Quilters' Circle - 11th April, 2011

Back again, for our first meeting for April. Unfortunately the Anzac day public holiday means that this is also our last April meeting!

Six of us got together today, and while we sewed we discussed fountain pens, treadle sewing machines, and other ancient technology. Jenny showed us how her Clover needle-threader works, and Marie showed us this leaflet that Marilyn passed on to her:

So maybe some of us will be making a trip north on the Easter weekend.

Vireya showed us this quilt she has assembled:

The blocks were made by staff from the Moreland City Council at a couple of working bees organised for International Women's Day. Vireya showed people how to make the blocks, then she assembled the quilt and did the binding. Now the quilt is going back to the council to be shown off a bit, then it will return to Sussex by Easter to be sent with our QAYG blocks to the Oz Comfort Quilts appeal. That means that if you have any blocks at home that you are still working on, please get them to the House by Thursday 21st April, so that they can be sent off.

Jenny today was appliquéing leaves on her lovely Robyn Falloon design "Tea and Scones". Here's one of the large flowers on the quilt:

Carol was appliquéing her tulips, but she brought this wonderful waratah to show us:

The design is "Australian Wildflowers" by Helen White.  Carol made this piece at a workshop she attended in Altona earlier this month.


Glennys brought along her machine and did some piecing, then she too did some appliqué.

Joy recently redesigned her Baltimore album quilt, deciding not to make all the intricate borders she had been planning.  But the new layout meant she needed another block (or two?) to complete the quilt.  She has made a lot of progress on this extra block already:

Marie was quilting the autumn leaves quilt we saw last time.  But she has started another project as well. This is the first part of a wall hanging which will include several long quilt-as-you-go sections:

The project is based on a design by Rosemary Penfold, "Quilt for a Hot Night".

Round about here I should make some really outrageous comment, just to test if anyone is reading this. But I probably won't. (Several people today mentioned that they hadn't looked at the blog for a while.)

Our next meeting will be on the 9th May. The year is rushing by, isn't it? See you in four weeks.

Quilters' Circle - 28th March, 2011

Can you believe it is a month since our last meeting? A few people have been very busy in that month!

Marie showed us this small wall-hanging she has been working on:

Very appropriate for the season!

It was great to see Joy back again.  As well as getting better, she has been making lots of QAYG blocks:

But apparently now her walking foot is not well!

Tamara delivered these blocks:

And Dorothea gave us these ones:

Jan told us she had some too, but was worried that it was too late. It is not too late! We will be sending off a second lot in a few weeks. Vireya is currently assembling a quilt of blocks made by Moreland Council workers at a working bee for International Women's Day earlier this month. Once that is done (she is waiting on 3 more blocks) and then shown to the workers responsible, we will pack it and all the blocks we have up and send them off. At the moment there are about 60-odd blocks, so if you have any at home, it would be great if you could get them to the house in a couple of weeks from now, so that we can see what size box we will need this time.

So what did we all do today? Someone had kindly left a pile of books for us to take if we wanted them. So we enjoyed browsing, and a couple of them did find new homes.

As well as making the room smell lovely with the bags of fresh basil she brought for us,

Carol was appliquéing the tulips she showed us last time:

A couple of people worked on English-paper-piecing projects involving hexagons. Here's Marie's cheerful green hexagons:

And Vireya's slightly-less-colourful ones:

Joy was sewing the binding to her miniature log-cabin quilt:

Those logs are only a quarter of an inch wide. And this was all done by hand, of course!

We missed Glennys and Jenny who couldn't make it today, but we hope they will be back with us next time, on 11th April. Hope you'll come back to see us then, too!

On Their Way

This afternoon all the completed QAYG blocks, plus one complete quilt, were boxed up and taken to the post office, on their way to Jan Mac to join blocks from all over the world being turned into quilts.

I should have written down how many there were, but I can tell you that they weigh about 8 kg. Thanks everyone for your help with getting this box ready! Some of these blocks could end up in quilts for flood victims in Queensland and Victoria, and some could even be on their way to New Zealand to earthquake victims. Wherever they end up, I'm sure they will be greatly appreciated.

The fact that these have been sent doesn't mean it's too late to make blocks - now we're collecting towards a second box-full. If you need fabric, there is still a large basket of cut strips in the office. I think they are breeding there!

PS - the box arrived safely as can be seen on Jan's blog "Sew Many Quilts - Too Little Time" here.

Quilters' Circle - 28th February, 2011

The last day of summer - and it was cool and rainy outside, making it a good day to be inside quilting.

Unfortunately Joy couldn't be here today. Doubly unfortunate for her, because we had a surprise afternoon tea to celebrate her birthday!

We hope you have a lovely birthday next week, Joy, and that we will see you back again soon! I'd like to say that we will save some of that fruitcake for you, but I don't think it will last, sorry...

Today a bit of appliqué was going on. Carol worked on the tulips in the border of this beautiful quilt:

Vireya did some work on the centre of another project:

This is the first block of Esther Aliu's new Block-of-the-Month project, Hearts Desire, although Vireya is not planning to make another whole appliqué quilt.

Jenny is appliquéing thirteen greyhounds for a quilt she is making. Here are four of them:

Aren't they great?

Glennys cut the pieces for this Jacob's Ladder block, which will be a cushion cover for a football fan.

No prizes for guessing the team!

Marie worked on her hexagon project, and delivered even more blocks for the Oz Comfort Quilts appeal:

They are so bright and happy!

There are quite a pile of blocks in the office now. Thanks everyone for your contributions! We are planning to send them off on Thursday this week, so if you have some finished it would be great if you could get them to the office by Thursday lunchtime, please.

