Quilters' Circle - 31st May, 2010

Today was our bonus 5th-Monday meeting. We had a very quiet time in the house, as it seemed we were the only ones there.

Since our last meeting, Marie has made herself this lovely blue bag:

Joy brought along the Japanese quilt she is making. We have seen some of these blocks before, but this was the first time we have had the chance to see the whole thing.

This lovely quilt includes various dimensional elements that the photo doesn't show clearly. The design is Joy's adaptation of a pattern called "Japanese Collection" by Leesa Chandler, but Joy has replaced most of the original blocks with her own selections, inspired by a couple of books she owns of Japanese designs.

You may notice that a couple of corners of Joy's quilt are still to be done. In between doing our own sewing today, we enjoyed browsing through Joy's inspirational books, and making suggestions for how she could fill those last corners. Marie also brought along the latest edition of Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine for us to flip through.

You may remember that raffle quilt block kits were distributed last week. Some of them have already been made and returned:


Our next meeting would be on 14th June, but the house will be closed for the Queen's Birthday holiday. So our next meeting at the house will be 28th June. Join us if you can.

Quilters' Circle - 24th May, 2010

Today this sight greeted me as I arrived at the Quilters' Circle meeting:

The wonderful women of this group surprised me with these gifts and goodies because it is my birthday later this week. I was overwhelmed!

Here's what was hiding in those packages:


So many lovely things! Thank you everyone, for your friendship and thoughtfulness.

After all that excitement, we had something else new to look at. The Neighbourhood House is planning a raffle quilt featuring interlocking friendship stars, and we received our kits with the instructions:

Included is a piece of hand-dyed fabric which will feature in each block, and some paint-chips to guide our colour selections for the pieces we will supply ourselves. The plan is for the quilt to have a "coordinated-scrappy" look. We have about a month to make our blocks, after which the quilt will be assembled. It will be fascinating to see how it all comes together! Raffle tickets will be for sale in August, so stay tuned for details.

In between enjoying the afternoon-tea goodies, we all did some work on our own projects. Marie did some quilting, and here she is in action marking the quilting line:


That's actually a pencil, not a biro as it appears.

Joy worked on the next block in her Japanese quilt:
It will be a Japanese Crest featuring pine trees when complete.

Marilyn was cutting pieces for her next project, and brought along this lovely hexagon miniature quilt to show us:
This quilt was made by her sister. It is all done by hand, and features tiny fussy-cut hexagons in a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern. It was interesting to see how she handled the edges - they are faced with a hexagon facing. Here's a close-up:

What a clever idea!

Vireya is still appliquéing cherries on the last of her Red Delicious blocks. Nearly done:



We are lucky that this month has 5 Mondays, so it is only one week until our next meeting. Hope to see you then.

Quilters' Circle - 10th May, 2010

Happy blog birthday to us! It is now a year since we started putting our meeting reports on this blog.

Today we had a special guest come to visit us. Betty brought along this quilt belonging to her daughter Kerryn, which was made by Kerryn and her friend Shelly:


The two friends were both diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. They have supported each other through their treatment, and working together on two quilts (one for each of them) was part of that support. They have used a lot of Pink Ribbon (breast cancer awareness) fabrics in this very special quilt. Betty was one of the 14,000 who took part in the Field of Women event for the Breast Cancer Network at the MCG on Friday night.

Joy brought along these ducks to show us:

They are for her Japanese quilt. Previous blocks we have seen include the cranes and butterflies.

Today Joy worked on this bow for her blue Baltimore Album quilt:


Vireya brought along some practice free-motion quilting she has been doing:

This view shows the backs of the blocks, as you can see the quilting better that way. Vireya has a few quilt-tops ready to be quilted, but wants to improve her quilting skill before she tackles them; hence these practice blocks. To help with further improvement, she borrowed Joy's book and DVD Mastering the Art of McTavishing by Karen McTavish.

Today Vireya was appliquéing cherries and leaves:


Marie cut out pieces for the border of her green triangle quilt:

The template she is tracing around is clear plastic, so didn't show up well in this photo.

Marilyn couldn't be here today - we hope to see her next time, because we are wondering what her next project will be after she completed her last quilt.

Our next meeting is in a fortnight, on 24th May at 1:00pm. Happy sewing until then!