Quilters' Circle - 9th December, 2013

Today was our last meeting of the year, so we had some celebrations. That included yummy goodies for afternoon tea:

And lots of gifts:

On the quilting front, Vireya is participating in Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt. She showed us some of the pieces she has made for the first two steps in the mystery:

Today she was marking diagonal lines on squares, with the help of this little triangle she won in a Christmas cracker last year:

It is just the right size!

Glennys showed us these cute stockings she made from flannel fabric Marie gave her at our last meeting:

Marie worked on week 42 of her year quilt:

Marie also showed us this sashiko kit a friend bought for her in Japan:

Those instructions will be tricky to follow! Hopefully she can find some English sashiko instructions somewhere.

Marilyn worked on the binding of this piece she has made as a Kris Kringle gift for a lucky recipient:

And that's the end of 2013. Apparently the house will be shut all through January, so we can't meet again here until 10th February next year. But we may get together elsewhere in January, and if so, we'll post photos, so check back from time to time.

Best wishes for Christmas and New Year to all our readers! See you again in 2014.

Quilters' Circle - 25th November, 2013

Four quilters gathered on this lovely spring day, our second-last meeting for the year.

Marie has added the binding to her placemat, and today she was stitching it down:

A view of the front with the binding:

Vireya prepared some pentagon shapes, then clipped them in place ready to sew:

Glennys brought along her cutting gear:

And cut some pieces for the last of the quilts for her grandchildren. Then she finalised the arrangement of fabrics for her design:

Unfortunately this photo is on its side. If you tilt your head 90 degrees to the right it will be correct. This is something we noticed even when the photo was taken; the camera was flipping the photo when we tried to look at it. It's just one of life's mysteries.

Joy brought along this tessellated leaves piece she came across at home recently:

This is a tricky design to make. Joy's is all hand-pieced, and you can tell by the fabrics that she started this many years ago. There are a couple of internet sites offering easier ways to piece this, using techniques such as paper-piecing, or even a raw-edge appliqué method (found here).

Today Joy brought along some prepared pieces for a hexagon quilt-as-you-go project:

And here's one she finished:

Again, the photo has turned itself a quarter-turn. Sorry, but I can't fix it. If I turn it on the computer before uploading it, blogger rotates it again. So we are stuck with it like this.

Our next meeting will be the last for the year, on 9th of December. This will be our Christmas break-up. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 11th November, 2013

Today we had a special afternoon tea to celebrate Marie's birthday, which is later this week. She also received this gift:

This isn't a great photo of it, but it is actually a zip-up insulated case for carrying an iron (with added embellishment). However, everyone came up with other creative uses for it! Suggestions included carrying hot food, cool shoes, or small wine bottles.

Glennys is making a quilt for one of her grand-daughters, using fabrics and colours chosen by the grand-daughter:

The design is Glennys' own. We were very impressed with her small "square in a square" blocks, which cleverly use a printed mandala-like design as the centre square. Today she auditioned border arrangements:

Then made some progress on Raggedy Ann:

By the end of the meeting Ann's arms and legs were stuffed and attached, so she is nearly done. So cute!

Marie's mystery quilt has come to an end after 6 clues:

She decided to assemble it in a 5 x 3 arrangement, rather than 4 x 4, to give a more symmetrical layout. It looks good, but now she needs to decide how to finish it.

Marie also showed us her progress on the placemat she had just the top of last time. She has added borders, and done some free-motion machine quilting in a leaf design:

Unfortunately her machine has had to go in for a service, so the quilting has stopped for now. Today she did some more hand-quilting on the hexagon project we have seen before:

Vireya pinned a pattern on some garment fabric, but no photos were taken of that. Then she made a few diamonds for her sunflower quilt:

These colours are looking a bit cooler than in real life.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on the 25th November. I think that will be our second-last for the year!

Quilters' Circle - 28th October, 2013

The end of the year is fast approaching. Even though it feels like winter, the calendar says otherwise. We have only a few meetings left for the year.

It was lovely to see Joy again today! She is making a second version of a wall-hanging quilt she has made once before for another family member:

Today she traced many small pieces of the pattern to make fusible appliqué pieces.

Marie told us about the December Made in Thornbury market. Her quilting class are going to have a have a small quilt show in conjunction with the market:

It should be worth a visit if you are in the area on 7th December.

Marie's quilt class are working on a mystery quilt, and today Marie showed us the next stage of hers:

She has four different sets of blocks assembled, although the ones in the photo are all of type "2". The quilt looks a bit like a "Hidden Wells" design, but it will be interesting to see how they all go together in the end.

