Disappearing acts

After disappearing beneath an avalanche of paperwork for ten days I’m back!

I have a brand new profile pic too, after sources close to me hinted that the one I was using made me look like … well … a rather stitched-up old schoolteacher.

Now this was not too surprising, since I do have *ahem…* a few years under my belt and was, in fact, a schoolteacher many moons ago.

However these days I’d prefer to look more ‘groovy granny’ than ‘sober schoolmarm’, so I asked a friend who always makes me laugh (guess who!) to take some portrait shots – and with a click of the “delete” button the old pic has disappeared.

One of my greatest joys is being part of St Mark’s Quilters, a wonderful group of women who’ve grabbed with both hands the opportunity to make quilts for those in need of a comforting hug. It’s almost two years since two dozen newbie quiltmakers made their first quilts for the children at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre at Linda Hungerford’s Stitchin’ Mission course, the only one ever held outside the USA, but the legacy continues.

Today’s workshop was all about the Disappearing 4-Patch, a perfect block for the tiny Blankets of Love we’re currently making for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Newborn Care here in Sydney. 

Di B was the teacher and used samples to demonstrate each step in the construction of this very useful block. You’ll find Linda’s excellent tutorial here.

In the photo above Gail and Di are pointing to the block after the 4 patches have been sliced, and just before doing the big ‘switcheroo’ resulting in the layout in the photo below (Barb’s block). Poof! Those 4-patches have disappeared!

You can design countless variations on this theme, using just two contrasting fabrics –

or as many as you like, as Linda’s done here in a larger quilt.

Whichever way you do it, that rather ordinary little 4-patch block, once sliced up, disappears completely, with minimal effort and just a little concentration, to become a block that’s very attractive indeed.

Margaret and Moo were content to stitch bindings on their latest projects rather than embark on Disappearing 4-patch quilts of their own.

Sarah auditioned her fussy-cut snowball blocks on the design wall - and liked what she saw! She’s hoping to have this quilt all finished before the disappears overseas on her big adventure.

And our group’s mascot, the lovely Matilda, just hoped I’d disappear soon and take my camera with me, after my lame attempt at posing her as a quilting diva.

OK, I’m out of here

Di

At a time like this …

…your first instinct is to do something, anything, to soothe the hurt.

If you read Amy’s blog (Mrs Schmenkman Quilts) you’ll be aware by now that her dear husband passed away yesterday.

He was so young, so talented, and so brave, and Australian designer Sarah Fielke is organising something special from the quilting community for Amy and her daughter Annabel. If you’d like to join us in this outpouring of love for them email Sarah sarah@sarahfielke.com and she’ll send you details.

My prayers go out to all my US blog friends, too, who’ve been affected by Hurricane Irene. So many deaths, floods, power outages and damage to crops it’s difficult to fathom the magnitude of this damage.

Di

Progress on “The Quilt Formerly Known As Joseph’s Coat or Waiting for Russell”

The two quilts look very much the same in the end, but just as several of us in the English Quilt group were collecting our fabrics together to make Kellie Wolfsohn’s glorious “Joseph’s Coat” applique quilt late last year Jill spotted Sandra Dart’s pieced version, “Waiting for Russell”, in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 19 No 7 and we unanimously decided to go the piece-able way.

 

Jill’s using teals and earth tones to co-ordinate with a bedspread she has.

 

Gail’s using dainty Liberty lawns, including a few from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s limited editions.

 

Lyn opted for pastels with a 1930s feel.

 

Anne’s using Kaffe Fassett fabrics exclusively in blues of every variety – from cobalt to sky to aquamarine.

 

- and mine is in brights, many of them also Kaffes.

With only about a dozen blocks left to piece I’ve been giving some thought  as to how I’ll tackle the quilting.

I’d almost decided machine quilting was the way to go for a fast finish when Robbie arrived at our get-together last week with hers completed, hand-quilted and bound while all the rest of us are still in the process of putting our quilts together.

Isn’t this an absolute stunner of a quilt!

 

 

Robbie’s is cot-sized and mine will be bigger, but I’m so in love with the softness of her hand quilting and the wonderful antique-like texture that I’ve done a complete (figurative ) back-flip and decided this quilt deserves nothing less than to be hand-quilted.

Oh dear, and I have so much spare time (not!).

