November Show & Tell

Carmen's "Blue Collection" quilt is a pattern by Maggie Walker which she purchased in Singapore. It took Carmen quite a while to collect all the different colours and get the reds and oranges 'just right' but again it shows persistence pays off with this stunning example.

Dal's wallhanging design of "Not Quite Cathedral Windows". Dal held a workshop for us to make these origami type blocks. They are stunning on the black background fabric.

Dal's red and yellow quilt was made using a wavy ruler, then the strips appliqued onto the background.

Sue's gorgeous Christmas wallhangings from a set of panels which came from the US.

This is Dal's Baby Bees quilt in green & yellow which has been machine quilted and tied.

Melinda made this quilt which I think was a block swap? It has been beautifully machine quilted by Desley from Addicted to Quilts in Melbourne. Melinda has kindly donated this quilt to Dal's African charity project.

Sue's lovely blue and red quilt has some of her own free motion quilting designs on it. Well done Sue!

This quilt of Sue's is her Tampa Quilt made while living there and took her 18 months to do. It is machine quilted.

SINGAPORE QUILTERS CHALLENGE

The Challenge was open to all quilters in Singapore. Using a minimum of a Fat Quarter of fabric from Robert Kaufman's Every Iota range, with one of two colourways (brown or red, which not many people found inspiring at all) you had to make a quilt or other article not exceeding 60x60 inches. Once again the ANZA girls did well, taking home 1st and 3rd prizes as well as a highly commended award. Congratulations to all the winners.


Carmen's gorgeous "Proud Feathers" won 1st prize in the Challenge. She saw feathers in the fabric and designed a peacock utilising the paisley/Indian theme. Carmen's quilt was changed many times along the way trying out different colours and borders. We all agreed the finished quilt was stunning and was a well deserved winner. Congratulations Carmen!

Janice's Challenge quilt is called "First Day of Christmas" and she has also seen feathers in the paisley fabric. The pears and leaves are 3D and really jump out. The text was beaded which provides an added sparkle. This quilt won 3rd prize - well done to Janice!

Maggie's quilt is called "Fireworks" which used the red challenge fabric. She has hand quilted it using some of the lovely bright colours. Maggie also used the remaining red fabric on the reverse to "get rid of it all". The quilt won a Highly Commended award - well done Maggie. This is Kathy's "Outside the Square". She used the brown colourway and used Angelina fibres to creat some 'fantasy fabric'. It was machine quilted.

Maurine has also chosen the brown colourway and appliqued a green silk or satin over some of the paisley design. Maurine's bag is called ""The Chosen Ones". Her career as a reproductive surgeon inspired her design when she saw stars in the fertility symbols. Her "Sac a Porter" creation shows the myriad of paisleys all competing for entry into the top. Maurine's mission in quilting is Recreating Life in Old Fabric. The inside of the Sac used recycled pockets from an old designer jacket. Well done Maurine!

Alison used the brown colourway for Pop Goes the Paisley, adding plenty of brights and using the disappearing nine-patch or twisted nine-patch design.

ALL BLOCKS THE SAME - AFRICAN CHARITY

FROM MELINDA:
This quilt is the product of a Block Swap. There were 10 people
in our group. We each made 10 blocks; kept one and swapped the
remaining nine to the rest of the group. We then had a deadline to make
our finished quilt top. Each block in the quilt is the same even
though they look different due to color placement. The tenth block was cut
into four to make the corner blocks.

Why is Dal smiling so much? Read Below.

FROM DAL:

My cousin, Carrie, returned to S Africa last year, from
Canada where she has lived for the last 20 years. She wanted to
do something positive for underprivileged South Africans and while visiting
various areas and talking to people involved in different aid and
couselling groups, became aware of a need for a food supply
programme.

Each month, Carrie purchases food (fresh produce and staples)
and takes it to an area to be distributed. Many of the families whom she
helps are run by the oldest child as both parents are dead. Others
comprise women who have taken in children, not their own, to care for, as there
are no parents. These people are struggling against the odds, with the
children attending school and striving to earn their place in
society.

