Fairholme in APQ

Fairholme Quilters Quilters Show (April 2014) is featured in the current issue (Vol 23, #12) of Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine  - thanks for coverage APQ!

July Community Quilts

Our members generously support our community quilts program by giving their time and expertise, and by donating quilts and tops they have made from their own stashes.:

Georgie has been decluttering, and has generously donated
the appealing colourwash heart quilt that she made in a
class with Yan Pring some years ago, to our community
quilts collection.
Thanks Georgie - it will be much appreciated by the
Donald Coburn Centre.

Lynette cleverly made strippy chevrons with offcuts from
another quilt, and added white half-square triangles. The
backing fabric compliments the top beautifully.  She too
has donated her quilt to our community quilts collection
 - thanks Lynette.

Dawn  made cobblestone blocks to use up the
scraps from an earlier 'construction' quilt and
complimentary prints.

This sweet little panel didn't need borders - they
were already part of the print. It has a cosy
flannel backing, and was quilted and bound by Dawn.

We pin-basted a number of quilt tops at our July community
sewing day - this vibrant top was made and donated by Robin,
from her legendary stash.  The design is from the classic
Spectactular Scraps, by Margaret Rolfe and Judy Hooworth.
Thank you, Robin.

Quilt Shows in August

August is shaping up to be a very busy month for quilt shows:

Camden Quilt Show, 2nd - 3rd August

Hunters Hill Quilt Show, 7th - 10th August

Quilt Walk, Panguitch, Utah 1864

Fairholme member, Virginia, came across Paguitch and its commemorative quilt while visiting the tourist information office for the Red Canyon in Utah, USA recently, and she knew our readers would be interested in the quilt and the history behind it:

The commemorative quilt was created by Elaine Hatch Sawyer
using her grandmother's treadle Singer sewing machine.
It was quilted by Maty Ella (Prince) Sudweeks and
Metta Jane (Wilcox) Whittaker.

The Paguitch Quilt Walk Story -
in text and online video re-enactment

A short video overview of the trail taken by the Panguitch quilt walkers in 1864

Thank you for the photos and the story, Ginnie.

Camden Country Quilters annual exhibition

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2014

The second Saturday in July is the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in rural Oregon. Over 1000 quilts are on display - here are just a few stories and pictures from this year's event, held on 12th July:

• The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show - post by the Michael Miller Fabrics blog, Making it Fun

• 2014 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show: A Photo Tour - Lisa Broadwater's post

• Epic! Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Part 1 - Cathy Erikson, Blueberry Patch

• The adventure continued: Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Part 2 - Cathy Erikson, Blueberry Patch

• My Highlights from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show - from Wombat Quilts - an Australian quilter living in Portland

• This one is photographer Melissa Willard's Facebook album from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2014.

• The Nugget Newspaper told this Sisters Outdoor Quilt show related story about a visiting quilter and her surprise quilts for some local residents.

Fairholme Quilt Show 2014: pieced quilts (2)

FOUNDATION PIECING - Dawn Cox
I attended a foundation Piecing Workshop in Queensland.
The tutor was Marie Webb, a friend of mine.
An exciting project that worked for me.
(This quilt is miniature - about 12 " square)

STARBRIGHT - Susan McMahon
The blocks for this quilt were made a number of years
ago and they were left to while away the hours in the
linen cupboard. Deciding one day recently to have a
clean out of the cupboard I found them. I then
finished the quilt with great pleasure because
I can now quilt flowers!

NIGHT GLOW Georgie Patrickson
Second of 2 quilts made from the Jinny Byer 'Night and Day'
pattern and made with mainly her fabrics. This pattern
attracted me for its use of blended colours although they
are my choice of colours. This will be a wallhanging so I
decided to alter the border detail and also use a facing
rather than a binding to finish.
Machine strip pieced and quilted by me.

MARY’S DAYLIGHT GIFT - Georgie Patrickson
One of 2 quilts made from the Jinny Beyer pattern
'Night and Day' and made with mainly Jinny Beyer
fabrics. I have always loved her use of blended colour.
This quilt will be a gift to a life-long friend.
Machine strip pieced and quilted by me.

PAVEMENT - Jill O’Connor
My son asked for a ‘black and gold’ (football colours)
with no flowers. The very simple and forgiving piecing
pattern is called 'Pave the Way' by Karen Gray Design
The yellow rectangles in this version are 3" x 6” finished.
The pattern was published in the Spring/Summer 2011
issue of Quilt Sampler magazine.
Quilted by Christy Wang (Quilting Treasures, Pymble).

