Wednesday 29 March 2017

Slade Bay 4pm Wednesday 29 March

Patchwork was cancelled due to after effects of Cyclone Debbie.
We trust all quilters kept safe and don't have too much damage to attend to.
Patchwork will resume next week 5 April.

The Great Sewing Bee - 26-28 March

"Three days of uninterrupted sewing" says Cathy. Cathy had missed the last workshop and so organised this bee to catch up on some sewing fun.

Sunday was quite a normal day. Some were making cyclone preparations, but Cathy and her band of bee ladies were making sewing progress.

Monday saw 7 ladies determined to ignore the strengthening winds and scudding rain and get some major sewing done. After numerous phonecalls from friends and family, it was decided to abandon all sewing activities after lunch. After the third distress call from Cathy's house, we abandoned prior to lunch. Machines and sewing supplies were carried to vehicles just as the rain started pelting down. It was particularly bad timing as that burst only lasted 15 minutes. Never mind, all sewing machines made it safely to their homes before Cyclone Debbie arrived.

Yes, that gutter is completely full of water.

So what was achieved?
(Photos from Monday only)

Di demonstrated how easy it was to accomodate 1/4" difference in fabrics if the longer strip is placed at the bottom on the feed dogs.

Ta Da! Easy as. 

Cheryl had some help working out what size the squares had to be cut to make pinwheels for the border of her Delectable Mountain quilt. (For an 8"block, cut the squares for each 4" unit, 5".) This worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the blocks are supposed to be 7 1/2"! Let's hope they match the quilt as perfectly as they match her cutting mat.

Marilyn worked on her butterfly block for the BomB and then went home. (So this is actually a picture of someone else's block.)

Lesley cut 10"squares from her blue and grey fabric and 25 old business shirts, sewed all the way around the edge and then cut the squares on both diagonals. Perfect half-square triangle units - with bias edges. Will be interesting to see how this picnic rug goes together.

Del bought this cricket panel 10 years ago when her grandson was 10 and in to cricket. She is quilting this as a quilt for the Women's Centre. The quilting around the figures (by walking foot) is proving tedious. The bad news is that Del also bought a soccer panel at the same time!

Cathy spent a day and a quarter making  2 Chinese Lantern blocks from strips she picked up from the give-away table recently. She thought it would be a good way to use the scraps. And they did look fantastic, but timewise, probably not an ideal project. They were packed into the car between rain gusts so no photo. Cathy then moved on to the In and Out I Spy quilt pictured using all her left over owl fabric.

Anne got some help measuring borders for her Sampler Quilt and then sewed a little peeper on. The best hint for this is that she ironed this 1" peeper in half and then stiched it down on the 1/2" ironed line. When the border is sewn on with 1/4"seam, there will be a 1/4"peeper, but it will be stitched down and not get caught up in the machine quilting.

Di used some left overs to make a pretty lined bag that will be a special little something for a needy child.

Imagine what could have been achieved if we'd been able to continue!
No doubt some ladies (aka Cathy) did not lose power from the cyclone and so probably spent the whole time locked up safely inside the sewing room. The blogperson could be found sitting in the complete dark of a powerless house quietly handstitching by camping headlight.
Another Sewing Bee is on the drawing board.
Next time, we'll try having one without cyclonic weather!

Wednesday 22 March 2017

We welcomed Trevor Waldron from Kidney Support Network today who spoke on the importance of kidneys, what we should do to look after them and what the Kidney Support Network does. He was very pleased to accept the two quilts. The large one will be a major raffle prize at an upcoming cent sale and despite him saying his grandkids would just love the smaller one, it will be used for some fundraising to keep the renal patient support in Mackay going.

Brenda returned from her travels today but is already tiring of retelling all the highlights.

Joan has an appointment on Friday morning to become a grandmother.

BomB (Block Of the Month Bonzana) Day today with a simple butterfly pattern that took a lot of explaining. The BomB lady had intended to have 25 blocks made but only managed to bring 15 sets of strips and forgot all about getting photos taken. Let's hope we'll get some sort of butterfly quilt eventually.

Anne won the Badge Draw today and selected a little voucher - of course.

Our first Quilting Bee is this Sunday Monday and Tuesday 26-28 March. But you don't have to come for three days, any time will be fun. Contact Cathy for details.

Trevor accepting the Colorado Beauty quilt we made.

