ROWmakers have completed one round

The ROWmakers design group has met for the second time this year and produced the first items from the round 1 design choices - green and circles/curves.
Some makers chose to make blocks, others are making bags. Here are some of the items produced:

The design elements for the next round are: blue and geometric(squares, rectangles, triangles).

The next meeting is on Wednesday 10 April, 10.00 am for a 10.30 start. It is not too late to participate - perhaps you can do it by correspondence if you can't make the meeting.
There will be a weekend meeting scheduled later in the year so we can all catch up with each other.

QFO quilting bee celebrates - Canberra 100

The 12th of March this year was the centenary of the naming of Canberra. It just happened to coincide with this month's QFO working bee.

To help celebrate Jocelyn had baked a Canberra Cake (recipe here) and we all raised a glass to toast the centenary.

Here are two of the quilts finished and ready for distribution:

Vale Lisa Hart 1957-2013

Member Lisa Hart passed away on 20 March.
Her indomitable spirit inspired those her knew her.  Despite health issues she continued on being involved in quilting and book club. Lisa was a regular attendee of the ROWmakers meeting on the second Wednesday.
See Canberra Times here for details.

Mini-workshop for Small Japanese Projects group- 27 March

At next week's meeting (10.00 am start) this group is having a mini workshop to insert zippers in small Japanese purses.  Here is an image of the purses:

Convenor of the group, Wendy Pang, has sent the following information so you can prepare your purse body:

Zipped purse workshop

By request, Yvonne will run a hands-on workshop on putting zips in small purses at our Small Japanese Projects meeting on Wednesday 27 March 10 am -12 pm.

For the workshop, you will need a partly-made pre-quilted purse. Use the pattern Yvonne gave out at her demonstration last year. Alternatively, use any simple zipped purse pattern you have. Or prequilt a 23 cm square to make a pencil case.

Checklist

·         Purse body, prequilted, and with bias binding on the two edges where the zip will go
·         Appropriate size zip. (For the 23 cm square version, use a 20 cm zip.)
·         Fabric to line the purse
·         Sewing machine including power cord and foot
·         Normal sewing equipment including pins

If you don’t wish to participate, bring something to sew.

Please be very prompt to arrive and to set up your machine, so that we can all start together.

Special Show & Tell for Centenery of Canberra

Tomorrow (20 March) is the Wonderful Wednesday meeting from 9.30 until 12.30pm. It is being held in the Canberra Quilters room instead of the Cook Community Hub Hall, for this month only.

To help celebrate the Centenary of the naming of Canberra (12 March) members have been asked to bring old things for a special Show & Tell. It might be an old quilt, garment or a sampler. Surprise us with your historical pieces.

Members on show at Mandelson's of Goulburn

Several members of Canberra Quilters will be showing quilts at Mandelson's of Goulburn this weekend, 16-17 March.
Claire Ayling, joint owner of Mandelson's, is one of our sponsors through her Bali Batiks fabric business.

Quilts at Mandelson’s

Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th March

10am - 4pm

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Opening Presentation on Saturday at 10.30am by Margaret Rolfe

  

    Evolution of Quilts

Mandelson’s of Goulburn

160 Sloane Street Goulburn. 4821 0707



Entry by Gold Coin Donation to Goulburn Anglicare

                                                       

Spectacular Display of the Quilting Journey of 7 Award Winning Quilters

Jenny Bowker  Helen Gray  Ann Haddad  Beth Miller

Margaret Rolfe  Carolyn Sullivan  Judy Turner

From their first quilt to their most recent!

Available for Purchase:  
·         Bali Batik fabrics from Claire Ayling
·         Superior Threads from Julie Woods

·         Quilting supplies from Bungendore Country Patchwork
·         Quilts by Pattern- Beth Miller and Wendy Keegan

Cash Sales Only

Morning and Afternoon Tea available in Mandelson’s Historic Dining Room

Claire Ayling Bali Batiks

4821 0707 / 0421334404
claire.ayling@bigpond.com

Busy Week Ahead

The second week of the month is always a busy one for the special interest groups of Canberra Quilters. These groups are open to any member to participate - they just might have what you are seeking.

We have just had the Art Quilters meet on Saturday (9th). They generally have a mini-workshop of some kind and discuss art quilt ideas.

On Tuesday(12th) the Quilts for Others (QFO) group meets between 10am and 2.30pm for its monthly working bee. Quilts are made for donation to various charitable organisations around the ACT - Tedd Noffs Foundation, Marymead, Karinya etc.Three hundred quilts were distributed in 2012.

