Monday 28 May 2018

A Special Peek at items for Show

Hello Everyone,

A couple of general items to start this week.

Felicity is still in hospital after having a fall there. The fall has broken a part of her lower back unfortunately. She has asked Suzie L. to let you all know. I will send her a card and some news to hopefully cheer her up a little.

Iris and Meg attended an evening for the Hornsby Kuring-gai Womens Shelter last week. This is one of the Charities we are supporting this year. They were able to talk to people about our group and our show.

One of the quilts entered in the Northbridge Quilt Show last weekend was made by Pam Clifford. Pam is a former member of our group. Pam proudly had attached her first place ribbon from an earlier Hunters Hill Quilt Show to it. Many of our members remember Pam.

Our Retreat this weekend:

22 of our members drove to Kurri Kurri near Maitland this weekend for our annual retreat. We all had a great time. The venue is excellent and the staff were very obliging and helpful.

It was a treat to have Hayley and Helen's daughter Suzie M. join us. It was an extremely productive sewing weekend.

Iris asked us to bring our orphan blocks - and there were a lot of them! Iris proceeded to turn them into a quilt for Community. I don't know how she does it but the result is amazing. I have a photo of it partly finished below.

Some worked on their Show quilts, others on Community quilts and items we will sell at the Show.

We had a lot of fun too. Heather suggested a Lucky Door prize and provided the gift. Grace won.
We had a game of Finska. A very noisy game and I think Akiko and I won that thanks to Akiko's winning shot!
There was a Trivia quiz too. There was much mumbling about the questions but I think it was fun.

Show and Tell:




A few of you have seen Elva working on this Panda quilt. Elva will be giving the quilt to a teacher friend of hers on Thursday. Hence she won't be joining us this week. I just love the way the pandas pop up and look at you. It is so cute. What a special gift for your friend Elva.




Helen finished this quilt at the retreat. Helen used old jeans and bits of denim to make this. A wonderful achievement Helen.


This wagga was made from scratch at the retreat. Grace had Kerry and I working like maniacs to keep up with her. Helena stitched the blocks together and was our time keeper. Kerry and I complained but secretly enjoyed doing it!


This is part of Iris's masterpiece from some of the orphan blocks. Amazing!


Here we have a peek at some of the items Suzie L. has made to sell at our show. These are chicken doorstops - all with extremely clever names. You will have to be early to pick one up at the show. They are just gorgeous.


A view of our very large sewing room at Kurri Kurri. We each had a lot of space and the light was perfect.


Apologies for this not very good photo, but this is part of Suzie M.'s Carnival quilt for her daughter. The details and colours really stand out. Suzie's daughter is very lucky.


The Kurri Kurri campus has about 200 kangaroos that roam the site. I caught a photo of this Mum with her joey that popped its head out to look at me. So cute. The Mum gave me a wary look though.


Last but not least, a quilt from Hayley. All the pieces are in place ready for applique. A daunting task! The colours do look very good.

Until next week .....


Sunday 20 May 2018

Royal Wedding and Retreat

Hello Everyone,

There is not a great deal to report this week.

Perhaps like me, you spent most of Saturday evening watching the Royal Wedding. It was a beautiful day in London. It would have been an experience to have been in London at the time.

This week we spoke about Grace and Gil's Wagga presentation for the NSW Guild study group. It was a huge success. We sold some raffle tickets for our show and handed out fliers.

During our retreat next weekend, Grace and Gil will be working on Waggas to sell at the show. I am sure offers of help will not go astray.

I have emailed directions and details for the retreat to those who are going. Upon arrival at the TAFE, park in the car park and go into the main building to Reception. From there you will be guided to your accommodation. It should be a fun weekend.

Show and Tell:


Grace has put the top together from the pink triangles that we all supplied. I am always amazed how these blocks go together so well. The quilt now needs finishing and will sent to the Dragon Boat people to be raffled.

This is one of the Waggas displayed at Grace's talk. Marie K. made it a while ago. It has been washed in the washing machine and thrown in the car boot and still looks brand new. Waggas are so versatile, warm and useful.

News of the retreat for next week's post.

Until then .....

Monday 14 May 2018

Show Challenge Display

Hello Everyone,

I am a little late this week with the blog. It has been a hectic weekend.
I hope you all had a happy Mothers Day yesterday.

There are some members travelling at the moment so greetings to Sue D and Lindy. Also Hi to Hayley and others who can't come to regular meetings. Checking the blog is a good way to catch up with what has been going on with the group.

37 Sensory mats for our Show Challenge were displayed around the room on Thursday. They were all different and very colourful. Grace awarded prizes for various categories such as the most elegant, the friendliest, the most tactile, the one with the most fringe, the fiddliest, the clever idea. etc etc. It was great fun.
Grace awarded the winners with a Lindt chocolate each wrapped beautifully in a square of reusable fabric and tied with a pretty ribbon. Wonderful!

