Winter fun

 It's always difficult to entice people out into the dark, cold winter night, even for a pleasurable activity such as quilting. But the four of us, Helen, Julie, Edwina and I braced the elements and had a lovely evening of quilting, stitching, knitting and friendship. And Julie's little furbaby, Bella, joined us too.
Julie showed us a couple of the quilts she had made recently. They were in muted colours but so beautiful, can't wait to see them finished. The colours went together so well.

Bella was happy to show off her mum's quilts too. She's a sweet little bundle of fluff.  Helen was knitting a scarf, using a very attractive pattern. Might have to try that one too, sometime.
Edwina was working on a new Sue Spargo Christmas quilt, learning new embellishing stitches. It'll be spectacular when it's done.
Julie was putting some colourful fabrics together for a new quilt, and I was working on Panel 11 (of 14) of my Scandinavian Rose quilt. I can see the light at the end of this tunnel!

New ladies

We were a little group of three last week, and this is a good opportunity to introduce Edwina (on the left) and Julie, new to the Wednesday group. We know both ladies from the Friday group, and they expressed an interest to join us, and voila! Here they are, stitching away. We'll see more of them I'm sure, and it's nice to have new members and ideas to inspire us.

Reminiscing

This week, Helen, Marg and I gathered for an impromptu sit-n-sew and reminisced about our time with Tania, who had passed away at Easter. We talked about how we met - I think many of us first met Tania when she was working in Lorraine's shop. She was certainly well known to the local quilting community. We chatted about Tania's quilts, and the last class she taught us, making foundation pieced log cabin blocks. Which reminded us that some of us still need to finish those!
Marg had finished her 'Message in a bottle' quilt and was just starting to hand quilt it. Isn't it delightful?! Helen was working on her shirt fabric hexies, and I was starting to quilt my no-so-secret little project. More about that next time. Although we had all suffered a loss this week, getting together helped to heal the sadness.

Farewell Tania

Today we said goodbye to our friend and fellow quilter Tania. Tania had been ill for a while, but her passing was still a shock for us. Tania was a founding member of this group, and she contributed so much friendship, knowledge, and inspiration, as well as kindness and generosity. She was an excellent quilter with a real passion for quality, and she was a kind and patient teacher. Tania edited our newsletter until it became this blog, and invited us to many fun quilt challenges.
Tania was farewelled at Macedon cemetery, under old trees, with birds flying overhead, and kookaburras singing along with Van Morrison. We will miss you, dear friend, and you'll be in our thoughts with every stitch. We hope you've found that quilt shop in the sky, and another circle of quilters. Rest peacefully.

Dinner gathering

We had a great dinner catch up at the Telegraph Hotel on Wednesday night followed by some stitching at Donna's house.....was lovely to catch up with all these wonderful ladies once again.

A good night was had by all. Thank you for the invite ladies.

We're baaaack!

 Our first sewing evening this year, and it was lovely to get together again. This year, we are meeting up
in people's homes rather than using the council premises.
Marg had just come back from Thailand and Hong Kong, and she kindly hosted our first sit n sew for the year.
Pauline was knitting something for her first grandchild (yet to arrive). Helen was making hexies, and Tracee was putting a binding on a quilt.
The quilt below is Tracee's, all quilted and looking awesome. How good does that look?!
Yours truly was working on a small

challenge; and the challenge will be to get it ready in time!