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.

Quilters' Circle - 23rd June, 2014

It has been four weeks since our last meeting, which was quite a gap, but fortunately we will have a bonus "5th Monday" meeting next week.

Mary from the knitters group showed us this lovely blanket she crocheted, which she's finished just in time for today's winter weather:

It is a beautiful blend of 13 different coloured 8-ply yarns. It is quite large - there are two people hiding behind it holding it up.

Since our last meeting Glennys has returned from her travels to Dubai, Italy and Turkey, and today she entertained us with travellers tales. She is also trying out some English paper piecing:

The pattern she is using is "Rose Garden" by Yvonne Skodt.

Today she picked up a few suggestions for making covering the paper pieces easier, and by the end of the session had a few more pieces ready.

Marie has been working on community quilts using Eleanor Burns' "Fabric Frenzy" block. She showed us this single-bed top ready for quilting, which includes a few blocks Vireya made as well:

The greens, blues and purples create a restful colour scheme, and the scrappy fabrics hide the block design.
Today Marie finished stitching the binding on a cot-sized quilt in the same design:

Check out the cute manatees on the back:

When she packed everything up at the end of our session, we realised the bag Marie was using was in the same colour scheme as her quilts:

Vireya spent time today making alterations to a pattern for a t-shirt making class she is doing on Craftsy:

Maybe she will have a t-shirt to show us at the next meeting.

That next meeting will be next Monday, 30th June. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 26th May, 2014

Today's meeting was a little special because tomorrow is Vireya's birthday.

The old advertisements printed on this fabric gift entertained us:

We enjoyed some yummy chocolate biscuits:

Happy birthday Vireya!

After the gifts and afternoon tea, Vireya worked on her Flower Ball quilt (designed by Geta Grama). Here's her latest flower:

And here it is next to the flowers she has already made:

Debbie stitched another saying for her Truly Aussie quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings):

Marie showed us two cot-sized quilt tops:

These are made from Eleanor Burns' Fabric Frenzy block, and will be donated to a women's refuge. Marie has made enough blocks for another single-bed size quilt as well.

Today Marie stitched down the binding on another community quilt she has made:

I thought we already had seen the front of this quilt, so didn't photograph it. Sorry, that was a mistake.

There's another public holiday on our next scheduled meeting day, so we won't be back until 23rd June. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 12th May, 2014

It's hard to believe that May is here already! Outside it was warm and sunny, so even the weather didn't want to believe that winter will soon be here.

Debbie had lots of show and tell for us today. First up is this beautiful "Road to Saint Louis" quilt, which is completely hand pieced and hand quilted:

Next up is an Aussie version of Noah's Ark:

We don't know who designed this pattern, but if you do, please let us know so that this post can be updated with the correct details. Thanks to a helpful member of Southern Cross Quilters, who identified this pattern as "Noah Down Under", published in 1995 by The Cotton Patch, then in Belconnen, ACT.

Debbie's next quilt is "Leanne's House" block of the month designed by Leanne Beasley:

The contrast on that photo has been increased a little so that some of the details can be seen more clearly. In real life the colours are a bit softer, as in the detail shot below:

Look at all the beautiful embroidery Debbie has done! She finished this one in 2005.

Here's another Leanne Beasley design Debbie has made, "Journey of a Quilter":

And a close-up of one small piece, again featuring lovely embroidery:

Marilyn was in Melbourne so was able to join us today. She worked on stitching this cute owl:

Glennys worked on the binding of the elephant quilt we last saw as a top in March:

Here's the cute fabric on the back:

Marie was also stitching down binding today:

Here's the quilt with the binding attached, before Marie started stitching it to the back:

Lots of cute and colourful animals!

Marie also showed us these blocks:

There are 16 blocks in the photo; each block comprises four large squares and nine small ones. Construction is a bit tricky because there is a partial seam involved. Marie's quilting class are all making these blocks (which are Eleanor Burns' pattern Fabric Frenzy) to be assembled for quilts to be donated to a women's refuge.

Marie kindly brought along some pink fabrics for Vireya's flower quilt:

Today Vireya selected and prepared fabrics for the next flower:

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on 26th May. See you then!

Quilters' Circle - 28th April, 2014

Welcome to our sixth meeting of the year! We arrived to find this pile of fabrics on the table, a gift from the mixed-media teacher, Tess:

All found new homes, so thank you, Tess!

Several of us have been having sewing machine problems, and no-one had any "show and tell" for us today. But we still had plenty to keep us occupied. Debbie embroidered another saying for her "Truly Aussie" quilt (designed by Helen Stubbings):

Glennys did some embroidery on almost the last block of her "My Blue Heaven" quilt (designed by Therese Hylton):

Only one more block to construct before this long-term project is ready to put together.

Marie prepared hexagons for a new project:

She is using freezer paper templates, which she has ironed to the back of the fabric. The fabrics all feature sewing-related designs. By the end of our session Marie had ten scissor hexagons ready to be stitched together:

Vireya also worked with hexagons, but her templates are printed on thin card. Here's the group of templates she worked on today:

Later she showed us how they will look when attached to another flower she has already assembled:

Only twenty more flowers to make for the "Flower Ball" quilt (designed by Geta Grama).

Our next meeting will be in two weeks, on the 12th of May. See you again then!

Quilters' Circle - 14th April, 2014

Only a couple of quilters attended today's meeting. Maybe the beautiful weather outside was too tempting! There was lots of talk about the Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) which was held over the weekend.

Knitter Dorothea showed us her haul from the AQC:

Most of these patterns and kits were from a Leesa Chandler show bag, but one special one Dorothea won by being able to name Nellie Melba's father!

For show and tell Marie had two quilt tops she has done for a children's charity:

And today she was quilting her green 1,000-pyramids quilt:

You can see a picture of the whole quilt in this blog post.

It was a bit of a green day, today. Vireya was also immersed in greens, sorting fabrics first into a rough light-to-dark arrangement:

Then into five categories:

These will form the leaves between the flowers in Vireya's next project:

Flower Ball, designed by Geta Grama. Here Vireya has used coloured pencils to roughly show the colour and shading she is planning in her quilt, but she has many more shades of fabric than she does of coloured pencils.

Knitter Mary showed us this article from The Age about the Apron Festival in Ballarat on 10-11th May:

She thought we might want to make patchwork aprons to enter into the competition. I don't know that anyone felt they had the time to do that (entries close next Friday), but the exhibition sounds like it could be a fun day out. Details on their website: Apron Festival.

Our next meeting will be on 28th April, two weeks from now. See you again then!