Carrum Downs Scquilters

Photo diary of the monthly meetings of Carrum Downs Scquilters (at the Carrum Downs Library/Community Centre) on the first Wednesday of each month. We are all members of the Australasian Quilting group Southern Cross Quilters. The Library/Community Centre is located on Lyrebird Crescent - just near the corner of Hall Road - Melway page 100 ref: H3 (see L for library at location. If you need more information e-mail me helen.evans@nanderil.com.au or phone 0417263958.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Wednesday 7th December 2011

 

It was Christmas time in Carrum Downs for our Scquilters group. It was a lovely day and we all pitched in with lots of scrumptious food.

I did start taking pictures of everyone who was there, but got distracted, so commiserations or congratulations depending on your point of view, to those I didn’t get to photograph.

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Ramona & Sandra on the left – who have been walking their way to be the fittest two in Scquilterland, not without a mishap or three from Ramona – but onwards and upwards! Then, on the right, we have Frances stitching away.

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Sally & Bar and Dianne and Pam

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Here we have our raffle winner ($150 for the professional quilter of her choice) Marilyn with her Kris Kringle gift proudly displayed in front of her (made by Pam) and on the right, the photogenic Wendy and Fran.

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Louise, Narelle, Robyn and Deidre all looking happy and busy. On the right is me with a strange facial expression – perhaps because I had been lucky enough to win the door prize, kindly donated by Jo. There is a very interesting provenance to this lovely cushion. Jo bought it from Sue Spiegal, who has a business in Christchurch.  As a result of the devastating earthquake there, Sue (who was artist in residence at the Cathedral) was stuck in the top window of the cathedral – you probably saw her before she was, fortunately rescued. I sure was a lucky bunny!

And now for Show and Tell

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First was from me. The lovely girls from our Monday group gave me – guess what – a wooden cow – she is  rather distinguished looking and likes sitting on shelves where she can be part of our rather large cow family. I also brought my fist attempt at felted balls – the next ones will be better – I learned a lot.

 

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Frances brought her latest “gadget” the humble piece of kitchen foil. She had found a hint on the internet about it sharpening scissors and rotary cutter blades – and guess what? It works! Not only is it great for recycling foil that you would normally throw out, but as Frances discovered, it brought her blunt rotary cutter blade, back to its former dangerously sharp self and the same with her scissors. You just repeatedly run the cutter up and down the foil! Beside her is Ramona who wore this hat in honour of Hermione, who, sadly, could not join us. Hermione absolutely loves Christmas, so Ramona switched on her “all singing, all dancing” hat – to much hilarity. Hope you can come back soon Hermione – we love you and miss you. xx

 

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Jo made this absolutely wonderful table runner – beautifully quilted – for her friendship group K.K. to take place this week. So I can safely show the picture now!

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Wyn is making cushions for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren – this magnificent one for Andre! I must apologise as I didn’t note who was working on this very pretty snowman applique. He is a very handsome fellow!

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Marilyn’s grandchildren are the lucky recipients of the above quilts – the gorgeous bright dinosaur quilt for her GS and the lovely Fairy/Angel quilt for her GD.

 

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Bronwyn finishing off the binding on this seven year old UFO – a very productive time you have had lately Bronwyn – congratulations – oh and yet another beautiful quilt by the way.

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Pam has made this lovely raggy quilt for the latest baby in her extensive family – very nice! And Maggy is finishing off the binding on this great Christmas stitchery. Well done to you both.

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Marilyn L. has learned to knit! She has been making these fabulous hats for charity including for indigenous communities in W.A. – what a productive way of learning – next year i think you will have some of us non-knitters (i.e. me) sitting beside you – I love the idea of making them in team colours.

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Wendy made this striking split 9 patch table runner from a Moda charm pack “Grace” – love it! And Fran has made the infamous 1600 quilt using 25cm of each of 11 fabrics. It is for one of her children – to match their new home. It looks wonderful.

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The first of the is a Christmas panel, made by Robyn, using fabrics from the same range for the borders. Very nice! The next one was sewn by hand by Robyn’s mother – she finished the stitcheries so quickly that Robyn got her onto 9 patches as well – Robyn put the quilt together and the result is beautiful. What a good daughter you are Robyn, and a good teacher as well.

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Deidre has made this glasses case for a Kris Kringle at work – very smart. Can you guess what Deidre does for a living?  And last but not least my ear! On it is the beautiful silver earing made for me for my birthday this year by my neighbour Lovely Liza. She got hold of a book of quilt patterns from our other neighbour and between them they chose this block. Aren’t they lovely? The earrings, not my ears – of course. Liza makes beautiful “one off” pieces and you can find them www.lizajanejewellery.wordpress.com

No paper bags – by the way, but I live in hope!

