The last one for 2012 ...

A little late with this, but it can serve as a final salute to 2012's Pantone Colour of the Year, Tangerine Tango.  A quilt challenge, to feature tangerine in either a mini or larger sized quilt was announced in January, 2012, and the entries were posted to a Flickr group.

The winners were duly announced and can be viewed on the a.squared.w blog.

If you like tangerine, or orange in all its shades, this is a good way to see out 2012 on a quilting note.

(And if you are not so keen on tangerine, but love hexagon, check out Ali's Festival of Hexagons from the northern summer)

Alicia Merrett, UK quilt artist

Alicia Merrett's wonderful, colourful contemporary art quilts look fabulous online - imagine how good it would be to see them 'in the cloth'.  She is well represented in exhibitions in the UK, and across Europe, so if you are travelling there, that would be something to add to your itinerary.

Her website includes extensive galleries of her early and recent work, listings for classes, workshops and exhibitions, and you will find more on her blog, appropriately named Colour and Light.

One to book mark for a few free moments over the holidays, perhaps?

Old Government House: quilts on display

Old Government House at Parramatta has three quilts on display until 3rd February, 2013: the original and replica Frederica Josephson coverlets, and the Lady Mary Fitzroy incomplete hexie top.

Details and pictures are available on the Australian Quilt Study Group's blog - click on the images for a larger view.

Quilt history seminar

Back in September, Sue C, Jill and Loraine snapped up tickets for the sell-out NSW History Week seminar at the Castle Hill Discovery Centre (a storage and display facility of the PowerHouse Museum).  The theme for History Week 2012 was 'Threads', so there were a number of events with a textile bent.

Quilt historian Karen Fail delivered the main talk of the seminar on Aunt Clara's Quilt - a prized item from the Museums quilt collection. We were able to get up very close to the quilt (no touching, of course!), in the conservation room afterwards.  You can read about the seminar content, and see pictures here, on the Australian Quilt Study Group's blog, and you can find very detailed images of Aunt Clara's Quilt on the PowerHouse Museum website (the last of the 21 images is a better photograph of the whole quilt than the first one).

You might be surprised to see how extensive the PowerHouse Museum quilt collection is - the list of links under the 'similar objects' heading on the Aunt Clara's Quilt page.

The Discovery Centre is open monthly, and stages events regularly in school holidays - a great resource on our doorstep.

Gwen Marston visiting Australia 2013

Erica Spinks at Creative Dabbling has given advance notice of Gwen Marston's visit to Australia in July 2013 - expressions of interest are open, although details are not yet available.

In Sydney, she will be at Quiltsmith and at Cottage Quiltworks.

Pantone colour of the year 2013

Are you over tangerine (Pantone's colour of the year for 2012 was tangerine tango)? Or did you love it (many of us did)?

Either way, as the year rolls around to its end, the 2013 Colour of the Year has been announced, and we will see it in fabrics everywhere (and everything else) ... it is Pantone 17 - 5641 Emerald:

"Lively. Radiant. Lush… A color of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony."

The PANTONE name is known worldwide as the standard language for accurate color communication, from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer, across a variety of industries.Since 2000, Pantone has selected a colour of the year, that has wide influence on colour trends.

Final show-and-tell for 2012

Both our Monday morning and Tuesday evening groups have wrapped up for the year, with Christmas parties and and final 'show and tell' for the year.  Click on the images for a closer view.

Lyn's machine  quilt-as-you-go quilt, used up 'some' of her scraps.
 There was a lot of interest in how it was constructed, and a demonstration might planned for 2013 ...

The reverse of Lyn's QAYG quilt

Robyn's 'Beneath the Surface' (from our workshop with Lisa Walton earlier this year) is beautifully finished, embellished and expertly hand-quilted.

Jill's quilt top from our Power Stripping workshop with Brenda Gael Smith in November. Since it is Brenda's 'Tapestry" design it might be called 'Bush Tapestry' - but it will be quilted first.

Wrapping up Community Quilts for 2012

The last community quilts will be distributed over the next few weeks, including these two:

Made by Ros and Elaine

Put together by Dawn - the border required a little persuasion ... 

Elaine has suggested that members willing to sew for our Community Quilts program over the summer recess make 12 1/2" star blocks (any star design), from their stash, using fabrics that children will like.  Dawn has stolen a march with these two Northumberland Star blocks:

You can find a free pattern for a 12" finished - 12 1/2" unfinished - Northumberland Star block here

End-of-year challenges ... progress

It has become our custom at Fairholme to set ourselves a challenge in the last few weeks of the year, knowing that we will have a few weeks break over summer (when they can be finished off, if necessary!).

This year, the morning group made 20 more Blankets of Love - pictures will be posted when they are photographed - for donation to the program in the new year.

The evening group tackled a fabric challenge.  We each provided a fat quarter  and an instruction for what shape it should be used to create, in a brown paper bag, so that they could be drawn at random.  The challenge item was limited to a maximum of 24" square. Here is how far we had progressed by the evening of our Christmas dinner party:

Louise's challenge fabric was the light blue tone-on-tone. She paired it with rich reds and golds and included many small half-square triangles in her design. She is not sure how big it will finally be ...

Jill's challenge fabric was the red print. The circles that were stipulated emerged as representations of life  in an abstract pond.

Lynette decided to change her mind at the last minute, and deconstructed  temporarily ... the challenge fabric is the green print, from which it was suggested she might like to make circles or spirals. She has cleverly done both, and plans more ...

Pam found herself with green challenge fabric, an instruction to include a triangle or two, and a need for a quilted iPad cover.  This is the front opening ...

... the reverse ...

... and the business end, compete with stitched stylus pocket, and iPad!

Noelle took her dark print and 'wedge' requirement along to her class with Chris Jurd, and constructed  a complex beauty using foundation piecing. We know it will grow into something even more gorgeous.

Helen's light green/pink print challenge fabric is in the border and applique, but she was told to make triangles, so they are there too (and on the reverse, but the photo seems to have escaped).  The embellishment will continue ...

Elaine's challenge fabric is the light value print in her eight-pointed star, giving her the challenge diamonds she needed  ... she is auditioning pink/green/cream fabrics for the quilt's future progress, when she will have time to think and sew (she hopes!), while on long-service leave next year.

We all agreed that the combination of someone else choosing a fabric, specifying a shape and then working within a size constraint was a worthwhile and fun challenge ... mostly!