Stitch 'n' Bitch goes away for the weekend

A few weekends ago, actually it was the last weekend in March, our little Stitch 'n' Bitch group went away for a long weekend to Smiths Beach on Phillip Island SW of Melbourne. It was forecast to be a lovely weekend and we weren't disappointed.

By the time I (B1) picked up the key and got organised it was lunch time before I picked up Pam (B2) and headed off. In the meantime we had a call from Nita (B3) to find out what was taking us so long as she was already in Cranbourne.

B1 & B2 finally arrived mid afternoon to find B3 happily sitting in her car stitching away in the sunshine and generally enjoying the peace & quite. We unloaded our gear and happily started stitching.

This is the view from the balcony of the house we were staying at looking up the road to the beach car park & the sea. It is a wonderful view.

This is (B3) improvising to trace a pattern.

It was B2's birthday on the day we arrived so we had to have cake. B3's daughter made this lovely cake, it was apple streudel or something like that, it was scrumptious. B2 is showing off one of her birthday pressies.

B2's project was to continue working on finishing this QAYG quilt she was making for her daughters 21st birthday.....in Feb 2008....B2 has been a little bit slack. So the quilt police were active on the weekend.

We had some of the locals come and check out what we were up to over the weekend. I wonder if it could have been the drunken revelry which attracted them. Not us of course, it must have been the neighbours.

These are some QAYG blocks I put together using up some of the overflowing scrap box. They are destined for a double/queen quilt for the Victoria bushfire survivors.

This is another quilt I put together which is also destined for the Victoria bushfire survivors. They are flannel prints, lovely & bright, perfect for a kids quilt. The blocks are all sewn together, I now just have to find something for the border to make it into a single & finish it off.

We all had a great weekend. Although we ate too much and probably could have got more stitching done, however we were all satisfied with what we achieved and were totally relaxed at the end of the weekend. None of us wanted to go home though.

Quilt as you go Whirlygig

I received a request last night from Glenice in QLD who I met at the Dec SCQuilters meeting at Carrum Downs. She was admiring my 'quilt as you go' Whirlygig quilt that I am making using scraps of cotton fabric and chenille (old bedspreads, that is another story). I sent her the pattern of the Whirlygig pattern which was in an old issue of an APQ magazine, which I based this quilt on. I adapted it to 'quilt as you go' as it is easy to pick up and take it places to work on.

This quilt is a work in progress with no known finish date. The plan is to just keep adding hexagons until it is the right size or I get sick of it, which ever comes first. Each hexagon is approx. 8" across. So Glenice, her are some pictures of the quilt as it was this morning.
Here are some close up's of the individual hexagons so that you can see the detail. I quilted in the ditch, so there is no visible quilting on the front, except for those odd stray stitches which went of course. I started using the chenille in the centre as a feature, which wasn't to bad with the thinner chenille, however with six points meeting in the centre it was still a little bulky. After doing about five or six I changed my method and started only using cotton fabric in the centre. This was much better, less bulk and easier to handle.


The chenille adds texture to the blocks, especially the shaggy style.

I have used Hobbs Heirloom batting which is fusible on both sides. This makes sandwiching the three pieces together and the hand quilting easier as no pins required. Which is a good thing as it means less holes in my fingers and hands.
The quilting detail is only visible on the reverse as the light thread contrasts well against the plain backing colours. You can see a bit of the reverse in the third block pictured in the bottom right hand side of the pic.