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| These sweet, simple blocks have just five pieces, cut from two fabrics each, a good way to use up quite small scraps. The small squares are 2 1/2", the blocks finish at 8" square. Susan took three blue-green and yellow blocks from a recent donation and made just 33 extras for this appealing community quilt top. |
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| Jo is working from Chuck Nohara's '2001 Blocks' (ie 2001 block designs, not published in 2001) ... |
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| ... but is restricting herself to 121 of them for this quilt. 30+ done. |
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| Yvette has not entered this beautiful pickle dish into our show, because it is her first attempt at custom quilting on her long-arm machine, and she says it is not perfect ... |
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| ... although we couldn't see the imperfections. It's lovely to see how much she is enjoying her new skills. |
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| Diana shared her 'old' New York Beauty, from a class with Chris Jurd, as a preview for those of us doing a post-show class with Chris next month. We're looking forward to making all the points. |
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| Lynette delved into the community stash for all the spots she could find, found some more at home, and then found spotty backing and binding. Surprisingly, there are plenty of spots left ... |
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| Hilary's parliament of owls - about 3" tall, very cute, they will be available on the craft tall at our quilt show in ten days' time. |
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| Hilary's waddle of penguins (really - look it up!), also about 3" tall, even cuter, and they too will be available on the craft tall at our quilt show in ten days' time. |
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| Val's block was voted 'Viewer's Choice' for the challenge. |
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| We love the rogue block in this one! |
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| The two completed quilts hanging out together in a sunny autumn day in Sydney. |
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| Elaine's third 'In a Whirl' quilt made from the box of strips she won as a door prize at our Biggest Morning Tea last year - she might be ready for a break from these blocks, but the quilts are gorgeous! |
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| Helen's stash has given up some fabric referencing gardening that will have wide appeal. |
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| Julie mined the community stash for blue fabric - not a difficult task! She has pieced strings on foundations cut from an old sheet ... |
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| ... and is quilting-as-she-goes, to avoid handling a large quilt for all the quilting. |
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| Sue C made excellent progress on quilting the Plus quilt. |
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| Susan was drawn to three blocks from the 'Andamooka donation' that we unpacked last month, and made some more from the community stash, and a couple of pieces that came home with her from Melbourne ... |
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| ... a few more, Susan thinks. It will be a light and pretty quilt. A simple block design that really allows the fabrics to speak and play together. We will use this again!. |
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| The first four of eight quilt tops for pin basting. |
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| Marg K and Robin's quilts both have vibrant yellow backings ... |
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| ... Jill chose the dramatic Sarah Fielke print (donated by Material Girls Down Under) from the community stash, and a length of a Tula Pink design from her own stash to back the two tops she made. |
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| Helen's 2017 end-of-year challenge quilt is now basted, with a navy and pink floral stripe backing |
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| Lynette collected spotty fabrics from the community stash and 'elsewhere' |
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| Julie added a border to a donated quilt top, and it too is now basted ready for quilting. |
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| Lynette magicked up a Hunter star quilt top, that we basted on Thursday. It is possibly quilted by now. |
'Alias Grace' is a 6-episode Netflix series based on Margaret Atwood’s book of the same name. (She’s also the author of the book and series, The Handmaid’s Tale.) I’ve seen many people rave about the show on social media–it is a great thriller–but my quilting friends seem to love it the most. And no wonder–quilts, quilting, and quilt patterns play powerful metaphorical and symbolic roles in the plot ...
The Women's Quilt is a UK project that aims to raise awareness of domestic violence against women. First exhibited in 2017, it is on display at London's South Bank for International Women's Day 2018.
Janelle Noack lives in the very rural NSW Riverina town of Dirnaseer. In fact the town has a population of just 170! It is farming country and that’s exactly the life Janelle has led ... Quilt making for Janelle began when her youngest daughter started school. “I always had some needlework, knitting or sewing on the go; but now it is all about making quilts,” she reveals. “My first quilt is about 20 years old, a log cabin that I made from leftover dress fabrics ...
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| Diana modelled her jacket made in a two-day workshop with Lyn Hewitt. She chose the rich gold and navy fabric without realising that the pattern was for a reversible jacket, but she decided the gold fabric was never going on the inside, so she lined it with and 'ordinary' navy fabric. A reversible version is now on Diana's sewing agenda - a good recommendation for the pattern and the workshop. |
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| Not only does the jacket look good, it folds very flat for packing, so would be good for travelling. |
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| Hilary told us that she was going to show us the world's most boring quilt - but she was wrong! The feature fabric in the alternate blocks features opera houses and opera related prints. The quilt started as a narrow bed runner for an opera loving friend, but it told Hilary it needed to be a full sized quilt. We loved it. |
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| Sharron made a Very Big Bag - it would be ideal for carrying a big quilt, or travelling for a week or so! |
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| Hilary (who made Sewmiriam bags for everyone in her book club for Christmas), took some of the left over blocks recently donated to our community quilts program, and started to make a quilt. But before she knew it they had become two bags to be donated the craft stall at our quilt show in April! |
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| Jenn took the concept of see-through pockets in a sewing supplies pouch, repeated it on the inside, and re-sized it to fit in her handbag for easy carrying, especially for the waiting (i.e. hand-sewing) time at her young children's activities. |
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| English paper piecing supplies, always on hand! |
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| Jill joined an Instagram based 'sewalong' started by two Canberra quilters, to make a quilt/blocks from Elizabeth Hartman's 2014 book Patchwork City. She is making the Eastside quilt using the 25 5" x 8" blocks designs ( plus 11 duplicates to make it bigger) and put them together in the Eastside layout. Now for quilting. Check out #patchworkcitysewalong2018 to see what others are doing and/or to join in. |
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| There are 75 original new block patterns in Patchwork City, which is readily available from Australian booksellers, online and in a Kindle edition. |
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| Janet is waiting for a delivery of fabric for a big project, so she is using the time to catch up a little with her Splendid Sampler blocks - she is half way through the 100 blocks, and it has been interrupted for a while, but it is still very much on the 'to do' list. |
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| Robin W has a considerable stash of beautiful blue fabrics, and she has generously shared some of it in this lovely quilt top for our community quilts collection. |
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| The gorgeous saturated turquoise background fabric is actually a cross-hatch print with a darker blue overlay. |
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| Margaret K likes to make quilts for children, and she does so often for our community collection. This one features a sweet vintage-look print, and was quilted by Julie. |
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| A fun log-cabin variation, made by Margaret K - such bright, happy colours. |
