A donated collection of 2 1/4” strips, used to make a simple but striking 480-square checkerboard by Lynette. |
The large scale floral backing fabric is from our community stash. |
A donated collection of 2 1/4” strips, used to make a simple but striking 480-square checkerboard by Lynette. |
The large scale floral backing fabric is from our community stash. |
… till 18 - 19 May, and our 40th Anniversary Quilt Exhibition!
The quilts are made, the display is mapped out, the white gloves are laundered, the craft items are beautifully packaged, and sensibly priced, the shops are booked - 60 Stitches, Sew Can I, and Fortunes and Fairies. Hornsby District CWA have the cafe organisation under control, and the raffle tickets are ready for you to buy. |
‘Looked At… And Overlooked’ pays homage to remarkable women whose achievements have been excluded from successive histories written by men. Curator Mary Brown has brought together a phenomenal group of creatives and thought leaders to produce stories about fascinating women, spanning ancient Byzantine to the present, and share them through this exhibition of spectacular textile art. |
Annandale. Community Centre (‘Back Hall’) 79 Johnson Street Annandale |
www.craftalive.com.au/events/newcastle/ |
The Sewing Basket is holding its inaugural Big Basket Sale! Browse through over 15 stalls of 100% donated goods at very affordable prices. Unique fabrics, patterns, embroidery materials, knitting and crochet yarn, haberdashery, and more. |
It is hand appliqued and quilted. |
Lynette was told that the demand for Hawaiian quilts is now such that some of the work is outsourced to stitchers in The Philippines (and acknowledged on the quilt labels). |
Jeni’s very stylish bag is hand stitched in Japanese Kogin stitch (counted Sashiko) using beautiful soft dark grey Japanese linen with leather handles. |
A pretty hydrangea print pouch, made by Daphne. |
Julie’s Canadian quilt (first described here) is completely finished! |
Not all the blocks made for the front were needed there, but they do very well on the back. Quilted by Sue Olma. |
AQC (Australasian Quilt Convention) is in full swing in Melbourne over four days including this weekend, and there is so much to see and do. For those of us not able to be there, some of the quilt exhibitions are previewed online, with great photography, and the award winners have been posted.
Australian Quilt Show Award Winners - best of show, plus fifteen categories
Best of Show Grand Prize: ‘Tathra Wharf’, Gloria Loughman
Runner Up: ‘Mexican Hats’, Susan Sheath
Check these out, click on the thumbnail images to see the full design:
‘Oh My Stars’ 2024 Challenge - award winners and finalists
A Travelling Selection of QuiltCon - spectacular quilts from QuiltCon – the largest modern quilting event in the world, hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild, in Raleigh, USA in 2024.
SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) ‘Colour in Context - Red’ - an exhibition of international textile artworks exploring the theme of RED.
Many of us really enjoyed the first New Quilt exhibition in 2021, a beautifully curated show in the fantastic Hawkesbury Regional Gallery. This year we have additional pleasure of seeing our Life Member Val Nadin’s work in the exhibition - congratulations on being juried into this exhibition. Well worth a visit to historic Windsor.
From the Quilt NSW Newsletter, April 2024
Laura contributes so much to our community quilts collection by longarm machine quilting so many of our quilts, it is a pleasure to have one of her own quilts to showcase. Her spectacular version of ‘Antelope Canyon’ (designed by Laurie Shifrin) was made for a family member. |
It was quilted with a design developed especially for the quilt pattern. The dramatic pieced design, for which there are a number of layouts, is made without curved pieces, using a modified log cabin process |
Pat has worked on this beauty on and off for several years. The appliqué centre and borders are from different patterns, requiring quite a bit of thinking! It eventually all came together, and has been expertly quilted by Laura Ujhazy. |
Quilted by Laura Ujhazy. |
All the fabric, including this fabulous backing is from Jo’s stash. |
The elongated hexagons between the tumbling blocks in Julie’s latest quilt make its construction more complex than it looks. It provides negative space that gives the design lightness and highlights the use of tone in the tumblers. |
Then they had to be aligned in the regular sequence Julie preferred. |
It’s all worked beautifully, complimented by Sue Olma’s quilting. |
‘It’s just clamshells’ said Marilyn. It’s a bit more than ‘just’ clamshells! |
The clamshells are dainty (more than 500 of them!) but the quilt is big. Many, many beautiful fabrics. |
Beautifully quilted by Cathie Calvert. It is magnificent. |
Miriam’s crocheted fabric bags have inspired Daphne to make a cotton yarn version using two strands of yarn, for a more stretchy finish. |
We swooned over the very chic Paris print that Julie used for the centre for this small quilt, and its pastel borders. |
Some reading, listening and viewing for the Easter long weekend, or the cooler weather coming.
Let’s talk about sewing to survive, with Lucy Adlington
Most of us sit at our sewing machines for pleasure. Now try and imagine sewing because your life depends on it? Today’s guest, Lucy Adlington is the author of ’The Dressmakers of Auschwitz’. It’s a chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps … Interview, Karen Brown, Just Get It Done Quilts (Link from Chris Rollison - thank you).
How to make an Australian quilt
From convicts on the high seas to the CWA ladies of Scone, we celebrate the stories of hope, love and courage behind the families and communities who have sewn some of Australia’s most exquisite quilt … Samantha Trenoweth, Australian Women’s Weekly, March 2024.
If you’re preparing a quilt to be sent to a longarmer, you may be wondering what steps you should take in order to get your quilt ready.
Here are the five simple steps I ask all of my longarming clients to complete before they mail me their projects … Ma Tante Quilting, 2024Includes links to a downloadable version of the checklist and a video version.
… You can feel the joy in these works, the wildness, the bravery. We have reclaimed the word ‘Untamed’ to mean free. A sense of freedom from the restraints of any rules or ideas that have inhibited our ability to express ourselves. Embroidery has moved into a new space where we can celebrate the traditional while pushing into new territory with fibre and mark-making that honors our creative souls … Fleur Woods, Joyful Embroidery Student Exhibition 2024, Fibre Arts Take Two.
If you’d like to read even more about Fleur Woods and her Joyful Embroidery course, visit The Maker’s Stash blog for Leela’s interview with Fleur, her thoughts on Fleur’s book, and her experience of doing the course.