The Chinchilla Chick strikes again!

It's been a while since I last posted here, but I have a terrific story to share with you.  As you know I'm involved with Sunshine Linus, a group of volunteer quilters and crafters who make items of comfort for people in need. 

Well, we have a member of the group who actually lives a fairly long way from Brisbane.  About four hours to be exact.  Let's call this lady, CC (for Chinchilla Chick).

Anyway CC has been making quilt tops and other goodies for us for some time now.  We usually receive her stuff via the post and have posted fabric and touchy feely resources to her in return.

Anyway, a few months ago I talked CC into having a go at Touchy Feely wall hangings.  Now, it's important here to tell you that CC is a very good sewer, and in particular is a keen foundation piecer.

 

CC's initial reaction to making blocks was stressful to say the least.  You see, CC is a bit of a perfectionist, and near enough isn't good enough at all!  But gradually, with lots of phone calls and emails and encouragement from yours truly, CC has finally found her little niche, and that's creating wonderful wall hangings that will hang in the public areas of nursing homes for all to see and touch and feel. 

I'm really proud of CC's efforts and that's what I wanted to share with you today.  CC has used her wild imagination together with inspiration from the web to create these one off masterpieces. And aren't they terrific?

 

This delightful wall hanging depicts a bookcase, with lots of things for patients to recognise, such
as wedding photographs, handkerchiefs and serviettes, doilies and other items you might find
on a bookcase. 

 


These crazy birds were cleverly created and appliqued onto a velvet background.  Lots
to touchy and fiddle with here.

 



Congratulations to CC and the girls who quilted and joined these hangings together.  Your work is very clever and will be admired and appreciated by lots and lots of people.

A Tale of Claire, a Cross Stitch and Creativity.

At a recent Sunshine Linus meeting I was handed a completed cross stitch on Aida cloth that measured about 12" x 18".  The owner gave it to me, with the explanation that she didn't really like it very much and didn't want to get it framed.  She asked me if it could be used by the Sunshine Linus group? 

It just so happened that during that week I had received a request from a nursing home for "touchy feely wall hangings" that patients could interact with - something to catch their eye and give them something to stimulate conversation or even memories.

All of a sudden this cross stitch became a very useful item.  

Claire is a member of the Sunshine Linus group who is fairly new to quilting, but is showing incredible creativity and skill in making touchy feely quilts and aprons, quilts from knitted fabrics and polar fleece and the most magical bags made from curtain samples. 

Quilters like Claire tend to thrive on challenges and I thought this would be an opportunity for Claire to put her creativity to the test.  So I handed the cross stitch to Claire, and she took some fabrics from the Sunshine Linus stash and went away.  About a week later she emailed me this photo of the cross stitch, which displayed a very clever use of the cross stitch and incorporation of other fabrics. Claire has created a really terrific wall hanging, with 3D leaves and blossoms, and this hanging will provide lots and lots of interest, stimulation and conversation for patients and visitors to the nursing home.

I wanted to write about Claire's achievement because I believe there are many quilters all over the world who would like to try something different, but have become bogged down using other people's patterns, even though they  would like to try to do something a little out of left field.  Sometimes it's hard to know where to start.  A good way to start using the creativity from within is with something simple like this cross stitch picture.  With great design skills and a great eye for colour, Claire has created a really lovely piece of work, and one that will be admired and appreciated by many.

Congratulations Claire on a really great job - so what's next?


I asked Claire where she got her templates for the leaves and gum blossoms from and she said she walked down to the end of the street where some eucalyptus trees were growing and picked a couple of leaves and blossoms to copy off.

 

Well it's been a while since I last posted, but I have some terrific pictures for you to see.  I designed a free quilt block pattern in 2009 for a wedding quilt.  The idea is that everyone attending the wedding gets to write on the quilt with their best wishes for the bride and groom.  Here's a link to that pattern.

