You must have been a beautiful baby …

‘Cos baby, look at you now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHESTER!!!

~ 4 years old today ~

More from St Mark’s Quilters

You saw Perdita quilting this one last month, and here it is, finished. Voila!

Gail’s owls look wonderful with that striped sashing and binding.

Cath’s sailing boats look positively summery, and she’s even quilted it on her longarm machine with a sailing boat pattern.

But the brightest spot of the day was in fact …ahem…Spot the dog! I think Gillian must have had fun making these.

Two quilt tops were finished in today’s workshop.

Di B’s charm square quilt, made from a downloadable free pattern from Pink Chalk Fabrics. It’s the Line Dance Baby Quilt and you can download it here.

And a bright teddy bear quilt from Susan and Sophie making clever use of a printed panel and co-ordinating borders.

Finally I must show you the exquisite framed cross-stitch Susan brought in for “show and tell” today. As well as meticulously working the counted cross-stitch she has made those flowers on the hat from silk ribbons. And yes, those are tiny beads, several dozen of them adding dimension and depth to this etherial picture. Clever Susan!

Di

To Tasmania with love

The St Mark’s Quilters came together for our June workshop today under leaden skies and chilly air, thinking of our friends in even colder Dunalley (Tasmania). This town (population little more than 300) lost its school, police station and bakery, as well as  dozens of homes, in a devastating bushfire on 4th January this year.

Two weeks ago, with the assistance of Toll who gave their services for nothing, Di B and I were able to send them a box of 16 bright and cosy quilts made by our group. Here’s how our local newspaper reported our group’s gift.

 

Inside our church hall today we kept warm doing what we love best, monkeying around with fabric and making quilts.

Quilting team Susan and Sophie have been very busy since we last met, and arrived with three sweet little Blankets of Love for RPA Hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit.

 

 

Margaret must have visions of hexagons dancing in front of her eyes after this lot! A pink and a blue Blanket of Love.

Inspired by Di B’s demonstration of the simple Shoo Fly block last month Margaret made all these from primary coloured fabrics in her scrap bins. How effective is that! This quilt, and those that follow, is going to an autistic preschooler at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific and Early Learning Centre (otherwise known as “The Marcia” – for obvious reasons!).

Here’s another scrap quilt (below) from Margaret, using the quilt-as-you-go technique.

Barb’s enjoying having more time to make quilts in her retirement. She arrived with these beauties.

 

 

 

 There’s just too much for one blog post, so please pop on over to the next one.

Di

May Photo a Day Digest 5

Just a short one today, and then we bid farewell to May!

Day 28 – What you’re doing right now

Visiting a sick friend.

Day 29 – Kiss

Day 30 – Tool

My pink floral tape measure.

Day 31 – Four things

 

 Di

May Photo a Day Digest 4

Day 21 – I care about this

Making quilts for those in need of comfort, with St Mark’s Quilters.

Day 22 – Change

Change of seasons.

Day 23 – PJs

Day 24 – Go

Go, Chester, go!

Day 25 – Us

Day 26 – Fave thing to do on a Sunday.

Day 27 – I can’t live without…

No explanation needed.

 Di

May Photo a Day Digest 3

While I had my head turned with all the excitement of the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival June arrived and quietly made herself at home. I haven’t even finished sharing my May Photo a Day shots (\0/) so let’s remedy that and do a quick catch-up over the next couple of days, shall we?

Day 14 – Need

A place to call home.

Day 15 – 7 o’clock

The early morning sunshine just kissing the church steeple.

Day 16 – Mailbox

The most exciting thing that’s arrived in my mailbox this year – tickets to a craft show inside a sunglasses case handmade by Sarah, and a wine bottle stopper topped with a black labrador. Gorgeous!

Day 17 – Season

Autumn is the most colourful season!

Day 18 – Want

Day 19 – My favourite view

Rushcutters Bay, on beautiful Sydney Harbour.

Day 20 – Light

First light over the Sea of Galilee, seen from the Scots Hotel, Tiberias.

(photo taken on last year’s trip).

 Di

I won!

I’ve just received an email from Amy of Amy’s Creative Side to say my Daisy a Day quilt is one of the three Viewers’ Choice winners, out of almost 700 entries in the latest Bloggers’ Quilt Festival!

 

Wow! I’m in very illustrious company.  Look at the other two winners…

Firstly there’s the very professional ChristaQuilts with her gorgeous Charming Chevrons.

And then there’s  Geta from Romania who made this amazing 3-dimensional effect quilt (Together in a Friendship World) in a collaborative effort with her friends. Be amazed!

How does she do this?

Thank you to the amazingly generous sponsors. I’ve won my choice of a stash pack from Vicky Welsh and 2.5 metres of Mistyfuse which, as an applique devotee, will come in very handy indeed.

Thank you to every single person who voted for my Daisy a Day quilt.

Thank you to all those sweet readers who left encouraging comments on my blog. You’ll never know how very much they meant to me.

And finally a HUGE thank you to Amy of Amy’s Creative Side for doing the work to make this fun competition such a success.

 Di