Basting Bee

A bunch of enthusiastic folk assembled at the neighbourhood house this morning to get the raffle quilt ready for quilting. Here were the tasks ahead of us:


Adding the borders involved a bit of measuring,

a bit of stitching,

and some pressing.

The back was steamed

then stretched and taped to the table.

Next the wadding was laid down and smoothed out (note: action shot):



Then the top was put into position (see goodies in the background, which were consumed throughout the morning):

and smoothed by many hands.

The first pin was ceremoniously inserted:


And a short while later there were pins everywhere!


Then came a big decision: which fabric to use for the binding?

Binding No. 1?

Binding No. 2?

Or Binding No. 3?

Which would you have chosen? Stay tuned to see if we agreed.

The label was prepared

while the binding was cut, stitched and pressed.

Yes, we chose fabric number one.

It's time to check our progress:

Looks like we got everything done. Hooray!

Thanks to everyone who could participate today. Your input was invaluable. If anyone would like to be involved in doing the actual quilting, please let us know.

And of course, you can always contribute by buying raffle tickets. When the tickets are available, we'll post the details here for you.

Piecing Bee

As mentioned here, this afternoon a few people got together to piece the friendship star blocks together for the raffle quilt while enjoying cherry cake, chocolate biscuits, and lots of conversation.

First we laid out all the blocks, and worked out what extra bits were needed.


Then there was a bit of cutting and trimming, followed by some stitching and some more trimming.




Then all the pieces were spread out so we could check the layout, and move around blocks and bits to ensure a nice spread of the different intensities and shades of colour.


After a bit of swapping around, rows were sewn together, then joined to each other.


As each seam was completed, it was pressed into shape.


And finally, the quilt top was all together in one big piece!

Well done everyone who was able to be there today.

The borders will be added before the basting bee, which will be on 18th July. You are welcome to come and be part of the fun!

Thank You! and Invitation

It's been so exciting to see the Friendship Star blocks for the Sussex Raffle quilt come in. Each one is different and lovingly made. I now have box full, and it's time to go on to the next stage. You're invited to an impromptu quilting bee at Sussex Neighbourhood House next Wednesday afternoon. The North Studio will be available from 3.30pm. The task is to make the joining strips which will convert this set of blue Friendship Stars into a set of blue and yellow interlocking stars. It's all very casual, so please come any time after 3.30pm, bring a snack or some dinner to heat up in the microwave--oh, and your sewing machine and some appropriate threads. I will have rotary cutters, rulers and mats available.

We've set aside Sunday 18 July to do the basting, so that's the next date for your diary.

Quilters' Circle - 14th June, 2010

Because the Neighbourhood House was closed for the Queen's Birthday public holiday, Joy invited us to meet at her home. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea, served on a cloth Joy's grandmother made her for her 21st birthday.

Joy also provided us with a pile of patchwork magazines to look through, so between the magazines and the refreshments, not a lot of sewing was done.

A couple more of us have made our blocks for the raffle quilt.


Marie bought along this tiny cushion to show us. It goes with the doll quilt we saw at her place on ANZAC day.


Marie's new project involves appliquéd birds, leaves and flowers formed of simple shapes. This shot shows how it will go together:

During our time together Marie began to appliqué one of the birds. The design is called Holiday Morning, by Kathy Doughty, from the book Material Obsession, by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

Marilyn brought along her finished cushion, complete with a very professional-looking zip in the back of the cover.

It looks lovely, and should be greatly appreciated by the person who is about to receive it as a house-warming gift.

Vireya has finished the last block of her Red Delicious quilt.

She is hoping to have the top assembled by our next meeting.

Our next meeting will be at 1:00pm on 28th June, at the Neighbourhood House. See you then!

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.