Wednesday 5th November

We had a huge crowd for our November meeting and had a wonderful day - next month is our Christmas party, so keep an eye for all the details on the Scquilters list. Bags were the theme for this month - I did rather lose track of the descriptions of some of them - there were so many, so apologies in advance!

This is Louise's very useful - all purpose bag that has seem many Carrum Downs meetings!

My notes lost the plot here, but you can see it is a lovely bag made with hexagons & circles

Again - lost the plot! Is this a bag of Sally's? Done in a class at Mornington Peninsula Quilters???

Shashiko bag made by Wyn - now Ramona's as well as a bag basket (I think?)

Fran's impressive bag collection!

Fran's finished Mystery quilt in gorgeous Christmas prints from Fran's mystery quilt list on Yahoo.

Fran's "retreat" bag with pockets galore

Virginia's version of Ruth Buchanan's "C" for Cootamundra

"B" for Bondi

"A" for Adiminiby

Virginia's cat bag! An old favourite.

Kate's gorgeous collection

Kate with the lovely silk print she brought back from Madagascar. The writings on this one were translated as "Home sweet Home" - but unlike any Madagascan homes Kate saw.

Shirleys collection made in collaboration with Susan Mayfiled in NZ - some lovely bags!

Shirley's wonderful hand pieced hexagon quilt, using striking Amy Butler & Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

Magnificently quilted by Helen Hayes.

Bar with some of her favourite bags, including a knitted pumpkin bag, see below!

A brilliant bag made by Sue to take to Quilt & Craft shows with inserts for just about everything - wallet, glasses, key ring, mobile phone!

Sally - a stunning quilt made in a Pam Holland "Drapplique" class - see photo!

Sally's seminole practise blocks ended up as a great bag.

A stack & slash UFO which Sally finished for the Mornington Peninsula group's caring quilts.

An impressive bag

Sue with a Monica Poole bag - great use of ric rac.

Bronwyn, close ups of magnificent blocks from Leesa Chandler's Oriental BOM

The finished quilt - which Bronwyn changed just little bit - magnificent!!!

Marilyn - what can I say? Another wonderous bag lady!

A close up of this unique bag - the pattern was a gift from Wyn.

The above bags were all made by Marilyn - or for Marilyn - aren't they lovely?

Pam's latest efforts. Wow!!

A great bag made in Susan Mayfield's class at the Bendigo retreat - not sure who by but isn't it impressive? The class involved braiding the threads used for the handles as well as making the bag, of course.

a lovely bright bag made by Wyn for one of her grand daughters

Some great bags made by Wyn (& friends) including this Virginia Enright pattern which Wyn took a shine to and made for her grand daughter complete with photos

A great mug bag that Dianne R showed - made by Sally as her KK gift one Christmas here!

Lovely bag made by Jenni Strahan for me (Helen E)

Mystery bag maker!! These bags were made as a gift for all moderators & guides by a mystery benefactor at the Canberra (or was it Sydney?) retreat. I was lucky enough to be a guide at them time! It also included a rotary cutter holder inside. Will pay in FQs for any clue as to the maker!!!

More wonderful Scquilty gifts for me!! From Fiona Dunn, Sharon Staden & Roz Panetta.

I needed to make a quilt in a hurry for a Breast Cancer fundraiser - I pulled out some of my 9 patches from Susan Britton's wonderful swap & this was the result.

Label on the back of the quilt I made for my youngest sister's 50th - using a "recent" family photo. Can you guess which one is me (Helen E)? A clue - I'm not the one wearing a tie.

The 50th birthday quilt - a "trip around the world" for my sister Sandra.

Hermione demonstrating her hexagon laptop cover.

Helen Y with her nifty bag. A really useful pattern from Leanne Beasley - you can make the bag in different fabrics and swap the handles over.

Pam's bear Christmas bauble!! A very nifty decoration.

Even more of the little bears - someone is having a very beary Christmas! The pattern is by a friend of mine - Josey Freni from Devon Meadows, and is called "Joy" - just contact me for her details if you want to buy the pattern.

Pam with her self designed sewing cushions - a great idea!



And that is all for now - look out for details of our Christmas Party on the first Wednesday of December on the Scquilters list. We have lots of fun planned swaps, kris kringle,lovely Christmas food etc etc, untl next month,

Helen Evans

Devon Meadows, Vic

Wednesday 1st October

It was a great, virtuous day at Carrum Downs on the first Wednesday in October. We had our Breast cancer Comfort Cushions effort where we sewed, overlocked, pinned, turned etc to make cushion and bags for the BCCC organisation. The founder Paula Summerfield gave us a very informative talk and we all talked about our own experiences of how much these very useful gifts mean to women with breast cancer.

A couple of completed Xray bags - there are no commercially available bags for holding xrays.

Completed bags for holding those awkward drainage tubes

Pam & Laurel taking a break on the "sweat shop" line!

