Surface Design Quilted Postcard

I hardly ever use the decorative stitches on my machine, which is kind of sad.  If you have them, you might as well use it.

I then recently saw this video by Karen Linduska on You Tube and even though I am not making promises which I know I will break, not a bad idea to start thinking about making a couple for Christmas.  

Even though Karen says it can be mailed I am rather skeptical about doing this in South Africa.  So if I ever get to make a couple, it would go with the gifts I hand to people personally.  Take a look at her video.

Jigsaw Puzzle Quilt Pattern

I found this lovely pattern on the website of About.com Quilting.

Using the “H” quilt block, this can be assembled in a jiffy.  To see the full instructions, click HERE.

Photos from the 15 August 2013 quarterly meeting

A huge thank you to Frances van der Walt for taking these photos.  Nice to have those reliable crutches in any guild.  Much appreciated Frances!

Martie Botha's quilt was chosen as the viewers' choice.  Congratulations!

Iessie Steenberg's landscape quilt from a class by Elaine Barnard

Wilna Geel's entry for the quarterly challenge

Amanda Palvies' take on the Marilyn Pretorius handbag

And the winner of the challenge with her Marilyn Pretorius handbag, Amanda Palvie

Alta Stemmet's handbag from her class with Marilyn Pretorius

Crocheted blanket also by Alta Stemmet

Twinchies by Elsa van Coller

Anina Louw's quilt from a class by Macky Cilliers

A friendly welcome with a nice gift to all

Reminder - Quarterly meeting

Just a friendly reminder that we will have our quarterly meeting again this Thursday, 15 August 2013 08:30 for 09:00

Fichardtpark Church Hall, Altona Drive, Fichardtpark

Fabric Trays

I hope all South African ladies enjoyed a lovely Women's Day on Friday.  I spent the whole day in my PJ's and found this tutorial while doing as little as possible for as long as possible.

These little trays can simply be used for any and everything and such a quick and easy gift to make.

I found the tutorial on the website of Noodlehead and to see how it is done, click HERE.

Ragtime quilt

Karin and I have been threatening to make a ragtime quilt for forever but we just never get to it.  Amanda Jean from the blog Crazy Mom Quilts shares one way of doing this with a stunning end result.

To see how fast and easy this can be whipped up, take a look at her tutorial over HERE.

Thank you Iessie

First a sincere 'thank you' to Iessie who has been so kind to partially take over my duty of writing the blog.  Unfortunately for me, life got in the way but taking one step at a time, life might just give me a breather somewhere along the line again.

Then the reason for me popping in was this lovely blog post by one of the international teachers on our festival.  We thank you for your wonderful and kind words Maggie and it was great having you here.

Read Maggie Ball's blog entry over HERE.

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope -7

The committee and I are very proud of our achievement. We reached our goal in organizing a friendly, affordable festival. We have received many wonderful compliments that far outweigh the mistakes made in the Workshop Program. The committee members of Wanda Carmichael were our best advisors and supporters who went the extra mile to pave the road for a successful National Quilt Festival in Bloemfontein. As no-one on our committee has ever been involved in organising a festival on this level, we would like to extend more than the average appreciation to these women. Well done to my committee and all those who helped us! It was an honour for me to serve as the chairlady of the Festival 2013 committee and to work with such a willing and dedicated group of ladies who wanted to make a success of our festival.

Thanks to my team!

Iessie Steenberg

And also a word of thank from the chairlady of the Oranje Kwiltersgilde.

Marianne le Roux

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope - 6

We were made to feel very welcome in the Eunice hostel and it was very comfortable. The meals were tasty and adequate!

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope - 5

Our three evening functions were sold out and turned out to be outstanding successes. The décor created a wonderful vibrancy and the food was simply delicious! Handmade gifts were the cherry on the cake at every function. The wares the vendors shared with us, spoilt us with the variety they provided.

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope - 4

The Teaching Applications for our festival have far exceeded our expectations. Thirty teachers from all over South Africa and two teachers from overseas were invited. The very talented teachers offered a variety of techniques at all skill levels and overall the feedback was very positive and it seems as if the workshops were thoroughly enjoyed. Bookings made through Computicket made the control of class lists as well as entrance to the lectures easy. Children from the Jeugsorgsentrum and women from Botshabelo attended the Outreach classes and Marline Turner, a very experienced teacher, taught them. These women are familiar with quilting, so the aim of this particular workshop was to broaden their exposure. These workshops were sponsored by members of the Oranje Quilter’s Guild and taken that the excitement could hardly be contained; I would say that it was money well spent. We followed the example set by Alive with Colour to offer “Kids can Quilt” classes. At first, it seemed to be not so well received, but were eventually, during the festival, filled by enthusiastically girls of 9 – 12 year olds.

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope- 3

With all the entries we received for the competition, our Quilt Exhibition housed a breathtaking variety of colour, size and techniques. The hundreds of visitors that attended our exhibition were motivated and encouraged by the wonderful works of art.

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope -2

Our expectations were exceeded as we welcomed all most 700 registered delegates from around the country and from as far as the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Sweden, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe! We were overjoyed when our daily visitors count reached 1000 before week’s end.

National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope

It is an honour and privilege to stand in for Hettie, author of our blog.  She is helping out at their business.

Hettie asked me to do a sort of review on our Quilt Festival; therefore I will take it on as good as possible. My idea is to take it from an overall view back to where we have started – in reverse then.

The Quilt Festival was held in Bloemfontein, Free State, at the Eunice High School from 1 – 6 July 2013.  This proved to be an excellent venue and we utilized the facilities to our best advantage. We are grateful that both the school and hostel made their facilities available to us.  They walked the extra mile for us and were very accommodating. 

After a period of two years, organizing the 17^th National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope - the committee is very satisfied with the goals that we have attained.

The main aim of the committee was to organize a welcoming, warm, friendly and affordable festival for all quilters from around the world, but mainly from South Africa. Our committee consisted of 21 women, represented the different quilting groups of our Oranje Quilter’s Guild.   

The entire committee met only four times a year – due to long distances.  At these meetings, it was expected from each member to give a full report and update on her portfolio. Each member was completely responsible for the planning and fundraising regarding her specific portfolio and was encouraged to have a sub-committee to assist with all the necessary arrangements.  

Due to Bloemfontein infamous cold winters, we feared the worst regarding attendance, but quilters came prepared!  Our expectations were exceeded as we welcomed all most 700 registered delegates from around the country and from as far as the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Sweden, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe!  We were overjoyed when our daily visitors count reached 1000 before week’s end.