RICRAC CIRCLES - Robyn Leek
This fabric was bought as a bundle and I enjoyed choosing
the ricrac colours to blend with the fabric colours.
The circles and ricrac are all attached by hand and it is
 handquilted.
The original circle concept was inspired by Kathy Doughty.

Quilters Guild of NSW workshop with Bob James

And the good news keeps coming! The Quilters Guild of NSW has just announced that it will be hosting a two day workshop with Bob James on his award winning quilt from the 2014 Sydney Quilt Show, and it will be close to home:

FROM INDIGO TO SILK with BOB JAMES

Monday and Tuesday, 4 - 5 August 9.30 for 10-4pm

Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park, Epping

Full details are in the Guild's blog, Template Free, here - you need to book as soon as possible!

Rescue!

Do you like your quilts to hang straight/lie flat?  Most of us do, most of the time and manage it with varying degrees of skill.  Then there is the question of what to do with an antique or vintage quilt or top that really needed work, long ago ... here is Tim Latimer (from Tim Quilts) in rescue mode earlier this week of a quilt top that he knew needed a little work:

Yikes! ... the top he bought on eBay
Star Fix ... the top as rescued from itself, and how Tim achieved it 

Update 23rd July: 

Star progress and a crib quilt top ... hand quilting is coming along nicely 

Update 5th August 2014

Wonky Star Finished ... and it's done.  You must see the finished quilt! 

Let's not be too harsh on the quiltmaker - perhaps there was limited  knowledge and experience at play, with little access to measuring tools - but they did have an eye for colour. It will be interesting to see how it responds to Tim's hand quilting.

Bob James - a "love affair" with quilting

Did you see Bob James's award winning quilt, From Indigo to Silk (creative use of colour award) in the Sydney Quilt show?

This story from the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader gives a little more background on this interesting quilter, and includes a great photo of Bob with two of his quilts.

• Quilters Guild of NSW workshop with Bob James, 4 - 5th August 2014
• Other posts on the Sydney Quilt Show 2014

Good sewing story

Not about a quilt or quilting, but there is a sewing machine in the picture and story, and it's a good one:

Sew and tell
Wendy Becktold, Sierra, July/August 2014
,,, "Somehow the stars aligned for this strange idea. The Luggage Store, a nonprofit art gallery in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, offered to let me use the alley next to them. I sew from noon to sundown on the 15th of each month. Eighty percent of the people who show up live in nearby low-income housing. I hem a lot of pants and patch a lot of holes. But I don't say no to anything ..."

Sydney Quilt Show 2014: Viewers' Choice awards

The Sydney Quilt Show's five days at Glebe Island finished yesterday.  The judges awards were announced and presented on the first day, but of course the Viewers' Choice Awards could not be announced until all the votes form the whole five days had been counted.

The two Viewers' Choice Awards are now on the Sydney Quilt Show 2014 Prize Winners page - congratulations Jan Frazer and Glen Waples!

And here are some more links to blog posts about the show and the quilts:

• Winners Part Three - Chris Jurd's quilts at the Sydney Quilt Show.
• Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair - Handmade's blog post about the first day.
• My Other Ribbon!! and Show Quilts - Rachel Daisy's second blog post about her quilts and others in the show.
• Sydney Quilt Show 2014 - Di Jobbins showcases her favourite quilts at Snippets and Scraps
• Sydney Quilt and Craft Show 2015 - Deborah Louie gives some background on the making of her award winning quilt, and showcases some of her students' quilts (and yes, Deborah was a year ahead of herself when she wrote the post).
• Show Recap - Kathy Doughty's post on the Sydney Show, at the Material Obsession blog

• Other posts on the Sydney Quilt Show 2014

Mad Quilters Gathering, Penrith

• List of exhibitors

Words and pictures about the Sydney Quilt Show

Whether you visit the 2014 Sydney Quilt Show or not, these links will give you a closer look at some of the quilts, in the words of their makers and show visitors - some include photos and stories of the making the quilt, as well as some pictures of what you could see in the exhibitions:

Overwhelmed - Best of Show winner Janet Treen, on her blog Quiltsalott

Eyes on the Quilt Show - just a snapshot of some of the amazing entries at the Sydney Quilt Show 2014, on Template Free

Happy as a Clam, Racheldaisy, Blue Mountain Daisy - winner of 3rd place in the Anything Goes- Mixed Media category

“A Night Out” by Kay D. Haerland at the Sydney Quilt Show - posted by It's Crow Time

My Day at Sydney Quilt Show - Katrina Hadjimichael's post includes photos of her own and her students' quilts in the show.

