Wednesday 19 April 2017

A couple more holiday makers returned to the group this morning. Elizabeth is finished cruising for a while and Marilyn is full of New Zealandish information and pronounciations. And other ladies are preparing to travel while the weather is so conducive.

Some people are still quilting though! There was a small Show and Tell this morning. 

Liz was the lucky Badge Draw winner today.

This is a jelly roll quilt made by Del and quilted by Di. Del had to use a few more blues to get the quilt to the size she wanted. The pattern is from the Jelly Roll book in the library. Del's 11 year old grandson has bagsed this one. (If you like the blues, this jelly roll is still available at Needleworx.)

Liz has completed another hand-pieced and hand-quilted item for the Women's Centre. This one is made entirely of flannelette and is the softest, cuddliest little quilt you could wish for.

This is Fay's very last wagga. It is pieced with the last remnants of woollen fabric that her brother-in-law, the fabric salesman, used to give to her.

Saturday Sew-In 8 April 2017

If you can organise yourself to pack up your machine and fabric and sewing accessories and patterns and get them to the Women's Centre on the second Saturday of the month, you will have a wonderful day sewing happily with a small group of like minded people. You bring your own refreshments, except cold water, tea, coffee and milk is provided. Cost is $5. (Some ladies have been known to bring hand sewing, or even nothing at all, to just sit and chat and admire the work that is being done.) 

Different ways of sewing things and helpful hints are always on show.

Here are some photos of some of the projects from the last Saturday sewing day. (Thanks Di for taking the photos.)

Teen's beautifully precise tablerunner with additionally precise quilting. (This girl unpicks if the seams are 1/16" out!)

Some Australian wildflower machine embroidery out from under Elaine's machine.

Brenda's colourful little quilt from some BomB blocks she won last year. (Unfortunately, not enough to make a quilt, so a bit more tiny square sewing  was necessary for Brenda.)

Del volunteered (or was nice enough not to say "no" when asked) to piece the butterfly blocks together from the last BomB.

Wednesday 12 April 2017

We had another small group of ladies this morning but probably due more to people having already left for the Easter holidays than concerns with overheated halls, as the weather was cool and glorious. It was Committee Meeting day and we had to quickly finish at 10am as certain members required coffee.
Cathy won the  raffle $25 voucher today and while she was collecting the voucher her name was pulled out for the Badge Draw voucher. How lucky can you get!
There were a couple of stunning quilts today in Show and Tell. It's so good to see the wonderful output of our members on display. Keep up the good work!

Joan has made this One Block Wonder quilt for her sister so it will be on the spare bed when she goes to visit. The material is not Joan's colours but was bought in Cairns for $10/m. They supposedly couldn't get rid of the fabric because it was so ugly. It certainly made a wonderful choice for this pattern. Quote from Joan - "This quilt is easy to make." Sure Joan. (Note: Red border should be dark maroon. Could not get the photo back to real colour, sorry.)

Di had bought some Bali Pops for some commission quilts, but the lady changed her mind. So Di has been playing with strips. It has a purple minkee backing and is going in the pile of quilts to be gifted somewhere someday. 

Another little quilt by Di to check out how a pattern works. This is the Sashed Disappearing 9-Patch. The BomB Lady liked this one so much that Di will demonstrate this pattern for the May BomB.

Cathy has made this String Star quilt from a pattern in a book she talked Del into getting for the library. The book is "String Quilts" It's a bright and happy little quilt. 

Beth's quilt is just back from the quilters. Di has quilted this with a traditional flower pattern that really suits the traditional look.. The backing had a colour flaw in it and was bought for $5/m. (Note: And we're sorry that we couldn't rectify the colour in this photo to the beautiful greyed blue of the roses in the fabric.)

(Internet picture)

Wednesday 5 April 2017

Autumn has arrived and we had a much cooler start to the morning and a much larger group of ladies venturing out to patchwork.  And even though the cyclone is now a week away, some still had lingering feelings of being locked inside the house and it was good to get out and talk about our experiences through the storm. And we are all so thankful that Mackay missed the catastrophe as experienced in Airlie Beach, Proserpine and Collinsville. All of us there today have had the power restored to our homes and some very lucky ladies didn't lose power at all! And Helen, holidaying in New Zealand, only heard about the cyclone from a Facebook comment from a friend in the UK!

Di won the Badge Draw today with the last of the lucky dip prizes - some tiny sharp scissors and some threads. From now on the badge draw will be $10 vouchers.

Saturday Sew-In is this Saturday 8 April at the Women's Centre. Bring $5 and your own morning tea and lunch (Tea, coffee, milk provided).

Barbara has made this quilt from entirely flannel fabrics. How soft and cuddly. (Flannel fabrics apparently have a mind of their own though!)

Anne has finished stitching this beautiful piece started in the Indigo Niche Applique and Sashiko workshop in 2014. You have to see it up close to appreciate the even fine sashiko. Well done Anne!

Del was one of the lucky ones with no loss of power and took advantage of some inside time by sewing. This panel, which she bought for her grandson 10 years ago, has finally been quilted. And  it has been quilted all around the cricketers and even the wickets as well - with a walking foot. We think the grandson should have it now and appreciate all the thought and effort but Del is donating it to the Women's Centre.

To stop herself from going stir crazy with the inclement weather, Del decided to make a bag. She has no idea why, as she doesn't really need another bag.

Di has been thrifting again. This bag for holding recycled plastic bags is made from a shirt sleeve.

Di was someone else who had no loss of power and so did a bit of  'pinteresting'. Two denim skirts were upcycled in the making of these woven bags. Apparently not much sewing was required as they are woven with the aid of a drop of glue.

And two pretty little pink girly bags that are made from scraps and bits and pieces.

Most of the Striped Butterfly BomB blocks came in today. There was some confusion about whether the two weeks allowed to finish them counted the cancelled week or not. In any case, we have decided that twelve blocks will make a lovely sized quilt and Del is going to take it to the Saturday Sew-In and see how far she can get with piecing the top. Thanks Del.

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.)