Thursday 16 January 2014

We are over 500!!

The last two weeks classes have been quite hot, but today is definitely the hottest. I think it was 37 degrees at Faulconbridge this afternoon. Just the right temperature for a special treat. More on that later.

So, what happened last Thursday? Well, it was our first week back after the break, so it was a good time to catch up with each other and find out how our Christmases and New Years were. Normally we start back on the first full week of the school term, which would be Thursday 7th February. Every year someone says 6 weeks is too long to not go to patchwork, so this year we decided to come back early for those people who were around. I am lucky that I have girls who love to come to patchwork, but it is harder for the other Mums with school aged children. It will be nice to catch up with everyone when school goes back.

We had 36 quilts arrive last week, including 11 beautiful quilts from The Waverley Quilters; and one coverlet; and 19 crocheted blankets from Beverley Carter. So that brings the total to 463 quilts, lots of knitted and crochet blankets.

This week I surprised the Wednesday night ladies with an encouraging treat on behalf of Bobby McCarthy's donation. I bought lots of different ice cream and my girls took orders and distributed them. We wrote all the varieties on the whiteboard and it read:

Bobby McCarthy's
Magnificent Munchies Menu

DRUMSTICKS

  • Cherry Sunset
  • Cookies and Cream
  • Boysenberry Swirl
  • Classic Vanilla
  • Honey Macadamia
  • Caramel Swirl
  • Super Choc
  • Mint
  • Toffee Tanlines (I love the name of this one!)
  • Banana Lounge

PINE LIME SPLICE

PEANUT BUTTER "MAGNUM" (Coles variety)

MINT MINI "MAGNUMS" (Coles variety)



Of course, the Thursday ladies got one, too. There are still some leftover for next week - yum!

This week we received 52 quilts with 37 of those from the Sew Crazy Quilters in Queensland. If you are on the Facebook page, you will see Mel and I at Winmalee Rural Fire Service with a beautifully decorated fire truck. Ken, Mel's lovely husband, wrote a lovely piece on the Brigades page about the quilts, and the quilt appeal.



So, the total count today is 515.

That is amazing.

In the next week or so I will be able to share more details on the process of distributing the quilts, but for the time being here are some statistics for you.

Dates of Viewing and Distribution: Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd March 2014

Days left until above date: 64

Linksview Road Fire: Thursday 17th October 2013

Days since above date: 91 (13 weeks today)

Wednesday night classes commenced: 6th November 2013

Classes held since then: 9

Classes left until Distribution: 9

Thursday Quilt Appeal classes held so far: 9

Classes left until Distribution: 9

Quilts received to date: 515


We are half way to our Distribution date. Of course, the last Wednesday and Thursday will be devoted to setting up the quilts, so they don't really count. More information on the distribution will follow in the next week or so, as well as a description of what happens each week so you know the work that goes into it each week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracey.



Sunday 12 January 2014

Hexagon Challenge Reveal

If you came to this blog via my personal blog (which has not had much of my attention lately) you may have seen the Hexagon Challenge. Each year after our annual Quilt Show I set a quilty challenge for the ladies which is due on the Thursday before our next quilt show. The challenge for 2013 was to create a hexagon quilt.

The details can be found here (just scroll down). Basically, it could include one hexagon or a thousand, it could be hexagon shaped, or have no hexagons in the patchwork but hexagons in the quilting. There is a myriad of ways to approach this, and the fun part of the challenge is that we are not allowed to tell anyone else what we are making. It is a delicious, excruciating secret (for a quilter, that is). We all see them for the first time two days before they go in the show.

Seeing as our Quilt Show was cancelled due to the Quilt Appeal needing all our time and effort, we decided that we would still have our in-house show on the last class of 2013. These quilts are not part of the Bushfire Quilt Appeal and will be included in our next regular quilt show, so you will be able to see them up close. Would you like to see what the ladies came up with...


This is Shirley's quilted banner. She loves researching her family heritage and this represents the family tree.
The hexagon is in the middle with a "G" appliqued on for Greenaway. Great job for a relatively new quilter!

Close up of the family crest.



This is Judith Chidgey's quilt. The stars are made from star prints.
Do you see the colourful stars, or the white hexagons?



This is one of Chris Casley's hexagon quilts (yes, she made two!).
A very intricate design, yet she says it was very easy to make.



And this is the second quilt by Chris Casley.
It is an Anne Sommerlad pattern called "Hanazono"

Close up of the flowers, all made from hexagons.


Even the label is a hexagon!




And this is Barbara's quilt. Have you seen it before? That's right, Barbara and Chris picked
the same pattern, without knowing! Barbara added borders to hers to make it larger.




And like Chris, Barbara made a second quilt, too.
This beautiful quilt is in soft pastels.

And the label is a hexagon!



