The Retreat, August Newsletter and the Upcoming Guild Meeting

Well this has been an exciting few weeks. We've taken part in the Annual Retreat to Myrniong - just out of Bacchus Marsh, a wonderful guild meeting in July and there is going to be another great meeting coming up on Saturday. Take a look at the August newsletter and see what fun we have had.

 The retreat had a party theme - and what a party we had, full of lots of sewing, laughter, great food, and wonderful friendships enjoyed. Much creativity was shown, such a talented bunch of ladies - the favourite theme would have had to have been Jackie's 1600 quilt made from a jelly roll, many were created over the weekend. The variety can be endless - such a great idea. Have a look at this YouTube video, it shows just how easy it is. Take a look at our member blogs for more images of the fun time we had at retreat.

On Saturday, 20th August, Bill Westalee will be demonstrating the wonderful adjustable rulers they designed, and having seen a presentation at the Phillip Island Retreat two years ago, I know we can all pick up some great tips and tricks to improve our piecing.



Image courtesy of http://www.westalee.com.au/

 

Come along and enjoy the fun.

Happy sewing, Jennifer

Flying Geese - no waste method

Good morning all quilters,

I've just spent a lovely hour browsing the quilt blogging world and came across this lovely tip for creating Flying Geese with minimal fabric wastage and wanted to share it with you all.

Here is the link to the Patch Pieces blog and the actual PDF File for making these flying geese.

Happy flying/sewing
Cheers Jennifer

[This image is courtesy of Linda Halpin's website. The above technique may not have been used to create this particular quilt - I just wanted to show "non quilters" what flying geese units can look like when joined together.]

Free Motion Quilting

Thank you to Claire, one of our NOTYQ members, for this link.

Leah Day, the owner of the "Free Motion Quilting" Blog has challenged herself to come up with a new free motion filler design every day for a whole year.

Leah has included an image of each design and a video demonstrating how it is achieved. She has also included where her Inspiration came from for the design, the Filler Design Type, Difficulty Level, Directional Texture and Suggestions for Use - it is a fantastic resource.

Bobbin Wraps

The first of I hope many hints and tips that I come across on the Internet. This is a link to an article giving a great idea for keeping your bobbin threads under control when not in use. These easy made wraps tuck easily around any size bobbins to stop the thread unwinding.

Basically...

"In the plumbing department, there are many types of flexible tubing, pick up some 5/8" OD x 1/2" ID clear vinyl tubing.

If you try this yourself, make sure the tubing you get is fairly sturdy, but easy enough to cut with a pair of scissors. You don't want the tubing to be so thick that you can't unroll it, but you don't want it to be so thin that it won't stay wrapped around the bobbin.

By cutting off lengths of this tube approximately 3/8" long and cutting a slit down the side, I created a little plastic sleeve for each of my bobbins. These fit very snugly around the bobbin, and keep the thread tails from coming loose. I cut my bobbin sleeves so that they fit underneath both flanges of the bobbin. They don't have to be perfect; as long as they are short enough to tuck inside the bobbin, your sleeves will stay put."
[text taken from the Handmade News Website ]

Send me an email if you find any other tips you'd like to share - happy to put a post up here for our quilting community to share.

Happy sewing, Jennifer