Marvelous May

It's been a very busy May for many of our group.

We started out with a fantastic two day workshop run by Fay Winthers.  This workshop was called Fireworks.  During the workshop the ladies who attended learnt how to design and create their own foundation pieced blocks.   Can't wait to see the finished quilts ladies.

Our AGM was held in the middle of the month with a small change in committee.  The wonderful Wendy has now taken a well deserved retirement from the committee.  She has served us very well during her many years on the committee in a variety of roles.   We welcomed Kris onto the committee, she will certainly bring with her some fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

Our wonderful committee spent the early part of the month preparing for our retreat.  They did a stellar job, a great time was had by all who attended.

Bridget's Rutherfield

Maureen's quilt as you go

We were well fed, for the most we managed to keep nice and warm and all of us managed to get a serious amount of work done.   Some of the ladies even ventured out for some bush walking and fortunately managed to find their way home.

Jo's Tablerunner

All in all the atmosphere was friendly, sharing and full of laughs, I'm sure many will return next year.


For more photos from the retreat, click here to visit our Flikr account.  You do not need an account or password to view our photos.  You can either scroll through out Photostream or click on the tab labled Albums to see the photos in their respective albums  eg. workshop albums, retreat albums or Quilt Show albums.

Annika learns to crochet.

Honour Quilts

March was a busy month, but April has just flown by!  With the school holidays, Easter, multiple quilt shows to attend, along with some extraordinary exhibitions there just isn't enough time - not to mention the UFO's piling up needing to be finished and quilted before our quilt show in October.

ANZAC day is now upon us, commemorating 100yrs since the first of the ANZACs.  Our little group embarked on a challenge last year headed by Maree named the Honour Quilt.  Each of the blocks represent a local soldier featured on the cenotaphs and RSL honour boards within the region.  Maree did a wonderful job researching the soldiers and presented us with a back story on how they came to join the army, where they fought and where they fell.

It has been wonderful to see the quilts being presented at the past few gatherings,  We will feature a selection of them here this month as a tribute to the ANZACs.

Although each quilt contains the same blocks, the colours chosen and the placement of the blocks differ, as do the borders and the sashings.  There are many more wonderful quilts that are not represented here.  With luck these quilts and many others will be shown at our quilt show in October.

For a look at what else we have been up to this month have a look at our April Album on our Facebook Page.  or Browse through our Flikr Album

 

 

 

March Madness

Looking at the calendar this month there seems to be a quilt show on somewhere every weekend. I hope that some of you manage to get along to at least one of the shows on in your area, or even if you have to do a little travelling. There is always something at each show which is sure to inspire your creative juices.

We had a great turnout for the March evening gathering with plenty of show and tell on offer.  

The ladies have done a magnificent job with the Honour Quilts - despite all being made using the same blocks, their choice of layouts, sashing, borders and fabrics used, make these quilts all look very individual.

Liz's Quilt

Jo's Quilt

Nancy's Quilt

The Rutherfield quilts are looking magnificent, the ladies have made great progress considering such a large quantity of the quilt is hand pieced.

Rosemary's Kingfisher

Sue's Grandaughters quilt

The variety of the rest of the show and tell was also inspiring, with Joan and Rosemary showing us the results of a class they took in New Zealand. 

For more photo's of March Show and Tell, check out our Facebook page or our Flikr Photostream

Fantastic February

February is the beginning of our quilting year. With a busy year planned we eased into the start of the year with a couple of well attended gatherings and a 12hr Sit n Sew.

Our first Sit n Sew was a great success with plenty of ladies taking advantage of the extended sewing times, coming and going at times to suit their needs.... some even managed to stay for the whole 12 hours. 


During the sit n sew progress was made on our two raffle quilts and plenty of items were made for the trade table.






This month also marked the end of the Honour Quilt challenge with many of the ladies showing off their finished quilts. 

Although all the same blocks have been used within these quilts each quilt differs in the colours used, the layout of the blocks and choice of sashings and borders.

Our gratitude goes to Maree for running this very worthwhile and at times emotional challenge in Honour of our fallen heroes.  These quilts will be displayed both during Anzac ceremonies and at our quilt shows.

Our group president Karin gave us some insight into her recent journey through quilting and her discovery of the type of styles and fabrics that have reignited her joy for patchwork and quilting. 


She encouraged us to experiment and find a style that makes you happy and not be drawn into styles which have us feeling stagnated and left with plenty of UFOs (although this does occur regardless of our level of joy).

