Quilters' Circle - 13th December, 2010

Today was the last meeting of the Quilters' Circle before the neighbourhood house closes for the Christmas and New Year period.

Joy brought along some decorations to get us in the mood -

Her angel:

And her tree:

She also brought a table-cloth for our spread of eatables.

We had a little bit of show-and-tell. Vireya made these coasters after being inspired by the ones Marie showed us at our last meeting.

 

Joy showed us this small quilt which she recently found tucked away in a cupboard. It was her first foray into the world of half-square triangles, but she wasn't happy with it and put it away.

I should add that she didn't want me to photograph it, either. It doesn't quite lie flat, because all those bias edges made it hard to control. But we liked it, and it is fascinating to compare the fabrics available now with what quilters could buy then.

Not a lot of quilting work actually happened today - although Glennys did some stitching on this very cute reindeer who is going to become a Santa sack for her grand-daughter.

There was so much else to do; drink cups of tea, chat, share yummy eatables with the knitters, and read some of the many books and magazines people had brought along.

And on top of all that, all sorts of gifts and goodies were exchanged and displayed.

Some people have been very busy!

Marie made individual coasters for us, each featuring special fabrics relevant to the recipient. You can see a couple of them in the photo.

Vireya made a bunch of lavender handbags, from a pattern designed by Nicole Mallalieu. Some of them are in the photo, too.

The teacher of the patchwork group Marie and Marilyn attend made all her students a strawberry bag. I didn't get a photo of one, but here's a link to a blog post that shows what they look like, and has instructions for making your own. And here's another one, which uses metric measurements. The cathedral-window decoration and the tiny handbag were also made in that class.

Joy made some little sewing kits. Here's what one of them looked like inside:

And they all had different patchwork designs on the outside.

Well that's it for this year. We hope all our readers have a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year. We will be back at the house on 24th January, 2011 (assuming the meeting days will be the same next year as this), but may get together between now and then. If we do, we'll report on it here.

See you next year!

Quilters' Circle - 29th November, 2010

Today is our bonus fifth Monday in November, so the Quilters' Circle got together again at the House for the second-last time this year.

As it is only a week since our last meeting, most of us didn't have a lot of show-and-tell. However, Marie has completed the quilting on her Christmas wall-hanging, and today was sewing down the binding. Here's one corner all done:

Inspired by that corner block, Marie used some of her left-over Christmas fabrics to make these seasonal coasters:

We were happy to see Joy back with us today. She is still quilting her miniature mariner's compass quilt, using a tiny tiny needle (which looks huge here, but when it fell on the floor it was very difficult to find).

Vireya worked on her paper-piecing project, but had some trouble planning the sewing order to avoid having to fold cardboard when stitching together this shape:

Marilyn brought along her machine and chain-pieced some triangles:

Our next meeting will be the last for the year, on 13th December.  Mary from the knitting group suggested we all bring a plate next time for a special afternoon tea.  Good idea, Mary!  So, come and join us then for some stitching and snacking!

Quilters' Circle - 22nd November, 2010

Here it is, the fourth Monday of November already. We missed Joy, who couldn't make it today. Hope you are feeling 100% again soon, Joy.

Marie brought along her finished baby ball to show us:

People couldn't resist picking it up and playing with it. 

Today Marie was tracing templates and cutting out pieces for a new project:

What will it be?  You'll have to wait and see. Sorry about the fluorescent light reflection - I didn't notice that until later.

Vireya brought along the finished apron that she was cutting out last time:

Although she did model it for us, no photo was taken of that, so this is on her dressform at home.

Today Vireya was working on a paper-piecing project.

Glennys worked on her Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls. Here's the very huggable Ann all done:

Look at the brilliant fabric Glennys used for Ann's clothes. Did you know that Raggedy Ann was created in 1915, and Andy in 1920?  That makes them 90 and 95 years old!

Marilyn has added the border to her Bombers block from last time. She had done some quilting, but discovererd that her walking foot was a bit loose for part of it, resulting in stitches like this:

So today she unpicked that part, and re-quilted it:

Looking good!

While stitching, we browsed a few magazines, books and catalogues Marie brought along - and ate some of her bickies!  Thanks, Marie.

We also had a look at some information about a quilt competition for neighbourhood houses next year.  We'll give that a bit of thought between now and our next meeting.

Speaking of our next meeting, this month has 5 Mondays, so it is only one week until we are back again, on the 29th November.  See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 8th November, 2010

November already! Five of us got together today, and had a lovely afternoon.

Joy was hand-quilting her miniature mariners' compass quilt:

Joy is on a "finishing" drive - she is working at completing unfinished items, rather than starting anything new.

Marilyn was machine-piecing the border for this football-related block:

Guess which football team?

Vireya cut out an apron panel she recently purchased:

Marie was assembling her baby ball:

Glennys added hair to a Raggedy Anne (or is this Andy?) doll:

This one is for her grand-daughter.  Glennys made the same dolls for her children, using the same pattern.  It is now a family tradition.  She also showed us the cute outfits she has made for the dolls, using a very appropriate border print.  I didn't photograph the clothes, so I hope Anne and Andy come back for a visit before they go to their new homes.

We had lots of books and magazines to read, and Glennys very kindly brought along some very yummy chocolate-chip biscuits:

Thanks, Glennys!

And speaking of chocolate, the childcare centre is having a fund-raising chocolate drive, so we had to help out...

Last time Mary, one of the knitters, offered around pieces of a red-flowering salvia from her garden, and today she brought them along all potted up for us. Thanks, Mary!

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 22nd November. Hope to see you then!

In the meantime, some birthday wishes:

Happy birthday tomorrow to one of our readers, Dorothy. Hope you have a lovely day!

Happy birthday to Marie for this coming weekend. Hope something nice happens for you on the day!