Trevor with Di and the Skittles and Squares quilt. Thanks to Di for getting these charity quilts off the ground, quilting them, and arranging the handover. It's always great to see where our work is going.

This is the BomB from last March. Hard to believe it's been 12 months. It was a pattern Jan had suggested and so it was called Jan's Chevrons. Robyn won the blocks and had to make a few more to get a good sized lap quilt. (And maybe there was a little difficulty in getting all the different blocks to line up? We won't mention it.)

Wednesday 15 March 2017

Well today was the hottest day yet at the hall! By 11:30 there were only 9 stalwarts left. Everyone else had departed for airconditioning. How we need a meeting place with more comfortable conditions.

Marlena was congratulated today on her special achievement. She has very cleverly become a grandmother. (Years of patient waiting, but not a lot of effort on her part!)

Elizabeth won the Badge Draw today. Lesley was sure 37 was announced, but number 27 held out!

Cathy's first Bargello to see if it would work. She was very pleased with the easy pattern and way the scrap fabrics from her cupboard turned out. The instructions said to quilt through the diagonals but Cathy wished she had quilted it in smooth lines. Still, it is a colourful little quilt to go to the Women's Centre.

This is the charity quilt made from blocks entered into the modern challenge at our Craft Fair. It will be called Thoroughly Modern. Di spent all day at the Saturday Sew-in sewing the blocks together with  8" lime green  sashing. What a surprise it was to see it today completely resewn with 4" blue sashing! But such a fantastic look. Well done and thank you Di. And the lime green wasn't completely ditched. Can you see the little peeper in the binding? (Elaine suggested the setting pattern. Well found, Elaine!)

Karen is still working on the embroidery in the outer border but this quilt will be going to her son and daughter-in-law in Brisbane before Karen will be back in Mackay again. The centre is a Bronwyn Hayes pattern completed in 2000. It is already quilted but that didn't stop Karen from adding some more embroidered borders and a graphic geometric border from a past BomB pattern. This is the last quilt for her family and now she is off  travelling!

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Yet another too hot and steamy day and a small number of quilters in attendance at the meeting. Was good to see Beth and Vera along for their first time this year. We did have a well attended Committee Meeting so thanks to those ladies for making the effort to rock up at 9am to get the business side of quilting sorted. 

The Quilt Connect Subcommittee have forwarded our entry details and showed 4 of the 5 quilts that will be the BBQ display today. No photos - we don't want to spoil the surprise - but what a lovely group of quilts with varied techniques have been selected. They include needleturn applique, raw edge applique, paper piecing, trapunto and hand quilting. Pretty sure they will stand up very well against all other affiliated groups. Well done!

Cathy won the Badge Draw today and Del was the winner of the Monthly Raffle.

Joke offered this quilt for Quilt Connect but one side turned out to be 3" too long to fit the size requirements. The label, with its own tiny block in miniature, states it was made from 2008-2011 and is completely hand sewn. Joke made 28 blocks and then started to put them together and found out the greens she had used did not like each other! So she unpicked them all and started again with navy. The handquilting was done with No 8 navy perle cotton and really suits the quilt.

Beth has pieced this pretty medallion top. It is the first patchwork she has managed to complete without her quilting friend. So glad you perservered Beth! The next one should be a little easier.

But Beth has been doing other things. Isn't this miniature teardrop caravan just the cutest? It does need a patchwork quilt on the bed though.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Well now it is March and it is still not any cooler. This blog is quickly becoming a weather status blog instead of a quilting one.

The Daily Mercury photographer, Tony, came today and took some photos of quilts and quilting ladies. (He said his mother was a quilter but he probably still needs a few lessons about quilts.) And he wanted 'people shots' more than 'quilt shots'. We'll see how the article turns out.

There was not a great lot of Show and Tell today. In fact, there was not one finished quilt shown. Just as well Deane and Di had some recent quilts for the photoshoot.

There was a small happy surprise this morning for Delma who was lucky enough to win the Badge Draw.

Anne tries to support the Proston Show (where her daughter lives) by entering something in the handicrafts and quilting section. The theme this year is Sunflowers so this table centre will fit right in. Certainly an appropriate fabric choice for the sunflower centre - it looks like seeds!

Heather inisisted Philippa show off her machine embroideries. They are each going to be framed in black frames and will make a stunning wall feature. Yes, not really patchwork, but we really enjoyed seeing them.

The Flower Box  BomB blocks started coming in today. We think they will make a great quilt. (Providing you like purple and green, of course.)