Laurel’s Stars - One quilt, so many different approaches

As you know already, my friends and I are working away on several quilt patterns by delightful Blue Mountains quilt teacher and designer, Lynne Alchin.

We fell in love with Lynne’s Laurel’s Stars pattern when we saw Anne’s interpretation (above) of this exquisite applique quilt, and I can’t tell you how excited we were when Lynne agreed to travel down to us at Paddington Patchworkers to teach us this and another pattern, Princess Plenty.

It never ceases to fascinate me how a single quilt pattern can inspire so many amazing variations, and I’m loving every one of these.

This is Lynne’s own softly interpreted Laurel’s Stars quilt.

Di B has machine appliqueed  her leaves in a stronger green, and done something sneaky (of course!). She has fussy cut her star shapes in a single piece instead of paper piecing them, as in the pattern instructions. This meant she could preserve the charming floral posies in the centre of each one. Good thinking

Sue has added even more drama with strongly contrasting swags around a meticulously fussy cut star inside the inner circle.

Janet’s is gentler and more muted, with lots of interest from fussy cutting too. Just look at those swags!

A variety of greens adds liveliness and interest to Rae’s leafy wreath, and that warm red in the star and swags is one of her signature colours.

You’ve seen this one previously, but I couldn’t resist adding Desley’s vintage-look scrappy version to the gallery.

It’s going to be fun watching – and sharing – their progress.

Di

Sharing the love

With Margie Flint, from ‘The Marcia’, due to pop in at lunchtime yesterday to collect the latest batch of kindy quilts by St Mark’s Quilters there were plenty of heads down as busy fingers stitched bindings, sewed labels on, and even planned and started new quilts.

I’m delighted to tell you that we sent off a total of 45 cot-sized quilts with Margie and her husband, Terry, leaving them just enough room to squeeze into their car.

Every little boy or girl who enrols at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (aka ‘The Marcia’) receives a quilt made by a St Mark’s Quilter. This is a quilt for keeps, to be loved and used in whatever way they choose.

It’s like a big hug from us.

We don’t expect thanks, but yesterday Margie brought us two special surprises.

A touching Thank You card from the staff, with accompanying photos (which, for privacy reasons I can’t share with you) of some of the children with their quilts and even smiling shyly. Yes, smiling!

 

To see these beautiful autistic children looking so happy is incredibly heartwarming, and we’ll keep and treasure this card.

The other gift - an impressively boxed carrot cake! - was equally appreciated, but quickly disappeared as everyone enjoyed a slice.  Margie even brought pretty plates, and paper napkins resembling pieced nine-patch blocks.

Thank you very much, Margie and the KU ladies. We’ll work for cake any time.

Di

Hands up if you love quilting!

It’s a bit of a no-brainer for St Mark’s Quilters who turned up for our monthly workshop laden, as usual, with colourful finished quilts as well as exciting works-in-progress.

Perdita brought along these two gorgeous Blankets of Love to add to our collection for sick bubs in RPA Newborn Care, or for the grieving parents of those who bub passes away during or soon after birth.

They show that a quilt doesn’t have to be complex to be beautiful. Half square triangles in rainbow colours (above) are just … happy! And the strippy quilt-as-you-go squares in her other quilt (below) created from scraps within a single colour family, have instant appeal.

Gillian made the most of a great find – dinosaur fabric! – for the quilts she made for little ones at the KU Marcia Burgess kindy for autistic children.

So many colours in the dinosaurs meant she could create two quite different  quilts. I like the way she’s picked up the reds, limes, oranges and blues for the quilt above, and then created a completely different look for the quilt below by choosing to emphasize the aqua and lime.

Just by using large strips from a Maisie Mouse panel, each with a pieced square at the end, and then reversing and staggering the strips, Barb has made a kindy quilt that a little person will treasure.

Even easier was this train panel that Barb’s finished off with overall stippling. For the border she sewed strips of blue, red and gold together then cross-cut to create the pieced border. It really zips up the quilt, doesn’t it.

Cath’s lucky enough to have a longarm quilting machine at home, so she used it to quilt this kindy quilt with a pattern resembling the wind blowing, just perfect for the sailing boats in the feature squares.

