We're baaaack!

 Well, it's been a while! a whole year has passed, but we're still quilting, stitching, knitting....
These days, we're meeting once or twice a month, at Donna's "Owlery". Some new folks have joined us, bringing new ideas to the group.
Last night, Helen, Marina, Marg and her sister Jenny, and Donna got together, and we finally remembered to take a few photos for the blog!
First up, here's an amazing stashbuster quilt from Marina, all made from teensy one-inch squares. Looks awesome!
Jenny was working on a knitted blanket for KoGo, a kind of patchwork which will keep somebody nice and cosy. Jenny had come over from W.A. for a visit, it was lovely to catch up with her.  
Helen was knitting a cute little sweater for one of the grandchildren. Helen also showed us her current quilting project, but it is not yet ready for show and tell. It's going to the amazing - watch this space! Marg was stitching her floral blocks (one of 100+), another great stashbusting project. Marina was binding her quilt, and I was sorting out old magazines and cutting out the pieces for another block of my Kim McLean "Flowerpot" quilt.              

 

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!

Merry Christmas!

A very peaceful and merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our members and supporters and their families!

2015 was a busy and productive year, from the look of our blog. It's always lovely to sew, quilt, stitch, knit, crochet, and craft with like minded folk and we're looking forward to another year of creativity and fun.

We've changed our venue and program a little for 2016. Instead of meeting at the Family Health room near the library, we will meet less often, but at the home of one or more of our members. We found that getting together at someone's home is much nicer and we can be more flexible with meeting dates and times.

Have a safe and joyful festive season!

Christmas dinner

Last night we met at the Vic Tavern in Gisborne to have our final meet up for the year....not everyone was available but we had a great evening

some serious conversation was going on here....

on the way to Margs house we stopped and looked at some decorated houses...

some house windows 

the same house...love the snow scene in the old TV...

Marg met Santa at the first house....

so did I and that cheeky elf on the bricks!!!

the reindeer were stabled for the night..

we met another Santa..

Hee!! Hee!!! This guy moved his arm just as Marg hugged him!! Made her jump!!

We had a great evening, no sewing but a great catch up!!

Roll on 2016.

Challenge Article

The Gisborne Gazette kindly printed the article about the unveiling of our challenge quilts.
The photo was compliments of Sue. I liked how they kept the tip of Annette's hat in the picture.
On to the next challenge!

Challenges for 2016

Donna proposed a couple of challenges to her her groups. Just in case anyone else wants to join - here are the outlines -

1.     The Country Challenge

Pick a country from a bag (or Donna will give you a country), then make a quilt to represent that country. Anything goes, but no bigger than 1 x 1m in size.

     2.     The Sunset Quilt Challenge

Make a landscape quilt that incorporates a sunset. Again, anything goes. Size may range from Postcard size to whatever size you want.

Keep you quilting (e.g. countries) secret, however, you may ask advice from quilters not participating in the challenges. Unveiling end of July 2016.  Have fun!

Foundation Piecing fun

Last night we learned something new! Tania had kindly offered to teach us foundation piecing, so we got together at Marg's place, armed with our sewing machines and little strips of fabric, and a whole lot of enthusiasm.

Of course, we can't work on an empty stomach, so the first order of the night was dinner. The girls got fish and chips, whereas I had falafel, tabouli and hommus.

 Tania, explained some of the basics of foundation piecing to us rookies, and Marina had brought along some of her gorgeous little foundation pieced quilts. They were just mindboggling and beautiful! And beautifully quilted, too.

 Things got underway, and we all got right into the swing of things, with Tania keeping a benevolent eye on us and showing a saint's patience, explaining everything in triplicate and being an excellent teacher.

We hoped to get at least one little Log Cabin block done each, and were successful. Didn't realise how much thinking, sewing, excercise (getting up and down to press) was involved! It's good to be prepared for this kind of piecing, and Tania gave us lots of tips on how to make it all flow smoothly.
In the end, we got our lovely blocks together (and Susan's special block for her Elm Creek quilt), and voila! We are now foundation piecers.
Thank you, Tania, for teaching us, and Marg for having us over.

