Quilters' Circle - 8th September, 2014

Happy Spring, everyone!

Today we all made progress on projects we've been working on for a while.

There are a few EPP (English Paper Piecing) projects on the go. Marie is joining hexagon flowers to each other:

Vireya is joining sections of her hexagon project:

Glennys is making some square shapes to complete the design for her project:

But we aren't all doing EPP. Debbie is embroidering:

Mary joined us and knitted - but no photo was taken of the knitting, unfortunately.

At our last meeting, Marie asked if anyone had a pattern for a zipped purse, as her purse was falling apart. Some of us forgot all about her request, but Debbie not only remembered, she made Marie a beautiful purse!

It is completely hand-stitched, in Marie's favourite colour, purple. Unfortunately the camera doesn't show the colours accurately - the purples are warmer than they appear here.

Here's the other side of the purse:

Debbie finished the purse by adding a friendly butterfly zipper-pull:

She even put a coin inside, because traditionally gifts of purses should include a coin so that they will never be empty. What a lovely and thoughtful gift, which you can be sure is greatly appreciated!

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 22nd September. Here are a couple of quilty events on before then if you are looking for somewhere to go:
13th September: Beaconsfield Quilt Show at Beaconsfield Neighbourhood Centre

19th to 21st September: Craft Fair at Cunningham Pier, Geelong. Details here:
http://www.2014craftfair.com.au/

See you in a couple of weeks!

Quilters' Circle - 25th August, 2014

Welcome to our last winter meeting for this year.

Debbie worked on another of the sayings for her Truly Aussie quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings):

For show-and-tell Debbie brought this sweet little pouch which is completely hand-stitched:

And that includes inserting the zip!

Debbie did use a pattern for this pouch, but it was a while ago so she doesn't remember the details. But if you recognise the design, please leave us a comment.

Marie showed us this card she made for her mother, featuring a collage of a poem her mother enjoys:

Can you guess the poem? Full words here in case you have forgotten them.

Marie has joined together some of her hexagon flowers since our last meeting, and today was adding green ones around the edges:

She also showed us this quilted case she made to hold her mobile phone and protect it from other items in her pocket:

Cute and practical!

Vireya has made all the flowers for her Flower Ball quilt, but still has a few short seams between hexagons that haven't been stitched. Today she worked on closing up some of those:

Once these little seams are all done, Vireya's next step will be to stitch together the flowers and create the ball shape.

Our next meeting is in two weeks, on the 8th September. See you in spring!

Quilters' Circle - 11th August, 2014

We were greeted today by bits of someone's stash which had been donated to the house:

Fabric, bias binding, zips, etc. Some of these goodies were labelled in pre-metric measurements (meaning before the early 1970s), and some even had pre-decimal price tags (before 1966)! So we all spent a some time hunting for items we would find useful.

Marie advised us of the upcoming August Made in Thornbury community market:

Note the quilt exhibition - Marie's quilting class will be displaying their work as an added attraction.

Today Marie stitched together some more of her cute little hexagons. She is building up quite a stack:

Spread them out to get a better look:

And a close-up of just one:

Very sweet!

Debbie embroidered another saying on her Truly Aussie quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings). Hands up everyone whose mother told them she would have their guts for garters?

According to World Wide Words, this originated in Britain in the 1700s, so only the "mate" at the end makes it particularly "Aussie".

Glennys made some progress on her EPP (English paper-piecing) project, assembling some "V" shapes:

Adding a large triangle:

And at least one small triangle:

So her first motif is almost complete.

Vireya prepared pieces for the last flowers in her Flower Ball quilt (designed by Geta Grama):

The colours are not accurate, as they are more purple and less blue in real life. This is flower number 20 of 22, so very soon she will be stitching all the pieces together.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 25th August. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 28th July, 2014

Spring was in the air today, as four quilters gathered at the Sussex Neighbourhood House.