On Wednesday  (13th) the ROWmakers design group meets 10.30pm until 12 noon. Participants in this group make a quilt, or a group of objects like bags, placemats or pin cushions over the course of a year. It started off in 2011 making a quilt row-by-row but has expanded in scope each year. This is the second meeting for the year and the first round is due to be revealed - incorporating green and circles/curves.
Here is the first gathering for the year in February. We are all paying close attention to the instruction from convenor Joanne!

On Thursday (14th) Creative Clothing meets between 10am until 2pm. This group is interested in making clothing and accessories tending to the creative end of the spectrum. Members discuss current projects, get help with fitting, cut garments out on the cutting tables.

Also on Thursday is the Modern Quilting group, meeting between 7.30pm until 9.30pm. This group is interested in the Modern Quilting movement. At the moment they are working on scrappy trip-around-the-world as described on the Quiltville blog http://quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml
Co-convenor Michelle has some images on her blog http://buttontreelane.blogspot.com of last month's get together.

Of course there is the usual drop-in on Wednesday afternoon (1-4pm). This week the Friday drop-in won't take place because of the Sue Bennett workshop in the room. Normal service resumes in Week 3 of the month.

Vale Helen Hassall 1933 - 2013

Long-time Canberra Quilter, Helen passed away on 7 March 2013.

Helen was well known for her machine embroidery, machine quilting and surface design. Her quilt 'Come See My Garden' was voted Viewers' Choice for the 2004 Members' Exhibition.

A service for Helen will be held on 18 March, view details here.
In lieu of flowers Helen has requested donations be made to Quilts for Others.

Art Quilters meeting on Saturday 9 March

The Art Quilters will be meeting tomorrow from 1-4pm. Here is a message from Wilma about the afternoon's mini-workshop:

we are playing with food colouring, shaving cream, fabric and paper.

You will need all the above. The shaving cream can be “No Frill or Home brand” and you could share a container with a friend. The fabric needs to be white or off white several A5 pieces will be great.

Other things you will need are: newspaper to protect the tables, gloves, wooden spoon or a small stick and a squeegee (old credit card or a piece of firm card board).

I would encourage recycling your used  printing paper while you are trying this method out.

I will bring trays, food colouring and anything else I can think off.

Meeting on Thursday evening - 7 March

This Thursday is the normal evening meeting in the Hall at the Cook Community Hub. From 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.
All the usual fun - notices, show and tell, raffle, lucky door prize, library.

Also guest speakers:
Liz Dawson from Common Ground- an organisation looking to build accommodation in Canberra for low income or unemployed people. QFO have donated a quilt to the cause.

Canberra Quilters member Stephanie Newman will be sharing with us many of her top quilting techniques.

Blankets of Love

Canberra Quilters participates in a nationwide program called Blankets of Love.
Blankets of Love is a long-running program of Canberra Quilters, co-ordinated by Joan Porta and Anne Eccleston. Last year many quilts were donated to Canberra Hospital and Calvary John James.

The program donates quilts (about 50-60 cm square) to the maternity wards and neo-natal units of hospitals for use in the case of a still-birth or a death in the neo-natal unit. The baby is wrapped in the quilt. A small postcard-size quilt, replicating the design of the larger quilt is also donated. This is put in a memory box for the parents and is only one of the important keepsakes included in the box.

All the quilts are donated anonymously.
Here are some of the quilts donated in the last month:

Twelve by Twelve Colourplay Sydney Exhibition 7-10 March

The exhibition tour of the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay collection has been extended to include Sydney.

Yes! all 144 art quilts from this series will be on display at the Stitches & Craft Show at Rosehill in Sydney from 7-10 March 2013. Canberra Quilters member, and one of the Australian Twelves, Brenda Gael Smith will be presenting a floor talk at 12 noon on Sunday, 10 March.  All welcome!

If you would like to learn more about the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge, there's a fun article about the project on the Stitches and Craft Show website.

Quilts for Others (QFO) working bee - 12 Feb

QFO holds its first working bee for the year on 12 February from 10am until 2.30pm. Come along and help make quilts for charity. You can piece, baste tops, cut strips, quilt, iron for someone - there are any number of ways you can help out.

Tea and coffee provided, bring your own lunch.

Below is one of the quilts made last year, closeup and full quilt.