I received an email from Mary Ann who lives in the US, who told me she was going to make it for her daughter-in-law.  At the end of last year I received another email and photos from Mary Ann - the quilt was made and given and it was a huge success.  I really wanted you all to see it for yourselves - what a great job you made of it Mary Ann, and the whole day looks like it was truly wonderful.  Congratulations.

 

It gives me such great pleasure to see readers come up with versions of quilts that I have designed.  Thank you Mary Ann for letting me share this with others.

It's our annual Quilt Show this week and yesterday I attended the set up.  A great range of quilts will be available to browse around and I thoroughly recommend you make some time to pop in and see the quilts. If you'd like to see the winners - pop over to Queensland Quilters Website.

 I managed to photograph my three quilts that I have entered.  No prizes this year, but I'm very proud of the quilts I've shown. 

This first quilt was completely hand made and hand quilted using a gold thread.  I used a paper piecing method to put the hexagons together, and also used a vast array of border prints to give the hexagons a frame. 

Of course, I ran out of black fabric towards the finish and so had to use some teal silk to make the black fabric last the distance.  I call this one Hexaggeration and it sits above our piano in the lounge.

 

 

The next quilt is a quilt I started in a workshop with Kerry Glen who owns 

 Tulis Textiles in New Zealand.  I changed the design considerably, and finally ended up with this completed wall hanging. 

I used the quilt as you go method in joining the blocks, which allowed me to machine quilt each block separately.  A delight to make and I'll be making another version again.
I call this one Cycles of Life.

The final quilt I entered is a needleturned applique quilt that I've had on the go since 1997.  In fact I finished piecing the quilt top the day Princess Diana died in Paris - 31st August 1997.  I call it Celtic Rose in her honour. 

The celtic patterns come from an old publication by Patricia Campbell with a huge amount of patterns.  I designed the applique borders myself and am pleased with the result.  This quilt is the only quilt I have hand quilted.

 

 

 

My darling husband and I spent a morning re-upholstering our dining chairs and a couple of "captains" chairs.  After getting a quote for $100 per chair from a commercial upholsterer, we decided to give it a go.  We purchased a little short of three meters and an electric staple gun.

It was so much fun and we're so pleased with the result.  MD did the stapling, while I manipulated the fabrics and made sure we didn't get any pleats on the front of the seats.

I love before and afters and we're pretty proud of these!!

The new chair is the lighter colour.  Yeah us!! 

Happy Birthday to our Sisters of Stitch group who celebrated their fourth birthday last week.  We had a hoot of a day - a beautiful cake made by Noelene - can you see the Linus Quilt and the ball of wool and needles?  Just gorgeous Noelene, and the patty cakes were delightful too.

Our cake was cut by Melissa (together with Felicity due in 10 weeks).  We played some word games and as always, some took the games very seriously and there were a few disputes over the allowed answers. 

To celebrate our fourth birthday, we donated 55 books to the Royal Children Hospital School which allows long term hospitalised children to have as much of a normal program as possible.  The library is always in need of resources, so it was our pleasure to collect gifts to them.

 

A terrific array of beautiful home made goodies were there for us to share.

 

Thank you to the Brisbane City Council Library service for making it possible to hold our fortnightly gatherings at the library - free of charge.  This means that we don't charge our members and that means as many people as possible are able to join us.
 

Hardanger Cushion completed!

Not having a reliable computer connection all week forced me into doing other things and amongst achieving to cross of stuff on my to do list, I also managed to complete this cushion cover I'm making for my lounge chair.  The lounge chair is floral in pastels so I selected the pastel perle cottons I had in my stash and started stitching.

I didn't use a pattern, just made up a grid and tried a few things out.  I'm really pleased with the end result and now I just have to find someone to make it up for me.  I've started on another for the same lounge suite, but this one will be in dusky pinks and greens.  I'll show you it when it's finished too!

