Class show and tell

Last week at Sewn and Quilted……

Morning

Sue S had her Medallion quilt back from quilting

and she steadily worked on her “Fossick” quilt the rest of the day which we started to put up, just to see how it was working

Jennifer had two of her borders on

but wanted a lesson in machine quilting

Louise sewed the borders onto another of her baby quilts

Cathie appliqued down her vases

and after a bit of a tussle Linda had her peacock set into the centre of her quilt

Afternoon

For the afternoon Linda worked on her Liberty Double Wedding Ring

Cheryl brought in some of her Mum’s doyleys, very similar to the ones Lesley had a couple of weeks ago

and in class Cheryl stitched up more of her hexie blocks (yet to be trimmed)

and we looked at how the tops and bottoms of rows would work with half hexies

Jane machine stitched up another storm of blocks

Frances started on her new blocks

and Tineke had a lesson in reverse appliqueing circles

Meredithe x

This class is held at Sewn and Quilted, Blackburn

Class show and tell

Last week at the quilt shop, Eltham…….

Most students stayed all day and achieved quite a bit

Denise had started hand piecing her Double Wedding Ring together

and by day’s end we had another couple of rows sorted

Jennifer had worked on her Double Wedding Ring too

and stitched up lots in class

Val had lots of stuff prepped for her class with Deborah Louie at AQC this week

but she wanted one more flower, so I helped her choose these fabrics

which became this

On Val’s other project we trimmed the applique borders to size ready for her to stitch at home and chose the fabrics for the corner applique squares

then experimented with a block for the next round – and it worked!

Gillian was doing a bit of applique and embroider

and together we chose some fabrics for a new project

and Frances came for the afternoon and we chose fabric for her new project too

Meredithe x

This class is held at the quilt shop, Eltham

Around here

~ Our niece, Poppet (called that for anonymity) had her 9th birthday at the end of March, which we celebrated in style with her Nanna, a delicious red velvet cake

and lots of presents. One of the ladies from the golf club rediscovered her crochet mojo during lockdown and has been making beautiful toys ever since. I commissioned her to make a unicorn for Poppet’s birthday and to include pink, purple and aqua, Poppet’s favourite colours. And here’s Miss Unicorn, a present from Nanna.

My Golfer has recently returned from Thailand where he spent a couple of weeks with mates from the golf club, golfing (of course!), eating lots of excellent Thai food and shopping! He bought this for Poppet for her birthday

I’d bought her a selection of little gifts

and having recently had a clear out, filled a basket with these trimmings

Poppet was overjoyed with all her presents, in awe that Uncle Golfer had bought the bag just for her, cuddling Miss Unicorn closely, and running her hands through all the basket goodies, eyes as big as saucers.

~ I came back from my week away to discover my maidenhair fern (which I’d planted into a self-watering pot thankfully) had sprouted lots and lots of new growth. So grateful I haven’t killed this one!

~ We’ve had a number of days of spectacular Melbourne Autumn weather and Mum and I have been down to the golf club a few times to enjoy coffee, the scenery and both coming away feeling refreshed and serene

~ The Golfer and I have enjoyed the outdoors too, lunching at our new favourite spot, Peach, trying different things from their menu and watching the world pass by

~ I had a delightful afternoon out at Cousin S’s and at the end of our time we picked blackberries from her abundant blackberry bushes

I enjoyed them on breakfast porridge

and as an after dinner treat

Cousin S also picked some of her magnificent hydrangeas for me, and even though they were mostly the last of the season they were nonetheless beautiful

~ my hydrangeas have kindly had a last flourish too

~ Very rarely in life have I met another Meredithe (although I did attend a class once where there was Meredithe (me), Meridith, and Meredyth), so I was astonished when the last two books I read both had characters called Meredith (obviously not spelt the same but still….)

“A Meeting with Murder” by Caron Allen a romantic cosy mystery set in the swinging 60’s

and

“Tuesday Evenings with the Copton Craft Resistance” by Kate Solly a tale of friendship, community and yarn-based subterfuge

Both very enjoyable reads.

How’s your last month been?

Meredithe x

Class show and tell

Last week at the small but very busy classes at Sewn and Quilted….

