Thursday 23 May 2013

Essendon Quilters shine

Yesterday I had a wonderful day with a group from Essendon Quilters. It was very relaxing to not have sewing machines whirring - instead groups sat at round tables and played with felted wool and embroidery......
Santina's herringbone stitch on the stems looked fabulous........


The group had already purchased one of the "Accuquilt" machines and I think it had the best workout it has ever had......loads of felted shapes were cut ready to appliqué..........
 Instant flowers with perfect circles........
 and Jane has a huge stash of shapes ready to go!
Jane was also the over achiever of the class as she had already had fun at home before class! Her felted wool was amazing and she used silk to "invisibly appliqué" her shapes..............



 The cream leaf below used to be a cream jumper.....that was really felted!! Such fabulous texture and I think Jane is hooked on this style of appliqué...........
Before the evening presentation we were taken out for dinner to the Boathouse owned by Gary Mehigan, the co-host of Masterchef. It was a memorable dinner and we will definitely visit again. Then it was back to a large gathering of about 70 girls who braved the cold...........
There was some amazing show and tell and thanks so much to the girls who brought some of their William Morris quilts.......


 These blocks were enlarged by 30% to create 16 inch blocks........great idea for a larger quilt.........



 and as usual humble apologies that the brain bank has not recorded names......I am so bad at that - sorry....
I do remember Kerri and her gorgeous "Friends" quilt and "Bird" quilt....love that sashing below.......now she just has the quilting to do......



Thanks everyone for having me and for coming to the class yesterday and the event last night.

During my travels I have received some lovely gifts.......an amazing large pin cushion from Chrissie, Jo-Anne and Melanie (at the Geelong class) and I just love it. It is full of ground nut shells and is very heavy......thankyou so much girls - it will be treasured xxx
 Strong friendships have been a delightful consequence of the William Morris tours and Dot is one of those. This gift of two books were delivered personally for little Beau from Dot. (and wrapped in William Morris paper as well!) Sophie's Masterpiece is an amazing tale of a spider who spins beautiful pieces. It will be interesting to see what Beau thinks of his Auntie Sophie being a spider! The illustrations are truly beautiful and I have already read it to Poppa!

 The Hey Diddle book is full of photos of the most amazing felted people, pets and embroidery and all done by Salley Mavor of Wee Folk Studio. Visit her website - it is delightful and a couple of friends had already sent me links to this site some time ago. How lucky is Beau? (and Nanna and Poppa!). Thankyou so much Dot xxx

2 comments:

  1. I love the felt pieces and the idea of enlarging the pieces, I am making Fantasy Flora and wish I had thought to do that, I would have an easier time of it.

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  2. There are some fine applique artists in the US, but it seems not near the number of applique artists in Australia. The photos of the quilts always amaze me in their complexity and beauty.

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