Quilters' Circle - 25th October, 2010

October is nearly over already. How can that be? 

Marilyn was the most productive person today. She chain-pieced many triangles for the 64 flying geese she needs. Here's 4 completed ones, so I suppose that long chain she worked on was the other 60!

Marie was stuffing the segments of a baby's clutch ball. Here's a few of them, featuring some very cute fabrics.

Joy did some embroidery embellishment on blocks for her blue Baltimore Album quilt.  She has started joining the blocks together.  Aren't they looking good?

These blocks will surround the large centre block which didn't come along today.

Vireya has also been putting blocks together.

Today she cut the batting and got this ready to be basted.

As well as all that, we chatted, drank tea, flicked through a big pile of older magazines, browsed catalogues Marie brought along, borrowed books from the knitters, and enjoyed Vireya's recent internet purchases (on the left below).

Our next meeting will be in a fortnight, on 8th November.  We hope some of our missing members will be back with us then!

Bonus - Marie's Birds

This is the quilt Marie showed us yesterday, but that we couldn't show until today:

Isn't it lovely? The birds, leaves and flowers are hand-appliquéd, and the rest is machine pieced. The lovely swirly quilting was also done by machine. The birds' legs, beaks and eyes are hand-embroidered. The end result is totally charming, although I don't think it looks quite as good in the photo as it does in real life.

Marie made this wall-hanging as a gift for a lucky person. The gift was presented today, which is why we couldn't show it yesterday — we didn't want to spoil the surprise! If you'd like to make one like this yourself, the quilt is from a design called Holiday Morning, by Kathy Doughty, found in the book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

Quilters' Circle - 11th October, 2010

Here we are in October already. Today was a lovely warm spring day, "except for the wind", which everyone seemed to say.

Joy has put together the top of her Japanese quilt:

The design is Joy's adaptation of a pattern called "Japanese Collection" by Leesa Chandler. Joy has replaced many of the original blocks with her own selection of Japanese designs, as Leesa encourages people to do in the pattern. Here's a better view of the centre block, showing the kimono flap open:

Unfortunately the lady's face is a bit bleached out in the photograph. But can you see that the inside of her kimono is also pieced?

As if that weren't enough, Joy has also completed the fourth (all hand-pieced) mariners' compass block for her miniature quilt:

Marie also had something special to show us. She has completed a delightful quilt that we can't show right now, as it is a gift. Come back tomorrow to see it!

Marilyn is making another of the blocks from the "Working with Triangles" course. She showed us her first one back in April. Today she was ruling lines on the back to help with accurate piecing:

The sandpaper stops the tiny pieces moving around while they are being worked on.

Glennys did some stitching on a Christmas wall-hanging project she started a little while back:

Cute, aren't they?

Vireya appliquéd some yoyos:

We'll have to get a a photo of the whole thing next time.

Our next meeting will be in a fortnight— the 25th October (fourth Monday of the month). But you don't have to wait that long— come back tomorrow to see Marie's completed quilt.

Quilters' Circle - 27th September, 2010

Today a small group of quilters met at the Neighbourhood House.

Glennys put the finishing touches on a couple of sundresses she is making for her grand-daughter's first birthday.  One is in a gingham-like print with added caterpillars:

And the other a cherry print.   We marvelled at the "vintage" cherry buttons Glennys had found in her stash to go with this one:

 Marie showed up the progress she has made on her latest quilt, which is looking really good.  No photos, because it is a gift for someone!  Today she worked on more segments for the baby ball.

Vireya showed us this purse which she has made since our last meeting, testing a new pattern for Nicole Mallalieu.

Today she was making more pentagon shapes.  She is starting to get sick of them, but she doesn't want to start any new projects until a few works-in-progress are completed.

A member of the knitting group, Karin, recently had a trip to Norway. She brought this book to show us:

It features works by Norway's first professional quilter, Grete Gulliksen Moe.  We all enjoyed seeing Grete's work.  The picture below is of my favourite, but there were many lovely pieces.

Grete is a designer, a patchwork and quilting teacher, and Scandinavia's best-selling author in this field.  Her website shows some of her other works and her books.

Leigh also dropped in to show us her latest project, the Twin Stars quilt from the book Jelly Roll Quilts by  Pam and Nicky Lintott.  She had a very cute selection of fabric, which I didn't think of photographing at the time.

Carole, Joy and Marilyn couldn't be with us due to other commitments.  We hope to see them and you back with us at our next meeting, which will be on 11th October.

Quilters' Circle - 13th September, 2010

Today the Quilters' Circle got together again. While we sewed productively, we chatted about a range of topics including appropriate gifts for a baby shower. We read some magazines and compared how people dressed up for photos then and now. Then we had to try and work out how long ago the then magazine was published!

Glennys blanket-stitched around a baby blanket:

When she finished that, she moved on to some appliqué which wasn't photographed.  We'll have to get it next time.

Joy appliquéd more of the final panel of her black-background wall hanging:

This panel is nearly finished, although that doesn't mean the whole project is nearly done. There are borders and sashing strips to be appliquéd as well.


Marie is making a baby ball like the one Joy brought along in August. Today she cut out sections from some cheerful fabrics:

Carol worked on the flowers of this lovely appliqué panel:

The design is Whitefriars Ruby by Robyn Falloon. It was published in Beautiful Country Crafts in 2009 (vol 21, number 4).

Marilyn has been very self-disciplined, and has not read our last blog entry which showed Marie's completed mystery. She also hasn't opened the last two sets of instructions. Today she pieced a couple more of the rows:

Vireya showed us this cover she made for her Kobo ereader since our last meeting:

Today she made more of those pentagon shapes.

Our next meeting will be on 27th September. Hope you can join us then!