Festival of Quilts 2013 - Birmingham UK - Art Quilts - online video

Didn't get to Birmingham this year?  

Here is Luana Rubin's video tour of art quilts at the 2013 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham (UK), in two parts:

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Birmingham UK - Art Quilts - Part 1 (4m 52s)

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Birmingham UK - Art Quilts - Part 2 (4 m 02s)

• You will find more videos by Luana Rubin here

More quilts from us ...

Fairholme members shared three large quilts this week ... click on an image for a closer view.

Marilyn made a Star Wars quilt for her grandson (see this post) ... so her other grandson needed one too, naturally.

... Star Wars II reverse. What a lovely (and very cool) Grandma!

Robin S does very fine hand applique - these flowers, arranged like framed photographs, were stitched over many Monday  Fairholme meetings, with Robin's fabrics supplemented by some swaps within the group.

Robyn T has made many quilts, and that, of course, makes many scraps, ... with which to make more quilts, like this large beauty.

might we see these up close and personal  in our exhibition next April?

Thanks for the photos Sue.

Sunday opening hours at Craft Depot ...

... in Pennant Hills are changing from next week, (Sunday 1st September 2013) to

10.00 am - 2.00 pm

See more of '100 - celebrating Canberra' online

Jenny Bowker, a member of the tACTile group has written a substantial blog post about the current exhibition in Canberra, in celebration of the city's centenary, with lots of photos and information about the artists, for those unable to get there.

For the hexie-ists ...

The predilection for hexagons amongst Fairholme Quilters member has been noted! Want to make a cute pouch with hexies to keep your hexie-making stuff in?  A great excuse to make a few more hexies ...

Here's a neat, detailed tutorial written by Haley Pierson-Cox, from The Zen of Making - clear instructions, lots of photos, and links to two earlier tutorials on English paper piecing in case you've forgotten how to do it, or you just happen to be a hexie-virgin.

Image from The Zen of Making, with Haley's kind permission

Ballarat Patchwork closing down sale - in store and online

Ballarat Patchwork is closing on 12th October 2013, and has just announced a closing down sale:

• Ballarat Patchwork on Facebook

Ready for some more quilts online?

A selection from recent net surfing:

• Australian quilter Margaret McDonald's quilt Wrought, quilted by Susan Campell, has won Best Use of Colour - Traditional at the 2013 World Quilt Competition XVII in Manchester, New Hampshire. Margaret's website also includes an extensive galleries of her quilts.

• Images of the interesting award winning quilts from the American Quilt Society's recent Quilt Week Grand Rapids are now online, here. Click on each image for a larger, single view, then click again for a much larger, very sharp close-up.

• Jen Sorenson, at A Quilting Jewel has posted a great series of photos from the recent Lowell Quilt Festival, featuring the exhibition by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild. The gallery space looks spectacular.

• Studio Art Quilt Associates publishes a series of portfolios of members' work from time to time. Portfolio 19 has recently been released, featuring the work of 246 artists in very high quality images. The online version allows you to zoom in for very close-up views.

Community (not) sewing day, 15th August

We meet one day each month to work on community quilts, to be donated to various causes. Yesterday, eight of us got together for several hours, worked on quilting tasks all day, and did not sew a SINGLE stitch between us ... did not even turn a sewing machine on, or thread a needle.  But it was a productive day, nonetheless ... here's some of what we did: 

Lynette brought in this finished quilt - she added the graphic borders to a zingy fabric panel. quilted it and bound it in a toning orange for a perfect finish. We know she has a number of others in production, too - she is one of our most prolific community quilters.

In preparation for a workshop next month, Georgie, Ros, Barbara and Miriam had a wonderful time cutting fabric kits from our fabric stash ...

... the workshop participants who use the kits to learn a new technique will donate the blocks and/or tops back to the community project. Win - win.

We also pin basted a number of quilts, chose backing fabric and cut bindings and borders for several other works in progress, settled on the final block layout for a raffle quilt, manhandled a new roll of batting, did a little stash culling, and repacked the WHOLE fabric stash, fitting it ALL into the available containers.  Then we were pooped.

Sometimes we just have stop sewing to catch up with quilt-making.

We don't spend all our time going to quilt shows and exhibitions ...

Click on any image for a closer view

Robin W produced this beauty from her rich stash - hand pieced and hand quilted ...

... it needed a much closer inspection. Lovely backing fabric too.

Robin S bought this pattern on our last bus trip, as she was looking for something to do to use up scraps from her stash - what well coordinated 'scraps'!

Robyn T put these hexagons together from a Margaret Sampson George pattern ...

... she decided they needed to be on this bag, rather than in her quilt, and they look very happy there.

(Your name doesn't have to be Robin/Robyn to be member of Fairholme Quilters ...)

