Quilters' Circle - 4th May, 2009

The Quilters' Circle meets at Sussex Neighbourhood House every 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday from 1:00 to 3:30 PM. We work on our own projects, while enjoying conversation and company. The group is not a class, but help and advice is always available. Anyone is welcome to come and join us. Here's what we did today.





















Today Joy showed us some tips for needle-turn appliqué, demonstrating on this handsome butterfly. The spots on the blue strip will be added to his wings later. There are several butterflies on this piece. Joy also brought along some blocks from a blue Baltimore Album quilt she is making. Here's a sample:



Isn't that beautiful?



Marie was quilting her lovely 1930s hexagon quilt:






The quilting is a meandering line through the hexagons; you can see it in the green block. On the right-hand side you can see a little of the border, which has appliquéd stems, leaves, and hexagon flowers. It is a very cheerful quilt.





Marilyn was cutting sashing strips for her lap quilt. The 9 blocks are all done:






Aren't they lovely colours?













Vireya worked on an appliqué flower for a mystery block-of-the-month quilt, "Red Delicious" designed by Esther Alieu. She is not making it all in red, as you can see. The pattern for the petals is cut from the wrapper of a ream of photocopy paper. The plastic coating on the back can be ironed onto the fabric, then easily removed. Vireya is an appliquér with L-plates.







Between the sewing, we looked at magazines, admired lovely Japanese fabric, gave border advice to Leigh, and met the drummer who will be entertaining people next Monday for Neighbourhood House Week. A great afternoon all round. Please feel welcome to come along and join us next time.



Please forgive the strange spacing here - this is the first blog post I've ever done, and I had trouble getting the photos to behave!

Coburg Saints

Meet the Coburg Saints, No, not a local football team! These are better known as the Carers Project Wall Hangings:

I asked Sue, the Neighbourhood House manager, to give us some history, since these are the first examples of what might be call "Quilters" at Sussex.

"These two wall hangings were part of a larger installation which Sussex Craft people created under the leadership of Textile Artist Anne Marie Power. The whole installation was in the People’s Gallery at the NGV in St Kilda Rd, Melbourne for about a fortnight and got lots of press. It was part of the Coburg Council (now Moreland City Council) Coburg Carers Project which aimed to raise the profile of carers in the community at a time when the word was largely not known and public support was relatively low.

People were very excited about finding ways with textiles to express the natures of their roles and their feelings about it. It also set Sussex Neighbourhood House on a path of being very aware of the needs of carers and people with disabilities. Having hung in the house for almost 16 and a half years they are a constant reminder of what carers do and that the community appreciates their contribution.

The two hangings were rebacked in 2007 to freshen them up as they are still valued in this place. "

Sue was part time Coordinator at Sussex and part time project worker for the Council’s Carers Project in 1992 when the "Saints" were made.