October Quilting Weekend

Thank you to all those who came and worked this weekend and put up with my erratic behaviour. Even though we had extreme difficulties with our "King's Highway" quilt which we have now nicknamed the "Suffragette Quilt" because of the colour scheme it has now been completed as a quilt top. Pernilla was visiting from Sweden and had lots of input into the layout and organisation of this process. Thank you Pernilla.

You would not believe that attaching rectangles and squares could be such a problem but it was a nightmare. 

Lesson: trim and square everything at every stage of the process.

We did achieve some positive results and our Green Twister is now ready for in-the-ditch quilting as is our Chocolate Roses quilt. The Green Twister has its binding already hemmed but the Chocolate Roses (which is batted and backed) still needs its binding cut and attached. If anyone would like to help with and of these finishing processes please just contact me. We could do it after about mid November.

We drew the next fabric and block. It is a beautiful shell fabric but there was no name on the parcel. Who donated some lovely shells? I may not have time to write the instructions or post this out until mid November so please let me know if you would like to give this next block a miss and I won't send the fabric to you. We have adjusted the block pattern that came with the shells to suit be size of the print and will use some offcuts from the King's Highway top that go beautifully with it. I'll send that fabric as well.

For our May meeting next year the plan is to spend the Saturday at Kogarah Library to have a Jelly Roll Race. More about that later when we are clearer with requirements.

Our October weekend is the last one for 2012 so Merry Christmas to all those I will not see beforehand. I will send out dates for next year and a possible Christmas afternoon tea later in the year.

Kogarah Library Quilters

The Kogarah Library Quilters group is nearing the end of its year of blocks and quilts and we are now madly trying to finish up the quilts we have in progress ready for our exhibition at the library in early November. If you have a chance to go and look please do so.

 

 

 

 

Two quilts to sandwich

Next time we get together we have two quilt tops ready to sandwich, quilt and bind. I got carried away and put little details in the binding corners of our green twister quilt that the Sydney members started at the beginning of the year. The quilt camp where I learned the twister block was on again last weekend in Maine USA and Marion went again. We had a skype call and she showed me the quilt tops she finished while she was there.

Linda and I will be going on a quilt camp together soon and I hope to finish the embellishments on my England quilt top.

The other quilt ready to sandwich is Wilma's Chocolate Roses. I have now found a backing fabric for it that matches the chocolate on the front. However, we still have to find an appropriate binding.

At our next get-together there will be lots of tacking to do. See you all then ready to sit around the table with these two group activities.

Jeanette is prolific

When I sent fabric and the pattern to Jeanette (WA) this time she had her block done and in the mail the next day. Looks great!

She had already done a few practice runs before she got the fabric and they look great too.

She sent me a few more pics of blocks she has been experimenting with. For a new patchworker she is very good.

Amazing! Thanks Jeanette.

I am really glad Jeanette lives so far away because I am sure neither of us would get anything else done if we lived near one another. We'd be quilting all day every day I am sure.

UFO Sunday! What a great idea

UFO Sunday is a post from the Free Motion Quilting blog by Leah McTavish. Read it. It is quite inspiring. I think I'll start a UFO Tuesday because Tuesday is my quilting day. Perhaps tomorrow I will just sort out all my UFOs then select one of them to progress with. Wish me luck. Perhaps borders on this beautiful one will take it off my design wall.

August Patchwork and Quilting

Prior to our quilting weekend in August Liz came over from New Zealand and we were able to complete the finishing touches on our Penny's Sampler Quilt. 

 

So our raffle was held and Lian won the quilt but has decided to donate it to Bezzina House with most of our other quilts.

 We welcomed our newest member Sue who was actually the first to finish the new block - Marion's Churn Dash.

By afternoon tea on Saturday we had 11 members all enjoying our time together upstairs quilting, and downstairs around the dining table. The roll call included Elaine, Sue, Ruth, Jenny, Lian, Wilma, Robyn, Karen, Mary, Linda and myself. What a crowd!

Our next block is Marion's fabric and a churn dash design. The background colour and centre block should be white (not cream) and the straight lines are your choice of fabric but remember the colours must be present in the mystery fabric.

And look at Wilma's Brown Roses so far!! There are a few more borders to add and the binding of course but it truly looks magnificent. The sides on the cross caused a few issues and a point of discussion for Robyn and I but we eventually got the thin brown border on and the quilt square! We are going to batt and back this one rather than using polar fleece.

Yes, and this is a photo just to prove I was there too.

 

Using stripes

Jenny alerted me to this great site See How We Sew

It has a great entry called Make the Most of those Sensational Stripes

Now here is some help for us all

Cath (Melbourne) has sent this link to dozens of patchwork and quilting video tutorials.

Missouri Quilt Co presents all sorts of patches, quilts and terminology.

I have also added this link to the Quilting Videos list on the right. Happy watching.

Questions and samples from Jeanette (WA)

Well when I got your email with the new block on it I thought I had bitten off more than I could sew!!! 

The only “flying geese” I had anything to do with were the real birds, 36 years ago on the cattle station north of Meekatharra, where they “pooped” all over the homestead veranda every time they got into the yard!!!! Nice to eat but very messy things!!

Luckily the next day at work, one of the girls who does a lot of patchwork was working…….so I said….”What on earth are flying geese”!!!!

She laughed and showed me with bits of paper, then said “Don’t worry, I’ll make some tonight and bring them in tomorrow”. So between the evening and morning shift she knocked up a few in various stages of manufacture!! 

