Waverley Patchworkers Raffle Quilt

The Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show is on this year. We have the quilt show every two years and it is a very well regarded show because we have many very talented quilters in our group.

We had our meeting on Monday night and this year's raffle quilt was unveiled to all. We have named the quilt Waverley Stars.



Waverley Stars 2014

The Quilt was made by members of Waverley Patchworkers and it is beautifully quilted by Desley Maisano of Addicted to Quilts. Desley is a professional long arm machine quilter and we are very lucky that she has agreed to machine quilt our last three raffle quilts. I trust her work so much that I don't even suggest any particular quilting pattern; I just leave it up to her.

Here is a close up photo of the quilting.



Waverley Stars 2014 detail

Our quilt show is being held on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June and we will have the raffle quilt on display. Tickets for the raffle will be $2 each.

I hope to see you there; the quilt show is a few months away now, so I will remind you closer to the time.

Bye for now,
Linda

30th Birthday Quilt

At the end of last year I was really busy with the preparations for my daughter's wedding because she got married two days before Christmas. Not only was I busy with the wedding but it was her 30th birthday three days before that!

I decided to make her a quilt for her 30th birthday but it was to be a surprise. I chose the colours that were in her lounge suite. I was very clever choosing the colours because I went to the furniture store where she had bought the lounge suite with my fabric swatches and matched the colour that way.

Star quilt on design wall

Here is the blog post I wrote last year when I was busy making it. It became so hectic and I was secretly sewing whenever I got the chance that at one stage I thought I wouldn't get it finished it time.

I didn't quilt it really heavily because I wanted it to remain soft so she could use it as a cuddly lap quilt. Even so the quilting still took ages.

It was all so rushed that I forgot to take a photo of it finished. I just have the photo of her when she received it.

Alison and her quilt

She said that she liked it, I hope that she uses it.

This is the label I put on the back, she really loved the label.

I was originally going to make her a crazy quilt with photos of her and school badges etc etc, but I was running out of time and I was worried that it wouldn't look very nice. But she was so thrilled with the label maybe I should have. Maybe I should start now for her 40th!!

Bye for now,
Linda

My Christmas Cracker 2013

In my last post I wrote about the Christmas Cracker that I sent to Viv. Well, I received one as well from Carolyn.

My Christmas Cracker from Carolyn

It arrived not long before Christmas and I finally opened it just after Christmas. It looked so beautiful sitting in my sewing room waiting for me.

What a treat was in store for me when I did open it. I don't know how Carolyn managed to fit so much into one paper towel roll!

Beautiful silk fabric and lace

Beads and Charms

Silkies

Silkies are beautiful little Victorian style pictures that are printed onto silk fabric.

I thought that was everything and decided that I didn't need to keep the cardboard roll, so I picked it up to throw it away when I realised that it felt heavy.

There were still more goodies wedged into the end of the roll.

Braids and laces

I was certainly very spoilt by Carolyn. Did you notice the beautiful cameo cabochon in the second photo with the lace? Carolyn beaded it herself. I took a photo of it on it's own so you could get a clearer look.

Beaded Cameo Cabochon

I don't know what I will do with it yet. I fear that it is too special to use!

Here is a photo of the embroidered panel opened up.

Crazy Block from Carolyn

 

She even embroidered a letter L up the top for me. Isn't it a pretty block?

Thank you Carolyn, I really appreciate the time and trouble you took to make me a present.

Bye for now,
Linda

Christmas Cracker 2013

Last year I participated in a Christmas Cracker swap with an on line group called the Southern Cross Crazies. We were given a name and the details of their likes and dislikes. I was given Viv who liked pastels and Victorian or an Underwater theme.

Just before Christmas I posted it off to Viv and she really loved it.

Viv said that she liked pastel colours and so I went to my collection of silks and found a variety of soft colours that I thought suitable.

I used the same pattern as I had used before for the 2012 Christmas Cracker because I was so busy with my daughter's wedding preparations. I had a different name last time so this pattern would be new to Viv.

The block is about 13" x 8" and I tried to have soft watery colours.

Here are a few close-up photos of the embroidery.

It was  challenge for me to keep the embroidery in soft pastel colours because I always tend to want to add some high contrast.

When the embroidery is finished we wrap it around a cardboard insert from a paper towel roll and fill it with goodies.

Here are some of the goodies that I included.

Finger Pin Cushion

Fabrics, braids and charms

Lace

You may wonder why everything that I included for Viv is cream? It's because she is specialising in cream on cream crazy quilting at the moment. Imagine how pretty it is going to look?

Viv also makes the most amazing doll houses; here is a link to her blog.

This is what the block looked like when it was finished.

The finished block

I also received a beautiful block from Carolyn but I'll save that for another post.

Bye for now,
Linda

December Wedding

My daughter's wedding has come and gone and it was a wonderful day. As usual with wedding days it went very quickly and I haven't got many photos but we will be seeing the professional photos next week and hopefully we will have many good ones.

Alison decided to have just one bridesmaid, her sister Rebecca, who bought jackets for us to wear on the morning of the wedding as a bit of fun.

Wedding jackets
 

My daughters are not that much taller than me, they just wear much higher heels!

Here are a few photos of the day.



Alison at the church

Alison with her proud Dad

The Ceremony

The wedding was held at the beautiful All Saints Anglican Church in East St Kilda, Melbourne. The three flower girls are Marlon's (the groom) nieces.

Alison's school students

Alison is a school teacher and the girls from her class were very excited to see her married. They had showered her with presents and parties in the lead up to the big day. There are some talented musicians at her school and one played the piano and three played the violin during the ceremony.

The reception was at Sketch in Docklands and we had a beautiful view of the harbour and the city.

Wedding reception

In my photos Alison's bouquet looks yellow but they were actually beautiful ivory roses.

It was a fairy-tale wedding and Alison looked like a princess.

Having a wedding two days before Christmas is not to be recommended. It wasn't only the wedding; I hosted a bridal shower at home and we stayed the weekend at Crown in the city for Alison's hens and she had her 30th birthday five days before Christmas. Add all that to the usual busyness of break up parties and Christmas shopping and you have a very hectic time.

Bye for now,
Linda