Show and Tell from Di B and Liz

By now you must know how much I love to share my clever quilty friends’ finished projects.

(Is it wrong to hope that by doing this you won’t notice how few finishes I have?)

Di B’s niece recently gave her this beautiful framed photo of the wedding quilt Di made for her and her husband.

She started it in a Sue Ross class last year and although we’ve raved about her wonderful fabric choices and meticulous machine applique, but this quilt never really set her heart aflutter.

That is, until it was finished and professionally machine quilted by our friend Linda Billett of Artisan Quilting. Her quilting really was the icing on the cake!

Stunning quilt! Stunning couple! Don’t you agree? Those colours just zing, perfect for its new home in Holland where those sunshine-yellow hand-dyes will brighten up the dreariest winter day.

Liz has been busy too, making a New Life quilt bursting with colour.

All those scraps of fabric could very easily have been consigned to the rubbish bin if it wasn’t for Linda Hungerford’s easy and clever pattern. Now those old scraps can live again!

Liz practiced her free motion machine quilting on this one, after attending a class with Amanda Daly recently. Go to the top of the class, Liz!

Another friend, Lyn, recently gave me a bunch of angel blocks she’s had in her cupboard from a swap some years ago, and I took them along to St Mark’s Quilters.

Some of us scratched our heads but Liz knew immediately how to use them, took them home and made this angelic quilt, complete with Christmas buttons stitched onto the plain squares.

Waste not, want not (as they say in the classics!)

Di

From small beginnings…

In April 2009 there were exactly two quilters at our church – Di B and myself – but by November 2009 after Linda Hungerford had taught her Stitchin’ Mission 5 week beginner’s quiltmaking course, the quilting population at St Mark’s had grown to nearly thirty!

For some the experience of creating their Stitchin’ Mission quilt was fun, but they were happy to stop there.

But for those who wanted to carry on St Mark’s Quilters was formed, and we’ve since been joined by a few more willing hands, so that these days around a dozen enthusiastic quilters regularly attend our monthly Saturday workshops.

We’ve come a long way.

Liz joined us as a beginner this year, and has proved a ‘natural’ as a quilt designer! She learnt the quilt-as-you-go technique at our February workshop, then went out and bought some colour co-ordinated ‘scraps’, and created this beautiful quilt as a gift for someone special in her life.  Here’s her “show and tell” from Saturday…

So many exquisite fabrics lovingly cut and sliced and sewn together to make a rich pattern we thought had a real vintage feel.  Liz, you’ve made a spectacular beginning to your quiltmaking  journey.

Some of us worked on sewing tiny scrappy pieces into more crazy quilt blocks for New Life quilts. Few scraps are too small for these quilts, and it’s amazing how these humble fabrics that might otherwise have been consigned to the bin can make a colourful impact once sashed and bordered and bound.

Others were happy to keep going on quilt-as-you-go blocks.

Little by little Amanda and Margaret applied their long scrappy strips, and by the end of the day there were quite a few more blocks to add to those we’ve already sent Jan Mac of OzComfort Quilts and Corrie of retromummy

A brief chat at a Southern Cross Quilters gathering was the beginning of Cath’s association with us, and on Saturday she brought along two lovely large quilts which will go to people in need.

From small beginnings we’re growing together, increasing our numbers, gaining skills and creating some very attractive quilts out of humble scraps.

Yellow makes me smile

It’s just such a happy colour, isn’t it.  I’ve spent most of my life underestimating the colour yellow, but now I try to use it often in my quilts.  Something tells me Di C loves yellow too! I love the way she's used it in these two quilts.
 
Finally, here’s my own latest finished quilt to add to our collection. I decided to try piecing my binding from scraps, and was quite pleased with the result.

Michaela’s New Life Quilts

Even though she works full-time Michaela has managed to find time to create these gorgeous New Life Quilts from some of the bright scraps saved from the making of our initial Stitchin’ Mission quilts last year. 

