Group One - the Wednesday Girls

And so the Wednesday Girls (plus one) arrived at Quilt Camp - at least everyone but Sophie who had a pressing engagement in town and had to arive on Saturday morning. This mysterious excursion earned Soph alot of ribbing, but we'll leave that alone!

Kate, Fiona, Elise, and Amber were all duly installed, as well as our wonderful friend and accountant Kathy de Palo. Kathy is a featured quilter in this month's Down Under Quilts, so watch out for a blog on that in coming days!

Now, the main problem with this group as I see it is that I am their teacher, but they all chose to do one of Kath's quilts, the pack of traitors. Only kidding, but with Kate doing Fanciful Flowers, Fiona doing Liberty Fields, Amber doing Girlfriends Galore, Sophie doing Stripping Vine and Elise doing Dorothy Grace, I think I can be forgiven for the comment! I'm going to retire now, I know when I'm not loved. :( Just kidding.

Everyone made amazing progress, with some standout achievements. Amber and Elise mastered inset piecing and diamonds, and Sophie learned to machine piece, having pieced and quilted her first quilt entirely by hand. Something tells me that after putting two blocks together in twenty minuites instead of sixty, she won't be going back either! Kate learned the value of careful cutting and accurate seams, and got her blocks together so beautifully we were all proud. Fiona pieced her Liberty Fields blocks together with her usual speed and neatness! And Kathy created some beautiful liberated blocks from a bundle of orange fabrics she's been hoarding for the purpose. We do need to let her know though that the block she lost never turned up, and we suspect that after several Cointreau's she may actually have pieced it to another one and cut it in half, and not lost it after all!

Much laughter and stitching, much drinking and eating of chocolate and then the girls were off again to Sydney, their three days over much too quickly. And Kath, Carolyn and I were left with a bonus 24 hours on our own before the next group arrived! You'd think we would have relaxed, but actually we sewed.... how did you guess? Group two tomorrow...... :) Sarah

Fiona's Liberty Fields blocks

Kath and Amber hard at work on night one

Kate's beautiful blocks and below, hard at work

Is sewing after dinner a good idea? We find out just how much wine you can consume and then sew a straight line

Amber triumphs over those inset seams

Kath gives Fiona a ruler demo

Sophie's Smashing Stripping Vine blocks

Kath and Amber put on their glasses for a little night time quilting!

Kath, Carolyn and Kathy "I Hate Having My Picture Taken" de Palo do the washing up

Elise with her completed and very funky Dorothy Grace quilt top

Kathy's slashed orange pieces, coming soon to a blog near you! We'll let you know when she's finished.