Sneak peek

I have two show and tell quilts to show you.  These will be on display at the Sunbury Quilt show on 16-17th June so I hope you get a good look at them and all the other wonderful quilts then. 

Barbara bought the pansy fabric about 10 years ago, worked on it a bit and then forgot all about it.  Six months ago she stumbled upon the UFO and decided to finish it!  We've watched Barbara hand stitching the Drunkards Path blocks at our Tuesday meetings just about every week since wondering how she was going to put them together. Kerrie Thomas machine quilted the quilt with a pansy design to match the fabric.  Her contact details are on the The Drapers of Mt Macedon website.

Here's another "old" UFO!  Marlene bought the pattern Just Bein' Girls from Attic Crafts Bendigo a few years ago.  This will be a quilt for her 15 year old granddaughter, Jasmine.  Marlene quilted the quilt using variegated thread which looks really lovely with the colours in the fabrics used.  The embroidered designs are gorgeous so make sure you have a good close up look at them at the show!

 

Christmas in July

This year we will be meeting at the Hall for our Christmas in July festivities.  The Hall has been booked for sit and sew from 10am - 4pm and we will be walking down to the Olive Tree Hotel for lunch from there.

Just a reminder from the Christmas Elves to remember to bring your challenge projects to show!

Shirting

We had two fantastic quilts at show and tell this week.  Lyn and Annie participated in a shirting swap a few years ago where the group brought old shirts so there was a huge selection of different ones and then these fabrics were swapped amongst the stitchers.  It's amazing how different the quilts from similar fabrics can turn out.

Here's Lyn's Winding ways quilt.  Lyn added the floral border fabric to her stash of shirting fabrics.

Annie added the plain dark blue fabric to set off the blocks in her lovely child's quilt.

Flowers in bloom

Here's Bronwyn proudly displaying her Sunflower quilt.  The pattern is Autumn's arrival by 4th and 6th designs.  One of Bronwyn's friends bought her a batiks jelly roll while she was in NY so Bronwyn used that for the background in this quit.  It's been quilted by Patchwork of Essendon and Bronwyn is currently adding beads to the sunflower centres to create more texture and interest.

This lovely quilt has been made by Di.  She drafted her own pattern and named it Ohio in the garden because of the Ohio stars and floral fabrics.  Di started working on the quilt in 2010 and has taken it along to our quilt retreats for the past two years.  She'll need a new project for the next retreat now!

Psst...Chinese Whispers

Here's Esmae with her "Follow the leader" Chinese Whisper swap quilt!  She pieced it together almost immediately after receiving all the blocks and added the borders and yoyo flowers in the border and then she sent it off to be quilted by Kerrie Thomas from Black Forest Quilting.  Kerrie's contact details are available on the Drapers of Mt Macedon website along with a couple of other long arm quilters.  Isn't the quilt beautiful?!

Here's Joy peeking over the top of her lovely quilt.  It's going to be a birthday gift for her granddaughter Caidan.  There's a bit of a story behind this quilt so let me tell you all about it.  My mum is over visiting from the UK and has been amazed at all the fabrics available in the quilt shops.  Fabric is very difficult to come by in the UK with most of the quilt shops closing or turning into online businesses and it's very expensive!  While she'd here we decided to take her to as many quilt shops as we can and the other week we did a quilt shop hop to Pentland Patchwork in Bacchus Marsh, Mill Rose Cottage in Ballan and Ballarat Patchwork and Eureka Patchwork in Ballarat.  All the shops were wonderful with something different to tempt us in each but the particular fabric in Joy's quilt came from Eureka Patchwork.  It was our last stop and we were all spent out by then but then we walked in and loved everything!  Joy saw the quilt displayed on the wall and had to have it...only there was no fabric left!  The owner was out to lunch and the lady working there was very kind and helped us to spend lots of money and then the owner came back.  She not only found the fabric for Joy (She'd put is aside for herself) but was also extremely helpful and friendly.  We were there long enough to be given tea and biscuits and an invitation to return some day and bring our lunches to make it an all day shop!  It was a great experience!

Joy made most of the quilt in one weekend and quilted it in the ditch to highlight the flower blocks.  Caidan is going to love it Joy!

You mean we have more books to inspire us!!

The previous two books in our library seem very popular so we hope the next two have your approval as well.  They are the last purchases for this financial year. Remember we are always looking for suggestions of books that have relevance to most of our members.

Book number 150 is Inspired to Sew.  It caught the eye of some members at our recent retreat. Bari J. Ackerman has designed 15 new bright projects including ruffled quilts, a unique tunic and bag, plus  decorations and accessories for your home.






Book number 151, Flower Origami , by Kumiko Sudo is a departure from our usual quilting books and should really inspire those who like to embellish their projects. Patterns for 24 simple yet stylish projects are included for using the flower origami to create such things as  purses, totes, gift boxes, needle cases, and even a cell phone holder.  I can't wait to see what you can all do with this inspiration!