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.

 

 

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

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

 

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?

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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

Wednesday 5th October 2011

We were lucky enough to have Sandra tell us all about her quilting journey – complete with quilts. So many of us could relate to the first sampler quilt – and the fact that even Sandra had a few UFOs.

Sandra also explained how she became a quilt shop owner. Many of you will remember “Cherish” quilt shop in Tecoma. Now Sandra had no plans to buy a quilt shop, but when Cherish closed she couldn’t bear the thought of not having a local quilt shop, so re-opened it, with her friend Lesley, as “Foothills Fabric and Threads” – they have since moved to larger premises (still on the Burwood Hwy) and a trip to the Dandenongs is not complete without a long visit there, a welcome cuppa and a lovely chat, oh and a purchase or three!

Thank you very much Sandra.

We were blessed with  a big crowd, made even more exciting by a visit from Gloria and her sister from “across the ditch”. We would have loved to see their show and tell, but they came over with practically empty cases – to fill with Oz purchases. We do love it when we get visitors from interstate and/or overseas.

.

Ramona – made , not a disposable 9 patch – which is what I thought I wrote, but a beautiful disappearing 9 patch table runner – out of fat 8ths, and isn’t it gorgeous? Wyn, our resident tall person held it up for us – thanks Wyn xx.

 

Robyn has encouraged her Mother to do stitcheries and this one shows that her Mum needed not too much encouragement – in fact Robyn is having trouble keeping up with turning the stitcheries into wall-hangings, table runners etc., but if this is any indication – both Robyn and her Mum are a great team.

 

Louise did her usual superb job with this stitchery pocket – boy can that girl sew!!

Lucky baby Lenny – Fran’s latest grandchild has a wonderful quilt to play with made by his proud Grandmother. The front is a Spotlight pattern and the back a 5” charm pack.  Lovely bright fabrics for a new baby to look at.

 

Wendy received this fabric in a Quilt show bag and has turned it into a very handy, striking bag. Also, to our ageless Wendy happy 42nd anniversary in Australia! We are so pleased you chose us.

 

What an achievement – Maggy has made this beautiful version of “Winter Wonderland” – such beautiful stitching – and apparently there is more to go! The blue thread she used was a brilliant colour choice.

 

Deidre working on this beautiful long stitch –can’t wait to see it finished.

Deidre also brought along fabric sanitary pads she has been making for girls and women in Africa. Something we take for granted is not available to so many in Africa and other third world countries. Young African girls usually miss school during their periods as there is nothing available for them to use. Instead of sending over disposable pads, many kind people around the world make up these re-usable, much less costly and environmentally friendly. Wyn plans to put the pattern for these up on our “files” section, but there are many patterns available on the internet. When making the pad section Deidre uses blanketing in between the fabric layers.  A shipment is going to Africa in November – if anyone wants to make some, please post them to me in the next few weeks and I can give them to Deidre – e-mail me helen.evans@nanderil.com.au

for my address. We do have so many lovely, kind quilters, not just in our group, but all around the world. Thank you Deidre for bringing this to our attention.

 

Julie brought along the completed bag she had been working on at our previous meeting – cleverly, it holds two plastic thread containers, so will be very useful and pretty too.

 

Jennifer – showed us how her “Oriental#2” QAYG quilt is coming along – so stunning and the photo doesn’t do it justice – there was a photo of another piece – yet to be joined, but alas it seems lost in cyberspace – sorry Jennifer.

We were thrilled to have a visit from the famous Dorothy, who Wyn has told us so much about over the years. Dorothy actually taught Wyn sewing/textiles at Mordialloc/Chelsea High School – not too many years (decades?) ago.

Dorothy is wearing her challenge apron – it is designed for dementia patients. An occupational therapist mentioned that there was a need for patients to have something to play/fiddle with, so Dorothy has added worry beads, a zip, mittens, a soft ball to “squish” and other items to feel – similar to what you would do for an activity blanket for a toddler. What a wonderful job she has done.

Jane has put together this gorgeous redwork quilt, using patterns from Bronwyn Hayes. She chose farm themed stitcheries to work on as it is going to her niece, who works as a governess on a property in the outback. What a lovely gift.

Jo has been knitting beanies for premature babies. Look at how tiny they are. Very kind of you Jo and, I am sure much appreciated. When our Elizabeth was born, her head was the size of a tennis ball – I was lucky enough to have a mother-in-law who knitted what I thought were tiny bonnets for her before she was born – just in case she was early. I thought – I’ll never use these, but guess what? They were too big. We were lucky enough not to need something this tiny, however, and I am sure we all feel for the parents of these tiny ones.

 

Sandra got hooked – or re- hooked on working with wool, and came home from the US with quite a lot. She is working on this button hole stitched Christmas table runner. Very noice!

 

Gloria from NZ did manage to include some of her great patterns in her luggage and very kindly donated some for us to raffle – so there were some surprise raffle draws. Thank you so much Gloria.

And if you remember previous months’ blogs, Wyn went with a church group to Tanzania earlier in the year and, as well as teaching English at the University there, taught sewing to many women  - who took to it like a house on fire. A committee has since been set up over there, a teacher employed and the plan is for the women, using the treadle machines Wyn’s group donated, to make the school uniforms for the diocese.

So, lots of good stories this month.

Until our next meeting on November 2nd, happy sewing everyone.

 

Your roving reporter,

Helen Evans

Devon Meadows, Vic