Quilters' Circle - 10th December, 2012

Our last meeting for the year, and it was great to see some faces we haven't seen for a while. Marilyn came down from Bendigo, and Carol joined us too. Later Carol's daughter Isabella walked into the room as well. Last time we saw Isabella she wasn't crawling, but she is a real toddler now!

It has taken a while for us to discover that knitter Dorothea is a secret quilter. Before the other knitters arrived she showed us this quilt she is working on:

Butterflies, beetles, bees and ants on a wonderfully colourful quilt. The pattern was a kit but I forgot to ask the name of the design and the designer. If you know, please add it to the comments and I'll amend this post with the details.

Goodies spread out on the Christmas tablecloth:

Some people have been very busy making gifts!

Between eating and gift giving and browsing books and magazines, some people did some sewing. Marilyn and Carol each worked on the same projects they had with them last time; Marilyn's motto stitchery, and Carol's prairie points. Marie did some appliqué which wasn't photographed in all the excitement.

Glennys put the finishing touches to the dress and overalls she was cutting out at our last meeting:

Here's a close view of the broderie anglais fabric which Glennys thinks she has had for more than 30 years:

The cute overalls:

Blogger wants you to stretch your neck to the side to see them the right way up.

Vireya has been participating in Bonnie Hunter's online mystery Easy Street:

A selection of parts made in the first three steps of the mystery. The purples, as usual, are more purpley in real life than in the photo. The  mystery runs for several more weeks, and then it will be interesting to see how it all goes together!

Our next meeting will be on 11th February, 2013. That seems a very long way away! In the meantime, we wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Quilters' Circle - 26th November, 2012

It was our second-last meeting for the year, and lots has been happening.

Glennys cut out a couple of garments for grandchildren:

This one will be a pair of overalls. Then she added bells to these santa hats she has made:

Very cute!

Marie has participated in two workshops recently. One involve embellishing techniques using Angelina fibre. Here's what one of her pieces looked like with light reflecting off it:

And here's what it looked like with light shining through it:

A face appeared!

Marie's other workshop was on different dyeing techniques.

The piece closest to the camera was ice dyed. The others are sun prints. We had fun identifying the different objects Marie had used for their shadows.

The workshop also included some eco-dyeing of silk and cotton fabrics, using techniques developed by India Flint:

Today Marie made some circles, then showed us how they will be appliquéd to the border of this project:

Picture not quite in focus, but I'm sure we will get a better shot some time in the future.

Vireya worked on pieces which will connect up her sunflowers:

In between all that we had a magazine and some advertising brochures to peruse:

See you next time for our last meeting of the year, on the 10th December.

Quilters' Circle - 12th November, 2012

Today we celebrated Marie's birthday with some afternoon tea. Marie received a lovely umbrella (picture from the internet because I forgot to photograph the real one).

The design of the umbrella is by Deborah Kemball, and it is based on her quilt "Indian Garden", from her book Beautiful Botanicals:

(Another picture from the internet, which is actually closer to the real colour of the umbrella as well.)

Marie showed us this cute little dress and bloomers she is making for a friend's baby girl:

And today she worked on some hexagons, but the photographer really fell down on the job and didn't get a snap of them, either.

Glennys makes a quilt for each of her nieces when they marry, and another one has named the day. So today Glennys brought along her cutting equipment and fabric:

Obviously staged for camera - this side has already been cut!

By the end of our session all the pieces for the main part of the quilt were cut. Here's what a block will look like when pieced:

Unfortunately the camera is not giving us a good idea of the colours. The fabric at the top looks too bright, and the bottom one is too washed out! Think navy and taupe to get a closer image. I hope Glennys will bring it along once it is pieced, and we can get a photo in natural light. The block design is from a quilting calendar, and had no designer's name.

Vireya started adding the connecting parts to one of her sunflowers:

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 26th November. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 29th October, 2012

We had a lovely surprise today when Marilyn joined us. It was great to see her again; we've missed her since she moved to the country. She worked on this this motto today:

The pattern for this quilt is called "Love Letters", but I don't know the designer's name. Searching the internet finds lots of quilt patterns with this name, but none of them are this one. If anyone knows, please leave a message in the comments.

Marie has quilted the little boy's quilt we saw as a top in July, and today she was finishing the binding:

You can't see much of the top in this shot, but the pattern is "Sparkling Gemstones" from the book Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

Vireya didn't do any quilt-related sewing today, but she did take advantage of the large tables and space to cut out a dress-making project, after ironing her fabric:

The colour is a bit washed out in the shot, but it is a springy green in real life.

