Merry Christmas to you all

Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

Before I greet you, to take somewhat of a break from writing our blog and obviously to rest a little.  I'd like to leave you with something to think about for the new year.

Now you might know I do love to free-motion.  I would much rather skip the piecing process if I can only get to do the free-motion work.

Sewcalgal has a free-motion challenge starting in 2012 and in block of the month style, it promises to teach you to do this.

You can pledge to participate in this, see how your fellow participants are doing, post photos or just do it to improve your own skills.

To read more or to take the pledge, click HERE

May you have a blessed festive season and the New Year one to remember for years to come.  I should be back posting mid January 2012.

Coin Purse or Thimble Holder

The worst part about getting older for me is the fact that I get slower.  Way back when I would say AND do something like "Today I'm going to sort out all the cupboards in my house."  Now I'd say "Today I'm going to TRY and sort out my bathroom cupboard" and half the time it would not be finished in a day.

Okay, so way back when I envied ladies that always had a gift ready for any occasion (my mother!!).  When invited to a barbecue, dinner, tea or whatever they'd quickly dig into the gift drawer to find something appropriate to take to the hostess or friend.  My wish to be like that 'one day', stayed a wish and getting slower by the day, I guess it will stay that way.

When I saw this tutorial I thought of my moms' gift drawer and I could see how she'd make and have these ready for a sudden occasion.

So to all the organized ladies out there, this one is for you.  Click HERE to find the tutorial.

And the winner is........

I promised to draw the winner of our blog give-away today, so after only receiving 4 comments, here it goes.  To be fair, I used a random number generator I found on Google here to pick a number between 1 and 4 and this was the result.

The person to leave the second comment on this post was Natasha van Zijl from the Rotary Cutters group.

This was the first photo of Natasha that I could find on my computer and this lady is at this stage still totally unaware of her win.  So I guess I better phone her quickly.

Congratulations Natasha!!

Christmas tree made from fabric scraps

Now look at this beaut offered as a free tutorail to us by Teresa from "My Patchwork" blog.

Geez, some people simply are born creative.  Find this tutorial by clicking HERE.

Our first blog give-away

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Remember my post on 25 September of this year?  Don't recall, then take a look at it again HERE

I promised a blog give-away to any of the members of the ORANJE QUILTERS' GUILD who leaves a comment to this post.

Now this is the lovely gift given to me by Karin de Villiers to give to one of our members commenting on this post.

If you've never quilted with these gloves I can guarantee you it is a MUST have and if you already use them, you'll understand why this is such a lovely gift.

So try your luck and treat yourself to an early Christmas gift by leaving a comment.  You can simply say that you'd like to win or tell me why you'd like to win and I will do a random draw this Friday, 9 December 2011.

What a pity I can't enter myself!!

Elephant Softie tutorial

Ah! ain't this cute?  Watch me, once our 2013 National Quilt Festival is over I am going to reread our blog and actually make most of these pretties I share with you.

Won't this just make the sweetest gift for any little one?  Okay, now I have myself worried here..... I don't even like 'little ones'.  Old age getting to me?

This tutorial is by Jessica Christian over at Riley Blake Designs and you can find it by clicking HERE.

Machine binding a quilt

Now I honestly believe there is only one way to finish a binding, the right way......... by hand BUT I know a couple of quilters who prefer not doing anything by hand and are looking for ways to machine bind a quilt.

Amanda-Jean shared her way of doing a binding by machine on her blog over HERE

I hope you find this helpful but then again.... you only finish a binding ONE way, the right way!!

Crochet Turkey pattern

I almost forgot to post today.  If Karin didn't mention their blog it would have slipped my mind.  I've been up most of last night and today taking care of a Cockatiel struggling to breath and luckily my daughter came off work just now to give me somewhat of a break, so here goes today's post.

Even though I can't crochet I know a lot of quilters in our guild who can, so this one is especially for you.

