Ready for 2008

FINALLY, the date has been set for our first patchwork day. Our best intentions of getting together over the holidays were squashed but now that the kiddies are back to school and routines are set back in motion, its sewing time.

We will be meeting in the Hall on Friday 1st February to catch-up not only with sewing but in all honesty there will be a lot of catch-up chat as well. After all the patchwork and quilting is only half the equation, the other half is friendship. So here's to a wonderful year full of both.

Encouraging the younger ones.........

This runner was started at the end of the September school

holidays when we encouraged a few daughters along instead of

cancelling our patchwork day. The idea was a smaller project

for a 14 year old with the view to having it completed in

time to be a Christmas present for Mum. But the question was,

"Which Christmas?" Well, here it is! I'm proud to say that

it was completed almost 100% by Rachel and found wrapped

under the christmas tree on christmas day. Congratulations

on a job well done. There are now orders in for a few more.

Have We All Left Town?

It is the holiday season after all isn't it? Looks like January is a wipeout for sewing once again. Everybody has been too busy having fun travelling around over the holiday break, visiting friends and relatives. I think it will be February before the Hall sees us gathering there once again.

To keep the quilting theme alive here is a pic of a quilt that Ruth made some years ago.

It is foundation pieced and machine quilted using scraps of navy and yellow prints. It is a bit difficult to see the variegated thread used in this picture though.

Then and Now

This Santa wall hanging was made a few years ago and is hung in pride of place each Christmas at Narelle's house.

The Bolster Cushion was made as a gift for this Christmas.

Wishing all a happy and healthy 2008 filled with family, friends and fabric.

Christmas Greetings

Isn't it wonderful when someone gives you your Christmas parcel days before Christmas and they give you something like this. It gives you an opportunity to hang it for this festive season and not have to impatiently wait until next year.
Ruth's sister who is also a prolific patchworker had geat fun making this. She also made a patchwork bag in bright colours for a niece.
Hope there are many Christmas goodies arriving for you all.
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and see you all in 2008.

Toowoomba Quilters Club Inc.

Our network of quilters seems to be growing as we now also have a link to Toowoomba Quilters. Welcome to our new visitors.
Isn't it amazing that with one click we can enter a different page and meet so many like minded people and share information about quilting.
Most of our Mt Perry members live on rural properties in an isolated area and we have embraced blogging as a large part of our social life as well as being our newsletter. We also love to see what other people are up to in their patchwork pursuits.
To minimise the time spent blogging we have three editors to share the workload, in case you noticed the different blogging styles. We certainly don't want to cut into our valuable sewing time do we girls?

New Link to PANDORA

In case you are wondering about our new link.
We received a letter from The Sate Library of Queensland asking for copyright permission to archive our blog under the PANDORA project. They archive websites they consider to be worthy of preservation. We felt really proud to have our blog selected and thank them for their interest and we hope to continue sharing our love of patchwork and quilting with you whilst providing entertainment and recording a visual diary through future posts.

Free Motion Quilting Day

Here are the samples from two of the ladies who took part in learning about free motion quilting.

Lisa (left) and Narelle (right) both thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were pleased with their results. Both are keen to do some more practicing if they can just find the time.

Isn't it amazing how the texture of the hand dyed fabric changes with a different quilting pattern? The newly skilled quilters will soon be attempting feathers and more feathers on their traditional style quilts.

Margaret's Quilt

One of our group members proudly displaying an

heirloom quilt which she travelled many miles for

many lessons to learn to do. She has been so inspired

by this teacher, that the fabric is now being sought

for her next adventure in discovering the diversity

of this craft.

Free Motion Quilting Day

The last sewing day for 2007 saw the machines all set up for free motion work. A short discussion about quilting designs before we dropped the dogs and started.
How come "sew" many pattern designers finish the information about their design with "Quilt As Desired". We are still wondering what as desired looks like. We studied the book by that name, very useful.
Well after today the girls also have a bit more knowledge about thread thickness, remember the higher the number the thinner the thread. The Madeira Cotona 80 looked wonderful on Margaret's sample. The Daruma silk thread sewed beautifully as well. Ruth would not mind the box of these for sale at Patchwork on Pallas for Christmas. The Aurifil Mako 50 is also a wonderful thread to sew with. It is easily available from online shopping here in Australia.
These threads really suit traditional quilting styles done by machine where you like to see the texture without noticing the thread.
We discovered some machines absolutely dislike cheaper, thicker thread. It is probably variations in thickness from slubs that cause the problem. It is a shame that some variegated threads don't work too well. Kerry found that some worked well while sewing slowly but as soon as she found a faster smooth stitch the thread broke. The variegated threads are good for more contemporary work.
Feathers for traditional quilts were oohed at and some had a go. We had to learn to draw them first let alone stitch them. All the designs we tried were all drawn on paper first to develop the rhythm of sewing it.
The star pupil even had a go at a Caryl Bryer Fallert quilting design. So now she has gone home to google for her website so she can study more of her work. Other quilting experts to look up include Sharon Schamber, Diane Gaudynski, Patsy Thompson, Karen McTavish and there's probbaly a lot more. So watch out we are slowly building our reputations as quilters. Unfortunately the cameras did not come out today so here is a sample of Ruth's first free motion feather accomplished some time ago for something to view from today.



Next year we will probably decide to start early again so we can commence our raffle quilt. Ruth was just too dog tired to get the fabric and pattern ready to start this week. So watch this space.

Seven Shops Later

Come on girls, once this photo was taken you just know it had to be put in this space.

What can you do when you've just visited the seventh patchwork shop for the day and you've shopped till you're ready to drop. Find a seat of course, any seat will do. These girls were the first two to make their final purchases for the day.