And this is Maree's monster quilt. It is huge! It is English paper pieced by hand,
and commercially machine quilted. This is Maree's favourite colour palette.



A close up of some of the fussy cut blocks.



This is Jan K's quilt, which is a quilted and framed artwork.
The basket and the flowers are all made from hexagons.



This is Jan P's quilt. A traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden block in soft pastels.
The blocks were English paper pieced and the quilt was commercially quilted.

A close up of the lovely quilting.



This is Edna's quilt. What a masterpiece! It is a very large quilt featuring English paper pieced
Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks. Each block is fussy cut from one fabric, and the butterflies
are appliqued on. Chris Casley machined quilted it, although we know Edna would have loved to have quilted
it herself. Edna is an inspiration to many, to be able to achieve a quilt like this even with her health concerns.

A close up of a flower.




This is Monika's quilt. It's made with striking prints against a black background.
Do you see the hexagons, or the stars?

And another label with hexagons!




This is Mary's quilt. Mary is a fairly new quilter, she had just started attending our classes
when the fires came, and with all the quilt making we have been doing, she has learned
real fast! The whole quilt, even the black background, has been English paper pieced.



And this is my effort. It can't be called a quilt because is it only the centre of a top
at this stage. I just ran out of hours in each day to get it finished, but I will have it
finished by our next quilt show. I promise! It has English paper pieced hexagons in a ring
with a Suffolk Puff in the centre as the feature block, using Civil War and reproduction fabrics.


So there you have it! The 2013 Hexagon Challenge Quilts. Did you notice how many quilts used black? In my mind I never thought of using black with hexagons, and it really surprised me when I saw six of the quilts with black. That is the amazing part of secret challenges - how differently we all think and see something in our head when we are given a topic.

In the next few weeks I will be putting up the Challenge for this year on my personal blog. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tracey

Saturday 11 January 2014

The Christmas Day total finally revealed!

Happy New Year everyone! It seems like an age since I last posted. Ryan had some time off work between Christmas and New Years so we took the opportunity to have some family time. We don't see each other much during December, so we like to have a catch up in January. Still, I feel a bit bad that I haven't let you all know the totals. So this is what has happened since my last post almost a month ago:

We were at 354 quilts on 13th December. Our last class was Thursday 19th December and we had a pretty relaxed time with most of the ladies doing the Christmas projects we had planned before the fires came. However, a lot of quilts had arrived during the week with quilters trying to get them in before Christmas. It was heaps of fun opening all the parcels and photographing the quilts! A super fun box to open came from Blanketlovez. They sent an amazing 31 quilts! I would highly recommend checking out their webpage. What a fantastic job they are doing.

And to add to a very exciting day, I received a lovely bunch of flowers and a card from my ladies (which made me all misty). But the thing that really made me cry was a beautiful card addressed to "Tracey Greenaway and her Quilting Ladies" in a parcel of quilts from Bobby McCarthy. If you have been following the blog you would have seen that Bobby and her group have already sent down lots of quilts and supplies, so I was surprised to see more from Bobby. In the card was a cheque for me to use for the encouragement of my ladies, not to buy more wadding or fabric for the appeal, but spend on something just for the ladies to encourage and uplift them, to give them a treat as they work so hard. What a gift, so thoughtful, generous and caring. Especially coming from someone who has already been so generous to the appeal. Of course, I couldn't read the card out to the group because I was so teary, but Chris stepped in and read it out, and the look of happy surprise around the room was priceless. In fact, I have a big lump in my throat as I write this down even now. I haven't spent the money yet, but when I do (and it will be soon), I'll show you what we did.

By the end of the day we were up to 417 quilts with 6 days until Christmas. That means Edna, Di, Pat, Dianne and Shirley were out of the guessing competition.





I made these Christmas Wreaths for the class with a Choc Ripple biscuit base and peppermint icing swirl.
Super easy to make. I used half butter and half Copha in the icing so it would hold it's shape in the heat.




On Christmas Day we went to the service at The Salvation Army and there was one more box of quilts from The Star Sea Quilters in Cleveland, Queensland. It was a busy day and we didn't get to count them until later.

Christmas morning excitement

Eddie was ecstatic about his new tennis balls. He destroyed 2 in 15 minutes.
This was his face when we removed the remaining balls for later.

Bessie's Christmas outfit


Eating breakfast with the gingerbread houses ready for decorating at lunch with the family.


Merry Christmas from us! (photobombed by Eddie)


And now that I have kept you in suspense, I can tell you that the last box of quilts brought us to the grand total of 427 quilts on Christmas Day!!! Can you believe it?!?!?!?

That means Jan P, Sue, Margaret M and Beverley were out of the guessing competition and the winner is Robyn B.

Well done everyone! Can't wait to see how many we will have by March 2014!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tracey.