I know we don't celebrate Thanksgiving but heck if we can have chicken decorations; why not turkeys?

I found this pattern on the Craft Passion website and you too can get it, by clicking HERE

Chevrons quilt design

Ah! Friday again and although my weekend started with the most horrible smell coming from the kittens' sandbox in my sewing room, I have it under control now and intend to enjoy the rest.  Hope you can too.

Have you wondered what that 45degree line on your ruler was for?  Now you can put it to good use.  Hyacinth Quilt Designs has this easy to stitch tutorial for a Chevrons quilt.

I would not have bothered to put the thin strips in between but I guess it is far more eye-catching this way.

Find the tutorial by clicking HERE.

Cathedral Window Quilt

Less than 3 weeks ago I shared a very old video on You Tube with a couple of quilters showing them a quilt called Circle Magic and here I found the instructions again today at Moda Bakeshop.

The difference between the two is that this one gets batting.  Looks easy enough I'd say.  For the full tutorial, click HERE.

Patchwork Christmas tree

Now this is a Christmas ornament I would not mind having.  Remember I said I am not really into the whole decorating over Christmas thing?  This won't cause a mess, is practical and with it being patchwork, right up my alley.

Theresa shared this lovely pictorial with us on her blog and you can find the instructions on how to put this together by clicking HERE.

Christmas stockings tutorial

While I browsed Debs’ blog I found another tutorial again with a video showing how she created this.  Read the blog with the video by clicking HERE.

Liberated Checkerboard Block

I promised a couple of local quilters to show this block quite some time ago and here it finally is.  Sorry about the delay, as they say "life happens while you are making other plans."

Now this picture might not look like much but do check out Sophie's blog to see all the possibilities when playing with colors.

For full instructions with pictures, read all about this on Sophie's blog, by clicking HERE.

Invitation to Teachers

Dear Quilting Teacher

The Oranje Quilters' Guild is the hosts of the 17th National Quilt Festival 2013 (Kaleidoscope).  We would like to invite you to submit your CV and full details of proposed workshops, lectures or talks for consideration by our committee.

Mari Strydom
Coordinator Teachers

To view, download and print Mari's full invitation document, please click HERE or HERE

Pocket Tissue holder

Deb from the blog ‘debzpicady’ went one step further when she made a tutorial for this little pocket tissue holder by sharing it on a video.

Where o where do people find time to do all of this?  Go to this blog post by Deb to watch the video.

Fourth and final quarterly guild meeting for 2011

Yip, another year on its back - scary how fast time seems to run out if you need more.  I arrived slightly late at the meeting and when I saw the amount of cars outside and could hardly find a parking I knew we surely


must have a record attendance.

As can be seen on the next photo, I wasn't wrong.  Thank you ladies for making a plan to attend this meeting.  Good to see so many of you here.

Appropriate to this time of the year, the theme was Christmas and a big tree with dangling balls welcomed us at the entrance.  We could each take a ball and some were marked in a special way which formed part of the lucky draws.

The hot weather called for juice as alternative drink and the beautiful bouquet of roses matched the festive seasonal colors.

Our guild can surely not complain about the amount of and variety offered by the vendors at every meeting and with this good attendance I honestly hope it was worth their while having to pack and drive for our convenience.

The quilts on display never disappoint and as one newbie quilter (Jolita Geel) put it:  "I get depressed when I see these as I then know I still have SO much I still want to do."  Jolita, I think we all feel the same.

The winner of the viewers' choice this term was Lulu Marais with her Heart quilt designed by Iessie Steenberg.

Then our quarterly challenge was "My prettiest Christmas quilt" and although there were only a few entries, they were all equally lovely.

The winner of this term's challenge was, Wilna Geel, with this quilt.  Well done, Wilna (and by the way she is not at all related to the Jolita Geel I mentioned earlier).

We had yet another winner, this time of the PFAFF Lotto Blocks for the term and friend Karin was the lucky one!

