U3A Monday Show and Tell

The U3A  patchwork group met this last Monday for the new term and New Year. Many familiar faces and a couple of very welcome new ones. Some had given away projects as presents but several completed ones were brought in for us all to see.
Seeing the variety made me realise how much we covered last year.

I was so busy admiring
the use of stripes on this
one I didn't note who
made it but think it was
Anne.

Rosemary's log cabin star
cushion made from Australian
fabrics.

New member, Lesley's,
hand pieced hexagon flower
garden quilt.

Margaret's log cabin star

And Margaret's mystery quilt: shadow on some pictures is my camera shutter which didn't close properly.

Stephanie's New Zealand fabric quilt has a woven effect achieved by cutting oblongs say 5" by 7" and adding 1" strips to two opposite sides to form a square. You have to cut directional or picture prints some vertically and some horizontally.

This is Stephanie's mystery quilt with sashing added between the blocks. It's for her husband and he loves it.

Also from Stephanie and  also with sashing are disappearing nine patches which look like figures of eight.

FOQ 8: Contemporary

Rachel Tyndall:
Underground Stripes
Great colour combinations.

Helen Butcher:
Impossible Triangle
This precise, graphic and
complex piece is in sharp
contrast to her improv. work 

Laila Karlamoen:Taking the boys to the cabin
Great diagonal shading with log cabin blocks

Ludmila Badaiva: Tales of the
Southern Night
Love the scale and organic
nature of these designs.

Tori Smith:
Radiant in Blue
Varied theme and scale
blocks unified by colour
choices.

Tatiana Samsonova: Climbing the Stairs
This is from the Art Quilts section and I think it's great:
lowering slightly menacing colours brightened by shots of startling pink. I like the large scale and movement
held in balance. It was a sizeable quilt.

Vincenzo Callea: Hexagons Indiscriminate Group
Back to the contemporary section for this one. I like the sheer oddness of this, particularly the deployment of prints and
randomness combined with symmetry.

Open Day

Sale items

Yesterday I went with two friends to Marion Drake's Open Day. We had a lovely morning. First a foray into the conservatory where the sale items were displayed. The blue and white quilt you see has been taken from its corner to the sofa and was my purchase. It has tiny close quilting and is an English quilt. Later as more people wanted to buy it Marion put it safely in a bag.
Her personal quilts were everywhere over doors, on bannister rails, draped over doors, stacked on shelves and tops of cupboards; christening frocks hung on pegs over the bath. A visual feast. 

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Her sewing building was in the garden and her stash and projects had a strongly reproduction style.  

Sewing room

Miss September

This is the September block for Siblings Together Bee 3.
It is 15" square and I am providing the centre 5" sq, (unfinished 5 1/2") and the grey background fabric. 

To make it you need (cutting unfinished sizes)
1. Centre square: 5.5"
2. Background grey: four 3" squares; four 3" x 5.5" pieces
3. Fabric A (orange here): four 3" x 5.5" pieces
4. Fabric C (yellow here): four 3" squares; four 3"x 5.5" pieces.

However I opted to strip piece so cut the centre square as above and then 3" x 22+" strips of fabrics A & B (as I was using scraps I had to use two 11+" of each!) 
and a 3" x 12"+  strip of fabric C (yellow here) and of the grey background.
Finally a 3" x 22"+ strip of the background grey.

The + sign means cut a smidgen more to allow for the strip piecing method.

Cut strips all ready to stitch

Method: First join Fabric A and C strips length wise (there will be an extra 12"+ Fabric C strip leftover).
Cut into 5.5" squares. 
Secondly make another strip set with the Fabric C strip and the grey background and cut into 3" x 5.5" slices.

My strip sets

Sewn and cut 

Thirdly add the C/grey slices to the remaining grey strip and sew as shown. Press to create four pieced 5.5" units.

Units added to
grey strip and sewn.

Sewn units ready to arrange

Arrange as follows and sew as you would any nine patch.. 
Pressing direction is optional as I shall add sashing.

Lay out

Sewn rows

The block - again.

Bonnie doings

Ugh!

Our recent session was making a small purse to put our clips in. I always seem to make a bodge of most 3D items - there have been thankful exceptions. This wasn't one of them. The tension on my machine slipped when sewing the body round the circular base and by the time I had unpicked and resewn fabric had frayed and I ended up with ugly gathers. It doesn't do justice  to the lovely sew all organiser bag lovely friend Stephanie made for me - she  has done over a dozen for friends, all so pretty and well made. 

From Stephanie

Sew lovely!

Dragonflies Day

The bi-annual Dragonflies Quilt Show is always a highlight and this year Maggie Breakspear is now a member so there are lovely quilts from her to see too.
The best bit for me was getting together for a photo opportunity with Maggie and Mary in front. of the quilt "Mary's Garden" Maggie and I made for Mary. Mary was thrilled with her quilt and we loved making it.

Mary's Garden

Me, Mary whose birthday is and Maggie who
quilted it on her Gammill and won a rosette at
Sandown for best computer aided long arm
quilting.

Tracy's work dominated the show but many members contributed to the success.

Tracy's Elizabeth Hartman
unicorns quilt with lots of
personal touches.

Lovely raffle quilts

More quilts on show and lots of well priced items to sell with
Maggie on duty.

Maggie's reduced size version of Stonefield.

Di Hawkins' improv. with
hand dyes. Improv. class with
Tracy Aplin. 

Suzanne Wheatley:
Paintbox Crossings
I always come back to
such traditional quilts.

Maggie Breakspear's African Rainbow and my
favourite.

Absolutely stunning pencils quilt made by
Tracy Aplin for a group challenge.

Lovely cake too.

Home and Away

At Bonnie's Fran showed this Sunbonnet Sue quilt top she made just for fun and to use up scraps. 
Having completed my Starry Skies quilt I want to empty the box so am making a second quilt from the leftovers. Needless to say I had to make extra blocks to make up the size.
Next it might be a doll's quilt!

Batik stars with gaps to fill - I did have two 6" stars to frame and centres for extra chain blocks so not too much work.

Starting to join the rows - 48" square

Lower Hardres Mile-a-Minute

We all met at Lower Hardres to enjoy lunch and sew together.
Jenny was sorting out wadding and backing for this super mile-a-minute crumb top. Lots of scraps used up and lots I recognise too.
She included a piece of yellow in every block for a more cohesive effect.

Laid out

Detail