 

Today we had our fortnightly meeting of the Sisters of Stitch, and one of our lovely ladies Robyn, bought along a couple of cuties for us to see.  These little twins were made in porcelaine by Robyn, with all the painting of the faces etc by Robyn and Robyn also designed and made the little outfits (including the toy rabbit) using very fine cotton and beads.  I just love these delightfuls, and thought you might like to see them too.

The following link will take you to Robyns website for more pictures of her wonderful creations.

Here's Robyns webpage if you'd like to see more

Robyn is just one of the crafters from the Sisters of Stitch who quietly go about their crafting.  I'm sure you'll agree she is one talented lady!



 

I've been busy finishing off a quilt that the Sunshine Linus members are donating to the Cystic Fybrosis Charity on the Sunshine Coast to auction off at their annual fundraising event in April.  It's a very pretty quilt (a Kalaeidoscope pattern) and we hope it raises lots of funds for this very worthwhile cause. 

When presenting a quilt, I think it always looks professional to present the quilt in a bag.  I've been making these (Pillowslip) bags for years and thought you might like to see it.




Here's the bag with the quilt in it - looks like a pillow slip but protects the quilt.

 



Here's the quilt - notice the fabric on the bag is the same as the fabric used as the backing of the quilt.

If you'd like instructions for making this quilt bag, here's the link:  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art179644.asp

Have fun!

 

I've been busy making some little baby shoes for our Sunshine Linus stall in August.  You will probably know that I have a few little fettishes, and baby shoes is one of them.  Anyway......

I've made these three pairs, but have found it difficult deciding on a way to close them up.  The pattern calls for ribbon and in the above photo you can see that's what I've used.  These shoes were made of quilting fabric on the outside and felt on the inside.  They're soft, but perhaps not soft enough.  I stitched the ribbon onto the shoe, using a decorative embroidery stitch.  Not entirely happy with them.

These pink ones are made from felt both inside and out, and I embroidered some pretty stitches to hold them together.  I'm really pleased with the result, but still can't get an idea for closing them up.

 

And finally, these shoes are made with felt on the outside and quilting fabric on the inside.  I've button holed them together and they seem quite Ok.  But again, how to close them up?

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

Hardanger Table Runner.

Well, it's finally finshed, and I'm pretty pleased with the final creation.  I started this table runner in September 2012 for my daughter.  She has a lovely Duchess (dressing table) and she had mentioned that a table runner would be nice! 

So I found a piece of linen that was just about the right size and set about looking for a pattern.  You probably know me pretty well by now, and you'll know that I can't possibly stick to a pattern stitch for stitch.  I found the star motif in one of my hardanger books and liked it alot.  So I started in the centre and then had to come up with a complimentary motif to fit inbetween. 

So, here's the final piece - I've photographed it on my dining table to give the effect of the timber behind it.  I would have liked to have finished it with a more appealing border, but as usual, I ran out of fabric space and had to make do with a simple buttonhole edging.

Mooloolah Quilters Open Day

Had a great day today.  I was invited to address a group of quilters who were gathered for the annual Mooloolah Quilters Open Day in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast.  Mooloolah is a gorgeous sleepy little village, and I believe has a huge number of quilters per square mile!!

The idea behind the day is to have a quilt show when you're not having a quilt show!  They have a huge morning of show and tells, raffles, lucky door prizes etc and everyone is invited to attend and enjoy the gorgeous quilt eye candy and some yummy morning tea and lunch.

I gave my talk to a very attentive group of quilters who are always looking for interesting ways to indulge their passion.  I took some photos of the fabulous show and tell, and I'd like to share them with you.   


A Beautiful Blazing Star

 

This quilter assured us that she LOVED Owls and she had a number of owly quilts and things to show us.

I particularly liked this quilt made by Judy. 



Judy's Disappearing Nine Patch.