Marie also showed us this place-mat top she has assembled since our last meeting:

Glennys brought along these cute aprons she made from some of the pieces of fabric Marie donated at our last meeting:

They led to a few shared reminiscences about having to wear aprons as children.

Today Glennys did some stitching on these Christmas blocks:

Yes, it nearly is that time of year. One of the houses across the road from the Neighbourhood House has their Christmas decorations up already.

Vireya made these pieces:

Then laid out her sunflower quilt to see how they worked in one of the corners to be filled in:

But she wasn't happy with the colour of the green diamonds. They had looked better at home, so it may be the fluorescent lights influencing the colours. Rather than start stitching them into place she decided to take them home and look at them again in daylight. Perhaps she will need to go back to her fabric stash to find an alternative.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on Remembrance Day, 11th November. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 14th October, 2013

Today we were back in our old meeting room, which has a fresh coat of paint and new carpet. It looks much nicer! As well as the "new" surroundings, we were delighted to have Marilyn visiting us.

Dorothea showed us a beautiful quilt featuring family photographs. She printed the photos using the "Bubble Jet Set" system, and got excellent results by manipulating the colours on the computer before printing them. She found that increasing the colour saturation and contrast so that the pictures looked very garish on the screen, she got natural-looking colours on the fabric. That's a great hint for anyone who wants to print photos on fabric. We didn't photograph the quilt, as it has names and pictures of family members, but we all admired it greatly.

Marie and another friend have been doing some de-stashing, so Marie brought along some fabrics for anyone who wanted to take them:

She managed to find takers for a few of those pieces.

The Neighbourhood House is selling 2014 diaries featuring pictures of various creative groups. Today we had the opportunity to view samples of the hard cover and paperback versions:

If you are interested, you can contact the house at:
enquiries@sussexnh.org.au

When Glennys took out her purse to pay the meeting charge, she found an interesting coin none of us had ever seen before:

It is a 2013 commemorative $2 coin marking 60 years since the Queen's coronation. It has purple stripes! Apparently only 2 million of these have been made, so Glennys was very lucky to have found one in her change. Unsurprisingly, she did not use it to pay for the meeting, but hung on to it.

Today Glennys added hair to one of her Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls:

She brought them along in this cute little bag:

Closed above, and open below:

The bag is a design by Rosalie Quinlan, called "Nellie's Sewing Bag". There are internal pockets on each side, and it closes with a rather ingenious set of handles and loops. Glennys was given the pattern and the fabric a number of years ago, but she has found it useful for carrying more than just sewing. It held four drink bottles and snacks for her grandchildren on a recent outing.

Glennys's grandson has made this quilt with some help from her:

Doesn't it look fantastic? We all think he should be very proud of his quilt. Now Glennys needs to finish hand-stitching down the strips covering the joins on the back, then bind the edges so that he can use it.

Glennys showed us this baby toy she has made from scraps of polar fleece:

It has a tinkly bell in it and is very squishable. Blogger is responsible for the orientation.

Marie has finished the placemats she was working on last time. Here they are, all quilted and bound:

Blogger has tipped them on their side,too!

Today Marie was hand-quilting this piece:

We've seen parts of this before, including a few pictures of the dots being appliquéd in place, but this is the first time we've seen it all assembled. It is such a happy top!

Marilyn attended a workshop with her Bendigo quilt guild, Strathdale Quilters, where she made this "jelly-roll race" quilt:

The bright orange squares added to the end of each strip add extra zing to the lovely batiks Marilyn used in this quilt. Today she stitched down some of the binding.

Vireya made this star shape:

Then started stitching it into place on her sunflowers quilt:

That's it for this week! Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 28th October. See you again then.

Quilters' Circle - 30th September, 2013

The renovations are still happening. Parts of the House have new paint and carpet, and other parts are still to be done. So we met in the childcare centre again today, and admired this box of colourful spools for threading:

They looked like a bit of fun to play with!

Marie worked on her placemats. She is appliquéing the hexagons we saw last time to a very cheerful yellow background fabric:

The one at the bottom is nearly done.

Vireya joined two parts of her sunflower piece. Here's a shot from early in the process:

The pieces down the middle which still have paper in them are the edges of the two parts. Here's how they looked by the end of our session:

All joined together and the papers removed.

Vireya also brought along the completed trousers that she cut out in our meeting last week:

The weather was a bit cool for light-weight linen, so no action shot!

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 14th October. Our normal room should be ready by then, so we are looking forward to the transformation.