Quilters Companion magazine - on a day at the show.

Colour and Light at the Sydney Quilt Show  - Brenda Gael Smith was both a judge of the Quilters Guild of NSW exhibition quilts, and the curator of the Living Colour! collection.

Summer Dragonfly - Charlotte Scott's post about making her quilt for the Living Colour! exhibition, which was part of the Sydney Quilt Show.

... and of course, our 2014 raffle quilts, The Kensington Quilt and Marmalade were hung in the group quilt category.

• Other posts on the Sydney Quilt Show 2014

2014 Sydney Quilt Show: prize winners photos online

The 2014 Sydney Quilt Show opened today, with prize winners announced this morning.  The Quilters Guild of NSW has already posted photos of the award winners online here - congratulations to you all.

The Quilters Guild of NSW has provided this image for sharing online,
 with a request that users link back to the
Sydney Quilt Show Prizewinner's Gallery

Some of us have been to the show already (it runs until Sunday) - the new venue at Glebe Island is very well sign-posted, there is plenty of parking, public transport appears to be working well, and there are lots of people giving helpful directions. The venue is indeed well lit, the aisles in the quilt display are wide, as they are in the merchant area. The weather was excellent today - it was lovely to enter and leave the exhibition so close to the water in brilliant winter sunshine.

Helpful hints: we did notice a bit of a line up at the ATM in the foyer, but there are at least two further ATMs inside, that had much smaller queues, and there are a lot of tables and chairs in the area at the opposite end of the hall from the quilt display, that you might not readily notice as it is somewhat obscured by the merchant booths.

Enjoy your day(s) at the Quilt Show.

• Other posts on the Sydney Quilt Show 2014

POP Quilt Show sale

Just in from Patchwork on Pittwater, at Mona Vale:

QUILT SHOW SPECIAL - all fabric 20% off!
All fabric in store is on sale at 20% off from now until Sunday 13th July! (minimum cut 50cm)

Includes all fabric on the bolt (except for Liberty), all Jelly Rolls and all Layer Cakes!
Hurry in and have a look! Only available in-store.

Quiltsmith sale extended to 13th July

Melinda at Quiltsmith (in Annandale) has extended her fabric sale over this week, for the period of the Sydney Quilt Show, including a one-off Sunday opening on 13th July.

The details are here, on her blog.

Sew Canadian - a weekly visit to other quilters' sewing rooms/studios

The Sew Canadian blog tour (hosted by Mad About Patchwork) is an opportunity to see, and perhaps to pick up hints from, the sewing paces of two Canadian quilters each week until the end of the northern summer. Each post also includes interviews with the owners of the spaces, and of course, multiple photos.  This first one was posted yesterday - a nice weekly treat during our winter.

AQC challenge 2015

The Australian Quilt Convention 2015 Challenge has been announced, giving quilters a good lead time to prepare entries.

The theme for 2015 is 'True Blue'. 

The entry deadline is 27th february 2015

All details, including challenge criteria and prizes (total $5,500 cash prizes) are here.

Australian Quilt Convention 2015 will be held in Melbourne, 16th - 19th April

Fairholme Quilt Show 2014: pieced quilts (1)

The first of several posts to showcase the pieced quilts from the exhibition.

JUST FOR FUN - Val Nadin
Needing to use up some of my fabric stash I pulled
out lots of brights, and black and whites.
'Just for Fun' is what emerged.
Inspiration from Kaffe Fassett’s book 'Patchwork'.



FLIGHT OVER THE ORIENT
Georgie Patrickson
A modified version of the quilt 'City Aviation' from
the book 'City Quilts' by Cherri House. I had remarked
that I would like to make this design sometime. We then
visited Cottage Quiltworks on a recent bus trip with
our group, where my sister and I decided to buy a
kit + extra fabric to make a quilt each - not
knowing that the pattern was 'City Aviation'.
We loved the authentic Japanese fabrics - I have
also added some vintage Japanese silks to my quilt.
The flying geese and pinwheels are 3 dimensional.
Pieced and quilted by me.

