Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Better late than never!  I have lovely Show and Tell today.

 

Here's a quilt Marlene made for her granddaughter.  The quilting was done by Jo Butterfield.

 

Karen won the 6 1/2 inch embroidered raffle blocks last year and made them into this lovely wall hanging straight away.  She won the quilt hanger at our Christmas meal and it's the perfect fit!

 

Here's Carolyn showing off her new patchkini!  Carolyn has been showing her workmates how to make hexagons and as a surprise they made this patchkini for her.

 

Heather made this sewing organiser.  It was one of the "gift of the month" projects from Faeries in my garden.  Gift of the month is similar to Block of the month except that instead of a new block each month you're given a new project.  The organiser is stunning!

 

Annie made this scrappy nine patch quilt.  She tried to use up as many of her 2 1/2 inch scraps as she could.  I believe the quilt was inspired by a Bonnie Hunter scrappy quilt. 

 

Jan made this book cover for one of her sisters.  The book is blank in anticipation of her sister filling it with her poems and short stories.

 

 Jan also made this Sunbonnet Sue quilt for her great niece for her first birthday although Jan sheepishly told me that the child is almost two now!  The first block was made by her sister.

 Have a lovely Christmas everyone!  See you all back at Tuesday night quilting in January!

Show and tell

I have some beautiful quilts to show you today.  The first is The Farmer's Wife quilt made by Annie.  It's hand pieced and hand quilted and took her 18 months to make.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

 

 

 

The Calvary Cross was made by Gail for her daughter, Linda, for her 40th birthday.  The squares are all 3 inches and pieced to form the cross on the hill.  It was quilted by Kerrie Thomas in Mount Macedon.

 

 

Beverley used a kit from Quilter's Lane to make this lovely quilt for her cats!  My dog slept all winter under one of my favourite lap quilts.  Who else has pampered pets?

 

Mug bag workshop

A mug bag workshop was held at Tuesday night quilting this week.  It was lovely to see so many of our newest members joining in!  The bags are pretty simple dolly bags with outside pockets for tea bags and spoons etc.  Even though the bags were simple it was amazing how they all looked so different!

Here's Glo hard at work with her mug bag. 

 

Ailsa working on the lining of her bag with Heather looking on.

 

 

Ann's finished bag.

 

 

Carolyn, where did you get that hat?!

 

 

 

The next workshop is the zippy organiser which will be held on Saturday 20th October.  See you there!

 

The next quilt show entries?

I uploaded my camera to update the blog with the latest show and tell and found three week's worth of beauties!  Apologies for being so slack!  Ha ha!

 

This lovely quilt was made by Esmae.  She began it in 2004 but recently started to bring it to Tuesday night quilting to finish it off.  It's handpieced but the leaves were machine appliquéd which was a first for Esmae and she says she didn't enjoy it!  The backing is an old sheet passed down from an elderly relative so holds lots of sentimental value.  It was machine quilted by Patchwork on Essendon.

 

 

Betty designed this quilt for her curved bed in her caravan to keep the area looking neat.  Betty fell in love with the yellow fabric in Lincraft and just had to use it!

 

 

Karen made this quilt to use as an every day quilt for her lounge.  She bought a bundle of fabric at a quilt show and started the quilt straight away.  The hand quilting took three years.  Karen used bamboo batting for the first time and says it's great for hand quilting!

 

 

Joy used a Moda jelly roll to make the braids in this lovely quilt and used the left over fabric to make the border.  The birds are machine appliquéd and Joy stipple quilted this.

 

 

This is another quilt made by Joy after doing a class on mitred borders.  The animals have been machine embroidered onto fleece.

 

 

Anne made this quilt for her son's 21st birthday and finished it recently. He's now 30!  When Anne saw the panels she just had to buy it for him! Anne has added a pocket to turn the quilt into a pillow!

 

Another quilt by Joy!  This one is called "The parliament". The pattern is from Angie's Bits 'n Pieces Joy machine appliquéd the owls and machine quilted lots of flowers all over it.  It'll be used by her grandchildren when they come and visit.

