What's on your bed?

Post written by Evelyn

Thanks for sending me all your beautiful bed pictures.  It's great for us all to keep in touch even if it's remotely!

This is Mary's bed ready for winter.  Mary loves pink and this is one of her favourite quilts!

White luxury with a touch of pink

Maree's bed features A girl's day out quilt designed by Libby Richardson.  Maree made this one in 2008.  

Charmingly cosy

Glo's Grandmother's Garden.  Her quilt label tells its story.

Bright and cheerful

Here's Gail's batik log cabin quilt.  I can also see an Elf challenge cushion and a Cathedral Windows class cushion!

Beautifully layered

Judy has two recently completed quilts on her bed.  It's amazing what you can make with half square triangles!  And look at that great wall hanging quilt too!

Front cover of a magazine

It was a doona plus three quilts night for me last night.  Brrr!  

What?  Come on!  I'm sure I'm not the only one whose bed looks like this?!

Kay made this pig quilt. This is what Kay had to say about it...

"I realised that my sisters 70th birthday was coming up in early June. She loves pigs & being a special big 0 birthday thought I’d better put my thinking cap on & got to it. From go to woo in 1 week, I seem to work well under pressure & iso !"

Piggies!

We went to retreat!

Post written by Evelyn

This weekend Judy A, Ann Mc, Robyn, Kate and I went to retreat!  A virtual WhatsApp retreat that is!  It all began on Friday when I posted a google street view image of The Retreat to my fellow retreat goers and asked them where they were!  Someone, who will remain nameless, saw the picture and thought I was really there so went into a bit of a panic wondering how she was going to get there! After I finished laughing myself silly, I shared that with the rest of the group so we could all have a laugh.  

Sorry Kate ;-)

It was a wear your pyjamas weekend.  Here I am looking very fetching in my mismatched pair.   

Judy was very productive this weekend! She quilted a few things, put binding on others and filled the design walls with her next projects!

Judy didn't get the pyjamas memo.  She's very dressed up under that long coat.  

Judy added flying geese borders to this panel and quilted it in gold thread.

Then Judy worked on this quilt which she started at the Uno retreat many years ago.

Judy finished this quilt off for a lady who bought the half made quilt top at an op shop and has been unable to finish it herself.  She's going to be delighted when Judy drops it off to her!

Judy filled the design wall with these hexies.  She said that she may take some time to sew it together so let's hope no one else needs the design wall for a while!

Another quilt laid out on the design wall.  This one has 82 half square triangles!

Judy prepared binding for these baby memory quilts.

Judy was VERY naughty!  Bad Judy!

Ann was also very busy!  She worked on her embroidered quilt, quilted a jelly roll race quilt top and started cutting out fabric ready to make this Mysolation mystery quilt fundraiser which a few of our members are going to be joining in with.

Ann is stitching in the ditch quilting this quilt top.

Batik jelly roll race on Ann's quilting frame.

Ann is cutting out 256 (2 1/2 x 6 1/2) rectangles.  I believe she may even be cutting out enough for two quilts.  Ann is crazy!

Robyn started retreat with a bottle of beer.  She then got out of control!  Robyn worked on a quilt as you go quilt.

Beer!

Hand sewing.

Here's Robyn adding the joining strips to her quilt as you go quilt.

Kate was at work for some of the retreat but once she went home she got straight to her sewing.  Kate started working on another Quiltworx pattern called Holiday Traditions.  She also worked on the hat she's knitting for her dad using wool she purchased from Abbe at The retreat last time we were (really) there.

There's lots of foundation paper piecing!

Lovely knitting pattern.

I was pretty lazy and didn't get a lot done.  I cut out fabric to make this Coin Quilt.  It's a free layer cake pattern if you subscribe to the blog.  My layer cake wasn't sized very consistently and for that reason I would suggest that if you want to make it you use jelly roll strips, scraps or yardage. 

My quilting frame is great for storage!

It wasn't long before I was unpicking!

This is as much as I got done!  That won't fit on my queen sized bed in a hurry!

Throughout the weekend we messaged each other with mostly silly stuff and posted lots of pictures of our sewing progress, meals we were eating and things that were actually happening in our homes in real life.  There may even have been a few pictures of wine we were drinking.  It was really quite fun!

Ann's Devonshire tea.  She shared this and we all wanted to throttle her drooled!

A retreat isn't a retreat without the "Nudie run" and the fall off the chair!  

My son wondered what on earth was going on when I asked him to take this picture!

And we had the great news that from next month we can go on retreats for real!  I'm so excited!

Best Wishes Di

Di has had great fun NOT during this lock down. Just as we entered this period of lock down Di and Fred had their house on the market. I am pleased to say that even though under difficult circumstances they managed to sell.

This of course leads to the dreaded packing. The clearing, the finding of things accumulated over many years. They had done many buy swap sell sites and Di has had to cull her sewing room. Patterns, knick knacks collected and treasured have had to be parted with. Poor Fred too has had to part with many of his tools for which he has no longer a use. It is such a difficult time made harder with the current situation.

July 17 is moving day and thankfully not too far away and hopefully Di will still be able to join us for our sit and sews etc. Di has made her daughter a quilt using her stash and only needed to buy a backing.

We all wish Di and Fred a successful move and great joy and happiness when they move to their new home which will be smaller and more manageable.