SPIRAL SQUARED - Lynette Harvey

This pattern by Wendy Sheppard in
McCalls Quilting Vol 21 No 1 needed a
selection of six favourite prints and a
background. Of course I had that in the stash,
the yellow and black bundles I had bought in
Montana when on a shop hop with a friend
would be perfect and it would be used up
at last but it was not quite enough so I just
had to buy new fabric at one of my favourite
patchwork shops. The centre of the quilt is
constructed in rows so that fabric placement
can create the labyrinth design. The new fabric
worked so much better than the black and yellow
bundles which are still in the stash hopefully
 to be used in another project soon.
Quilting is by Christy Wang of
Quilting Treasures.

THE CABBAGE PATCH QUILT - Miriam Jones
This quilt was made recycling Kaffe Fassett furnishing
weight fabric that was on a vintage cane lounge in my
home. I chopped up the cabbage rose print – added
the scrappy “square in squares” and VOILA! – a quilt
was born. Inspiration – Gwen Marston.
Machine pieced and quilted.

SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM -Pamela Farley
I made this quilt for my daughter, and son-in- law,
with fabric she bought when visiting her husband’s family in
South Africa 3 years ago. The name of the quilt expresses
the family’s dream of returning to South Africa for another visit.
The fabric is known as Shweshwe. Often used for traditional
South African clothing, it is cotton, usually printed on both
sides (different patterns) using a discharge printing style.
The quilt is made up of various sized squares, rectangles and
sashing sewn into larger rectangles of random size and follows no
particular pattern. My daughter has always loved navy, so it
was obvious who this quilt should be for.

OAK TREE CRAFT ROOM
WALLHANGING - Robyn Leek
A bare wall in Oak Tree, Dural’s Clubhouse
Craft Room inspired the making of this quilt.
The bench in the room is green and the
colours of the quilt complement the room!
It is hand quilted with Perle thread.

FASSETT FANTASY - Roslyn Pullen
A stash of Kaffe Fassett’s fabrics and a simple
design was all I needed to commence this bright
happy quilt. I love to work in bright cheerful
colours and it was a joy to play with these
fabrics. Quilt made in 2012. Inspiration from
a pattern in a Julie Wallace book.
Machine quilted by Jo-Ann Phillips (Quiltwise). 

Other quilts from the Fairholme Quilters 2014 Quilt Show are posted here.

This week at Fairholme ...

Pat is making this quilt in a monthly class with
Sue Ross.  It's all gorgeous, but we have watched with particular
interest as she has made fabulous fabric choices for
sashings, setting triangles and borders.

Peggy's latest quilt for one of her grandsons shows her
usual flair for applique and fun - including the border
of reflective tape!

Several people worked on this community quilt -
Elaine did the initial piecing, Lynette added the
machine applique to the centre, with help from Lyn.
Straight line quilting lets the pretty, cheerful fabrics
take centre stage.

This community quilt for a child started as a panel
that was rearranged and reconstructed - all of the
additional 'wheels' in the sashings were to be hand
quilted, until a slip of the scissors necessitated
a patch, and just one looked lonely ...

Brother Under 35s Quilt Competition: awards announced

Quilters Companion magazine has blogged about the second Brother Under 35s Quilt Competition, and the announcement of the winners last weekend in Sydney.

We were pleased to work with The Quilters’ Guild of NSW and Brother Australia again on this wonderful initiative for young quilters, and we were thrilled with the diversity of creative entries we received ... Thank you to all who entered and stay tuned for details on the next Under 35s Competition.

(Click on the photos in the blog post to see a larger view.)

2014 Best of Show State Winners: WA and Victoria

As excitement builds for the Sydney Quilt Show, to be held in conjunction with Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair next week, here are the first two State Best of Show winners for 2014:

Victorian Quilters Showcase 2014
Linda White won Best of Show in the Victorian Quilters Showcase in Melbourne last week, and has blogged about her winning quilt, Elenor Jean here. Think about it: 952 days and 22,437 quarter inch (!) hexagons! (You might recall that Linda won the Victoria Quilters challenge in 2011, with Dear Prudence)

Karen Terrens's Sanderson's Apprentice won the Excellence in Longarm Quilting Award in Melbourne - she has blogged about it here.

Punch with Judy's blog post (5th July 2014)on the Victorian Quilters Showcase includes photos of the runner up Best of Show (Mr Hoffman's Peaches by Robyn Coots and close-up detailed shots of other winners).

QuiltWest 2014
Melodie Symes spent 10 years making Perseverence, which won Best of Show at QuiltWest 2014 in Perth in May. Many, many 1" squares!

Rebecca Stewart Bartell was the runner up with Morris Hill Manor.