Quilters' Circle - 22nd June, 2015

It was the shortest day of the year, and very cold outside, but there was lots of lovely work to look at today. People have been busy in the month since our last meeting!

Marie was appliqueing the last side of her hexagon panel to the background:

She gave us a sneak peek at how the rest of this lovely baby quilt will go together:

It is beautiful!

Vireya showed us this gift she received in a present exchange at a "Christmas in June" event at another quilting group:

It can be used as a decoration, or as a book-mark. It is beautifully made.

Today Vireya was removing tiny bits of paper from the back of her most recent Zoo Animals block:

Some of those tiny pieces were a bit tricky to remove. A pair of tweezers came in handy! Here's all six completed blocks:

There are three more blocks in the quilt, then it will be time to start putting them together.

Debbie has been doing some EPP with hexagons, trying out different methods to see which she likes best:

She also showed us a fund-raising project she is working on for another group. Some donated linen tea-towels and donated prepared hexagons go together to make embellished tea-towels which should sell well at their market stall:

It is hard to find linen tea-towels these days. These ones are from Poland, and are a beautiful quality.

Glennys is making a wall-hanging for a granddaughter:

Each block has a little pocket for a toy or other precious item. The fabrics are scraps from the quilt Glennys made for this lucky girl. The pattern is designed by Amanda Lefebure, and appears in this magazine from Spotlight:

Today Glennys continued with her EPP project, which is coming together well:

Our next meeting will be in only one week, on 29th June. It's our 5th-Monday bonus meeting. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 25th May, 2015

We had a surprise visit today from Dianne, who blogs at Coburg Craft Stuff. She donated some craft books,

which we enjoyed looking through. We left a few for the craft and sewing groups which meet later in the week.

Debbie is nearing the end of her "Truly Aussie" quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings). Here's one side of the quilt:

and the other:

Doesn't it look great? And here's a close-up view of where she is up to:

stitching down the sashing which covers the joins between these quilt-as-you-go blocks.
 Almost done!

Marie is appliqueing circles to make the flowers on the stems she was doing at our last meeting:

Very cute!

Vireya has a birthday this week, so there were some goodies

and a lovely card:

Vireya showed us these partially assembled blocks which are from the book "Cultural Fusion Quilts" by Sujata Shah.

They are not Vireya's normal sort of piecing, as they are cut without measurements, and joined without worrying about accuracy. She enjoyed the unusual process and is sure to make a few more.

Our next meeting is a month away, because of the public holiday in June. We'll meet again on 22nd June.

Quilters' Circle - 11th May, 2015

It is the 6th birthday of our blog. Happy Blogiversary to us!

Dorothea from the knitting group showed us this lovely quilt she is making for a grandbaby in America. She purchased the pattern at the recent AQC. It is from a NZ company, and we will add the details here when we can.

Very cute!

Marie is making good progress on the baby quilt she is making for her neighbours. The baby is due in about a week, so it is a race to see which is ready first - the baby or the quilt.

Today she stitched down a few more stems for the floral border.

Marie also showed us a technique she is learning for doing a decorative flange binding. This is the pretty little quilt she is binding:

Close-up view showing the red flange piece which is caught between the quilt and the binding:

Very effective!

Glennys worked on her English paper-piecing project:

Vireya showed us the latest of her zoo animals - this is a BOM by Kristy at Quiet Play:

The giraffe is the block for May. Today she removed the last little pieces of paper from the back,

and then cut out the pieces of an applique project:

Debbie stitched around a shepherd in the nativity scene she is working on:

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 25th May. Join us as we begin our 7th year of blogging!

Quilters' Circle - 27th April, 2015

Sorry this report is late, but I have had internet access issues this week.

On Monday Vireya showed us all the "free" goodies she got at the AQC, plus the quilting she did in two one-day workshops with Debby Brown:

Marie is making a baby quilt for neighbours whose baby is imminent:

Here's the front view:

Lots of cute fabrics in there!