Margaret finished off the binding on this Blanket of Love, made from a pastel bunny panel, that someone had abandoned and left in the box. But that’s OK, we encourage tag-team quiltmaking here at St Mark’s Quilters.

Gail had a deep sea theme going on in this one.

Helen carried the seaside theme with her today too. Look at her sparkly earrings, necklaces and rings.

Helen doesn’t own a sewing machine so she makes her quilts by hand. Today she started a sweet Blanket of Love where she’s hand appliqueeing, in a freeform fashion,  some hexagon flowers that she’s made, onto soft white waffle weave fabric.

Amanda showed us her finished kindy quilt top that she was working on last time. The next step will be sandwiching and quilting it, once our order of batting arrives. That pink outer border looks delicious – a real gelato quilt!

You might also recognise this slow-burner that Sue’s been working on for some time now, a hand English paper pieced Baby’s Blocks Blanket of Love in pale blue and the softest buttery yellow. It’s been a real labour of love and today Sue finally sandwiched it ready for quilting.

So much creativity and fun!

…and a special visitor who I’ll tell you about next time

Di

A fairy fine weekend indeed

The spring long weekend in Sydney never fails to lift the spirits, but mine was bookended by visits from my two darlings, Mr J and the Princess, making it extra special.

Hairdo by Mr J himself

Mind the gap!

Throw in a stroll around Circular Quay in the sunshine, a Gourmet Food Fair right across the street from my little pad, Chester’s entry in a doggy fancy dress competition, and a barbecue on a balmy evening, and I call it magical!

With the Australian Navy Fleet Review happening Sydney had such a festive vibe. It was fun to spend a few hours on Friday afternoon playing tourists in our own city, taking selfies with the Opera House framed between us and sending them to Sarah’s friends back in the USA.

These giant plastic snails, in various fluoro colours, can be found all over the city right now and are part of the Art and About Festival. We had to wait while a family of children clambered all over this fellow, clinging to his feelers and hanging from his neck. Couldn’t persuade Sarah to climb up and pose though.

Meanwhile, back at home our local park was being transformed from this…

…into this, for the East Village Gourmet Food Festival.

Joynton Park was the place to be on Saturday (if you weren’t sitting on a picnic rug beside the harbour watching Prince Harry and the Fleet Review), with local restaurants, cafes and food providores selling samples of their delicious food and drink. The day was warm and clear, and market umbrellas and gum trees provided plenty of shade to sit and enjoy an icy glass of wine.

This month is Dogtober, a month of fundraising activities – with the emphasis on fun – for Assistance Dogs Australia. There are almost as many dogs as people living in my neighbourhood, or so it seems around 5 o’clock in the afternoon when everyone congregates in the park for playtime and a chat. So it wasn’t surprising that the Dogtober Fancy Dress Competition attracted plenty of crazily dressed canine entrants.

This was one of the craziest

I could try to blame Sarah, but must confess I was a willing co-conspirator in sourcing Chester’s lolly-pink tutu at Target and his sparkly fairy wings at the two dollar shop.

Chester fitted comfortably into the stretchy dress and was very relaxed about showing his inner feminine side.

He paraded beautifully in the circle, and was rewarded with a lovely prize package - porcelain doggy bowl, some treats, poo bags and holder, a certificate and a medal for 2nd place!

His certificate says he was the Best Fairy. (Shhhh! Don’t tell Chester, but he was the only fairy.)

He spent the rest of the afternoon happily being led around the food fair on his lead, dressed in full fairy kit and basking in his newfound notoriety, sniffing and kissing poodles and puggles, and posing for photographs with dozens of strangers.

It’s hard to believe this was the same Chester who only months ago was so wary of small, jumpy, yappy dogs and prone to lunging unexpectedly in the direction of one of these high spirited little pups if he felt threatened. I think the secret lies in the increased contact he now has every day in the park with dogs of all breeds and sizes. Perhaps he’s come to realise they’re not so scary after all. (Hmmm…one might draw a parallel with humans of different races)

At the end of the day we enjoyed our dinner on the balcony, being entertained by the rainbow lighting and the music from the $150 a head dinner in the marquee below, and watching the stupendous fireworks, sound and light display on TV celebrating 100 years of the Australian Navy.

Magic!

So how was your weekend?

Di