Wednesday 29 June 2016

It appears that this week is winter in Mackay. All doors and windows were shut tightly today and there were a large and varied array of "sensible shoes" being worn. Let's hope the wind dies down by Friday, but no doubt the excitement, fun and camaraderie of sister quilters will make the Quilt and Craft Fair a warm and enjoyable couple of days in any case. Interesting and useful handmade articles were brought in for the traders table today, some "first quilts" appeared for the "Where We Started" display and final details were being ironed out. Make sure you don't miss it this weekend! Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd July at Northern Beaches Community Hall.

And maybe you will be able to see "in real life" these quilts from Show and Tell this morning.

Faye has another quilt finished and back from being quilted by Malanda Quilting. Of course it is once again "just scraps" but Faye did have to purchase some new fabric for the background this time. Faye machine blanket stitched these butterflies even though the clever outline quilting makes them look like needleturn. Aren't the little sashing blocks turned into flowers  just the cutest?

Here is Beth's quilt of the Quilting Practice Trio quilts.The 20 inch blocks were pieced, quilted, appliqued and then joined together. Beth put her seams and tracks to the back. It is a stunning quilt.

And this is Karen's quilt which is exactly the same pattern as Beth's would you believe? It has a reverse colourway with coffee and brown background and cream appliqued shells. Karen joined the blocks with the tracks on the front. The idea of making these quilts was to practise free machine quilting but Karen admits that most of her blocks ended up being done with the walking foot attached!

We've seen this Breastscreen charity quilt before but Helen just put the last stitch in the binding this morning. Di has quilted it beautifully with Baptist fans.

This is Erica's Fantasy Garden quilt which she has worked on for 2 1/2 years. It is all needleturn applique. She had it quilted by  Quick Quilt at Tiaro so she could enter it in the show but found it was an inch too short for the collaborative quilt size requirements. So she entered it in the handcrafts section and won second prize! The Jacobean like applique was from a pattern in the AP&Q called Jen's Fantasy Garden.

Erica had this little quilt quilted by Quick Quilts at the same time. It was made from a dyed fabric pack from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. Much unpicking and putting in the cupboard in disgust was involved before those little sharp points all ended up in the right place. In fact, it has spent so long in the cupboard that it appears that Lisa Walton no longer sells this pattern. The quilting is done with a yellow variegated thread which adds to the lovely glow this quilt emits.

Elaine brought in a letter and photos from her trip to England where she caught up with Sue Nowson. Sue has made the embroidered sayings we gave her when she left into little wall hangings that appear all over the house and are a wonderful talking point for guests who always want to know about "true blue" and "dunnies".

Beth won the badge draw today and picked out some quilting pins and shiny new machine needles. She will no doubt make good use of them.