Debby is close to the end of her "Truly Aussie" quilt. She is hand-quilting the blocks individually:

And each block is double-sided:

Here's how far she has to go before she starts assembling the quilt:

Everything below the red line is quilted, and the ones above the line are pinned ready to quilt. It won't be long before Debbie is putting it all together.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on the 11th of May. And that will mark six years since our first meeting report was blogged back here.

Quilters' Circle - 13th April, 2015

School holidays are over, so there were more people at the house and on the roads today.

Glennys has completely assembled the top of her My Blue Heaven quilt (designed by Therese Hylton):

It looks great all together! But after assembling it she noticed that some of the embroidery was missing from one block, so today she worked on that.

Here's a close-up of Marie's latest project:

And the full picture:

The young girl this one is for is sure to love it. We all enjoyed finding little surprises in the fabrics. Today Marie was stitching down the binding. She already has her next project lined up - a baby quilt for her neighbours. She is a busy quilter!

Vireya now has four completed Zoo Animals blocks:

Today she worked on an applique kit she was given many years ago:

Unfortunately the Vliesofix has separated from its backing because it is so old, so ironing these pieces down will be a bit tricky.

Debbie showed us this lovely bag she made some time ago:

The pattern from Chandler's Cottage is called Japanese Lunch Bag. Debbie's is completely hand-sewn, and features embroidered panels. She actually did use it for taking her lunch to work.
Today Debbie completed the stitching around this sheep:

He is part of a nativity scene.

So that's it for this meeting. Our next meeting is in two weeks, on 27th April. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 30th March, 2015

Welcome back to another meeting of the Quilters' Circle. We had a very quiet meeting today, probably because the school holidays meant people had other commitments.

Debbie showed us this work in progress:

This is the background, but there is lots of applique to be added to it. The pattern is from a book called Everyday Angels in Extraordinary Quilts, by Mary Lou Weidman. Here's how the quilt will look when finished:

Very cute!

Marie finished the binding on the third of the community quilts she has worked on, and told us she has been given another of the embroidered pieces she used in the centre of each of them. So we will be seeing another of Marie's amazing creations in weeks to come!

Marie also showed us an unfinished kit that a friend found at a school fete and bought for her. The kit is for a small quilt with six house blocks. Here is the one house which has been partially assembled:

And here's the rest of the fabric for the quilt:

You can see where some of the pattern pieces have been traced onto the fabric for the next little houses.

Vireya spent a some time trying out this Clover yo-yo flower maker:

It looks as if this fabric was a bit stiff to give a good result, but it is worth trying again with something softer.

Vireya also showed us the third of the Zoo Animals BOM by Kristy at Quiet Play, which is a polar bear. Here's all three of the blocks so far, laid out on a potential sashing fabric:

There are another 6 months of patterns to go.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 13th April. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 23rd March, 2015

We were saddened today to hear that Marie's mother passed away last week. Our heartfelt condolences to her, and best wishes for her trip to Sydney for the funeral this week.

Today Debbie worked on the star blocks for her "Truly Aussie" quilt:

By the end of the meeting she'd made this much progress:

She has twelve more blocks to make. All the pieces are prepared, ready to sew:

We are all awed by her hand-piecing skill!

Glennys blanket-stitched around a bunny rug made of some very cute fabric:

There are two new arrivals she is sewing blankets for. She showed us all the lovely fabrics she has chosen but unfortunately we didn't get a picture of them.

Marie worked on the binding of the third of the community quilts she has made.

The previous two are in the last two meeting reports. Scroll down to see them. All three are beautiful.

On the weekend, Vireya attended an amazing exhibition of Japanese quilts in Ballan. She brought the catalogue along, although the photos in it didn't do the quilts justice.

Vireya showed us her "Wild and Goosey" blocks:

They are foundation paper-pieced. The pattern is by Bonnie Hunter, and can be downloaded from the QuiltMaker magazine website here.

As there are five Mondays this month, it is only a week until our next meeting. See you then!