I am thinking , only thinking, though I swore I would not do another but the term stash buster caught my eye and I do wish my stash would reduce, so I am looking at a mystery quilt. Glo has a lot to answer for!!!

Go Go Rosie

Rosie has joined the Laundry Basket Frustration Group and has managed to make a beautiful version of this great pattern.  All of us who have met the challenge have gone through some tough times trying to get it right but all of us love the quilt when it is finally pieced together!






































She has dug into her stash of reproduction civil war fabrics and created a masterpiece!  What a show we will have when released from our lockdown!
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So many of us have discovered long lost UFOs such as this one Rosie has finally completed .  It is a Lessa Seigele pattern.  Rosie's message to Robyn is, "Now you can stop nagging me!"  Rosie was once a member of the Bacchus Marsh Quilters and started this at a workshop.  It is a QAYG!
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The next quilt was a paper bag mystery quilt she completed a few years ago with our group and she loves it with all the beautiful birds.

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That reminded me that I had a box of bird blocks from a challenge a few years ago.  Perhaps it was the same one! I must do something with them.

This block from the challenge is special with its lovely note from a beautiful lady, Marlene, who is no longer with us.




More blocks-

by Barb

by Kylie

By Judy

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Don't forget to investigate another Mystery Quilt Along, Silver Linings, that looks easier than the Laundry Basket - Only one block a week!

https://jacquelynnesteves.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Introduction-Alt-Silver-Linings-Sew-Along.pdf


Keep happy, healthy and occupied!  See you all one day!
Posted by Glo x

Kate's on a roll!

Post written by Evelyn.  Kate made all these quilts but I'm positive she's going to be gifting them to me!

This design by Quiltworks has been made with left over fabric.  It's been hiding in the cupboard half done because Kate had cut some pieces the wrong size and it went into hibernation out of frustration no doubt!  Anyway, Kate said it was a bit tricky but it worked out well in the end.  It's amazing what we can force ourselves to finally complete when we're in isolation!

This Dinner Plate Dahlia is another Quiltworx design.  Kate has worked on this a lot at retreat so some of us has seen it progressing.  You should see the HUUUGE folder of instructions!  It's great to see this amazing quilt top finished!

I bet Kate didn't have to kick the mess in her bedroom out of the camera shot.  

Kate says this quilt is the quickest she's ever made.  Looking at the other two I kind of understand why that could be ha ha!  This one is called Looper by Miss Make.  It took Kate only 6 hours to make!  It took me that long to find the lost key to my sewing room yesterday.  

A quick Quilt

A big call out to Sunbury Stitchers...... I am sure many of you have completed some projects by now or you may have started out on something new. Where are they ? We need to see them . I have spotted a few on Facebook so please make sure they get to someone's inbox so that they can be celebrated by all. It is such a great feeling when a project started many years ago is finally completed.

I am hoping for an easing of restrictions in the near future when , once again we can enjoy a cuppa, a chat, with someone other than the person you live with. Even a Saturday Sit and Sew sounds bliss.


Elizabeth Hartman’Penguin’ quilt. I think it’s the quickest quilt I’ve made to record from go to woe thanks to iso! Kay keeps churning them out well done Kay.

Sheila

I know I posted this last week but I managed to keep Ron out of my sewing room by asking him to build a frame to mount this on. It hasn't made it to the wall yet but getting closer.

I used batik fabric kindly donated by Di Hutchinson to raw edge applique these dragonflies. The batik was perfect for this It was quite a long process cutting, gluing, and then stitching. Once complete I felt it needed a border which has made it much bigger than I initially wanted. It is now 60x60 inches. It was to be a wall hanging but I might have to move into a barn to display it!

Once all stitched in place I quilted it using free motion. This is the part I enjoy most. The darker parts have feathers and pebbles and but the light in the centre has only pebbles.

Use your noodle!

Post written by Evelyn

Kay sent me this picture of her basting with pool noodles.  This method saves your back and knees!  There are plenty of tutorials online but this noodle video seems pretty good.

Noodle basting

Kay also sent me a picture of her beautifully organised threads.  You can get a length of plastic tubing from the local DIY store, cut it the lengths you need and make a slit down it and place around your sewing threads.  This stops the threads from unravelling.  This also works well with bobbin threads.

Tidy threads

Here's another Laundry Basket Quilt!  Annie M made this one.  She's also finished her shirt challenge and it's just so cute but you'll have to wait to see it on the big reveal day.  Whenever that may be!  A little birdie told me that Rosie is also making and unpicking and remaking this laundry basket quilt too.

Annie M's Laundry Basket quilt

Here's mine.  Actually, that's a lie as my laundry basket appears to be the bathroom floor doesn't it sons?  I don't know where's they get it from?!

I recently made a half square triangle star quilt.  It was supposed to look like one Ann made a while ago but it just wasn't working for me so I kept arranging the blocks on my design wall until I was happy with them. After I finished quilting it on Judy's frame there was enough backing and wadding at the end and sides to quilt special memory baby quilts.  I love it when this happens!  You use up all those scrappy bits and you don't have to pin anything to the frame because it's already on there!  Judy made all but one of these baby quilts from mostly donated fabrics.

Baby quilts on the frame

A huge quilt of quilts

Finished half square triangle quilt.  

I'm so happy with this quilting design!  I extended the coloured half square triangle points into the binding.  This one took me an hour and a half to do.  I had eight of them.  NEVER AGAIN!