Quilters' Circle - 26th April, 2010

Today is the public holiday for ANZAC Day (although the actual day was yesterday), so the members of the Quilters' Circle met at Marie's home.

Joy brought along this doll's quilt which she made in 1990:


It has faded a little over time, because it lives in her sun-room. It is placed on an antique cot which once belonged to the tennis champion Sir Norman Brookes, and in which Joy slept as a baby.

When Joy picked up the doll's quilt to bring it along, she discovered lying underneath it this quilt top depicting irises which she made in the early 1990s. Joy described it in rather disparaging terms, using words like "ugly" and "horrendous", but we didn't agree. What do you think?

I think it has a certain naive charm. The quilt was made in a class at a patchwork shop. We all remarked on the change in fabric availability in the last 20 years; notice how nearly all these fabrics are solid colours. Originally there were various embellishments on the top, such as an embroidered spider-web and sparkly beetles, but Joy removed them.

Since our last meeting Marie made a doll's quilt, and here it is in action:

Notice that the doll even has his own tiny teddy!

Vireya made cherries today for the last block of her Red Delicious quilt. Here are some at each stage of the production process (except being sewn on to the quilt):


The talented designer of Red Delicious, Esther Aliu, has just launched a new free Block-of-the-Month project, called "In the Pink". You can see it and get the details on her blog here. Vireya isn't planning to do this one, though, because she has quite a few unfinished projects she wants to complete. But it is lovely, and very tempting...

Marilyn today finished binding her quilt. Hooray! She also brought along her completed triangle block from the "Working with Triangles" class:

Congratulations on getting all those flying geese done! The finished block is lovely - the light-green colour doesn't show up well in this photograph, but in real life the colours are beautiful.

Thanks Marie for opening your home to us. We all had a lovely afternoon.

The next Quilters' Circle meeting at the Neighbourhood House will be on the 10th May, at 1pm.

Australasian Quilt Convention

The Australasian Quilt Convention is on next weekend. You can follow the link for details. There should be lots of great quilts to admire, and lots of shopping too. Is anyone planning to go? What about coordinating a visit?

Quilters' Circle - 12th April, 2010

Today is the second Monday in April, so the Quilters' Circle met at the Neighbourhood House again.

First we had to get past the foot-path works which had some of the road blocked:


Marie brought along her latest bag to show us:


That shark is scary! While we were admiring the bag, Marie was hand-quilting her cushion covers.

Joy had some show-and-tell too:

These rolls of fabric strips were in a package she found on her doorstep one day. The package had come from Express Publications, who publish a couple of patchwork and quilting magazines, but Joy doesn't know why they sent her these. I'm sure she will find a use for them, though.

Here's what Joy worked on today:

We have seen part of this panel before. In this section the small pieces have been fused to the background using Vliesofix, ready for Joy to stitch them down.

Vireya worked on this bow, which is part of the final Red Delicious block.

When the bow is complete she has 34 (or was it 35?) cherries to appliqué. That should keep her going for a while.

If you read quilting blogs, there was an article in the Guardian over the weekend which you might enjoy. The article was written to complement Quilts 1700-2010, an exhibition currently at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. We all wish we could go and see that! However, some of us did get to visit the Essendon Quilters exhibition over the weekend, which was inspirational enough and gave us lots to talk about today.

The fourth Monday of April is a public holiday (ANZAC Day), so our next meeting at the house will be on the 10th May. Hope to see you then!

Quilters' Circle - 29th March, 2010

It was the fifth Monday in March, so the Quilters' Circle met again at Sussex NH.

Joy added some cute three-dimensional flowers to the block she was working on last time:


She also brought along some old patchwork books for us to look at. I should have photographed them. We enjoyed looking at how fashions (and techniques) have changed in the world of quilting since the 1980s.

Marie is making another bag, and brought along these four half-finished blocks for us to see:


The blocks are made of strips of fabrics stitched to a light-weight foundation. The light-green strips aren't attached yet, but you can see the way she is using the colours to create a cheerful rainbow.

And speaking of cheerful rainbows, here is a cushion Marie has just made for a friend:

It is a very huggable cushion and is sure to be loved by its recipient.