Morning

Cathie had partially prepped her Japanese vases, and cut her borders so she sewed them into long strips and we cut them to just over size and tried a bit of a layout

and a bit more of a play with half-circle and circle flowers and leaves

then she had a lesson in invisible thread machine applique to attach the circles of the Japanese style vases

Afternoon

Louise and Anita stayed all day; Louise cut, prepped, pattern matched and attached all of her borders for her “Sweet Sunday“

and I helped Anita with fabric choices, then she prepped for the centre of a new quilt, “Threadneedle Street”

Lesley had a lesson in hand piecing as she started her “Sweet Sunday” adventure

After a discussion last week on a quilt that wasn’t quite working for her, Jane decided on “Little Crosses” instead and it’s working a treat as these blocks whip up very quickly on the machine

and Cheryl attached the binding onto her Tumbler Quilt (and I saw on social media that it was stitched down within a couple of days!!)

Meredithe x

This class is held at Sewn and Quilted, Blackburn

Class show and tell

Two weeks ago at Sewn and Quilted…….

Morning

Sue E and I worked on a new project – more coming in a few weeks

and she had started putting her stars together

as had Jo

Jennifer put the finishing touches to fabric choices for her border using stunning Kaffe fabrics

and Carole set up for the last of her circles

Afternoon

Linda and Sue S stayed all day. I helped Linda cut out a new peacock for the centre of her quilt which she stitched back in and just has the tail to applique down

I helped Sue choose fabrics for more “Fossick” blocks

Cathie added black borders and we had a BIG discussion on what-was-happening-next

Louise finished sewing the squares onto her centre for another baby quilt – just the borders to go

Frances has finished her “Crossroads” quilt top

and worked on her “Annie” cushion

Cheryl had the borders on her Chook Quilt

got her Tumbler Quilt back from quilting

so we chose a binding fabric for it

and we sorted out some borders for her hexie blocks

Jane chose some fabrics for a new quilt

Lesley had a lesson in big stitch hand quilting

and Tineke did some more applique

Phew! Busy day!

Meredithe x

320 Create – our creations

With a whole week in which to indulge in our stitching, most of our luggage consisted of projects. Are you surprised??

Kaye had prepped a fair bit of “Geese Crossing” (pattern by Kim Bastiani, kit from the quilt shop) before coming away and within a couple of days had it all together, going from this on the first day

to this

and then this

She did add some final borders (not in the pattern) to make it big enough for her bed.

And every ready Kaye, the Queen of Circles, had circles prepped in case anyone needed them!

She then started prepping for Flower Bed

Lynnie did lots of work on her “Chapel Street” which she’s doing by hand, and working bit by bit to produce this integrated pinwheel style pattern with the blocks (there was lots more by the end of the week but I forgot to take another pic)

she also started adding the last round (triangles) to her Diamond TAW

Andrea has decided to colour grade her Double Wedding Ring and had fun laying out the first section of it

then stitching it together

she also played with her “Dancing Dollies“

Maree finished her “Dancing Dollies” done in beautiful Liberty fabrics

and worked on her blue Double Wedding Ring too

Helen had fun choosing fabric scraps and stitching them down for a bigger version of her Kantha style piece

she also put up her Pinwheel quilt

and her Evening Stars quilt

to see how they were progressing. Both are being made with the Hoshi Star template set

and she laid out her “Chapel Street” to add more bits

I made up the crocheted basket kit I bought (last year!) from Patch n Quilt which has a solid timber base and crocheted sides from fabric strips

perfect for holding the Curved 9-Patch blocks and necessities as I stitched them

and I put a couple of rows of the blocks together

I’d taken the leftover fabric from my Double Wedding Ring, which was a real Swiss cheese mess from all the fussy cutting, and cut out the left over flowers into hexagons (for what, I don’t know yet)

and gave the left-overs-of-the-left-overs to Andrea and Maree, apart from 6 pieces from which I cut a star

and played with some fabric I’d bought from a recent visit to Patch n Quilt which turned out like this – very pleasing! It almost looks 3D

I also laid out the stars I currently have on hand (this is one of those no-think projects that sits beside my chair and is worked on whenever I need some simple stitching and will get done eventually); they’ll all have the black and white spot around them

I also played with some fabric for my “Llama Land” hexagon project, fussing cutting all these from the same fabric

all the above will have another 2 rounds added and turned into large hexagons to go with the Llama triangles – something like this

and lastly I played with a solid arc Double Wedding Ring made from Tilda spots and an Anna Maria Horner fabric. Happy with how that’s looking – just needs stitching now!

I think we all did really well. Lots of progress made, several things “sorted”, and some finishes too.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed our stay at 320 Create as much as we did! We’re all booked in for 2024!