 

Now all we need is a name for this delightful quilt. The name Sandra Dart chose seems a little too personal (I’m not sure I need a quilt named after her husband on my bed ) but in the magazine she’s written:

“This quilt pattern is known by several names including Tea Leaf, Lover’s Knot and Lafayette Orange Peel. With such a diverse range of names, you can choose the one you like best.”

Will you help me decide? Which name do you like best?

Di

Company’s a’comin’

Cooking, cleaning and tidying the house for just under sixty guests coming to afternoon tea tomorrow, along with my regular “supporting-my fabric-habit” job,  has occupied quite a bit of time and headspace this week and accounts for the hiatus in blog activity around here. Please accept my apologies, dear reader.

Since there has been little quilting done, I thought you might like the recipe for one of the slices I’ll be serving up to my guests.

It’s an oldie, but a goodie, and comes from a tattered and stained little cookbook I’ve owned for more than 30 years.

Raspberry Slice

Makes about 16 pieces

Base ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

Raspberry jam

2 ounces (60 grams) softened butter

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Cream the butter and sugar, add egg yolks then flour. Press into a tin 8” x 12” (I line it with baking paper just to be careful, but you can just grease the tin if you don’t have the paper). Cover with jam. My recipe says 2 tablespoons, but as you can see I use much more – no sense in skimping on such a yummy ingredient!

 

Topping

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 cup coconut

Beat the egg whites .  Add sugar and beat some more until you have a stiff meringue. Add coconut and stir in well. Spread this meringue mixture carefully over the jam.

Bake in a moderate oven (about 170 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes. The aroma of toasting coconut will fill the house, and the result is this crispy topping with a soft fluffy inside.

Beneath that  is a layer of yummy raspberry jam, and on the bottom a buttery biscuit base.

This recipe never fails to attract compliments (always acceptable!) and requests for the recipe. So it goes without saying that I make it often

Do you have an old favourite, never-fail, crowd pleasing recipe like this?

Di

And here’s the snuggly one

Michelle spent a lot of time on her knees at our June St Mark’s Quilters workshop, not praying but auditioning strips of pastel flannel “tiles” to find a layout she liked.

After much deliberation she settled on this, strips in a single colour grouping sewn side by side.

At least that’s what we thought…

But in a “light bulb” moment at home later she came up with this winning configuration instead, and today she brought along her finished project.

Don’t you just love those blocks of gentle colour?

To make it even more tactile Michelle’s sewn it as a raggy quilt. You can guess what all our quilters did today as soon as they saw it - stretched out a hand to stroke those raggy seams, of course!

Being a larger quilt, this one will probably join our collection for the children at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre at Liverpool (affectionately known as “The Marcia”), hopefully to be treasured loved to pieces by a little person who’s absolutely enchanted by its soft touch.

Di

A tsunami of quilts!

It’s been just one month since our last St Mark’s Quilters workshop but in that time these incredible ladies have added eighteen quilts (yes, E.I.G.H.T.E.E.N!) to our collection - seventeen Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care and one soft and snuggly flannel quilt for the Marcia Burgess kindy. 

Today almost everyone arrived carrying a freshly completed quilt (some with 2, or even 3) prompting one clever quilter to describe it as a “tsunami” of quilts.

Are you ready? (Get your water-wings on )

I’m not pleased with how some of the more delicately coloured quilts came out in my photos, but as soon as I can take some better photos you’ll see them “hanging” in our virtual gallery, Blankets of Love (click on the tab above).

In the meantime, here are some photos of quilts that actually do justice to the work of their maker.

Moo

 

Di C

 

Christine

 

Perdita

 

Perdita

 

Gail

 

Gail

 

Michaela

 

Moo

 

And here we all are again, on a glorious late winter day, enjoying the work of our Maker!

Thank you, Lord, for gardens, sunshine and these generous and warm-hearted women.

Di

Somebunny’s been busy

With the August get-together for St Mark’s Quilters upon us the time seems right to share with you another finished Blanket of Love.

This little quilt is destined to wrap a tiny bub who doesn’t survive her birth, and will very possibly be treasured for many years as a tangible memory of that lost bub.

Sarah carefully chose her fabrics from our donated pieces to create a quilt that’s as delicate as fairy floss and oh-so baby girly.

She pieced the back from white homespun and the palest pink hand-dye.

With a glittery surface treatment the white squares on the front sparkle in the sun - and Sarah’s totally nailed the technique for mitred corners

We now have 20 Blankets of Love for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Newborn Care Nursery, with several more finishes expected very soon, maybe today…

Di