Two October quilt shows

Novecastrian Quilters blog 

Illawarra Quilters website

• Keep an eye on Template Free, the Quilters' Guild of NSW blog for notice of quilt shows all over NSW.

An easy way to sort fabric by value

Wanda Hanson is an American quilter of more than 50 years experience  - she generously shares her experience and prolific quilting output (and her equally prolific stash!) through her popular blog, Exuberant Colour.

In this classic short, well illustrated blog post from 2010, Wanda gives an effective lesson on sorting fabrics by value - light, darks, mediums, then light mediums and dark mediums, till you have them fully scaled.

You will find a lot to like on Wanda's blog, including many beautiful quilts.

In the hands of Fairholme Quilters this week

This child's quilt started with the donated centre 'animals of the world'
panel, then Elaine W found some checks, some spots, a little pink,
and a blue gingham for borders and frames. She quilted it with
a gentle meander, and Pam sewed on the cheerful yellow binding.

Ginnie is an expert in blanket-stitch applique, and is using
it here to make a series of teddy blocks for a grandchild's quilt.

Janice won a Viewer's Choice award in our Quilt Show earlier
this year, with the wedding quilt she made for her eldest daughter.
She enjoyed the process so much that she is now  sewing more
hexagons in a similar design with very different fabrics
- another winner?

Foundation piecing is a great technique for lots of little pointy pieces
like this quilt design, a top donated to our community initiative - but 
those little pointy paper pieces do have to come out. 
Lynette and Sue got stuck into it while they chatted.

Peggy is an expert embroiderer and loves applique.  She has just
embarked on a large, beautiful sashiko panel that we will
watch with interest.

Robin W's stash of saturated, vibrant fabric continues to yield
up hand-pieced quilt tops that she often donates to our community
collection. The stash is gradually reducing, Robin says.
She has no fear of Y-seams - look at that perfect join.

Apologies for not getting a better photo, Susan - your controlled
scrappy medallion is evolving nicely. You can just see a glimpse
of the soft toile fabric centre at the top right.  Susan is generously
helping Robin to control her stash of border print fabrics, and is
cleverly using complimentary prints with pops of oranges, corals
 and pinks as a foil to the calmer teals and creams.

'Dare to Differ': exhibition call for Australian contemporary quilts

Dare to Differ has given very good, lengthy notice of submission for its 2015 exhibition in South Australia.  Entries are called for from across Australia, with a submission deadline of July 2015:

The exhibition is open to ALL quilt makers within Australia. We have hoped that by opening entries to interstate contemporary quilt makers we give South Australian quilt makers and the general public the opportunity to view a very high standard exhibition of contemporary art quilts ...  

... It must be innovative, original and of course meet the criteria of the title “Dare to Differ - 2015” ...

Further details, an submission and exhibition timeline and entry form can be found here, on Fibre Tribe, the blog of the NSW chapter of the Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association.

Local events

From Kim Bradley Creations newsletter this week:

Come and join us in-store for a trunk show with Catherine Butterworth on Saturday 27th September from 10:30am. 

In quilt making Catherine is known for her sense of colour, her love of combining prints, her precise machine piecing, her signature fussy cutting and her expertise in the use of From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates and Rulers. 

Catherine’s workshops are technique oriented. Her aim is to provide students with a practical knowledge of the selected topic and then to inspire them with a broad range of design possibilities. 

Please RSVP your attendance by calling Kim Bradley Creations on ph: (02) 9659 2912

There are also just a couple of places available in Jane Davidson's Nested Churndash workshop on Sunday 28th September, advertised in this newsletter.

Location: 7/9 Packard Ave, Castle Hill 

(Read this issue of the newsletter online here, or subscribe to receive your own copy by email) 

Visit Template Free, the Quilters' Guild of NSW blog for details of this workshop in November: 

Wendy Williams: Woolwork
Saturday, 22 November: 9.30 for 10-4pm  

Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park, Epping

Quilt Festival 2014 IV - more gorgeous quilty things to look at

If you enjoyed reading Eldrid Røyset Førde's first three posts about Quilt Festival 2014 in Birmingham (and it seems a lot of you did!), then you won't want to miss the latest one - there is nothing remotely like a bed quilt or wall hanging in this one, but it is a visual feast.  You might want to reach through your screen and touch these Quilt Creations - which would NOT have been allowed at Quilt Festival, as you know!

Recently at Fairholme ...

Pat made her crisp blue and white Hunter Star quilt after
seeing Robin S's autumn toned version (below) in
our Quilt Show in April

Helen went from no grandchildren to three in six months -
she has had a lot of recent practice in making baby quilts.
This improv medallion is a floor quilt for the youngest
(so far).  Helen wanted the  baby to be able to see the elephants,
hippos and giraffes clearly, so she used a large centre panel. 
It is quilted in large loops byChristy Wang (Quilting Treasures).

Recent community quilt finishes

This vibrant quilt is another generous donation from Robin W
- the high contrast but controlled colour palette and the scale
of the blocks (the squares are 3") serve to elevate the
disappearing 9 patch design into a sparkler.  It will join
the collection for children. Thank you Robin.

