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How to JOIN quilting block swaps Australia

Hello and thank you for visiting. This is a community group for all Australian quilters to join or just follow. Membership is FREE and you are partnered each month and we make each other a 12 inch quilt block based on our preferences which we swap. (12.5 inches raw edge to raw edge) The emphasis of the group is on friendship and sharing. To find out more or register to join email me on quiltingblocks@hotmail.com This purpose of this blog is to chat and showcase blocks and quilts made by members, kind of like a show and tell . Yours in stitching, Sue



Thursday, August 30, 2012

Autumn blocks for Pam

Here are the Autumn sampler blocks that I made for Pam...hope you like them, they are in the mail to you tomorrow!

On the left is a "Split 9 patch" & on the right is a "Friendship Star"


Enjoy Pam!!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

SPRING FLING - GIVE AWAY

I am excited to proudly announce that the lovely ladies at the Fat quarter shop have donated this fabulous Amy Butler jelly roll for our

                                                                                                                                        give away.

 
 
The give away is open to
ALL MEMBERS
and
ALL FOLLOWERS
of Quilting Block swaps Australia
 
 
This is the new range - Cameo by Amy Butler
 I chose this as it is modern and fresh and should brush the cobwebs of winter away.
To enter simply pop a comment on this post and let me know what your favourite Spring cleaning job is and why. For two entries Blog about it and link your blog back to this post.
 
 
My favourite Spring cleaning job is the windows. 
 
I love it when the sun shines through them and they sparkle after I have cleaned the dusty old rain spots away.
 
 
 
 

This is a quick give away so better get cracking

Entries close midnight on September 1st 2012,
which is the first day of Spring in Australia
 
Winners announced on Sunday 2nd September
The Fat quarter shop will ship the prize direct to the winner so please make sure that your email address is attached to your post so we can contact you if you win. 
NOTE: Entries without a valid email address will be unfortunately not be able to be in the final draw.
 

August Block from Terry in CA

This is the lovely block I received from a fellow Californian today..I really love the Aqua she chose and she included these cute little bookmarks...its just beautiful, thank you so much Terry!

Hugs!  Julianne

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Finished Quilt - Well Quilt Top Anyway!

A quick post to share a photo of a quilt top I have finished using blocks from my lovely swap partners (and a few that I made to make a bigger quilt).  I wanted to give this quilt away for Christmas so thought I had better get cracking on it and get it put together, given I am a particularly slow finisher!


This shot shows the individual blocks better:


I would like to mention the lovely quilters who contributed their blocks. Assuming the blocks are numbered from left to right starting in the top row:
  • Block 2 - Leena L from NSW
  • Block 7 & 14 - Elaine from NSW 
  • Block 9 -  Beth H in Qld
  • Block 10 - Cathy C from SA
  • Block 12 - Sue B from SA- our group co-ordinator
Thank you to all my block swap partners.  I love the way its turned out.


The two blocks made by Elaine have become very special to me as sadly both she and her husband were killed in an accident in the month after sending me her blocks. I think of her every time I look at her blocks.  You just never know what is around the corner do you?  Rest in peace Elaine.


I will post a better photo once the quilt is eventually quilted and bound.

Sue

August Block Swaps

In August I had two lovely swap partners.  The first, Noelene in NSW asked for a log cabin in black on white and white on black. This is what I sent her:

and today I received this lovely block (and a very pretty colour co-ordinated card) from Noelene:

My second swap partner was Ruth who is new to the group this month.  Ruth is a long way away over in Idaho, USA. Ruth didn't have really firm guidelines about what she wanted but suggested a churn dash or a block with an Australian theme.  I managed to combine the two with this block:

I used some wildflower fabric I had from Leesa Chandler's range, Under the Australian Sun.

The postman also brought me Ruth's envelope today - today was a good day for squishy envelopes! She made not one but two blocks for me. She was worried her first one wasn't perfect so she made another one.  I can't even tell which one wasn't meant to be perfect as they are both lovely! Here they are:


Welcome to the group Ruth! Thank you to both Noelene and Ruth for my lovely blocks!

