Melbourne Meander

Yesterday Michelle led us on a meander round Melbourne city's arts and crafts lanes and shops. We saw lots of great laneway graffiti, Tessuti Fabrics, Craft Victoria, Morris and Sons wools, the Manchester Unity and Nicholas buildings with their interesting architecture, Melbourne's smallest cafe and smallest bar, L'Uccello's vintage fabrics and wares, Kimono House and lastly we caught the tram up to GJs to finish off our day.

We also poked our noses into the City Library and a couple of art galleries and managed a few coffees and lunch along the way. It was a great day!

Top notch knitting

When we met this week Michelle was looking very warm and cosy in her new knitted hat which matches her scarf and keeps her warm at the train station these cold winter mornings.

Our annual retreat

Most of the group was able to get away on our annual retreat to Vickery Quilt and Craft Retreat in Alexandra. We thoroughly enjoyed the long weekend full of laughs, chatter, good food, sewing and crafts, brisk morning walks, cosy wood fire, an excursion to the local Quilt Show and snippets of the annual biggest event in town - the Truck and Ute Show!

Anne's Tilda quilt basted for hand quilting:

A new item for Jennie's "Seasonal Treasures" menagerie:

Colleen whipped up some big hexie blocks in quick time:

Louise finished off her daughter's beautiful crocheted poncho:

 True to form, Karyn made a quilt top in 2 days, with many of our scraps incorporated into it:

Louise added extra rows to her top, added a white border and made up the binding:

After careful cutting, Anne sewed and sewed hexies for a "one block wonder" quilt from a Kaffe Fassett print, here are about a third of them:

Lisa did our heads in with the maths in her two projects and the use of wool crepe. The red and white segments wouldn't come together so she moved on to the black and white and put this together just before hitting the road. In fact she could often be heard saying "crepe" over the weekend, at least I think that's what she was saying ...

Leita and helpers sewed up all her remaining Amitie pattern kaleido blocks which look amazing:

Sue knitted away on a gorgeous jacket for a relative's baby:

Getting out the knitting needles and crochet hooks

It's definitely time for another Friday update.  We're all obsessed with knitting and crocheting at the moment.  Louise has discovered blocking as a technique to finish her work nicely.  She's making a gorgeous crocheted cape for her daughter.

This is a picture of the pattern.  Can't wait to see it finished.

A crocheted scarf using Noro yarn, also by Louise.

Louise's daughter made this beautiful textile print as part of her art course.
Anne was cutting out more scrap baskets to make up for Vickery, and I'm working on a knitted cloche hat which I'll photograph and put up here when it's finished.  I'm finding knitting to be wonderful for a busy mind - soothing.  I can keep my hands busy while my mind is racing.  Back to quilting soon.

Quilting Bee at Anne's

We had a quilting bee on Saturday from 10 to 10 with several coming and going during the day. The busy ladies had a very productive time with everyone's projects progressed or brought to completion!

Colleen bound her gorgeous cute baby quilt for her future nephew:

Louise crocheted another strip for the lovely blanket she is working on:

Karyn made a pieced binding and bound her large bed quilt, started on our retreat last year, which is for her nephew in England:

Anne added the borders and finished her quilt top in 'French General Rouenneries' fabrics for her Mum for Mother's Day.  The quilt top is off to a machine quilter on Sunday for some edge to edge quilting:

We also enjoyed lots of cuppas, some yummy carrot cake, apple and date cake, quinoa salad and later some Thai food and sauv blanc for dinner for the real "stayers".

Latest achievements

This week we had quite a lot of finishes and works in progress:

Leita finished a dainty bag, Anne finished another child's beanie, Louise finished a crocheted pendant necklace, Michelle restitched Karyn's circles quilt blocks together using the triple zig zag on her great machine, and we also had some more tumbling blocks and crochet centres made.

First Finish for 2013

First "quilting" finish for 2013, thanks to Day 1 of the Australian Open tennis. A piece of hand painted, sun printed and now hand quilted fabric (made in the Lisa Walton 'Textured Treasures' workshop held at our Vickery Quilt and Craft Retreat late last year). I will frame it for hanging at Vickery.

Quilters Lunch

Can't really call it Christmas lunch as we had to delay until January to find a convenient date for everyone! Had a lovely afternoon at Karyn's, thanks, and shared some fun and interesting Kris Kringle gifts.