 

ß

Great Shirt Challenge No.2

Annie and Lyn recently brought their shirt challenge quilts in to show us and we were so impressed we all wanted a go!  So Annie and Lyn kindly organised challenge No.2 for us.  Over the last few weeks we've been scouring the local op shops (or not so local!) for 100% cotton shirts and last night we cut them up into sections, those sections were mixed up and divided into many piles and put into bags, beautifully decorated with a shirt appliqué.  We then all took turns to choose a card bearing a tie and the fabric swatch hidden underneath the tie matched one of the shirts on the bags.  It was so exciting wondering what fabric we'd all end up with!

Cutting the shirts into sections

 

 

Busy group!

 

 

The shirts all cut up

 

 

My lucky dip shirts

 

        Rules

•  Use as much shirt fabric as you can for the front of the quilt.
• If you wish, you may add ONE other fabric of your choice to help tie the shirt fabrics together - the amount can be as much or as little as you want.
• There is to be no dying of fabrics, however you may reverse the shirt fabrics if you prefer the other side.
• Backing will be a fabric of your choice.
• Binding will be a fabric of your choice.
• Completion time : date to be advised in August 2013.

Have fun everyone!

 

 



 

 

Christmas in July

We had a lovely day on Saturday sitting in the hall stitching and chatting and the meal at The Olive Tree was delicious too!  But the best part, of course, was the Elves' challenge.  Last Christmas Beryl and Sharon handed out our little packages containing fabric, ribbon and bells and told us we must use them somehow to create a Christmas project to show at the Christmas in July.  We all had to vote for our favourite entry and there were prizes for first, second and third places.  As you will see it was really difficult voting for just one!  If you want to see more detail click on each photo and it will enlarge.

In first place...

Joy's owls!  Aren't they adorable?  Each owl is different and they have the cutest facial expressions!

In second place...

Glo's carousel house!  There were four rooms altogether and you could spin it around to view each room.  Glo even had working lights!

In third place...

Sandra's Christmas Advent fairy.  All her pockets held small chocolate bars.  Yum!  (Thanks for the photo Judy!)

A feast of other entries...

Heather

Ailsa

Marlene

Esmae

Annie

Barbara P

Barbara B

Judy

Jocelyn

Lyn

Evelyn

Maureen


The elves did a brilliant job and all the completed challenges were fantastic.  Who will be next year's elves I wonder?  It could be YOU!

 

a common thread...

Needle Work Needle Play logo by MaricorMaricar

As there are both quilters and stitchers among us, I'd thought you might enjoy hearing about a new exhibition of artistic embroidery I came across recently.

Named Needle Work Needle Play, it is an exhibition featuring handmade creations from nine of Australia's best contemporary embroiderers. The exhibits include pieces made with coloured twine, soft sculptures, portraiture and jewellery.

For textile art lovers, here is a taste of work from some of the exhibiting artists...

a WIP shot of a gorgeous piece by Cat-Rabbit

softie by Cat-Rabbit

stunning stitches by Haeli Van Veen

Otus by Carly Altree-Williams

For more innovative and amazing behind the scenes photos, as well as interviews with the artists, I encourage you to go and take a look at their amazing blog.

Opening night is on Friday, August 10 at the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne and runs until Thursday August 23.


Show details are:

Needle Work Needle Play
Brunswick Street Gallery
322 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Opening 10th August at 6pm
Running from 10th - 23rd August 2012
Hrs: Tues - Sun 10am - 10pm

So many ideas and challenges

It has been ages since I have posted on our blog but there is a lot to catch up with especially the wonderful quilt show which I missed because of my travels. However I have heard glowing reports about the show and especially the quality of the quilts being exhibited so congratulations to all involved.  I was also disappointed that I did not get to see the amazing display on the stage (see photos)  -

 

Last weekend some of us attended the Quilt-in at Melton and were inspired by the guest speaker, Dijanne Cevaal.  Is there enough interest in her work for us to organise a workshop?  Go to her website for more information and inspiration - http://origidij.blogspot.com.au/

More library information next time. Glo :-)  .