Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Emerging from hibernation......

As Melbourne enters the last 2 weeks (officially) of winter, I thought it about time I emerge from hibernation and write a blog post.  The third Saturday of the month has just passed so it was off to Di's for a lovely day of sewing and chat.  Everyone was most industrious!

First up is Ann who has started making 'When Stars meet Hexagons' from Petra and An's beautiful book, Promenade in a Dutch Garden.
A very tempting box of stars, anyone for lucky dip?
 Deb is up to block number 26 of Corliss's stunning Caswell Quilt.  You can seem more of Deb's recently completed blocks here.
Just beginning.....
 Clare is working on the borders for 19th Century 9 Patch, a very old pattern of Di's
So sweet.....
 While Barb has started a quilt for her granddaughter, Freya.  Can't wait to see all of these circles joined together.
Lucky Freya!
Merri is the most prolific of the group, and her show and tell consisted of two works in progress - the beginning of Esther Aliu's new BOM, Love Entwined, and...
Great fussy cutting!
 ...she has finished the centre of Di's pattern, Ann Daggs,
Ahh, the first swallows of spring!
 Kerry brought out another of her long term projects, The Wickersham Quilt from the State Museum of Pennsylvania.
Block 2d complete, and 4D underway!
And me, well now that the top for Mrs Miller is finally completed, I have started a new project.  This is block number one (of four) for the Feather with Flowers quilt from Fons & Porters book, Quilts from the Henry Ford.  This quilt is for my niece, she wanted something in purple and red, a colour scheme that is a little challenging to say the least.  I can assure you that if you were to actually see this block it would not have the 'glow in the dark' look of the photo.
Spooky....
Hope you enjoyed the show and tell,

Until next time,

Meghan

Monday, August 12, 2013

The Best Laid Plans!..............



Now, as we all know "life" does not often go as planned.....and, well, blogging is a bit like that too!
It has been a bit of a long "gap" between drinks, but here we are back again! With a bit of a long post!
Hopefully, you will enjoy this......bits gathered from all over!
In July the SSS had a sit and sew at my place.......I baked a cake! ...........now some may say .."so what?"
others, who actually know me will say "WOW!!!".............'cause I am no cake-baker!!!. But it has become a bit of a tradition at SSS get-togethers that a cake is produced. So, I went out and purchased the "new" Women's Weekly cake cook book, tested  the "caramalised apple blondie" cake which worked out quite well (plan "B" was the flourless orange cake from Coles up the road!)
Then, cleared the table for the Sisters arrival..........one of them was delivering a quilt to my house (being picked up later for display at the recent quilt and craft show at Jeff's Shed) that had been a "secret" for so long........a well kept secret that 21 Quilters from all over Victoria had kept. This Baltimore style quilt named "Espirit De Corps" is a very special quilt made to raise awareness of, and funds for, The Caroline Chisolm Society in Victoria. If you see it, please purchase a "pledge" (they are $20 each) as ALL funds will go to helping out women and children who find themselves in desperate situations and can rely on the help of The Caroline Chisolm organization.
I had a bit of a problem getting a decent pic, (you know, short person, small ladder!) but this will give you an idea of how it looks and shows the label with the names of those who helped produce it.

There are 3000 tickets (pledges) to sell and the winner will be drawn at a special Lions Club dinner next June (2014)...........If you see this special quilt at a local show, exhibition or quilt-in please think about supporting the project and I hope you have a winning ticket.
O.K! .....the Sisters are all at my place and we have a bit of "show and tell"
Now, recently we all attended another fantastic CAG (Castlemaine Applique Group) meeting, so some of these pictures are not at my place, but were when we all got together at my place!........now, is that as clear as mud!?"........................Oh! ..........I'll just let the pictures do the TALKING!

 
 Meaghan has finished "Mrs Millers Journey"
Is'nt it just so special?...a close-up of the centre.

 


 Deb has been VERY busy finishing  her version of "Ode To Sally-Ann".
 Is'nt this quilt just amazing? The centre shows off both the applique and quilting. Just a bit of a closer look!
Not satisfied with finishing just one spectacular quilt,,,here is a second one made for her daughter.


How lucky is she!?
Merri has finished the main blocks and put together her version of "The Civil War Bride" quilt. Another stunning piece of work!








 Here we all are, gathered around, admiring Ann's version of  "The Antique Wedding Sampler" quilt. Just a closer look!



 Maybe a bit closer still!......... what a stunner!










...................so, once again we stitched the day away! .......ate cake, did a bit more stitching, ...........ate a bit more cake. You get the picture!
o.k....this must be one of the longer posts we have done for a while!
so now I will say bye for now and remember.......keep on quilting!

Kerry