March workshops with Sue Bennett and Jinny Beyer

Canberra Quilters are very excited to be hosting Sue Bennett from Miss Sampson's Drapery and Jinny Beyer when they present three workshops and a lecture in March 2013.  

 

Sue will teach a folded Mariner's Compass Class on Friday 15th; Jinny will talk about colour in a 2 hour presentation that evening.

 

On Saturday 16th March, Jinny will teach two workshops. The first is a morning workshop, working with her famous Border Prints, and the second  starts in the afternoon and continues on Sunday 17th for a session of colour and piecing joy with Jinny's techniques for colour selection and quilt construction.

Contact workshop coordinator for details. (Contact informational in Connecting Threads magazine.)

Art Quilters meet on 2 Feb

The Art Quilters are changing their meeting day for this month, due to the clash with a workshop. They are meeting this Saturday, 2 February from 1-4pm.
Here is a message from the convenor of the group:

Hi, all

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful break … happy new year  : D
Next Meeting:  this Saturday, 2^nd February at 1pm
Mini-Workshop:  using soy wax as a resist (Wilma and I will bring the soy wax)
          Please bring:
·       3 acrylic paints, easier to stick to warm or cool colours
·       white fabric, although a quiet batik fabric could be used as a base and added to
·       plastic to cover your working surface
·       newspaper, lots
·       spray bottle
I will bring an electric pot for melting the wax, a bucket, an iron, etc.

See you there,

Buffy

Modern Quilting group- 14 February preparation

Michelle has passed on a message for the Modern Quilters, ahead of the meeting on 14 February:

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and a decent break to do some quilting. The modern quilt group are meeting again in 2013, with our first meeting on Thursday 14 February. 

Over the Christmas holidays, I took part in an informal online quiltalong and it was such a great fun block Jenny and I thought you might like to give it a go. It's perfect for those scraps, fat eighths and fat quarters of modern fabric you have in your stash that you never know quite what to do with. It's also perfect for jelly rolls!

The quilt I speak of is the Scrappy Trip Around the World, as detailed on the Quiltville blog. http://quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml  The technique is really very quick and fun, and in fact I can whip up a block (not including the initial cutting of the strips) in around 20 minutes.

Over on Flickr there is a Scrappy Tripalong group - check out their quilts! (I'm onto my second one already) http://www.flickr.com/groups/scrappytripalong/

Take a look at the Quiltville instructions, and if you like, bring with you to the 14 February meeting:

• 16 inch x 2.5 inch strips of fabric of varied values - just bring 6 to start you off, or 12. Or 18!
• Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter
• Pins (very important)
• Unpicker (also very important!)
• Scissors, thread
• Sewing machine (we will set up the guild machines, but if you prefer to sew on your own, please bring it along)

I'll demonstrate how the block is put together, and then we can sew and design a layout.

Of course if you're quick off the mark you might like to get started on the block before the meeting. All the instructions are in the Quiltville link up above.

If there are any questions in the meantime, please ask me. Otherwise I will see you at 7.30 (it starts at 7.30, doesn't it?) on Thursday 14 February (or at the evening meeting the week before - Jenny and I plan to do show and tell or our scrappy trip quilts!)

Stay cool and safe, and see you soon.
Cheers
Michelle

Rowmakers group to meet again in 2013, results from 2012

The design exercises that were undertaken in 2011 and 2012 will happen again in 2013.
In 2011 the group met on the second Wednesday of the month and made row-by-row quilts based on design elements set each month.
In 2012 the group met again and this time the design opportunities were expanded. You could make a row-by-row quilt, or create a feature block each month and then incorporate the blocks into a quilt. Some members chose a different path- one made a jacket, one made a set of Christmas-themed placemats, one a tree skirt and another made a pincushion each month.
Set out below are images of the final (or nearly final) projects.

many hands to pin everything up

Jenny made pin cushions

June went with quilt-as-you-go and a unique method of joining



Elizabeth combined spikey feature blocks with log cabins and delved into the Kaffe Fassett fabric stash

Margaret D - Black,white and brights

Kay went with an art quilt interpretation, including hand stitching

Margaret had a chook theme

closeup of Liv's quilt

Closeup of Berys's quilt - hand stich and beading

Anne tried foundation piecing

Closeup of one of Anne's blocks

Joanne made placemats in blue, based on trees

Joan made a tree skirt

Sandra displays the back of her jacket



Mary went with the rows option

Look out for future blog posts about the first meeting in 2013 on February 13.