So now I have them mastered!! 

This pic is the “throw” rug I made from scraps of quilts for April’s 7^th birthday, along with her Leggo land café thingy to make. She was wrapped up in the rug on the couch that evening….goodo. It’s even got triangles of black faced sheep on it like ours on the farm….which she loves.

I’ve been practising with Thomas left overs and am pretty happy with it! Just a couple of the smaller geese are not as accurate as they should be. I drew lines on the bigger ones to stitch on as advised by my friend, but thought my eye was good enough on the smaller ones….apparently not quite!!  So there will be another today with hopefully a better finish to my liking.

So if you look too closely you will see what I mean….however, practise makes perfect! Oh I don’t need to get a ¼” foot for my machine….the lady in the shop showed me how to move the needle to the side over a mark on the foot and then with the fabric on the edge of the foot it does a perfect ¼” seam. Excellent!! 

I’ve cut my days down to 8 a fortnight as of July, so maybe I will get some more time to sew.

Got a 45mm Rotary cutter from Spotlight last week as I had worn down the blade on the original you bought for me……thought I might as well get the bigger one instead of new blades for the smaller one. Wow, this one really moves!! Also got some fabric from Finches Nest….that shop we went to.

OK Off to cut out the next pieces for next practise block.

News from Liz (Auckland)

Liz (Auckland) has been working on several projects with her group(class?) ...

I go to in the cultural centre next door, but am desperately trying to actually finish some projects before tackling anymore.

We did a "butterfly" wall hanging - which had no real pattern except a tracing for the large butterflies - each of the wings as composed of coloured segments sewn onto a background. I got much better at using my machine for applique! but struggled with making the bodies stand out - the batik fabric is fairly resistant to embroidery needles and because each lady was doing her own thing there was no set pattern to follow re background and placement... - it was a bit challenging - but I am almost finished - now working out how to quilt it and put a black frame on it. Did have fun experimenting with beads and glittery metal thread although they dont show up much in the photo.

Also tickled pink because I have now bordered all my 20 sample blocks and ready to sort out sashing and borders - accuracy as always is my major challenge - one moments inattention and oops!

I went to an exhibition of a quilting group from West Auckland and foudn it a goldmine of inspiration of using the same block to make some wonderfully different effects.

Our next block

 The instructions for our next block are now on the Instructions page of this blog. Have fun with this one.

Please note that this is not a good example because the diamond surrounding the mystery fabric is too similar to the mystery fabric and does not allow it to shine out.The corners are also poorly aligned.

June Quilting Weekend

Another wet and rainy Saturday to start our June quilting weekend, yet again living up to our name of Rainbow Connection Quilters. You can see lots of happy, but cold quilters tacking our Sampler quilt to it's backing. Even I am happy sewing leaders and enders to complete a sample block for another quilt.

Some of our regular members are having fun sewing and posing in front of some of our quilts on the go.

Linda and Lian

Jenny

Elaine

Linda brought along two of her own blue quilts to get advice and hands on help. Note our Brown Roses quilt layout in the background.

We all helped tack the layers together on Linda's first ever quilt.

We were excited to have three new members join our group this time too.

Karen (from Carlton)

Karen (from Balmain)

Jeanette (from Dongara, WA)

I made a mistake on the measurement of our next piece of lucky dip fabric so had to recut the pieces that Jenny so carefully cut. I will send them out to you all asap as I did the cutting last night. If you took a piece of Jenny's Poppies fabric home with you please return it to me and collect your new piece. I will have the instructions ready soon.

We tried out the new Corner Binding instructions and I have tweeked them a little and uploaded the new version as a link on the Instructions page. Any feedback would be gratefully received.

We offered to mend one of the quilts we had made for Bezzina house and completed that job, learning a lot in the process. Some of the seams on blocks were smaller than 1/4" and had come apart. We lined the offending blocks with vlisofix then did fancy stitches to create an embellishment over the loose seams. It worked quite well. But please note:

Your seams must be accurate and 1/4" please.

Binding Corners on the Queen's Birthday Holiday

The rain and the public holiday allowed me time to sort out the Instructions Page on this blog. Feel free to use the instructions and if they are written by me please observe normal copyright rules. Use them yourself, tell friends about them but don't use them to make money.

I am currently working on getting my corners right when binding my quilts and am putting up the instructions as I write them.

My corners used to be erratic and disappointing like this...

... but now they are beautifully mitred like this ...

If you would like to improve your corners please feel free to try following the instructions on the Instructions page and give me feedback by leaving a comment.

Have fun quilting.

April Quilting Weekend

Our last quilting weekend was just before I went away to WA for two weeks so I am a bit tardy in putting up the pics. Our raffle was won by Suzy from St Ives UK and she has decided to donate it to Bezzina House. Congratulations and thanks Suzy!

We actually achieved quite a lot and after hemming the pinwheel quilt we have added the sashing to Penny's Dresden Plate sampler and also almost finished joining the blocks for Wilma's Brown Roses.

Robyn brought along a quilt she had finished recently. She does superb machine embroidery and quilting. I hope she enters this one in the Sydney Quilt Show next year.

Our next lucky dip is quite an easy one. You will just be required to make two nine-patch blocks matching a tiny sample of fabric I will send out soon. I will type up the instructions and mail them out as soon as I can.

I hope to see you in June at our next quilting weekend.