Quilt Top Finished

Another finish for 2013! A completed top in 'French General Rouenneries' fabrics for my Mum for Mother's Day. I made one for Dad for his 80th also using the "Broken Bricks" pattern in greys and taupes. I pieced a backing from the same range of fabrics (still working through a FQ pack I bought from the US when the dollar first hit 1:1 ). The quilt top is off to a machine quilter on Sunday.

Quilting Bee for Charity

Yesterday my group Connected Quilters had a quilting bee at my place. We made QAYG blocks to send to Jan Mac, in country Victoria, who joins blocks into quilts (5 x 7 or 4 x 5 blocks each) and sends them to charities or for disaster relief appeals such as Queensland Cyclone and Victorian floods, and the Christchurch earthquake. She has been doing this for many years and is very well known.

During the afternoon and evening we sorted scraps into themes and cut squares of batting and backing and got cracking on making blocks. We made 18 all up and will keep going at our weekly GTGs or at home to add to the total.

"Feminine" theme:

"Young girl" theme:

"Manly" theme:

Quilting bee

I had a lovely time yesterday with seven other quilters making two tops for quilts to be given to a women's refuge. We met in Ashburton and, although it was quite hot weather (35 C), the fans kept us cool and we almost completed both tops. It was amazing how good the "ordinary looking" burgundy and green fabrics came up when combined with white in this pattern from the Red Pepper Quilts blog.

The finished top was 11 x 11 squares and will be backed with the pretty floral in the top picture. The quilting will be done in Bendigo.

The second top was made using some donated blocks in reproduction prints and was combined with similar prints from Jan's collection of donated fabrics left over from the bush fire relief quilting bees in 2009. We all felt it made a very attractive pattern. The last border is pieced and will be completed by Maggie at home.