Would you believe this pattern is a  Disappearing Nine Patch.  I don't think I've ever seen such a terrific arrangement of this very easy block.  I think this block would make a great charity quilt.  Easy to cut, easy to sew.  Judy completed it using the Quilt as you Go Method.  Fabulous Judy!

Brisbane Qld to Bingara NSW

My husband and I recently travelled by vehicle to Canberra, driving over 3,000 kms in 10 days.  A lot of time in the car ( I got plenty of knitting and stitching done!), but a pleasure enjoying the countryside and little towns along the way.  I won't bore you with every detail, but I took some interesting photos and I'm going to share them here with you today.
 
We headed down the Mt Lindsay Highway toward the aplty named region of the Scenic Rim.  This area is known as the "green cauldron" where many volcanic eruptions over millions of years have left their mark.  Large mountains of solidified lava soar into the air, and are currently covered in dense forests and bushlands.  A wide range of fauna and flora are abundant in this region.


Mt Warning, Scenic Rim on the border of QLD and NSW

We travelled through Tenterfield (known as the birthplace of Peter Allen and the wonderful song "Tenterfield Saddler" about his grandfather, and onto a pretty town called Inverell.  We've not spent much time here over the years, and have decided to make it a stop on our next trip.  We stopped for lunch at this pretty park.  Just about every town in Australia has the obligatory park and gardens, and you will always find them in great shape and good repair.


Inverell Parkland - a lovely shady spot for a picnic lunch

Our next stop was the pretty township of Bingara, but we wanted to make a pilgrimage just before Bingara at a very infamous location, that stands as one of the darkest historical significance of early settlement in Australia.  It is known as the Myall Creek Massacre, and having learnt about it in school, it was a place we both wanted to visit.

It was here in 1838, that 28 aboriginal men, women and children were massacred by white settlers in the area. This was my no means the only massacre that occurred during the settlement of inland Australia, but it was the first where the white settlers were convicted and punished for their crime. 

The local community together with descendants of those murdered victims worked together over a number of years to build a memorial to those whose lives were so brutally extinguished.  In June 2000, the memorial was dedicated and stands as a reminder as one of the worst atrocities carried out on the indigenous people during white settlement.  We enjoyed the walk through the well thought out memorial, which is about 1 mile or so, and dotted with a number of large plaqued stones telling the story of that horrible day.  For further information about Myall Creek, here's a link:  http://www.myallcreek.info/massacre/


Myall Creek Massacre monument

Onto Bingara and a very special little town with a unique set of buildings.  We had learnt about the Roxy via the web, and were keen to see just what all the fuss was about.  The Roxy Theatre and Cafe were built in 1936  by three Greeks who had immigrated to Australia after the First World War.  It was beautifully built and was used as a theatre and picture theatre until the late 1950's when it became run down and left dormant for many years.

The realisation that similar buildings still standing in townships across Australia were very rare, encouraged the local community to apply for grants to have the building renovated and returned to its former glory.  The theatre also had a cafe situated next to it, that was also rejuvinated. 

We arrived about lunchtime on a public holiday and didn't expect to be able to go inside, but as luck would have it, the owners were almost locking up and allowed us in and took us on a tour.  It was truly facinating, a real step back in time.  If you'd like to learn more about this remarkable make-over, here's a link:  http://www.roxybingara.com.au/about-the-roxy/



The gorgeous cafe that has a lot of the original fittings still in place

The inside of the theatre, with filligree windows and gorgeous velvet drapes.  The seats were found in gullies, and on properties, and were returned to the theatre and re-upholstered.

 

The wonderful Art Deco Stairwell

The Cafe with its Art Deco Design

Next will we visit the Black Stump and Canowindra NSW.



Another busy week buzzes by, and I'm guessing it will be full steam ahead to the "x" time! I don't like to say that word until I simply can't avoid it!!

