four on Zoom

 Yesterday we enjoyed our first gathering for 2024. Our first task was to take tacking out of 3 quilts finished in the last few months and iron on labels then take photos. 

This is Elaine's applique flowers. 

A few of us met to arrange some orphan blocks for this quilt and the one below.

I will be keeping the pink doiley quilt but the other two are up for grabs if you would like either of them. Otherwise we will donate them to an appropriate cause.

Karen, Elaine, Stephanie, Glenda, Kathryn and I spent a great time debriefing holiday activities and issues and enjoyed a wonderful Feast of Fools for lunch and afternoon tea. 

In the meantime we discussed our two outstanding projects and now have Carol's ballerinas ready to sandwich and Lynette's aboriginal print ready for me to write some instructions for and send out fabric pieces. I'll get there. Hint - if you have a favourite star block, find it and test it. If you don't, do a bit of googling to find one you like.

Then it was time for our 3 o'clock zoom with Heather and Lynette. We also had two visitors on Zoom - Chooky from Coonamble and Lou from NZ. I meet these two guests on Chookyblue's zooms along with many others from an international audience.

A lovely beginning to 2024. I hope we are able to continue.

Karen's holiday achievements and finds

 Karen sent these photos through saying:

I can't bring the attached on Saturday because I made them as Xmas presents so I thought you might be able to put them on the blog for others to see. 

I wanted to use up starters and enders (based on 1.5" squares) but scarcely made a dent in my stockpile. 

The blue runner is bound; the other two are finished by cutting the backing fabric large enough to bring it over to the right side as a pseudo-binding. 

The cat-fabric table mat went to a friend with several cats. 

She also gives advanced notice of a coming exhibition...

For those who can get to Canberra March-August 2024, there's an exhibition of historic quilts, including the Rajah quilt: 

And then there is a link to a hexagon star block which we are hoping to use for our next quilt...

Thanks Karen for all this inspiration.

Join in the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge for 2024

 

Deana is hosting a challenge for the Chookshed Stitchers and anyone else really that wants to join in that blogs. 

If you read the post above you can find out the details. 

I had attached the logo if your joining in you can add it to your sidebar and use if when you post about the challenge. 

Go on be brave or crazy (like me) and join us. 

I've made my little list of 10 things we'll need to complete in 2024. However, because of my renos downstairs and then the family living in half my quilting studio upstairs the list will be a little different to the lists of others who are focusing on quilting. My focus is on Studio Decluttering and Maintenance to enable our group to make quilts. I have broken the huge jobs down into manageable tasks that I hope friends can help with and it will start when the family moves out in mid January.

1. Quick tidy and clean to start the ball rolling moving furniture back to where it used to live.
2. Deep clean of the banisters with a toothbrush and oiled cloth.
3. Deep clean of the drawers that store my cut squares. These were not sealed during the last part of the painting so are quite dusty inside.
4. Move and clean the treadle machine so it is again usable.
5. Empty the cotton reel holder (holds about 100 reels) and dust the nooks and crannies.
6. Clean all sewing machines, find homes for the ones I no longer want, clean and put new needles in the ones I will keep.
7. Find homes for all finished quilts.
8. Dust inside all display cabinets. They got dusty inside even though they were sealed.
9. Put solar resistant film on all front and back windows.
10. Make a quilt !!!! at last.

How about that for a list???

For more on my progress through these tasks take a look at the dedicated page in the page list above.

Covid lockdown inspiration

 During my Covid lockdown people are finding inspiration for me and I'm finding some of my own.

I have lots of green strippy scraps so I can make a christmas wreath...

https://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/2011/11/easy-pieced-wreath-free-pattern-and.html

Geoff found an interesting video about how sewing machines were invented and redesigned to the current version. It explains why the bobbin does not come from an external reel of cotton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQYuyHNLPTQ It has ads but you can skip those if and when they show up.