Quilting -one step forward, a few tiny steps in the same direction

Last weekend I took a giant step forward and attended my first Community Quilting Bee. 

There were about 15 of us all working on various stages of quilts to be donated. According to the WAQA newsletter this group has donated 226 quilts in the last 3 months to a range of recipients including the Fiona Stanley Hospital Neo-Natal unit, Oncology and State Rehabilitation Unit, Foster Care Services, King Edward Memorial Hospital (our local maternity hospital) Solaris and Renal Units and Multiple Sclerosis. 

I chose a UFO from a pile waiting to be worked on, which turned out to be a very pretty top made with blocks in a a variety of colours with a lot of white and blue, so I created a back to go with it, and cut out the binding.

At lunchtime we saw some quilts that had been donated, and were given the instructions to make the quilt above, which they called "Square in a Square" in a variety of sizes. It looks pretty easy when you know that the only trick is to only partially sew the first seam, so that you can complete it when the other 4 blocks are sewn on. Hard to describe but easy when you have been shown.

I rather shyly handed over one of my previously made quilts (read about it here) , and I am pleased to say it was well received. This is a picture of it below.

The community quilting group was having a sale of fabric for the price of $10 a kilo! I was thus able to improve my very bare collection of greens, with a nice bunch of new-to-me fabrics. Later I bought a 'surprise bag" of things in blue -which included some nice fabric and some thread too. So it was a nice addition to my stash.

I enjoyed the group and the sewing, and it feels so good to help someone else, so I am sure I will be going there again.  

My sewing room tidy up has just about finished, and took a surprise turn when I saw an appeal on a local group for a sewing machine for a young person learning to sew and whose residence was with her grandmother. They didn't have a lot of money to spend on the sewing machine, so I gave them my Singer 328 sewing machine as I do not often use it. I hope the young person is enjoying it and taking care of it! In honour of the space thus liberated in my sewing room, I tidied up underneath the sewing table! 

I now have discovered a LOT of fabrics  I had forgotten about. Everything is now sorted into colours and is easy to find. I even discovered a lot of 4 patches I had made, and got an inspiration to use them with a bundle of charm pack squares I had never used, so that looks like a very easy baby quilt which I could put together with a flannel backing, for the community quilt group.

I am slowly progressing withe 'bricks and stepping stones" quilt made of shirts. The fabric is a bit challenging, but I am about 2/3rds of the way through the blocks. It will go together quickly when I get the black and white four patches done. I really should try to move this along -it has been a bit slow! Mind you, I have been spending a lot of time in the garden lately- the weeding is mostly done, and we have done some pruning and propagating.

I am off on another adventure later this week. Our third grand child looks like arriving early, and I will be travelling to Victoria to offer a bit of a hand with the other two, and then travel back to Perth a fortnight later with them and their mum. Should be an exciting time!