Then along came the next lady to await our driver. We had a fantastic day starting with a coffee or smoothie and a snack on the way into Maryborough to fortify us till lunch in Hervey Bay. Seven shops (if you can count that two shops had two parts to them) in one day is not a bad effort. On the way home we discussed tactics for next years shopping trip which just may include dinner on the way home.

November Madness

November always sees us patchwork girls celebrating the silly season with our "Annual Cristmas Shopping Trip ". This year on Friday 23 we are off to the shops in Maryborough and Hervey Bay and possibly the patchwork shop at Howard on the way home if we have time. Looks like we wont have time to eat so it'll be a sandwich and a bottle of water for the celebratory feast.
We will be looking for fabric for our raffle quilt for next years Cancer Fundraising. Ruth has found a possible pattern but now can't remember which of her magazines it was in. Looks like she had better start writing things in a notebook while magazine browsing. Mind you she has quite a collection to find another one in.
Friday 30th November we will be dropping the feed dogs and trying to control our tension headaches whilst attempting to regulate our quilting stitches. Yes Free Motion here we come. We will be learning about free motion, ditching , selecting quilting designs,and in general trying to demystify the phrase "Quilt as Desired". Threads of all different types will be investigated also. Batting choice will also be discussed.
Feathers will be on the agenda if we can get past the fear. Should be an interesting process.
Last week we all seemed to be a bit busy doing other things so only two could make it for the day. So roll on Friday for the shopping trip.

"Cancer Cafe"

Here's some photos from our "Cancer Cafe" fundraiser held on the 26th of October.

The combined funds raised from the cafe, raffle and the sale of patchwork bags, some of which are pictured above, amounted to $500.00 which we proudly forwarded to the Cancer Council.

A great effort for such a small community, and a huge thank you to

everyone who helped either directly with the event,

or just by enjoying themselves and donating to the cause.

A fun time was had by all.

"Not Peeping Toms"

Getting the perspective on the layout of a new quilt.

Three Quilts

This first quilt is Narelle's kaleidoscope quilt and the next two as well. She diligently made all her triangles into hexagons from her jungle print fabric. In the process of arranging her heaxagons, she felt that no matter what she did the blue areas of the fabric would NOT combine back with her white and orange areas very well, even though they all started from the one piece of fabric.
It's surprising what you can decide faced with this dilemma. She has two narrow walls in her sewing room ( the rest of us are envious that she has a sewing room) that looked a bit bare. So the decision was made to create two small quilts to decorate those walls.

Now she has successfully used her white and orange hexagons. Her careful selection of boxes and quilting styles make all three very eye catching quilts. Well done Narelle.

Cancer Fund Raiser Morning Tea

Last Patchwork Day,
Kerry organised a coffee morning to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research. Guests were treated to cups of coffee with sponge cake and other goodies on the menu.
Patty kindly presented us with special fabric to make bags for sale at this function.
Raffles were held as well, with all funds raised going directly to Breast Cancer research.
The bag sale is still continuing with them on display at the Mt. Perry Post Office.
Will post photoes later if the camera made it to the morning.
Check back to our blog archive of October 2006 for our bra efforts.

We are already planning the fund raising item for 2008. Looks like it might be a quilt.

Two Similar Quilts

This is Sandra's quilt made from a japanese print fabric in autumn tones. The hexagons looked like a bunch of Australian Wildflowers grouped together. Sandra originally designed this quilt to hang horizontally but once again , the quilt seems to control the story and it decided that it likes to be hung vertically.

Ruth unknowingly chose the same print as Sandra but in a different colourway. We find small ways to make our Exhibition interesting and her quilt seemed to end up with more light areas in it than Sandra's. Ruth also added some boxes and sections to add some visual impact to her quilt.

It has been interesting that only some people noticed that the fabric similarity existed.

Who are these Mt Perry Quilters?

We have been showing you our quilts, so it's about time we showed ourselves.
Here we are posing for the cameras in the Art Gallery. Don't we look a happy bunch. Fay and Patty were absent that day so there are actually 9 of us. Annette ( the tutor) was present for the opening. She was glad to see all the quilts actually finished. We still have more to show you yet.

Now our attention has turned to Christmas and the holidays and what exciting activities can we plan for these events. A shopping trip to the coast is on the agenda.

More Exhibition Stories

Kerry has produced a stunning example of a kaleidoscope quilt with her "Lost at Sea" quilt. The original fabric had ships floating in the sea all over it.

This is made for her eldest son's bed so he has had considerable input as to the placement of the hexagons. Somewhere in the sea is a hexagon of the original fabric. Another tricky aspect which can be added to this type of quilt. The border has been constructed from some hand dyed fabric coloured by Kerry along with her left over hexagons. She also dyed the fabric used for the back of the quilt. She learnt these skills at an earlier workshop on dyeing held in Mt. Perry.

Her son has patiently waited while it was displayed in the Art Gallery. The Exhibition is now over and all the quilts returned to their owners so he should at last be enjoying the new quilt for his bed. Next winter he will certainly be pleased to be under it.

The Bloomin Lot Story

Faye is one of our most prolific quilters with usually a few projects on the go at the same time. This was a busy french provincial type of fabric print originally to be used as a centre for a double bed size quilt. Once again quilts have a habit of dictacting what happens in their construction.
Faye felt she had a bunch of disconnected hexagons that were impossible to put together hence the name for this quilt. With the addition of her boxes and changing it to a wall quilt size , the result is very enjoyable to view.
She certainly is a prolific quilter as she squeezed in a trip to Canada during its construction and still managed to meet the deadline.
Her next projects have included a horse quilt for a beloved grandson, and there was another one already in the workbox last patchwork day.
A medical emergency involving a snake prevented her from attending the official opening so she missed the good comments about her work.

P.S. The emergency all ended well if you are wondering.