So that's it for another Quilters' Circle meeting. They go by so quickly. Our next meeting won't be for a month, because the second Monday in March is Labour Day, and the house will be closed. So we will see you again on 28th March.

Quilters' Circle - 14th February, 2011

Welcome to the meeting!

I'll be your guide today. Jenny brought me along to show everyone, and I enjoyed keeping an eye on the proceedings.

Joy couldn't make it along today, and we all hope she'll be feeling better soon! It was great to see Marilyn. We won't see her at every meeting, as she has sold her house and is moving to Bendigo. We hope she finds some nice quilters up there to meet with regularly, but we also hope she can come back and visit us because we will miss her. We also heard that Dorothy is in hospital, so we hope she is on the mend soon.

It seems today was a day for sewing down binding. Marilyn, Marie, Carol and Vireya were all doing that.

Here's Marie's triangles QAYG project that she was assembling last time. The pieced binding is the perfect finishing touch!

Vireya finished the binding on her quilt for the Oz Comfort Quilts drive, so here it is all done:

And here's the back view:

Carol was sewing the binding on this striking black and white quilt which we saw when she was making blocks back in August:

Can you guess which football team the recipient barracks for? Did someone say Collingwood?

Glennys has decided how to assemble the mystery squares she showed us last time, and today she brought her machine along to sew some of them together.

Later she did some appliqué, which is what Jenny was working on, too.

Mary joined us with her knitting, as the rest of the knitters couldn't attend today.  Mary has made quilts, and she owned up to having an unfinished one tucked away somewhere, so we decided that she really is a quilter.

Since our last meeting, people have been busy sewing blocks to donate for the flood victims. Here's some Carol made:

And some from Marie:

Marie also made more blocks like those she showed us at the last meeting, and today she delivered a complete set of 35 (the number required for a single-bed quilt).

As well as all that sewing, there was lots of conversation about topics which were over the head of a small needle-felted dog. Just what are planning regulations? And electricity companies? And then there were discussions about books. Dogs can't read, so I went to sleep through that.

And although I am fuzzy, I'm not really blurry. I think the camera operator should wear glasses.

The next Quilters' Circle meeting will be on 28th February, at 1:00pm.  Hope you can make it along!

Oz Comfort Quilts Working Bee

On Tuesday night a few people gathered to get stuck into making some blocks using all the strips, backings and waddings which were prepared at the previous working bee.

A couple of wonderful women who had many years of experience with industrial sewing machines, gave their domestic machines quite a work-out. They set a cracking pace the rest of us couldn't keep up with!

The iron was kept busy:

The rotary cutter was flying:

The pile of offcuts grew and grew:

The larger pieces went back onto the pile to be sewn into other blocks.

Meanwhile more sets of backings, waddings and strips were prepared for people who couldn't attend the working bee to make up at home. And if you want more fabric, just let us know - there's a basket of strips you can use in the office at the house, and more can be added if it starts to run low!

And here are the results on the night!

Actually that's not all of them, but you can see that it was a fantastic result.

When we add in all the blocks people are making at home, it will be quite a pile to send to Jan Mac.  A couple of people have asked about the deadline for the blocks.  We will send whatever is ready off later this month - but that doesn't mean that work has to stop.  We can send more later - Jan will be busy sewing them together for quite a while 

Quilters' Circle - 31st January, 2011

It was our bonus fifth-Monday meeting for January. It was hot outside, but fortunately the cooling inside stopped us from melting.

Welcome to Jenny, who found us through the Sussex course pamphlet which was delivered to her letterbox.

A couple of our regulars couldn't make it this week. Joy, we hope your ankle is feeling better soon, and Marilyn, we hope your house move goes smoothly this week! We also missed Debbie who came along last week. Hope you can make it next time, Debbie!

Marie showed us the QAYG blocks she has made this week for the Oz Comfort Quilts appeal:

 Don't they look great? And she intends making some more between her other projects.

Vireya has also made a few blocks this week:

Today Carol did some appliqué work on this cute butterfly, who is for another charity quilt appeal.

She used "Glue-Baste-It" to attach the pieces before stitching them in place. Some of us hadn't seen this product before so were interested in the tips and advice the experts could offer ("keep it upright" seems to be an important rule).

Jenny also appliquéd. She is working on a Robyn Falloon design, Tea and Scones , which features lots of lovely appliqué on a subtle pieced background.

Beautiful!

Glennys showed us her "mystery quilt". It is not a normal mystery quilt, this one is a mystery because she doesn't have the pattern for it at all. She has lots of squares, in a range of sizes, in a colour pallet that is not really her preference.

So, what to do with them? She had some fun playing with arrangements. Maybe something like this, with the smaller squares surrounding the larger ones?

But what about the middle-sized ones? It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.

Marie today did some hand-sewing so finalise the assembly of a quilt-as-you-go project of a different nature:

She pieced and quilted this colourful quilt in four sections before joining them together. I think it was just about done by the time we finished today. Love all those brights, and the amazing range of "boy" themed prints!

As a special bonus, here's a picture of some beach-themed cushion covers Marie made before Christmas, but which couldn't be shown then because they were gifts:

Unsurprisingly, the recipients loved them!

While we were stitching we had many interesting conversations, and met some visitors from another neighbourhood house who were touring the premises.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 14th February. However, before that, there is a working bee tomorrow, 1st February, from 3:00pm to about 7:00pm, to make some more QAYG blocks for flood victims. If you can come along for any part of that time, you will be very welcome! Please bring some nibbles to share. Lots of backings, wadding and strips have been cut ready to be sewn, so you won't need to bring any. (But if you want to, feel free!) What we will really need is your machine and some neutral-coloured thread. But even if you can't bring a machine, there will be things to do like ironing and trimming blocks, so there will be ways you can contribute. Hope to see you then!