If all the shots look a bit dark today, there's a good reason. Most of the lights in our room were not working. An electrician arrived to check it out late in our session, and discovered someone had turned them off at the switchboard. I should have taken a picture of the switch, which is actually covered in a sign that says, "Do not touch this switch". I guess it's not the first time this has happened!

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 12th November. See you again then.

Quilters' Circle - 22nd October, 2012

The year is rushing by, and today is the fourth Monday of October.

Glennys was back with us today, and blanket-stitched a cute pirate baby blanket: 

She also pin-basted this quilt, which is a birthday gift for a friend:

We have seen parts of the quilt before. Some of the appliqué can be seen in progress here. Between the rose fabrics you might notice embroidered blocks featuring birthday messages to the recipient:

Marie worked on the same project she was working on last time, and also brought along the finished bag we saw in progress then:

The pattern she used is Sashiko Shoulder Bag by Julie Peters, from Homespun Vol 4 No 3.

Vireya made some more pentagons to fill in gaps in the sunflower project we saw a couple of meetings ago.

There are five Mondays this month, so we will meet again next week. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 8th October, 2012

It's the second Monday in October, so here we are back again. Once again we had only a small group this time.

We each brought along books, magazines, patterns and catalogues to read between stitching:

Vireya took advantage of the large tables to spread out a dress pattern and cut out the main pieces to test the fit:

Not the final fabric she wants to use, just something cheap for testing purposes. After that she made a few more diamonds for her on-going project:

Marie showed her progress on a bag she is making:

The pieces at the top right will be joined to create the second side of the bag. It's a project from an old Homespun magazine, which didn't have a designer's name on it. (Added later: Please see the comments below, where the editor of Homespun has identified the pattern and the issue.) Today Marie worked on a different project, and appliquéd these thin green lines:

We will have to wait until another meeting to find out what they are for!

Our next meeting is in two weeks, on 22nd October. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 24th September, 2012

Another small meeting group today.

Marie has joined together quite a few of her quilt-as-you-go blocks from last time. She has used a creamy-beige fabric for the front,

and black on the back.

Today Marie stitched down some of these strips.

Vireya brought along all the bits she has made for her paper-piecing project, and spread them out to see how they look together, and what she needs to make to fill in the gaps:

Today she made a few pale green pentagons to fill a gap or two:

Our next meeting will be in 2 weeks, on Monday 8th October.

Quilters' Circle - 10th September, 2012

A very small gathering of quilters today; just two of us were able to attend.

Marie did some more hand-quilting on her green thousand-pyramid quilt. Here it is spread out to check on progress:

Since our last meeting Marie has also made a set of quilt-as-you-go blocks. She made them a bit differently to the QAYG blocks we made for bushfire and flood victims early last year.

Instead of using strips for the whole block, Marie made half of each block from strips, but the other half is either plain or simply pieced, then free-motion quilted. It looks great, and is a really nice variation with an opportunity for some free-motion practice.

Vireya made some blue diamond shapes today:

She also brought along this book:

It is the catalogue of a recent exhibition in the USA, curated by Jenny Bowker. Jenny brought an exhibition of the Cairo tentmakers' work to Melbourne in 2007, which was fantastic. Since then she has organised shows in various other countries, but this may be the first time a catalogue has been published. The work is stunning, as you can see from this sample page:

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 24th September.

Quilters' Circle - 27th August, 2012

It was the fourth Monday in August, so the quilters got together again.

Glennys started by doing something not at all quilty:

Tacking a zip into this cute corduroy pinafore. Looks like you will have to tilt your head to the side to see it the right way up. Sorry about that!

Marie has been to a free-motion quilting workshop, and brought along her sample piece. For the workshop she had to baste together a square metre of fabric, batting and backing, which was used for practicing various designs. Here's some of her swirly designs:

There's lots of space left for "warm-up" quilting and trying out other designs. It's an idea that could be worth copying. A square metre is a decent size for playing with, and provides lots of space for testing different patterns.

After getting that zip in place, Glennys worked on the binding of the quilt she was pin-basting last time:

She hasn't completed the quilting yet, but binding is an ideal activity to take to meetings.

Here's proof: Marie was stitching down binding, too:

This is the binding on a placemat. Here's the front view:

As usual, because the camera doesn't love purple the way some of us do, these colours are not accurate. In real life it looks even better than it does here. And Marie's quilted leaf shapes look great, too. The placemat is part of a gift for a member of another quilting group Marie attends. Each quilter was given the central purple piece and the binding, and then had to complete the placemat using fabrics from their own stash. It would be fun to see them all together.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 10th September. See you again then!