Canberra Quilters 2013 Members Exhibition - photos

Those Canberra Quilters are very organised - more than 50 photos from their exhibition this last weekend are already online, and both the photos and the quilts are a visual feast:

Members exhibition and Special Award winners

Thank you for sharing them us!

Berry Quilting Exhibition

Quilt show season is ramping up ... here's another one in early September, on the beautiful NSW south coast.

tACTile at Belconnen Arts Centre

100: Celebrating Canberra 

Friday 9 – Sunday 25 August 2013

The tACTile group comprising Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray, Beth Miller, with Beth and Trevor Reid working in partnership, are well known throughout Australia and internationally for their innovative art quilts. 

They have created 20 art quilts each, a total of 100 altogether, to provide a range of perspectives on Canberra as a people, place and designed city. Additionally, they have created a collaborative work that was inspired by the cycloramic panorama of the site of the future capital city painted by Robert Coulter.

“The tACTile artists work both individually and collaboratively. To reference the 100 years of Canberra's anniversary each artist has created 20 artworks, a total of 100, inspired by the city.

"Robert Coulter's cyclorama painting of the city site that may have informed the winning design of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin provided the inspiration for the collaborative artwork” explains textile artist Dianne Firth. Intricate stitching, squares or bright colour and layers of texture become the town centres, landscapes and landmarks of Canberra as created by artists in tACTile. 

The group was founded in 2001 by ACT-based textile artists to advance contemporary quiltmaking in Australia by exploring the opportunities of the art quilt. All the artists are individually acknowledged as leaders in the field of contemporary quiltmaking at local, national and international levels.

Free Public Program
Meet the Artists: Sunday 11 August 3pm
Join us for a conversation with tACTile artists Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray, Beth Miller, with Beth and Trevor Reid to learn more about the creation of their works in 100: Celebrating Canberra. 

Belconnen Arts Centre, 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen ACT

Opening Hours: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Tuesday – Sunday

Bernina Best of Show State Winners 2013 and Canberra Quilters exhibition

The Bernina Best of Show State Winners gallery for 2013 now features the winning quilts from Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria ... and will be shortly joined by Jenny Bowker's Earth, Air and a Memory of Water, announced today as the Best of Show in the ACT. Bernina has posted a photo on its Facebook page.

The results of judging at the 2013 Canberra Quilter In Annual Members Exhibition are now online, and photos are promised shortly. The show is now on until Sunday 11th August:

Excellent photos of the raffle quilt, are on the Canberra Quilters website, here.

Innovative quilts on display at EPIC - ABC TV News ACT, 10th August 2013

12/8/2013: Members exhibition and Special Award winners - photos online here

Epping Quilters exhibition: 6th - 7th September, Carlingford

More July community quilts ...

Click on any image for a closer view

Aren't these car, truck, bike, caravan fabrics cute? Barbara put the top together and contributed the colourful, fun zig zag border fabric. Lynette quilted it with a complementary zig zag pattern.

Detail from Barbara's 'vehicle' quilt above.

This top was one of a collection passed on to us by the Quilters Guild of NSW for finishing and donation to a community cause.  The beautiful Liberty print hexagons were already joined, and Elaine W added the borders, quilted and bound it with a just-the-right-blue Jinny Beyer fabric that was donated separately to our community stash.

Another of the tops from the Quilters Guild of NSW - the blocks were already joined - Lynette quilted and bound it.

Two little blankets of love in soft shades of mostly blues and lemon, made by Dawn

The hexagons, already sewn together in diamonds were donated to our community stash - Dawn took up the challenge of making them into a quilt top by appliqueing them onto the deep pink background, and adding the border fabric, also from the community stash.  She then quilted and bound it.

A fabric panel, surrounded by complementary squares ...

... and backed with enough fun to make it reversible. Pieced, appliqued, quilted and bound by Dawn.

Iron caddy pattern

One of the most popular posts in the life of this blog is about an iron caddy.

Jo who made it didn't have a pattern that we could share, but Kaaren at The Painted Quilt wrote just last month about the caddy she made, and gives a link to the  online pattern. Very similar.

One of the commenters tells about a woman she did a workshop with, who used an oven mitt as her iron caddy!

Quilting astronaut and a little other online reading

Karen Nyberg is quilting above us
Kathy Mathews, Quilting, Sewing, Creating 4th August, 2013
Karen Nyberg has been on the international space station since May 29th and will return home to her quilt studio in early November. Has that stopped her from quilting?

Stashless and happy
Quilt News and Views, The American Quilters Society, 13th July 2013
Apparently some quilters have no fabric stash and are quite happy with that ...

The painted quilt - Kaaren, a quilter living in Nova Scotia writes this delightful blog recommended by Janet. Do look at the local quilt show in the 30th July post - great display.