Meredithe x

320 Create – the food!

As always we ate well for our week away. Although as we had more days, we visited a couple of different places like Hotel Frangos

where we ate lunch (a couple of times) in their vine covered courtyard, enjoying the food, a convivial drink and great music.

after all that relaxing it was a bit hard to motivate ourselves to get back to 320 Create!

and an afternoon at Daylesford Cider

where we sampled a variety of their delicious ciders which are made on the premises (and bought more to take home)

and pizza’s made in their pizza oven (which you can see in the above pic)

and enjoyed the ambience of a lovely, if cool, Autumnal day in the very pretty grounds

We took turns in preparing either lunch or dinner, and also BBQ’d a couple of times

Kaye also cooked up a delicious risotto one evening

followed by home made brownie, with all the trimmings

Andrea also spoilt us with meringues and toppings another evening

we did well for lunches, with an assortment of cheeses, cold meats and accoutrements

some of us had also baked (or shopped) beforehand so morning/afternoon tea was also a mixed treat

Did I mention we rolled home??

More tomorrow……

Meredithe x

320 Create

Hi Dear Peeps, I would have been here MUCH sooner but I’ve had all sorts of computer problems (don’t you just love technology??).

Anyway, a few weeks ago it was our turn to venture to 320 Create for, not a weekend as we would usually do, but A Whole Week! ……

We just love this place, with plenty of room to relax as well as stitch

and the deck outside for sewing (or meals)

with plenty of visitors

from lots of directions

and small ones too – although this one is just a bit bigger than an everyday moth

beautiful sunsets

lovely vistas

to be viewed from the deck as well

fairy lights for BBQ’s

and collections from nature to be had on walks around the property

Kaye had made each of us a Japanese style needle keeper

and a big one for herself

I chose this one

Maree gave each of us card and Andrea a beautiful soap (these are mine)

Kaye and Lynnie visited the antique centre in Daylesford, Kaye returning with these orphan blocks

and this fella to add to her collection

and Lynnie found this basket which has removable panels

The weather held for the first few days, then it became quite cool and we had some rain too. Nothing deterred us from enjoying ourselves though! As you’ve no doubt guessed, there will be more (baring computer problems) in the next few days, including our food (of course!) and our creations.

More soon.

Meredithe x

Saturday stitching

This time last week, we’d hit the road to venture up to Mary’s lovely shop and have a day stitching with friends – SUCH a great thing to do!!

Patch n Quilt was looking – and proved – very tempting, and we all participated in some retail therapy (so good for the soul!)

We had lunch at Canteena just up the road from the shop, but I’m so out of practice I’d forgotten my camera and totally forget that I could use my phone for photos – duh!

Did remember after lunch to take pics of what we were working on (and the shop pics)……

I was binding a new quilt

Helen worked on her pinwheels

Karen had been to my Double Wedding Class last year and had cut heaps ready to stitch on the day

and she’d finished the quilt top for her youngest grand daughter

Irene has a new pattern for these delightful needlecases “Nova Needlecases” (contact the shop on the link above if you’d like one)

and she was working on a new applique project – which will become a pattern

and Veronique was also working on a new applique

It was a fabulous day and we’re hoping to get together again in a couple of months.

Meredithe x

Class show and tell

Last week at Sewn and Quilted……..

Morning

I was up early to bake a sponge to welcome Linda and Sue S back after a six month absence (due to a variety of not really nice reasons). It was SO lovely to have them both back at class – they’ve been sorely missed.

Here’s just snippet of Sue S’s quilt – more to be seen once it’s back from quilting

and in class Sue S was prepping more “Fossick” blocks (from my range of templates)

and Linda was sewing rows together

Jo and Sue E cut triangles to go between their stars; here are Jo’s

and Sue E’s

and Carole was in attendance too but she claimed her borders were getting camera shy!

Afternoon

Lesley brought in some more beautiful doyley’s, this time crocheted ones from grand- and great- grandmothers so getting on for 100 years old she thinks (I’ve added close ups too for those who are interested)

Cheryl found her “Chook” quilt and we cut borders for it

and the strips for the final round of her Diamond TAW

Louise stayed all day and completed the first of her 4 cot quilt tops (for her hope chest)

and started on the second

Frances made more “Crossroads” blocks

Tineke started appliqueing her pieces into place

and Jane worked on her stars

Meredithe x

This class is held at Sewn and Quilted, Blackburn