Was a busy bee yesterday. I attended the meeting of the Mountain Quilters Inc at Peachester a very pretty little village west of Brisbane. The girls made me feel very welcome and I had a lovely day. Members of the Mountain Quilters have been sewing for the Sunshine Linus group, and I wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who has helped us thus far.


Lillian, Leone (birthday girls) and Glenys admiring the quilt tops.



Here are Anne and Lillian.  Lillian holds one of the many quilt tops she has made for Sunshine Linus and Anne holds a beautiful touchy Feely quilt that has been made for Senile Dementia patients.  Well done girls!

 

Elaine was very excited to show us her very first quilt, which she has made for her grandaughter. Most of the patterns have come from colouring in books. Well done Elaine.


Barb made a beauiful art quilt of a Sea Horse and was busting to show us the award it received recently.  I was most diserved - a beautiful piece, very well executed.


 

Here is a very proud Barb with her beautiful creation.

A close up of the beautiful beading on the

A beautiful Sea Horse by Barb - and it's a winner.

Of course I didn't come away empty handed.  I received 40 xray bags, some touchy feely quilts and some quilt tops.  Thankyou to Anne and Lillian, Glenda, Bonnie, Leone, Gladys, Elaine and Lorraine and all those other wonderful quilters who have contributed to the work we do at Sunshine Linus.  Your efforts are greatly appreciated.





Samford Quilt Show


Preparing to enter the fray!!
 

We had a great day on Saturday at the Samford Quilt Show.  One of our Sunshine Linus members is also a member at Samford, so we organised for 20 of our SL members to bus down to Brisbane, attend the show and then raid the biggest patchwork shop in Brisbane - Sewco. 



My friend Gay made this one - isn't it a beauty!

Loved this one - lots of boring old plaids, but sooooooo effective!

It was a glorious spring day and perfect for a quilt show.  The girls at Samford put on a splendid display and the quilts were simply fabulous.



Cute Bus, seeking shade

 

We had lots of time, so we enjoyed a sit and chat and a cuppa and of course some retail therapy.

We headed over to Mt Gravatt for a shop-up and boy we weren't disappointed.  Some great bargains and the staff were very friendly and helpful - even gave us a few demonstrations on the run! 

A fabulous day for all, Judie was a little tuckered out by it all, and slept like a baby that night. 

Welcome to When Life Hands you Scraps.....

Hi everyone, welcome to my new blog.  A special welcome to all my newsletter subscribers who receive a weekly newsletter from me every Wednesday (or there abouts).  I've decided to commence this blog so that I can show you what's happening in my neck of the woods, instead of just talking about it.

So my first post will be a BIG thank you from Cadbury my darling grand-doggie.  Cadbury got into some trouble a few weeks ago with rat poison and it was a very worrying time.  I wrote about it in the newsletter and received so many lovely responses and advice.  Thank you from me and Cadbury for caring so much.  I thought you might like a photo of my darling boy.

I have finally finished the two baby quilts I've been making for my GP.  They have two doctors who are having babies in the next few months and so I've been busy creating some special quilts for them. We know the sex of one (a boy) so I had to be careful with my choice of colours.

I made the quilts using the I Spy genre.  Here's the quilt for a boy/girl. I chose this paper pieced star pattern and  was very happy with the outcome.  Some I Spy fabrics in the centre of the stars and lots of lots of I Spy around the outside border.  Here's a close up of one block:

The other quilt is for a boy, so I was able to let my head go with the fabrics.  I chose an I Spy quilt idea that I've used before.

  Each block is 9" and consists of 1 x 6" square, 1 x 3" square, and 6 x 2" x 3" rectangles.  You make the blocks and then just put them together at random, with the 6" square in different positions.    Here's a block:

 

 

So, that's my first post for you.  I hope you enjoy seeing the photos I have for you.  If you're new to Bellaonline Quilting site, perhaps you'd like to subscribe to the weekly newsletter.  Here's the link:  www.bellaonline.com/site/Quilting Cheerio for now.