A number of girls admitted that they were bringing quite a few orphan blocks to our retreat for us all to work on. I am looking forward to seeing what we come up with.

I attended Grace and Gil's presentation of Waggas for the NSW Guild on Saturday afternoon. Many  ladies came to hear about the history of the Wagga and how the name originated.  Books and Waggas were passed around for everyone to look at.
There is a lot of interest in the Waggas and Grace showed a number of them. I have a couple of photos below.
The weather in Sydney on Saturday was cold and very windy with a strong Southerly blowing. A perfect afternoon to cuddle up with a Wagga.

We had fliers for our show on the table and a number were taken. We also sold $92 worth of raffle tickets. The sales were thanks to Gil and Grace's friend Anne who did a wonderful job selling them for us.

Show and  Tell:


First up is from Narelle. We were interested to see how Narelle had made the blocks. Narelle made the 'tulip' shapes and then added the square.
So colourful and pretty. A happy quilt. I have added a couple off close-ups below for you to see.





Next we have a jumble of some of the Sensory mats to show you how terrific they look. The last jumble caught my husband's eye and he really liked the colours.




This photo is  Grace showing the 'Fox' Wagga. This pattern is very popular and drew quite a few 'ums and ahs' of approval from the audience. It is quite stunning.



The Wagga below belongs to Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession. It is made from Vinnies' blankets and cleverly appliqued and pieced by Kathy.

So no excuses! Go to your local thrift shop for old woollen blankets and offcuts and get sewing a Wagga. Winter is the best time of year to make one.



Until next week .....

Sunday 6 May 2018

A Busy Community Day

Hello Everyone,

 Bits and pieces for you today from our Thursday meeting and a couple of quilting hints that may be useful.

First  -  mats for our Show Challenge are due next week. Small Prizes will be awarded for various categories - ugliest, funniest, prettiest etc.

Second - Please think about making quilts to sell at the show. No big big quilts though.
Standard cot size, single bed and double bed. Also lap quilts are popular with the cooler weather.
Remember though that 15% commission is taken from the sale price towards costs and the charities we are supporting.

It was Community Day and all our groups were busy sewing and planning quilts for our stash.

As is habit with many groups, we all tend to sit with the same people every week. Hence we have been divided roughly into Colours.

The RED GROUP have been given a quilt top that had been started but not finished.  Our group had a big discussion about what to do with it and how to finish it.
Sheila had also finished the backing of another quilt we have been making for Community.
We will pin it together next week ready for machine quilting.

The BLUE GROUP is always very busy. They were working on two quilt tops, finishing binding and sewing on labels.

The ORANGE GROUP had two machines working hard. All heads down and charging ahead.

The GREEN GROUP were also finishing off a pretty quilt they had designed.

I didn't catch up with the other groups but will keep tabs on them for next Community Day.

QUILTING HINTS:

I went to a talk on Friday which was very enjoyable.

1.  BINDING: When you bind a quilt, apparently it is a good idea to finish the four corners first. Then go back and finish the bits in between.This helps to keep the quilt flat.
A flat quilt is especially important if your quilt is to be entered into a show and be judged.

2.  CUTTING: One lady who does a lot of cutting, mentioned that she had been using a Titanium cutting blade.
She has been using the same blade since December last year and it is still sharp.
Apparently Spotlight sells them so it may be worth a try.

OTHER GROUPS:

Quiltsmith is closing soon and is to become an online store. The owner does not have room to store a lot of the fabric and books that are in the shop. So hurry along and pick up a bargain.
They have a big range of quilting books which are always useful.

QuiltNSW is looking for volunteers for the Saturday and Sunday of their show in June. It is mainly 'white glove' work. This enables you to have a good look at all the quilts and chat to and meet other quilters. You will also receive a special badge and morning tea after the show.

Show and Tell:



A nine patch from me made from leftovers for a bigger cot quilt I made for a friend. This is for the Grace Centre.


Also for the Grace Centre from Jenny.  Jenny and I did an Improv Class on Tuesday.  I knew Jenny would finish the quilt for our Thursday meeting.  I was going to compete but  I had no chance!
This is a fun way to make blocks.  It is similar to Gwen Marston's Wonky blocks idea. Gwen's attitude is -'if it is too big, cut it off. If too small, add it on.'
Not for the Traditionalist quilters but fun to do.



Also for the Grace Centre from Karen. This looks amazing and three dimensional.



Another baby quilt from Jenny. The pattern is a square within a square within a square. Jenny did explain how to do it but I lost track after the first two squares. An idea for a workshop I feel.



A stunning Community quilt from Karen. Thank you Karen.

Until next week......