Fran and Marilyn at the forefront of our effort

SHOW & TELL

A bit quiet this month due to everyone bringing either their sewing equipment or being stuck at home with the dreaded lurgy! But still wonderful!

Well, this wall hanging tells its own story! It was made for me by Susan, a lovely member of my weekly Monday group . It was an unexpected gift and I was quite overcome by it. It is now proudly displayed on the wall of my real shed, which I might add, looks nothing like this.

Ginny made this beaded worm for her DH to use as bait at the Monash Graduates Ball at the Melbourne Aquarium. As there was an underwater theme (what a surprise!), he requested the worm so he could catch a mermaid.

Ginny then set her talents to making this wonder coat - ab fab and full of beaded, watery themes!

Ginny - front view redundant in her splendour!!

The final triumph! An exquisitely embroidered marine themed bag - note all the beading.

Bar's lovely version of the Ricketty Stitches pattern "Spring is Here"

A close up of her beautiful work

Robyn's lovely new bag.

Opps!! What is my gorgeous great-neice doing in show & tell? I wonder how her photo ended up here??? At least for the purposes of show & tell she is holding her dolly wrapped in a quilt I made for Elizabeth's teddy, Mrs Honeypot, in 1996!

I would like to thank everyone on behalf of Paula for all the good work done for the BCCCC group and hope that we can repeat it next year.

Thus endeth this month's blog. Our next meeting takes place on Wednesday 5th November. Same bat time, same bat station. Different bat theme though - November will be a BAG meeting, we want to see bags you have made, been given or otherwise acquired.

until next time,

Helen Evans

Devon Meadows, Vic

Wednesday 3rd September

As always, it was a lovely meeting last week at Carrum Downs. It was great to see Maggy out and about at last ( still in a wheelchair, but getting around!). I seem to have lost my notes - so if any of the following show & tell information is incorrect, please let me know and I will correct it!

Hermione - a great scrap UFO - now finished.

Laurel - her healing hearts in oriental fabrics with wonderful border fabric as well. A great job.

This is what happens when we leave Robyn, Louise and Narelle to their own devices! A weekend get-together produced these wonderful block rolls.

close up of the work on the block rolls

Robyn with an "extra" - the mother of all block rolls! Dare we ask????

Pam with another of her the all purpose quilts she makes for new babies in her family. It does them from the rolling on the floor stage right through to using in their cars, doing much the same thing, we suspect!!

Fran - her "around the world in 20 quilts"challenge - very well done - see
http://www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com/ for more details!

Fran - no longer a UFO - made using FQs of lovely flannels.

Sally with a GFG hexagon quilt made in the 70s - Sally is finishing it off for a friend.

A close up of all those 70s fabrics!

Jo - an exquisite bag made for a friend's daughter's wedding - the photos don't do it justice!

A close up of the wedding bag.

Jo's wonderful landscape work - what can I say?

a closer look!

Bar - a gorgeous quilt for new family member "Matilda Grace" - love the braided border.

a close up.

Marilyn with the lovely raffle quilt she has made in 30s fabrics for her church.

Ramona - machine quilted this one for a girlfriend's 5oth. Love the colours!

Ramona again - her Leanne Beasley's "A Quilter's Journey" masterpiece!

_________________________

Below are some of the WIPs (or should that be PHDs) from around the table!

As you can see, it was a very productive day!

I would like to remind everyone that for our next meeting on October 1st we will be working on cushions, bags etc for the Breast Cancer Comfort Cushion charity. Details as follows:

SCHOOL HOLIDAY MEETING – WEDNESDAY OCT. 1st

For our next meeting we will have a working bee for the BCCC (Breast Cancer Comfort Cushion) organisation. There will be a variety of jobs that we can all do, so still bring your own sewing projects and we can swap places on the “sweat shop” line! There will be a variety of jobs to do, from cutting out patterns to pinning bag straps, to machine appliqué, to over locking, to straight sewing, to ironing.

We will need some of you to bring along the following:
Good scissors
Sewing machines
Sewing machines with a good appliqué/buttonhole stitch
An over locker or two
Machine thread – both plain (i.e. cream, grey & black) and variegated
Rulers and cutting mats
Pins
Irons and small bench top ironing boards
Power boards/extension cords
Anything you think I have forgotten

Paula Summerfield, who started the BCCC organisation, will be here to help us and will speak about how and why she started the charity group and how much it helps Melbourne’s and Victoria’s breast cancer sufferers.

The BCCC people have pre-cut sets of the patterns for us , however, if anyone chooses to donate any fabric for their future use, 1 ½ metres of nice cotton fabric is required for each “set”, in a cheerful novelty print or floral – the BCCC girls particularly like butterfly themed fabrics. However, any nice fabric you would use for your quilting would do fine.



Helen Evans

Devon Meadows, Vic