This one was something of a slow burner, several months in the
making, but worth the wait. On one of our community sewing days,
our chief colourist/designer, Roslyn put the fabrics together from our
community stash, and Miriam happened to arrive with the perfect
pattern to show-case them. Pieced by Miriam, quilted by Jill, and 
it is bound with a 19thC reproduction print that is totally different 
from all the other fabrics, but just the right colour mix and 
almost-a-stripe design. The pattern is Kakadu Dreaming 
by Kathy Adams of KoolKat Quilting.

Dawn has been working in pairs this month - this quilt and the
one below are made from fabric panels donated to the Quilters
Guild of NSW, and made up to a good size for children's quilts
with the addition of sashing and borders, and machine quilted
by Dawn on her Sweet Sixteen. They will go back to the
Guild to be given to children in foster care. 

Dawn also made this sweet little pair of Blankets of Love
from fabric donated to the Guild, complimented by some 
from our community stash.

Birmingham (UK) quilts 2014

Norwegian quilter and blogger, Eldrid Røyset Førde, has posted three four five entries about her visit to the 2014 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham (UK) on her blog, Kameleon (quilts, textiles, inspiration). Lots of photos and commentary.

• Quilt Festival
• Quilt Festival II - the winners
• Quilt Festival III - more quilts 

added 18/9/2014: 

• Quilt Festival IV - Quilt Creations

added 27/12/2014

• Quilt FestivalV - Russian Gallery

This week at Fairholme

Sue C's first sampler quilt has been six years in the making.
Sue was intending to hand quilt her hand pieced quilt, but
decided she needed it finished sooner than that would allow.
So she bit the bullet and quilted it on her machine, using
a heavier weight thread (Aurifil 28) for the visual effect
she wanted, to compliment the mostly Japanese fabrics
 in the blocks.  

Miriam needed a wedding quilt for a niece. She had just
the right fabric range in her stash, and designed this beauty
with half-square triangles.

More progress on quilts from our classes with Margaret Sampson
George - Elsa has finished her centre, and basted it to its next border.
There are two more borders to go.

We are keeping a close eye on some other MSG hexagon designs and two Jane Pizars (although we know there is a third one lurking, too). More later ...

Sarah Fielke - one busy quilter ...

Sydney based quilter, teacher, writer and fabric designer Sarah Fielke has recently released a new book (in collaboration with Amy Lobsiger) and a new fabric range (for Windham Fabics). Both are available in Australia now:

'... Seven quilts have been designed by Sarah Fielke and seven by
Amy Lobsiger, and the final quilt is a collaboration--with Amy
making the central circle, then sending it to Sarah to turn it
into a finished quilt. Techniques include hand and machine-quilting,
traditional piecing, paper piecing, appliqué, and embroidery.
The size of the quilts (nothing larger than 24x24 inches) will tempt
you to try a new sewing technique or a new design
concept' ... see more and order a copy here

'Enchanted by Sarah Fielke is the Australian designer's first
collection for Windham Fabrics. Sarah's style expresses her love
of bright colors and whimsical, hand-drawn designs - and
Enchanted is no exception' ... read more and see the full range here.

The feature print from the Enchanted range.

Sarah is one of the tutors on Kim Bradley Creations new class list, and also teaches locally and internationally - you can see more on her teaching schedule here, and she has also recorded a class for Craftsy, Big Techniques from Small Scraps. 

New class/workshop list and 'Sewtember' sale at Kim Bradley Creations

Here in the northern suburbs, we are lucky to have several excellent quilt shops within easy reach - and we like to do our bit by getting round all of them! Most of them hold classes, and they all have sales that quilters need to know about. This week's mail has been from Kim Bradley Creations, at Castle Hill - a new class list up to the end of the year (Kim's classroom is the bees knees), and an anniversary sale:

• 'Sewtember' sale on 6th September, and a one-off class with Jane Davidson

• Classes and workshops until the end of 2014 - includes some school holidays classes for kids

Kim Bradley Creations 

Unit 7/9 Packard Ave, Castle Hill 2154
Phone: 9659 2912

A pretty special show and tell ...

Last week, Roslyn brought in an absolute treasure for our Monday morning 'show and tell' - a vintage quilt, that she picked up for the proverbial song, at a local market, in 1989.  She saw it hanging over a fence, and thought it was potentially much more interesting and valuable than the seller realised.  So she happily paid the $5 asked, packed it up along with her tired toddler and took it home to examine later. 

Roslyn was delighted to find that it was indeed a hand pieced wholecloth quilt from the north of England, made in the 1930s, and valued at a great deal more than she had paid.  It is made from a deep cream cotton, with a ruffle of the same fabric around the edge, as was the fashion of the time.  The intricate medallion design would have been drawn around metal templates, marked with a blue pencil that was washed out after the hand quilting was completed. The batting appears to be cotton, with a few seeds visible on close inspection.  The quilt is quite fragile, almost translucent in parts, indicating that it has had considerable use.

Detail from the side border

• Pippa Moss has written a number of posts about Durham quilts
• Heritage craft writer Rachel Reynolds on North Country Quilts