Quilters' Circle - 2nd November, 2009

The Neighbourhood House was closed, but that didn't stop the members of the Quilters' Circle. We had our first November meeting at Marie's place instead. Magazines were read, conversations flowed, and even some stitching was done.

Joy is feeling much better, which we were glad to hear, but she couldn't join us because of a tradesman. I hope he showed up when he said he would.

Marilyn showed us her bag-in-progress, which she is making from the pattern Marie gave us in August:

Isn't it cute? The lining is ready to go in, so it is close to being finished. Really must get on with making one of these.

Notice Marie's lovely table - it's a bit nicer than the plastic ones we normally sit at! We enjoyed a range of beverage options and some goodies for afternoon tea.


Marie showed us her round-robin quilt. She made the centre, which was then handed on to other members of her group. Here's the centre:


And here's the final result after each group member had added a section:


The camera doesn't handle purples well - it seems to move blue-purples further towards blue. Imagine this picture warmed up a bit to get a truer idea of the colours. The final quilt is lovely, but the process is interesting, as you have no idea how others will add to your original block. Of course, at the same time, you have the responsibility of working on everyone else's quilts as well.

Vireya did a little relaxing stitching on the rose stems she cut out last time, but forgot to take a photo of her own work.

Thank you, Marie, for inviting us into your home for our meeting. We had a lovely time.

Next time we will be back at Sussex on 16th November. Hope you can join us!

Quilters' Circle - 19th October, 2009

Today is the third Monday of October, so the Quilters' Circle met again.

We were sorry that Joy could not be with us today. Hope you are feeling better soon, Joy, and that we will see you at our next meeting.

Marilyn is on the last step of her quilt:



She is hand-sewing down the binding on the back. She is not really enjoying doing it, but it is looking great. It must now be time to start planning the next quilt.

To help with ideas, here are the books, magazines and catalogues members brought along for us to browse today:


Having these publications to browse is particularly useful when you aren't really in the mood to sew. For example -


Vireya traced off these patterns for rose stems, which are for the next block of her Red Delicious quilt. Then she pinned them to her fabric. Then she read books, magazines and catalogues. And contributed to conversations about colour, craft expos, quilt shows, movies, books, and many others. But she didn't do any sewing.

Marie quilted her 1930s hexagon quilt, and brought along this beauty to show us:



Isn't it lovely? This is quite a large quilt, which normally lives on Marie's bed. It is all hand-pieced and hand-quilted, and made by a quilt-as-you-go method. Members of the book group, and some of the office staff, came in to admire it.

Our next meeting should be on the 2nd November, but the House will be closed that day. So our next meeting at Sussex will be on 16th November, four weeks from now.

Quilters' Circle - 5th October, 2009

It is the first Monday in October, so the Quilters' Circle met again. Amongst conversation (much of it about courting customs), reading of magazines, and drinking of tea, we did some sewing.

Marie was quilting her 1930s hexagon quilt, and brought along this Christmas wall-hanging to show us. It started out as a bag and grew. The design is the friendship star block Vireya used in her couch quilt.


We love scrappy quilts!

Marilyn brought along her sewing machine, and pieced the binding for her quilt. I thought this photo might be out of focus, and I was right.


We all discussed how Marilyn should prepare her quilt to attach the binding. Some of us trim first then sew, others sew then trim.

Joanne showed us her completed piece from the "Working with Triangles" course.


Joanne definitely is now hooked on quilting, as she suggested she might be back in May. We know this because she also showed us the next two projects she has started - some placemats, and a bed quilt using beautiful fabrics hand-printed by women in the Tiwi Islands.


Joy worked on her appliqué, and showed us this table runner which she has entirely hand pieced and hand quilted.

It was made during weekly quilt-guild meetings she was attending, so it took a while to complete because she only worked on it at those meetings.

Vireya did some embroidery embellishment on her latest Red Delicious block. She doesn't stab herself with the embroidery needle anywhere near as frequently as she does with the appliqué needle.


We also had a visit from someone who wants to start coming along to quilters' circle, so we hope to see her again soon. Our next meeting is in two weeks, on the 19th October.

Quilters' Circle - 21st September, 2009

Today the Quilters' Circle met again at Sussex Neighbourhood House - but first a little cleaning-up was required!

Once those two cleaning angels had finished, we settled down to some serious quilting. Or did we? Well there were a lot of books and magazines to look at, and we had lots of visitors, and we talked a lot.

Joy brought along this green-backed section of a mystery quilt from 2001. The background was chosen after a challenge by her son that she should do something other than her normal cream background. (Or was it her brother who laid down the challenge? I should have taken notes...)


Since using that green background, Joy has also worked with black. Today she did some more appliqué on the heart panel (photo last time), and here are the other panels which go with it:

The appliqué is done with a tiny blanket stitch. Don't those colours look beautiful against the black?

Marilyn did some work on the borders of her quilt:

The cinnamon colour echoes the colour of the floral fabric in the corners and centres of the churn-dash blocks. The end is in sight - soon the binding will go on.

Now we can reveal a quilt Marie finished recently as a gift for her son's wedding. She actually brought it along to the last meeting, but that was prior to the wedding. The quilt is a beautiful scrap quilt, with a colour scheme chosen to represent the football-team loyalties of the couple. This is Victoria, after all, and it is footy-finals time!