Vireya sewed together a few more pentagon flowers. Here's the back of one:

In between our sewing, we chatted with the knitters, enjoyed chocolates Marie had brought along, and helped out Leigh by eating some left-over chocolate cake (with sauce and cream).

Our next meeting will be on 12th April. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 22nd March, 2010

All the Quilters' Circle regulars met today at the neighbourhood house, for the first time since before Christmas. It was great to see Joy back with us again.

Joy did some stitching on the next part of the centre of her Baltimore Album quilt. We saw the centre block at her home back in January, but now there's an appliquéd bias strip surrounding the whole block, and birds are appearing in the corners:


Marie did some quilting on the four cushion covers she was cutting out pieces for at our last meeting. Since then she has assembled the blocks, joined them together and basted them. Here they are:

Aren't they lovely?

Marilyn brought along this cute apron which her sister is making:


Thanks to the volunteer who braved the pins to model it for us! The apron starts as two fat quarters of fabric squared off (so cut to a 50cm square) which are sewn together. The backing fabric shows where it folds over at the top, and matching fabric is used for the straps and the large triangular pocket at the bottom. It's a quick and cute gift idea.

Joanne came to show us her latest project, a quilt for her spare bed made with a collection of hand-printed Tiwi fabrics.


The black surrounds make the vivid hand-printed fabrics glow. Here's a close-up view of one of those squares:

The next step will be a border pieced from more of those stunning fabrics.

Vireya worked on some more of her Red Delicious appliqué,

almost completing that central toadstool by the end of our time together.

Our next meeting is only one week away on the 29th March, as this month has 5 Mondays. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 8th March, 2010

It was the Labour Day public holiday in Melbourne, so of course the house was shut. However, Marie came to our rescue, and generously offered her home for our first March meeting.

Marie showed us this bag she has made since our last meeting:




It is for one of her grandsons, and features a great range of prints specially chosen to appeal to him. Notice that skeleton in the top picture? He glows in the dark!

During the meeting, Marie cut out quite a few rectangles for some cushion covers she has planned. Here's an action shot:



Marilyn brought along a lovely cushion cover she is preparing to quilt, made from a pattern she purchased a while ago. She got the batting ready, and we talked about her options for quilting it. Here it is:


Her mother did the central stitchery, then Marilyn pieced the top; the end result will be a nice family co-production.

Textile Tragic has missed our meetings for the last couple of years, but the public holiday freed her for the afternoon. It was great to have her with us again. She sewed down the binding on a cuddly pink quilt.

That's the back you can see in the photo. The front is of various tactile fabrics such as corduroy and flannel. Very snuggly!

Vireya did a little appliqué on her latest Red Delicious block, and took the opportunity to spread out all the completed blocks. It helped to see how much has been achieved, and how relatively little remains to be done. It was also good to see how the blocks are working together.


The upper left one is in progress, and in fact after the meeting the background of it was completed. The block might even be completed by our next meeting. As you can see there's only one more block after that; the central area will eventually contain a big basket of cherries.

We all missed Joy (belated happy birthday for Sunday, Joy!) and hope she can make it to our next meeting, which will be back at the house on 22nd March.

Quilters' Circle - 22nd February, 2010

Today was our second meeting at the house for February.

We all missed Joy, who couldn't be with us. We hope you'll be back with us next time, Joy!

Remember last time I only showed pictures of one of the bags Marie had made? Here's the two sides of the other one, which she made for a lucky coffee-drinker:


Since our last meeting, Marie has been busy. Here's her latest creation, which we all oo-ed and ah-ed over today:


Everyone wanted to take those cute dogs home!

During the meeting Marie removed all the tacking from the hand-quilted cushion cover she worked on last time, then trimmed off the excess batting and backing:


Marilyn continued sewing down the binding on her quilt. She is also pondering what her next bring-along project might be.

Vireya appliquéd this chilli for the next of her Red Delicious blocks:



It was finished apart from the stem by the end of the meeting.

Our next meeting will be on 8th March, from 1:00 - 3:30. Come and join us if you can, or come back here then to read all about it.