This week at Fairholme ...

Our 2016 Quilt Show is just a little over 6 months away, on 8th - 10th April, 2016, at Thornleigh Community Centre. 

We are working on all aspects of planning the event, as well as making sure we have enough quilts finished to mount a good display for your enjoyment ... we will include quilts made for various purposes, some made from workshops over the last two years, some community quilts, and a small-quilt challenge. 

Entries will be finalised in the new year, so exactly what will be on show is still a surprise all round ...

Sue C takes up fudging! She did the maths, then in consultation 
with other quilters she threw them away, made her corner blocks 
over-sized and them back to fit, and is quite satisfied with the result.

When Elaine W found that these beautifully coordinated fabrics
did not suit the purpose she intended them for, she made
two quilts anyway, and generously donated them to our community
project. The second one is being quilted. They are both
warm, rich and appealing ... and very welcome.

A little de-stashing is going on - in preparation for our stall at
next year's Quilt Show. Roslyn is coordinating the process and
enjoying making up coordinating packs of fabric pieces of various
 sizes, culled from more than 30 individual stashes.
Ideal for scrap quilting, to enhance your own scrap stash.

Patched and Pieced, formerly Blueberries Patchwork

Popular Central Coast quilt shop, Blueberries Patchwork at Wyong, has changed hands.

It is re-opening today as (29th September) as Patched and Pieced, under the ownership of Leesa Evans.

Patched and Pieced
Unit 6, 4 Dulmison Ave
Wyong, NSW

(02) 4355 4400

• Patched and Pieced on Facebook

Interesting patterns, some free

For the weekend - a small collections of links to interesting quilt and block pattterns that have been gathering in the 'drafts' folder ...

Modern Quilt Studio - free patterns
Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr have generously made nine of their patterns available as .pdf files to download.

• Visit Unique Stitching's website to buy Modern Quilt Studio designer fabric and publications from within Australia (click on the 'Modern Quilting' tab).

100% Man Made: 7 Masculine Quilt Patterns and Projects

Lindsay Connor, Craftsy (blog), 17th July 2014
Whether you’re making a quilt for a father, husband, brother or son, we’ve rounded up some patterns and inspiration for quilts worthy of even the manliest man ...


Penta-Pinwheel Quilt
Sew Can She, 12th February 2015

A five-bladed pinwheel, provided as a free pattern with an online tutorial

Llama block patterns (to buy)
Sew What Sherlock's online pattern shop offers two version of a paper pieced llama block pattern for sale - they are very cute.

Patchwork Europe 2015: online galleries

The 21st European Patchwork Meeting was held in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Alsace (France) last week.

The 43 works selected in the international contest, Reflection can now be seen in the online gallery here for the general category and here for the teacher's category.

Dr Sam Bowker on Egyptian Tentmaker Applique: Auburn, 10th October

Registration: info@isra.org.au or 02 9649 9040

The Tentmakers of Cairo

William Morris cake!

Quilters and cakes are often not strangers. Just Google 'quilt cake' and you will find hundreds of ingenious cakes decorated with quilting themes.

Not directly related to quilting, but many quilters will appreciate My Big Fat Cake Project 2014, taking it to another level, with a design based on William Morris's 'Strawberry Thief'.

The cake is an annual event, one of the ways in which the William Morris Society of Canada celebrates the designer's birthday - check the link in the post for earlier William Morris cake designs.

September community sewing day

Our monthly sewing day for our community quilts project was rather quiet and orderly, but there was actually a lot going on - eleven different quilts were worked on, and we continued with some preparation and packaging for the craft stall for our Quilt Show in April 2016, so a productive few hours!  

We did some consulting on the raffle quilt for our 2016 Quilt Show, on which Miriam and Janice were doing some precision piecing for the final border. The quilt will be revealed in due course, and well ahead of the April  2016 Show date, but you can visit this post on Miriam's blog for a preview.

We were too busy to take photos of everything ...

Susan and Elsa hand-stitched labels on three completed quilts,
finished a binding, and pin basted the second of a pair of quilts,
made by Elaine W for 'our' nursing home residents

Georgie made great progress on a very cute quilt featuring owls
and coordinating prints - and there is enough fabric from the
same range (generously donated by Georgie's sister) for at least
one more. Some will be night owls, with a dark background.

Elaine B was finishing off the third of the five Pittwater quilts
- she quilted it with organic wavy lines, and made up
a scrappy binding from the fabrics used in the blocks. 

The blocks for this quilt, upsized from Susan Myers 
ingenious Batiks Gone Wild design are very simple to make 
- laying them out in a non random design is a little more difficult, 
so Dawn enlisted some extra eyes for this step when she had 
made enough blocks for two quilts.  This version has made good 
use of more of our extensive plaid stash. 
It is a a versatile pattern, and looks quite different with different 
sashing and centre fabrics, and value placement. We will make 
it again, perhaps in 'wilder' colours and prints as in the original, 
which uses vibrant batiks.