 



Liz showed off some charity quilts she has been making and pointed out that these little quilts make great use of orphan blocks and are great practice quilts for your machine quilting. 

New Year, New Projects and perhaps some headway made through the growing pile of UFO's

February brings with it another year of gatherings, workshops and plenty of quilt making for Kilmore Quilters.   We have a lot planned for this year with five workshops, plenty of 12hr Sit n Sews, a retreat in May and of course our Quilt Show in October.

The life of a quilter is certainly not an idle one and our ladies are no exception, I've seen great progress made on our Honour quilts, many took up the challenge set by Maree early last year. The majority of whom seem to be well on the way to completing that challenge - well done ladies, it will be exciting to see those quilts over the coming months.   Some of those who took on the Honour Quilt challenge were already well on their way with their Nearly Insane quilts, again we are all looking forward to seeing their progress.

Those ladies who haven't taken on the Honour Quilt challenge have been busy finishing off a lot of their UFO's, with this much activity so early in the year we should have a wonderful variety of quilts at our quilt show later in the year.

This month we will be having the first of our 12hr Sit n Sews.  This is scheduled for the 13th of February during which the ladies will be completing blocks for one of our Raffle quilts along with working on items for the Trade table and taking time out to complete work on some of their own quilts.

Our first gathering of the year is Wednesday evening the 18th of February, with our day gathering on the following Tuesday the 24th.

Our first workshop of the year is in March with Lizzie Allen - any members interested in doing this workshop should contact Jenny as soon as possible.

On a side note: we will be featuring quilts from our last Quilt show on our Facebook Page cover over the coming months as a small taster of the type of quilts you may see at this years Quilt Show.

Merry Christmas to you all, stay safe over the holidays

We had our last two gatherings for the year this month and it was great to see all the ladies embrace the festive spirit.

We had some great nibbles on offer and plenty of show and tell - Both seasonal and of the UFO variety.


We received our last Honour blocks to complete with a definite Due By Date provided - 19th of April.  This is when the local RSL would like to display the quilts along with a additional display on ANZAC day - 25th of April.   So along with the Salinda/Nearly Insane blocks and any other work the ladies are currently completing, the holidays are set to be a very busy couple of weeks.

It was wonderful to see a great variety of Show and Tell this month.


Thank you ladies for bringing along your work for us to see, it is very inspiring to us all and a pleasure to see every month.


  






I've posted more photos on both our Facebook and Flikr sites - grab a cuppa and take a look at what we've been up to over the years.

The festive season is now upon us.... God Jul, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Nollaig Shona Dhuit, Merry Christmas to you all

The year is rapidly drawing to a close and we are getting busier than ever.  Those of us with children at home find ourselves looking for gaps in our calendar to get that last minute Christmas sewing finished.   Between dealing with the busy end of year school calendar of concerts, presentations and sourcing school books for next year and the endless running out to the shops for last minute gifts, it's easy to forget that this time of year is about spending quality time with loved ones, not running around getting too exhausted to enjoy your time together.

This time of year is also a chance to reflect on the year we have had, our achievements, our losses and our gains.   This year at Kilmore Quilters we've experienced a little of everything.  Our membership has grown, our workshops and classes have given us new insights and experiences and taught us some wonderful new skills to add to our repertoire of knowledge.  Some of us have found a new love for particular techniques and styles of quilting, while others are happy to keep experimenting or stay with a style or technique they enjoy.  We've lost cherished members and some have experience the painful loss of family members this year, while others have experienced illness, however through it all we have found plenty of love and support from those around us.

We've experienced a year filled with wonderful gatherings, productive sit n sews, interesting classes with generous teachers, great workshops delivered by our very own members, all in all contributing to a fulfilling and memorable year.

Our last gatherings for the year are Wednesday 10th of December and Tuesday 16th of December.

Merry Christmas, may your festive season bring you love and happiness.

We created bags for the nurses in Fiji

We hosted Vic Quilters Summer Gathering

Jane taught us fabric weaving

The ladies doing the Dutch Treat Quilt finally finished their quilts

Andrea taught us her bow tie technique at the retreat

Sergei joined us at the retreat and made quite a pest of himself

Neil Chisholm taught the ladies some quilting techniques

Dellareece won  her first prize at the Vic Quilters Exhibition

Karin and Annika taught us how to create a One Block Wonder quilt

Joan won the mug rug challenge at our Quilt In

Linda Steele taught the ladies Crazy Patchwork

And throughout the year the ladies have been working hard on their Nearly Insane and Honour Quilts