The money for this food comes from donations sent to Carrie
by her friends abroad. However, Carrie only has a very small car and this
necessitates several trips to buy the food and distribute it. With the
rising cost of fuel, this is not an ideal situation. She therefore needs a
minivan. Her work touches my heart as she works tirelessly to improve
the lives of these people, meeting with council officials to enable water
and electricity supply to the homes and other basic services that we take for
granted. She has drawn no salary in all the time she has been working on
this project.

I decided to try and make a small contribution towards a
minivan fund for Carrie by doing some fundraising. When I talked
about it, Melinda generously donated this beautiful quilt to help
raise funds. I am investigating the best possible way to use the quilt to
raise the most money, so either a raffle or perhaps selling it on the
Internet.

Editor's note:
If anyone has any fundraising ideas to support Dal/Melinda's quilt please contact Dal directly. Well done both ladies!

CONDOLENCES

Our sincere condolences to Dal, Luke and family on the passing of Dal's mother last week.

Dal has returned from South Africa and will be back at quilting next week.

We hope our friendship will help during this sad time Dal.

CHARITY QUILT 2007/2008

This quilt was designed by Betty Kerr whilst she was in our Group in Singapore. Two quilts were made by the quilting group members.

One was won by Janice at the Christmas Luncheon last year and the other will be used as a fund raiser this year.
Betty has written an explanation about the Charity quilt process which will soon appear below.


Our sincere thanks to Betty for her untiring work that has resulted in a brilliant quilt. Thank you to everyone who helped in assisting Betty in the cutting and distribution etc and everyone of our group who made their two blocks.

I'm trying to find out who to bribe to get the second charity quilt...... anyone got any idea?????

Betty's explanation of the ins and outs of this quilt.My inspiration for the 2006 charity quilt came about from a wonderful 6 day trip to Japan that Miranda organised just the month
before. We mainly went to see the Tokyo Quilt Fair plus the lovely city of
Kyoto, where I saw lots of beautiful ladies wearing kimonos.

A “Charity Quilt” committee of 5 women was formed to come up with ideas for the
quilt. Four of us went to Japan, hence the theme. I thought of the kimono
design as it was lovely, but it was not enough, so one of the others thought of
the fan design also. On returning home I started designing and sizing up
the quilt.

At the time we had 42 members in our quilting group who participated in making the two quilt tops. It was quite a task to fit that many blocks in the one quilt and then repeat it. So I came up with the idea of each member making two blocks, one of a kimono and the other of a fan,(I saw a fan quilt at the Tokyo show and had a photo of it), therefore each quilt top comprised of half the members blocks.

With each member paying $30 towards the making of the quilts, the committee provided
the backing square and the strips for the border, the members then provided
their own material for the kimono and the fan appliqués. The fan was to have a
section with the kimono material sewn on, enabling them to be kept as a pair on
the quilt top.

I proceeded to cut all the squares and strips for the members so that I knew they were all cut the same. The border of each block was done in a log cabin design, so they had to be cut correctly.

The committee then got together at my house and we packed all the cut pieces along with instructions and diagrams, bagged them up in a zip lock bag with a number from 1-42. When they were completed and returned, they would then correspond with my numbered block design.

The response to this design was wonderful. Within the first week, many members had made them already and thought it was a quick and interesting set of blocks to make,
some members even learned new techniques from it. The members had to return
their blocks in the same bag so that I could match the block placement to my
design.

I was pleased some members even enhanced their kimonos and fans with special stitching patterns which gave it their individual look.

By piecing it together I separated them with a 2” sashing, and then bordered the entire quilt with 8” of Japanese blue indigo, with the idea of stitching sashiko designs on it.

Editor’s note: You will agree that it is a stunning quilt and Betty took the whole project on board and put hours of behind the scenes work into it. AMAZINGLY at the same time Betty was completing her Award winning “Out of the Blue -Steve Irwin Died” quilt, which those of us who were on the Charity
Quilt committee were privileged to have previews of it being worked on, before it’s public launch. Betty we all thank you for guiding us, teaching us and inspiring us..