Who could have imagined that football team colours could look so gorgeous? Below is a detail shot, where you can see the structure of the block. Marie chose fabrics to represent the couple's interests, and they should have hours of entertainment finding all the special fabrics she included.

The block design was inspired by the book "Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles" by Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe. The book shows some of the amazing potential of a very simple shape - a rectangle twice as long as it is wide. This is why we love patchwork and quilting!

Today Marie was sewing the binding on this quilt featuring dog fabrics, which is for her grandson.


We saw some of these blocks when Marie was trimming them back in August. The finished quilt is delightful, and we all spent some time picking out the cutest dogs. Her grandson will love it.

Vireya did some appliqué for the next Red Delicious block. She also brought along this small quilt which is ready to baste, but that didn't happen today. Maybe next time.

The pattern is "Whirlin' Dervish" designed by Margaret J. Miller. It was the first time Vireya had used "long triangles", which are a little trickier to piece than half-square triangles or equilateral triangles. The quilt is destined to be a wall-hanging when finished.

Leigh came to visit us for a while and discussed triangle sizes for the corners of the bottles in her bug quilt. She seemed to have it worked out by the time she had to get back to work, so we are looking forward to seeing some bugs happening. A couple of other people came by to visit and admire the works in progress. and to look at the room.

That brings us to the end of another Quilters' Circle meeting. After which a couple of people went to check out the "moving sale" happening at our local quilt shop this week, but that would be another story...

Quilters' Circle - 7th September, 2009

Today was the first September meeting of the Quilters' Circle. Happy Spring, everyone!

Marilyn has been doing the "Working with Triangles" class. Here's her work so far, beside the instructions:


The colours she has chosen work really well, don't they? She is contemplating making the block several times to turn into a lap quilt, which would be lovely, but there are a lot of flying geese to make yet to finish the first block.

Marie brought along this tessellated whirly-gig quilt top to show us:

Here's a close-up:

I'm assuming that the pattern is made of pieced squares, so it must take a lot of planning to have each of those whirly-gigs end up with four arms all of the same colour. I should have asked about that.

Joy worked on this appliqué project:


The full quilt consists of four long panels, each with a different design. The sashing and borders also include appliqué. It is a beautiful quilt, and the colours glow against the black background.

Vireya did more of the swirls from the Red Delicious quilt. Here you can possibly see the yellow line representing the edge of the shape to be appliquéd. This is the final panel of swirls getting under way, and by the end of our time together this swirl was finished.


Between now and our next meeting, just about everyone will have attended a wedding or an engagement party. I think that proves it is Spring. See you all in two weeks!

Quilters' Circle - 31st August, 2009

It was the last day of winter, and the quilters met again at Sussex Neighbourhood House. In between discussions about noisy neighbours, the roadworks and detours due to sewerage works in the area, and the likelihood or otherwise of an event anticipated with dread turning out to be nothing like that bad, we all did some sewing.

Marie worked on joining together rows of her quilt-as-you-go dogs, as seen here last time. She brought along a book of star blocks which we all admired. The book included illustrations of the different effects that you can achieve by altering the value of sections of the designs. Joy also brought along a coloured diagram of a quilt using the same "friendship star" block as in Vireya's quilt from last time, but done in a limited range of colours to really emphasise the trellis pattern which is only incidental in Vireya's. I should have taken a picture of it!

Marie brought along her finished placemat:

The background fabrics are really a lemon yellow, not the beige-y colour they appear to be here. Marilyn's placemat from last time is for the same project, and includes some of the same fabrics. Marie also brought along this bag:

I think a few of us want to try making one of them! Marie had written out the construction instructions. I already have instructions but haven't made one yet. Stand by for more bags appearing here in future.

Marilyn worked on the last part of the border for her quilt we have seen in steps along the way. She is looking forward to completing the quilt so she can start a new project! Recently she visited her sister who showed her how to make "crumb blocks" from odd scraps of fabrics. Here's a couple Marilyn brought along to inspire us:


Apparently making the blocks is good exercise, because you sew a short seam, then get up and trim what you have sewn, then go back to the machine to do the next piece. (Repeat until finished).

Joy and Vireya were both appliquéing. Joy worked on her blue "Baltimore album" blocks, that we have seen some of before. A basket block is here, and a posy block is here. Vireya was sewing so hard her needle snapped! (Top left of this picture).


Who knew that could happen? It necessitated a quick trip to the nearest patchwork shop after the meeting, to buy more needles. The swirl is another part of the Red Delicious quilt designed by Esther Aliu.

Vireya also brought along her first ever quilt:


It is square, I don't know why it was hanging so strangely there. The quilt was inspired by an old episode of Simply Quilts, where the guest was Margaret J. Miller. In the episode she talked about her new book, "Strips that Sizzle", which is now no longer new (it was published in 1992), and no longer in print. I might have to make some more of these blocks some time, because they are fun to do.

Our next meeting is only a week away, on the 7th September. So happy Spring, everyone, and enjoy Adult Learners' Week this week.

Will Be Missing You
Hi to the triangular ones. I will be really missing you and your little triangles on Wednesday night when I am away and you are finishing off your blocks. Make sure you post lots of pics so I can see how all those lovely colour combos came together in the final product. Happy Accuracy. L : )