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!

Quilters' Circle - 13th August, 2012

Happy August! If you are reading this, Joy, we hope you are feeling better soon. We miss you!

Since our last meeting Lyn has quilted and bound her 9-patch quilt:

Her next project will be a wholecloth quilt. Lyn has plans to make quilts for each of her grandchildren by the end of the year, but has decided that piecing isn't her thing.

Glennys brought along this lovely quilt top that we have seen before, and the backing and batting. We all helped with pinning the central section of it together:

Glennys started this quilt at a workshop with Teresa Horsburgh, and it is based on Teresa's design Floral Garden. However, Glennys's fabric choices resulted in a quilt which is quite different from the published pattern. Now that the central section is pinned to stabilise it, Glennys will be able to thread-baste the whole quilt.

Marie has finished her twisted pinwheel hanging, including the binding:

Today she sewed a label to the back, so it is ready to be given to the happy couple.

 Our next meeting is in two weeks, on 27th August. Hope to see you again then!