Back to the UK ..... Ferret Fabrications

You may have seen the work of another award winning UK quilter, Ferret, in a recent issue of Down Under Quilts, and or The Quilter magazine - here is her website, Ferret Fabrications, that includes a link to her blog, where you can see some of her work as it develops - fascinating.

Check out the "portfolio" link for photos of Ferret's work, including some very detailed close-ups. You've got to love her interpretation of "Baltimore Beauty"!

Some traditional quilts and quilting history

The Quilt Index is "a growing research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to information and images about quilts held in private and public hands."

From The Collectors Weekly - The History of American Quiltmaking: An Interview with Merikay Waldvogel, Part One and Collecting American Quilts: An Interview With Merikay Waldvogel, Part Two

Two blogs for those interested in more traditional and antique quilts and fabrics:

Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE - Information from a quilt historian about quilt fabric past and present

Inspired by Antique Quilts

Moda Bakeshop

The Moda Bakeshop is a rich array of precut fabric - jelly rolls, layer cakes etc, and "recipes" for using them - lots of lovely photos.

Ingrid Press

Ingrid Press is an impressive UK quilter who exhibited at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in 2009, where Sarah Fielke interviewed her for a Guest Corner page on the Sewn website, with excellent photos of her stunning work.

Ingrid belongs to the group Hanging Together - click on the members button and "Ingrid Press" to see eight of her works (some of which are on the Sewn page as well).

Bernina blog: Clean machines and other good information

Bernina maintains a blog for users, attached to their website. This entry, on the importance of regular cleaning of your machine (whether it is a Bernina or not), is "doing the rounds" in blogland, as people are amazed at what can be found in sewing machines.

More on American Barn Quilts

If you liked they story here about American barn quilts, you might enjoy this blog too:

Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail, that is documenting Suzi Parron's preparation of her book on the subject.

Quilting Treasures

A new (or at least a newly discovered) machine quilting service is operated by Christy Wang at Pymble. Christy has a comprehensive website about the services she offers here: Quilting Treasures

New books in our library ....

Having access to a whole library of books, magazines, DVDs and patterns is a wonderful benefit of belonging to a quilting group like Fairholme.

Something to look forward to when we return to our regular quilting meetings after the break - two fabulous new additions to our library:

Visual Coloring

is reviewed here.

Summer quilt sightings

A lovely quilt (or maybe some quilted cushions?) are the backdrop for a large photo on p. 5 of this morning's Sydney Sun-Herald - the babies are cute too!

And from summer reading and watching ....

In the 2009 Australian movie, My Year Without Sex, a large quilt hangs above bed in the main characters' bedroom.

The Golden Dress, by Marion Halligan - a late chapter uses a scrap bag and potential quilt as a metaphor for a character's troubled thoughts .....

...... The mind is a bulging ragbag of scraps and patches; you may intend one day to make out of it a quilt pieced and patterned of the kind that gives symbolic order to women's lives in books and movies these days, whose construction was always a skill and a craft and is now an art too, snapping up considered trifles and making beautiful orderly meaningful patterns out of them. With names like Wedding Ring, Log Cabin, Happy Homes - names that comfort. And some less obviously so: Drunkard's Path, Broken Dishes, turning difficult realities into cosy objects. But in the meantime its an old bag shoved into the back of the linen cupboard, stuffed with tatty scraps that you no longer even recognise.

.......an earlier chapter heading "The Rose Quilt" appeared to refer to a bedspread rather than a quilt.

Lots of quilted garments, or parts of garments in The Tudors, Season 3 (as there are in Seasons 1 and 2)

Some references to quilted jackets in Wolf Hall (2009 Mann-Booker Prize winner, a novel about Thomas Cromwell) - and the painted Tudor Rose on the cover could be appliqued, couldn't it ......?

Madeit

Now obviously we all make our own quilts, so we might not be big purchasers, but the online Australian market MadeIt could be useful for selling those excess projects that just don't have a particular home to go to, or to refer those people to, who ask you about making them a quilt, but you are not able to oblige for various reasons.

MadeIt calls itself "the handmade market that is open all day every day". The press page gives more information. There is a discrete "quilt" category, but others are listed under "Babies and Children" as "bedding".

There's even a blog, with some great ideas and instructions.

A bit like an Etsy shop or a SEWnSELL shop, but a little more like a an online market stall, with ready access to everyone else's stalls ...... just what you need!

Quilt puzzle

Happy New Year!

Here's an online jigsaw of an applique quilt that might keep you amused for a few spare minutes (it took me 8 minutes and 31 seconds, which doesn't seem to be very fast .....)