Sue

Better Late then never


I am a bad bad quilter.  I am behind on my block swaps and this post is to Vanessa to say sorry for the late July blocks but to make up for it you get 2.


Monday, August 27, 2012

August Block Received

Today I got my block in the mail from Donna.
Love it!




Best Wishes
Michell



A churn dash .....

Lori sent me this lovely churn dash ......


It will suit my collection perfectly

Thank you so much Lori... and for your very kind words....

and I sent this Bachelor Puzzle....


A new block to me and I had fun making it.....

Hugz from Fiona

Sunday, August 26, 2012

August Block for Julianne

Had a lot of fun making up Julianne's Swamp Angel Block this month--a much prettier block than it sounds ;)

Julianne requested red, black and aqua and I went for a little bit of a 'dot' theme too! Hope you like it Julianne, I sent it on it's way to you early last week.

Blessings
Helen

Carolyns blocks

The lovely Carolyn has made her August and September partners two blocks each, how lucky are they?

Here are August blocks that she sent to Vanessa


And here are the two fabulous blocks that she sent to Adelaide for September




Sunday sewing

I had a few hours to myself this afternoon, so I got my teeth stuck into this block for Karen.  As soon as I first saw this I could not wait for my turn to be her partner and give it a try.

I used some of my favourite Amy Butler lark fabric and love how it turned out.  I hope Karen likes it too.

shooting stars from Dawnelle

Hi All!
I've so enjoyed being back in the swap - and a big thanks to Dawnelle from the US for making me not one, but two beautiful blocks in August
Much love
Crafty
xx

August and September

For August I had Donna and she asked for any block sampler style, so I thought how about my favorite block..... a Pinwheel.  I even used some of my treasured Civil War reproduction fabrics too.

August to Donna

 Well I am pretty well onto it and have already completed my September block which I will post away with a few other swaps tomorrow.

Leena asked for Spools, with the thread as stripes.  I initially thought I had no striped material and was going to going shopping tomorrow but then found some this morning, so this afternoon have whipped one up.

Sent to Leena 

Hope you girls like them/


Best Wishes
Michell
.





Saturday, August 25, 2012

Tea Cup & Saucer for Robyn

This is a tea cup and saucer for Robyn for August. I have never done one before. It was very challenging.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Spring Fling

Winter is almost over down under,  although the weather in Adelaide (where I live ) over the past week has been nothing short of being in the thick of winter, with wind knocking over trees and power lines, ice and hail on the roads.  Good weather for baking, casseroles and of course sewing.

Spring is in the air though.  Lets hope I don't suffer to badly this season from the typical hay fever that the spring winds bring, with pollen thick in the air.



Daffodils are in the shops, new grass is sprouting in the gardens and the days are getting longer.  Now and then we get a glimpse of the sunshine teasing us that better days are on the way.

To celebrate Spring QBSA will be holding a spring themed give away sponsored by the lovely ladies at the Fat quarter shop.  I am in the final stages of confirming the gift and its sure to be a beauty to lift you out of the winter doldrums.  Stay tuned for that, details will be announced within the week.

I have just finished the mammoth job of sending out our September partners, with the emphasis this month being on communication. 

Every day I seem to receive an email from someone that they have not heard from so and so, and I am more happy to send you an email but all of this can be avoided if we simply talk to each other.  I do understand that sometimes life gets in the way, we are taken ill, have to suddenly leave town for something important so please be patient with each other.  Remembering that you have a whole month to make and send the block to your partner and they have the same time to get theirs to you.  Which means the cut off deadline for the August swap still technically has a week to go.
 

This month we have 94 members in our group with only 5 sitting out this months swap. So if you are reading this and thinking about joining there are only 6 places left before you may have to go onto a short waiting list.

 This month we only have one newbie to welcome -

 Cathy from Georgia USA.
 