Oops, no wait!  This is not Karin - anyone could have made this mistake, don't you agree?

This little chap is one bred by fellow quilter, Karin van Graan, who sells them as pets or they can be trained to help the disabled.  He however was really ill; therefor Karin had to bring him along to keep a watchful eye on him.  So adorable don't you think?

Now this is the real winner, Karin de Villiers and look how glad she was to win this - she threatened to cry should she not win, so I know a couple of us, gave the blocks we made under her name and furthermore half the attendees prayed when the name was drawn.  No one really wanted to see Karin in tears.

And here, all the blocks she won packed out on her bed.

Monkey breeder, Karin van Graan, gave our demonstration for the day.  Remember those little balls on the Christmas tree when we came in?  She told us step-by-step how to make and decorate these still in time for this Christmas.

See this relaxed smile on Mariëtte Venter's face?  She's all done with her job for our National Festival in 2013.  Mariëtte had to think of, plan, set rules, type and distribute the challenge for the festival and she's DONE!  Mariëtte also told us that 75% of these are already sold - great stuff Mariëtte, you did well.

The lady in the photo with Mariëtte, is none other than our one and only guilt judge in the Free State, Frances van Schalkwyk and a huge thank you to Frances for sponsoring the printing of the challenge entry forms.  Always lovely to have a couple of 'richies' amongst us.

Chairperson, Marianne le Roux, congratulated Anne Strauss on her winning quilt at the Stellenbosch National Festival and handed her a Master Quilter badge.  We are so proud to have someone by the likes of Anne in our midst.  You can see her quilt in our August 2011 newsletter by clicking HERE

Another Master quilter in our guild is none other than 'tannie' Rina Schutte.  What a lady, when I grow up, I hope to be just like her.

Another festival portfolio holder, Mari Strydom, need not look as serious as she did on this photo as her job too is already set and going.  Mari is in charge of teachers and her application forms, for all teacher interested in teaching at the festival, is ready to be sent off.  You make it look so easy, Mari.

However, Frances van der Walt, (portfolio Registrations) can type, think and plan as fast as she wishes to be I think we'll still have to wait a couple of years to see a big, relaxed smile on her face.  Hang in there Frances at least you know there are a couple of us not smiling yet!

Main brain, Iessie Steenberg (coordinator of our 2013 National Quilt Festival) has it all under control and as you can see even her outfit and jewelry match her roll.  If you got it, flaunt it!

Now if you ever wonder about us suffering under Iessie's management, do wonder please.  This woman moves forward like a well oiled military vehicle, firing out orders like bombs being launched.  If you don't get me yet, let me give you this example of how things are asked from us.

"Right people, we have x amount of groups in this guild, good?  (don't ever forget the 'good' at the end of every sentence).  Now I've given each group a portfolio, good?  Well read through the rules and raise enough funds to get the job done.  Good?  Meeting adjourned, thanks ladies."

The 'good' and the raising of funds is REALLY true, but at the rate Karin de Villiers (Goody Bags) is raising money, we'll soon receive change from her portfolio which ought to lessen our burden - thanks Karin, but back to Iessie.

I often say to whoever wants to listen, the one thing we all can say about Iessie is that she won't ever expect anything from you, if she herself, is not 100% prepared to help, pay, buy, sponsor, make and work until the wee hours of the morning to get something done.  Now 'good' or not, who would not be prepared to support such a leader?  Thanks Iessie, you are doing a humongous job!

Iessie then introduced guest speaker, Sudré Havenga from the National Museum in Bloemfontein who absolutely has a passion for her job (thanks Wilna for this description) and told us in detail how to treat, store and handle our quilts to save these for future generations.

Here is a pieced nightgown from the museum shown as part of Sudré's talk.

Now all our guild groups are slowly beginning to wind down their activities for the year to give everyone time to spend the summer holidays and festive season with their families.  I too will be taking a break from writing our blog during December and early January.