 

There are so many fragments of novelty fabrics in these quilts that they’ll make super “I Spy” quilts for the little ones.

Linda's back!

On the kind of autumn day that makes you feel proud to be a Sydneysider a bunch of 'graduates' from last year's St Mark's Stitchin' Mission beginner quiltmaking course gathered for afternoon tea at Di C's apartment overlooking the harbour.

With our quilting teacher, Linda Hungerford, back in town for a brief visit we were excited to meet up with her again. Here she is with Marvellous Margaret.

The indomitable Moo and our talented Averil were there too.  Averil had brought along photos of her latest creations - exquisite heirloom embroidered pillow cases and nighties.

There was lots of interest in Di C's almost-finished New Life quilt, with blocks made with tiny scraps from our Stitchin' Mission quilts.  We're making these up in a child size to add to our growing stash of bright and beautiful quilts for the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre.  Di has a real gift for putting the right colours together and we loved that gold tone-on-tone sashing and all agreed (along with Jill, Louise and Christine in the photo) that her striped binding is just going to be perfect. 

 It wsn't an entirely girly gathering though, and this handsome young man was the centre of attention.  When we last met Tay, Linda's grandson, he was a tiny newborn, so we were excited to see him again, along with his yummy mummy, Jill, Linda's daughter.  My, how you've grown, little man!

For more about our happy reunion with Linda (and better photos), please pop across and read her Stitchin' Mission blog.

Margaret’s a marvel!

The opening of the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre is fast approaching, and our quiltmakers at St Mark’s are busily putting the finishing touches on these special quilts for the little ones who will be attending the kindy.
Just look at Margaret’s latest creations.
What a beauty!  There are so many things I love about this quilt – the jaunty jalopy full of animals, the cheeky little lions on the backing fabric, those great blue spotty “loaves”, and especially the rainbow bias print Margaret used for the binding.  It’s printed that way, so she didn’t need to cut it on the bias to achieve the fun and funky look.  Clever!
Margaret’s been busy using up her scraps to make New Life quilts – and discovering that a quilter’s fabric scrap pile never really  diminishes.

This little fellow, along with his friends, makes a lovely backing and is sure to endear himself to the little boy or girl who chooses this quilt as their own. But wait, there’s more…Margaret’s chosen to back this New Life quilt with “Hey Diddle Diddle” fabric.  Great choice, Margaret!

St Mark’s Quilters

For our second workshop of the year last Saturday we brought along our New Life quilt blocks – almost 300 of them! - to stitch together.

Our improvised design walls, flannel-backed tablecloths clipped to two clothes racks, worked a treat, with the added bonus that at the end of the day the pieces of a quilt-in-progress could stay in place and be wrapped up to take home. We sorted our blocks so that the colours worked together - as much as crazy scrappy patches ever can, of course. Then we auditioned our sashing fabrics to see which one played best with each group of blocks.  In the end we had four quilts on the design walls.

Working together

Di cut out bright yellow sashings.

Helen made more New Life squares, but strangely our pile of scraps hasn’t diminished.   Hmmmm….

Moo, Ruth, Di, Margaret and Michaela got to work making our blocks into quilts..

Margaret had started on her quilt at home.

So she was the first to finish her quilt top, a pretty one in the colours she loves to work with. Was it a good day? 

Moo’s sewing machine says it all. 

It was …

The secret to success

Our two sample New Life quilts were designed to show how a quilter’s choice of scraps could change the whole appearance of the finished quilt. 

Di B’s New Life quilt used brights, while mine featured mainly pastels (no surprises there!)

But no matter which way you choose to put this funky quilt together you must never forget the essential secret to success…

     It’s all in the way you hold your tongue!

Getting down to business at our New Life Quilt Workshop

We threw wide the doors to the garden, powered up the iPod with a few boppy versions of “Dry Bones”, brewed a plunger of coffee, put out a plate of my apple slice, spread out the scraps – and made those dry bones scraps live!

     It was all just a bit much for Di B’s Matilda.