Debbie brought along a feast of show and tell for us today. First is a bag for holding take-along projects:

It is lined with 1930s fabrics, has pockets inside, and a drawstring closure. I'm afraid I didn't ask who designed it, though! The panels are stitched together with blanket stitch. One side is embellished with hexagons:

And another with a vase of yo-yo flowers:

Next there are a couple of projects from the book A Gardener's Journal, by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. This is the Gardening Friends Wall Hanging:

And the Sunglasses Case:

Next is the Tea for Three table runner (designed by Sue Daley):

It features embroidered octagons surrounded by English paper piecing. Here's a close-up of one panel, so that you can see Debbie's lovely embroidery:

Gorgeous!

Debbie's final show and tell project is a set of small quilts, which can be strung together as bunting for Christmas decorations. There are two different sets of designs mixed together in these photos, both from Patchworks Unlimited. One is their Mini Nativity (set of 7), and the other is Christmas Symbols (8 in the set).

The nativity scene block has a personal touch added by Debbie's daughter (who was about 5 at the time). She felt that the people should have faces, so drew them in herself:

When it happened Debbie was less than impressed, but now the smiling faces have become charming remembrances of that little girl who is no longer little. And it made us all smile, too!

Glennys has started work on the very last block of her My Blue Heaven quilt (designed by Therese Hylton):

This little bird needs a few additions before he is complete, but he is looking very sweet so far. He is only one small piece of the final block, but the end is in sight.

Marie worked on these cute little hexagons:

Notice the very appropriate sewing-related fabrics. Marie will be making a sewing bag from them.

Vireya assembled another section of her Flower Ball quilt (designed by Geta Grama), and laid out the completed parts for a progress shot:

It has grown a bit since the last time we saw it. It will be too big to fit on a table soon!

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

Quilters' Circle - 14th July, 2014

Happy Bastille Day, and what I think we can officially call the middle of winter!

Everyone worked on EPP (English paper piecing) projects today.

Glennys covered some more shapes, then showed us the bits she has made so far:

She also showed us some ideas she has for extending this project beyond the small one she was originally planning. Proof that EPP can be addictive!

Marie brought along this piece to show us. It is going to be a bag for carrying quilts around, and is assembled using crazy-patch style blocks she made some time ago:

Marie also showed us this šúpolienka, or corn-husk doll, brought back from Slovakia for her:

Isn't she lovely! She is doing some traditional Slovakian embroidery.

Today Marie prepared more hexagons for her EPP project:

Notice how all the fabrics feature sewing themes. What will they become? We will have to wait and see.

Vireya stitched together another flower for her version of Geta Grama's Flower Ball design:

Then she laid out all the pieces she has assembled so far:

It is starting to develop the ball shape.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 28th July. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 30th June, 2014

It's the fifth Monday of the month, the last day of the financial year, and definitely winter!

This artwork left in the room by another group looks very quilt-like:

Debbie stitched another of the sayings for her Truly Aussie quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings), and showed us a panel of six she has done since we last saw her:

Closer view of one:

This lead to a small discussion of how many sandwiches are usually said to be short. There are variants with a few, a couple, one, a half, and probably others. This picnic seems very lacking, if seven sandwiches have gone missing.

Marie has assembled another single-bed sized quilt top for her group's community quilt drive:

Fortunately someone else is going to quilt these bed-sized ones, but Marie quilted the smaller ones herself. Today she was stitching down the binding on a baby-sized one:

Cute elephants!

Vireya played with some fabric selections for another flower in her hexagon garden quilt:

Last week she was cutting out a t-shirt pattern, and today she wore a t-shirt she made this week:

Although she didn't use last week's pattern to make this, she did use some techniques that she learnt in the Craftsy class.

Next weekend (4th - 6th) is the Essendon Quilters' Show, which we are all probably going to attend. It is at a new venue this year, the Sports and Performance Centre at Moonee Ponds Primary School.

Our next session will be on 14th July. Please pop in again then and see what we've been up to.