It was great to be back after missing three whole meetings. Having been Scquilter deprived, there was so much to catch up an, and no, I didn’t even open my sewing bag. I want to thank Ramona and Fran very much for doing a brilliant job while I was either swanning around Magnetic Island, Hobart or just plain ill. Thank you my friends!!!
We had a great visit from the lovely Laurene Horsnall, who brought along some of her wonderful goodies from her shop – The Quilters’ Patch 9/3 Tuck street, Moorabbin, Vic. www.thequilterspatch.com.au
Laurene showed us how to use a different method for our binding – to include piping, but more on that later…..
As always, show and tell was lots of fun, and as always I was too busy talking to take extra photos of everyone, but here, at least, is our show and tell.
From our ageless Wendy – a blanket she has been working on and these beautiful crocheted “African flowers”
And here we have from Fran, her latest hexagons toward a QS quilt. Then from me (Helen E), my entry in the Townsville Retreat challenge apron contest. The requirements were “from the rain forest to the reef” and I was lucky enough to win a beautiful FQ pack for my humble efforts. Which I hope to soon be as prolific with as Ginny – see further down.
Also from Townsville, my apron for the “Central Victorian Christmas in July Retreat” announcement on the Sunday of the retreat - to be held in Bendigo from the 19th to the 21st of July 2013 – Ho ho hope you can be there!!! The other item is a scarf I made in a class with Tina Whitely from the Peninsula Arts society – she is a great tutor and I highly recommend her.
These first two pics are of Ginny’s random disappearing 9 patch quilt - made with the layer cake she won in her raffle basket at the Townsville retreat. It is good to see the on-going joy of our retreats! She also brought her Bedford Mystery quilt top, complete with leftovers on the back. Excellent work.
Here is Dianne M with “Chebbies favourite bag” taught by Sue Foster at Lang Lang – love the fabric. Dianne also brought along her 1600 quilt – made with a jelly roll “Island Batiks” bought at the Townsville retreat – quilted by Sue Foster.
Jennifer, still working on completing the unfinished quilt for her workmate – in beautiful vintage fabrics . And Bronwyn brought along her beautiful “At Ocean’s Edge” quilt – 7 or 8 years in the making and hand pieced it has been a huge effort, but so worth it. The block is a traditional one “Smoothing Iron”. There was a well deserved round of applause for Bronwyn.
Yet another round of applause for Sally’s Dear Jane – again hand pieced and 9 years in the making – absolutely superb. The second quilt she brought along is another oldie – made with Margaret Rolfe blocks, beautifully made as always and representative appropriate to her bay views. Dianne M. proudly showed off her fingerless gloves – just in time for the warmer weather.
Julie brought along this BUG bag she had made and then pulled out her wonderful quilt, using Leesa Chandler’s Under the Southern Sun range. She has also bee busy making this special quilt for her 6 year old grandson – which young boy wouldn’t like this fabulous super hero quilt? Great work.
A couple more pics of Julie’s superhero quilt – the back is glow in the dark!!! And lovely Kate –had made this superb cushion in a class with Michelle Hill at the Ballarat quilt-in – the pattern represents the tiles in the Ballarat town hall and was machine appliques.
These are the photos of Laurene’s samples from her binding/piping lecture. I am going to shorten the instructions, but if they do not made sense, PLEASE be patient, as I will be putting Laurene’s instruction sheet up at a later date. She has kindly given us permission.
Basically, you cut two binding strips, the “piping “ one will be 1-3/4” wide – this is the maroon fabric in these photographs – the other one (the starry fabric) will be 1-3/8” wide. Join the strips as you usually would, including pressing the seams and trimming, but do each strip individually. You THEN, join the two strips – right sides together – using a 1/4” seam. Press the seam TOWARDS the piping. Then, fold in half with wrong sides together and press – see how it will look in the above photos – with the piping effect. Use a walking foot to stitch on the binding – stitch raw edges as usual, BUT stitch on the back of the quilt first, doing the corners in the usual way. You will see the pen holding the fabric forward - in the last photo - the other side has already been sewn along the top of the quilt by machine in the same photo – so if you like the piping effect and don’t appreciate hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt, this may be just what you have been looking for.
I also want to mention that for our “Movember” meeting we will be stitching bags for chemo pumps for men. If you plan to join us in stitching, please bring your sewing machine, extension cords and power board. To make the bags you will need to FQs, one for the bag (in a manly, non-directional fabric)and one for the lining. If you aren’t going to be sewing – could you please bring us the two FQs for those of us who will be sewing them to stitch. We will also need an iron or two as well as a couple of mini ironing boards. I will bring the batting which has already been purchased by our group. I hope to post the pattern to this blog before the meeting, but don’t worry if I haven’t, as Jo and I will be able to demonstrate how they are made. These bags are quick and easy to make.
Well – I think that is about it for now – see you all with your fabrics and/or machines in Movember on Wednesday the 7th.
Glad to be back – but a little out of practise,
your roving reporter,
Helen Evans