Challenges - the Great Unveiling (photo heavy!)

 Halloween, and it was so much fun getting together at Marg's for the unveiling of the challenge quilts! The Gisborne Quilters attended as well as Marina, Robyn and Jo, who are city quilters who get together with some of us on occasion. There were two challenges - one a shirt challenge, whereby one had to make a quilt from a number of shirts plus one fabric, the other a quilt based on a Kaffe Fassett pattern in his book "Simple shapes, spectacular quilts".

Everybody got enthused and contributed to one or both of the challenges. Annette came vising from Ballarat, and came dressed for the occasion, in an awesome black and green outfit and the most amazing fishnet stockings! Very spooky indeed!

 We never stint ourselves in regard to catering, and the ladies outdid themselves with cheese and nibbles, delicious soup, quiche, slices, chicken, sausage rolls, salad and so on. The cheese was appropriately adorned with spiders, which didn't put us off.

 After lunch, Annette kicked off the show and tell with her quilt that she had begun while still living in Gisborne. It turned out beautifully, with lots of piecing and stitching/embroidery.

Then Susan showed us her spectacular sampler quilt. We had seen bits of it along the way, but this was our first glimpse of it as a whole. How beautiful, those colours really pop!And the quilting (done by a lady in NZ) was just perfect too, with a variegated thread.

Then the Kaffe Fassett challenge was shown. Both of these were based on the same pattern, but used different measurements and colour ways. Isn't it amazing how the same pattern can look so different?! The one on the right is Gisborne Marina's floral one, very pretty. The other is Annette's creation, very bright and so cozy with a minkee backing. Awesome job, ladies.

Tania had completed this mini quilt top with KF fabric, but for some reason was not too happy with it (although we all were!).

So she started another one, this one made with William Morris fabric, again based on a KF pattern.  It is beautiful, and Tania was inspired to continue working on it. Can't wait to see what comes next. Tania foundation pieced this.

 Gisborne Marina made this shirt challenge based on a KF pattern, thereby effectively combining the two challenges. This was a very pretty quilt, not something I would have expected from mens' shirt fabrics.

And here is yours truly with my KF creation made from batiks (of course) and linens. This was made by hand using EPP and I'm just about to start hand quilting.

 Here are all the KF creations. Such a colourful collection!


Next is Sue's beautiful diamonds quilt, another KF creation, made from spectacular fabrics she bought in Samoa on a holiday. Glorious colours, I love this one!

Marg is still working on her challenge quilt, she has made a whole bunch of these pretty squares, and has a few more to do. We look forward to seeing it all come together.

 Marg's doggies had a fun day watching and judging the quilts.

This was Gisborne Marina's shirt challenge quilt. It looks fantastic, and quite tricky with the stripes going in all directions. The burgundy fabric really puled t all together.

 Tania also participated in the shirt challenge with this sweet Dresden Plate design. Tania's really into foundation piecing, and what a great job she does with it, all those perfect points.

This is Annette's shirt challenge quilt. It's a very masculine quilt and used by her son. Very striking.

And another piece de resistance - Marg's shirt challenge. All those little squares, so intricate! It looks amazing!

Helen's shirt challenge is gorgeous, love the two distinct patterns here. It would have been very tricky again to get the directions of the stripes correct.

 Robyn brought her challenge along, I believe she'll keep going with this and as far as I understand it will be a wedding quilt for some lucky couple.

Marina made this shirt challenge quilt using some fabric from her Dad's and grandfather's shirts. It's a beautiful Australian Flag and incorporates loving memories.

Above is Sue's shirt challenge, with lots of pockets incorporated. Sue plans to give this to the orang utans at Melbourne zoo, the keepers fill the pockets with treats for the orang utans to find. What a lovely idea!

Here's the heap of shirt challenge quilts all laid out. What a fantastic job from all the ladies!

 And here we are, minus Tracee who was busy taking pictures. There's a picture of all of us on Kiwikids' blog if you want to check it out.

After all that hard work, we surely deserved this yummy dessert.

Onto the next challenge....