And that is it for 2011 – we meet again on Wednesday 1st of February. So have a wonderful Christmas/Holiday everyone and we’ll see you next year.

festive love from your roving reporter

Helen Evans

Devon meadows, Vic (where it is hot and steamy)

Friday, November 18, 2011

Wednesday 2nd November 2011

 

Firstly apologies for the extreme lateness of this report – Christmas festivities seem to have started already and your roving reporter has been roving or rather not roving at all - a tad too much!

 

That said, I cannot believe that it is our Christmas do next month, so don’t forget to bring a SMALL plate of food for lunch, a Kris Kringle gift – either hand made or to the value of $15 and for those doing the the Bedford Mystery Quilt in May 2012 the final payment needs to be made.

 

 

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This beautiful sewing bag was made by “perfect” Pam – she who never sleeps! So pretty.

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Sandra has Gail Pan’s Christmas quilt all ready for quilting – we all agreed that it is a great quilt that can be displayed all year round.

 

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And speaking of Gayle Pan – here is Ramona’s spring version of Gail’s pattern “Winter Bloom”. So lovely.

 

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Virginia has been a very busy bee – making the above beautiful items, including the Breadfruit” wall hanging and the beautiful quilt made from a kit of Leesa Chandler’s using her gorgeous Aussie fabrics.

 

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Julie made this cute Suffolk puff bottles bag – the pattern came with the puff maker! What a great idea!

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Our bag lady Bar has made yet more great bags – the one with grommets is a back pack for her grand daughter. She has also succumbed – beautifully – to the 1600 quilt craze and has produced yet another quilt top with 2 1/2” strips.

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Bronwyn very kindly donated both these lovely quilts to Australian troops who have been hospitalized in Germany as a result of the war in Iraq/Afghanistan. The second is a very cleverly done disappearing 9-patch – amazing!

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This is a beautiful quilt that Jennifer has made for a charity auction for a young boy who is unable to eat and needs surgery overseas. Love the colours.

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Bronwyn yet again – this amazing quilt was made using the challenge fabric for the Bendigo retreat committee – yes still have “meetings” and in fact are getting ready for 2013! All the coloured squares are from the same fabric – a great choice (by moi, by the way). I think you win Bronwyn!

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Laurel made this lovely quilt for her new about to be born grandchild – congratulations! She has also been busy stuffing green gnomes – as you do – for another grandchild’s kinder group.

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Deidre finished off last month’s beautiful Australian themed long stitch – so pretty! And don’t forget that she would love some of the fabric sanitary pads that she showed us on last month’s blog – look in the files section of the Scquilters or Scquilters Carrum Downs Yahoo page – any queries, please e-mail me: helen.evans@nanderil.com.au

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Dianne has gone through some very tough times – and her lovely Friday group made this beautiful quilt and matching cushion for her – to show how much they care. Quilters are wonderful aren’t they?

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Dianne (yes we have a lot of Dianne’s – all of them lovely) and her Church group have been making lots of Christmas goodies for their street stall – which was wonderful, by the way – here are a couple of very cute Santas!

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DSC01285 Frances made these absolutely fabulous quilts – the first two from a pattern from Helen Godden – which was featured in Quilters’ Companion with DVD as well – and what a wonderful first attempt at machine quilting. Her third quilt “Footprints in the Sand” is her own creation from the book “Instant Bargello”. This is wonderful – the photo doesn’t do it justice – if you click on it and enlarge it you will get a better view of it. I immediately ordered the book and now I need to go through my Quilters’ Companion issues to find the beautiful applique pattern!

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This pretty luggage tag was bought for me by the neighbour Lovely Liza in Sydney – not sure where, but very impressive!

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Another one where the photos don’t do justice – I borrowed this quilt from my dear friend Belinda – she bought the exquisite Japanese fabrics from the quilt shop on Phillip Island for this”Trip around the world” quilt. Because Belinda is such a nice person I will give it back to her – she is the one responsible for the neatness of “The Great Wall of Fabric” in my shed as well as all the general tidying up – a great friend!

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Last of all, I found my first attempt at foundation piecing while going through Mum’s things – I made it for her for Mothers’ Day 1997! Although the binding is a tad dodgy, I still love it!

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And lastly here are a couple of the drainage bags we will be making to assist men with their treatment. We will have a special day set aside next year to make these bags – Wyn has drawn up a pattern and I will test drive it over Christmas – after that it will be  available for all.

And that’s all for November – see you on Wednesday the 7th of December for our usual Christmas festivities.

Helen Evans

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