 


Pinwheel for Jan



this is for Jan - Purple Pinwheel ;-)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Karen's (Sew Well Maide) Update

It has been a while since I have updated progress that has been happening in my Quilting Block Swaps Australia swap group.

Over the last few months I have received some wonderful blocks from my swap partners.  Now I know this would appear to be an Aussie block swap, and yes most of us are Aussies, but not all.  My august swap partner is in Portugal!!

The block my partners make for me is the Plaited Block - as described by The Quilter's Cache, a fabulous site of sooooo many free quilt block patterns (an lots of other stuff as well).  My colour stipulations are easy - white background and two bright colours for the 'plait'.

These are the wonderful blocks I have received so far:

 May block
Made by Helen Rhodes


June Block
Made by Deb Ariel


 
July Block
Made by Bobbie Bartlett
It's All About Me 


August Block
Made by Teresa Felgueiras
Quilting Stitching and Sew On 


I absolutely love them all and eagerly look forward to the quilt that they one day will become.  Just need to keep swapping for many more months.  Yay!



 These are a few of the blocks I have made for others.  The beauty of the swap is that you can let your partner know block and what type of fabrics you would like so it will fit in with your desired end project.


Until next time, happy quilting, knitting, sewing, crafting ....

 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Spring colours

I was partnered with Gerri for August. This is Gerri's first swap as part of QBSA and requested any block (no circles or odd shapes) in spring colours. I thought this Depression Block would be great to showcase lots of spring coloured fabric!

Jeneta

Saturday, August 18, 2012

I'm back from Bali

Hi everyone, and welcome to August. cold and wet and windy August if the weather that greeted me yesterday is anything to go by.

As most of you would know I have spent the last two weeks in hot and sunny Bali on a relaxing holiday with my DH, doing lots of nothing.  Most days it was a balmy 29 degrees.

We arrived home yesterday and I finally have a minute to jump online.  We did have the ipad with us, and I was on face book, and could read the blog, so I did visit many of you from my poolside sun bed.  However for some strange reason I could not log in to make a post or comment.

All of the dialogue on the blog was in Indonesian, and although I knew which button to press for log in it would not recognise my login ID or password. I could not read the help buttons to find translate so I had to be satisfied with just reading your blogs and being a visitor.



A fabulous milestone was reached on Facebook while I was away with us reaching 101 likes, which I set a target to get to by the end of the year so we romped that in.

In the next few days I will pop some holiday snapshots on my private blog Quilted hugs. My plan for tomorrow is to get the 6 inch swap partners out and sort out the partnerships in my inagural cushion swap, so if you missed out on registering for that one you have less than 24 hours before I finalise this and close of registrations.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Black,White and Red for Cathy

Cathy asked for a Churn Dash block in black and white with a touch of red. I know it has arrived so I can post this picture -


I can't resist making a mug mat with the same fabrics/colours. The red print is from Saffron Craig - truly beautiful fabrics.

From this month I've asked for a new block pattern and am looking forward to a pinwheel with purple.

Jan

Friday, August 10, 2012

Karen's block is on the way

I've just posted my August block. It's headed to Victoria in Australia, to my blog friend Karen P. I hope she likes it. I loved piecing it.


Thursday, August 9, 2012

My first block with the group is from Chantell. AWESOME!

Chantell did this awesome Log Cabin block for me for the month of July.  She said it was the first time she had ever done a Log Cabin block. I would have never thought it. She did an awesome job. I love the colors and the layout.  Thank you Chantell it's beautiful.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Blocks in and out

Adelaide sent me not one but two beautiful blocks last week.

004 (2)

And Pam also sent a lovely block and gift.


004

Thank you to both ladies for my great blocks…..

Pam requested any block in Autumn Colours.. I found this pattern in a Patchwork and Stitching Book Vol 9 No 2 called “Spinning Mieke” I am happy how it turned out.

001

Maria
http://maria-lifeontheblock.blogspot.com









Saturday, August 4, 2012

Pinwheel

This is the Pinwheel I received from Cathy aka Craftee CC for the July swap.

From Cathy


Love it