Now that I am a blogspert (well nearly, well almost, perhaps not quite yet…), I decided to write the details of today’s meeting up straight away – so I will not need to make up too many details about our fun and games today! Although the usual disclaimer that any actual representation of actual events is purely co-incidental.
Following several reminders over the past few months, I have finally found the scanned copy of our “15 Minutes of Fame” starring Fran, Robyn and Jennifer – the bravest of us all, who didn’t run away from the Frankston newspaper photographer when he visited us to report on our community grant from the Carrum Downs branch of the Bendigo Bank for the purchase of books for our very own library . A very exciting time for us.
For months I have been reporting (and giving you tantalising glimpses) of Bar’s herculean hexagon effort. Well, today we saw her eagerly awaited quilt in all it’s glory. Bar used 1/2” hexagons in a pattern from “Quilts from Grandma’s Flower Garden”.
Above are some close ups of the hexagon flowers as well as Bar’s brilliant machine quilting.
Those of us following Esther Aliu’s BOM on the internet - “Red Delicious” got a preview of the final quilt via Marilyn – she made some small changes to Esther’s original designs and the result is stupendous. Marilyn did not buy any fabrics for this quilt – well, she did buy one red fabric, but she just “happened” to use some of it in the quilt. We believe you Marilyn. Anyway I am sure you will agree that it is a wonderful version of a gorgeous quilt. You can look forward to a lot more versions of this quilt on our blog in the coming months.
Sue made this delightful mug bag – in lovely fabrics, with some beautifully stitcheries as well.
Sue has also made this cute bag from a pattern on the internet. The black and white fabrics look wonderful. And wait, there’s more
from the “leftovers” of the bag, Sue just had to make this spectacular quilt. But – I hear you say - “Where did the pink come from?”. Well, the pink was used to line the bag – a nice contrast.
The lovely Jennifer R made this stable bag for the sole purpose of using up fabric for an Ugly fabric challenge – and what a beautiful result. Her appliqué is just superb. And, just in case you are wondering, the challenge fabric is used for the binding on the bag and the handles –magnifying glasses required! I have more of these challenge photos later in this blog…….
More superb appliqué from Jennifer – this is her version of the centre block from the BOM “Mrs Williams’ Quilt” from Corliss in Castlemaine.
And from the equally lovely Jennifer W – I know you have seen it before, but Jennifer entered it in the Rowville “Stringybark Festival” and won 1st prize – we are not surprised – congratulations!
and the above two photos are of Jennifer’s beautiful floral stitchery quilt – note the clever quilting.
The above three photos are from me (Helen E) , but not made by me (this seems to be a habit of mine). We had a discussion about old fashioned “Chicken scratch” work – so I dug these out of my linen closet. These cloths were made almost 40 years ago, by our Grandmother. for mine and my sister’s 16th birthday’s.
Laurel has made this beautiful quilt for her sister’s 60th birthday – what a wonderful present!
And now, as promised the other items made in the ugly fabric challenge, by members of the Bendigo Retreat Committee from 2005 – we still like to meet and drink gin. Obviously a tot or two was being drunk at the time some of these challenge items were made (well, that was just me! the others are brilliant!)
Well, here we are in November - I am not sure what happened to January through to October, but our next get-together will be our giant Christmas partay extravaganza. We will each be bringing a plate of Christmas food. We will be dressing in Christmas colours. We will be doing our usual Kris Kringle pressie swap, and also a 12 1/2” (unfinished) block of an angel – stitchery or applique or pieced or a combination of all three, or you can make an angel doll. I think that is right – if you are disqualified for angel abuse, blame moi! And, the lucky winners of last year’s sets of star blocks, don’t forget you need to have them made up into – at the very least – a quilt top – note to self – FIND YOUR BLOCKS!!!
So, until the same bat time next month, it’s your roving reporter
Helen Evans,
all blogged out for now.