Last week at Fairholme ...

Daphne is making this wonderfully graphic quilt in classes
with Chris Jurd - she's contemplating something for the middle
of the centre block, and additional borders. Great colours!

Elaine W is making two versions of Sarah Fielke's Millefiori
quilt (from her book Hand Quilted with Love) for when her
 two little granddaughters return to Australia to live. The
next one is more turquoise than pink - very pretty, but she
needs to get a move on, she says.

Janice is not yet done with the beautiful possibilities of Liberty,
linen and Miriam's little bag. The matching needle case is a
lovely touch.

JoAnn and Marilyn sat next to each other last week, and
compared hexagons - Marilyn's are 3/8", and Jo's are a giant 2 inches!

Lyn Lang's mosaic cat's coat colour is based on her
beloved Josie - a very contented cat, just like this one
made from Lorraine Carthew's mosaic applique
pattern. A few more flower pieces will make up
the total of 495 (each one numbered to make sure
it goes in the right place).

Robyn L is embroidering this beautiful bird panel on linen ...

  ...  and you can see that she knows exactly what she is doing
with her needle and thread.

Robyn L is also making a pair of quilts for children,
from squares cut from a panel - this one for a little girl ...

... including this very cool mermaid!

... and tiny applique's for the next one that is for a little boy.

Sue C is making an epic quilt with guidance from Margaret
Sampson George. Each border is designed as you go, but
Sue is a statistician, and to make sure each element will fit,
she calculates sizes and angles. If you look very closely, you
can see that this corner block required the square root of
28.125 (which is 5.3033 if you want to know)!
Sue C does not fudge.

For another project, Sue C is making these colourful blocks full of curves.

And in a complete departure from her usual colour preference
of the many hues and shades of blue, Sue C is using up the scraps
from a recent pink quilt for a little girl as tumblers that will eventually
be a new quilt for another child.

Jill was removing the papers from foundation pieced
blocks for a baby quilt ...

... during the block making she came up with two new ways to
muck up the very straightforward process - not making sure
all the foundations are facing the same way when cutting them
in stacks; and picking up two blocks together when trimming
them to size, and just not noticing until too late ...

Quilt Show: Guildford

Embroiderers Guild: Summer School 2016

If you fancy a break from quilting during the summer, but still want enjoy some needlework, you might be interested in the Embroiderers Guild of NSW Summer School:

9 – 24 January 2016     

17 workshops in a wide range of techniques (details on the web page), suitable for beginners to advanced stitchers, at the Embroiderers Guild of NSW  76 Queen Street Concord West

Bookings are open now.

Contact: 02 9743 2501 or info@embroiderersguildnsw.org.au to book

• Summer School web page 
• Embroiderers Guild of NSW on Facebook 

This week at Fairholme (4): community quilts

It's been a big week for show and tell, we might have been out and about, shopping and visiting galleries, but we were sewing as well:

Let's work our way through this box of mismatched plaids, 

we said. Let's put them with something unexpected, we said,
something a bit 'wild'. 

So Dawn found a fabric that her family said was much too feral 

for them, and she and Susan put them together. Like this. 

The border is the off-cuts from the 'wild' corners. That was 

Susan's idea, and it's brilliant! It's off to a nursing home, 

where a touch of 'wild' might be very welcome. 

Let's hope we have a few plaids and wilds left, to do it again!

Lynette is one of our great 'finishers' - she often volunteers
to take on a quilt top that has not been quite finished,
or needs some major renovation to fit the needs of the groups
we donate quilts to. This one is made from half of a collection 
of blocks made with equilateral triangles, and some loose triangles, 
that were going to be a pair of quilts for twins, until their 
great aunt did a U-turn on the design and made something completely 
different, with other fabric. There are enough triangles left for 
Lynette to make another child-sized quilt ... if she would like to.

The fifth Pittwater quilt - see this post for information on
their name and origin and and here and here for the first two 
This one is made from the blocks remaining after
the other four tops had been put together. The blocks were
divided up to go together colour and size wise, but there was
a little plundering swapping in and out, and a little adjustment
was needed to 'lighten up' some of the remaining larger block
borders here.
The second and third quilts are nearly finished and they might
appear at our monthly community sewing day next week.
There is one large block left over - it is very pink and it just
doesn't 'go' here - it is now in the orphan collection, and another
lovely scrappy quilt will emerge from there, in time.

Children all over NSW have enjoyed quilts made by Robin W
from her vibrant fabric collection - this little one is for a children's
hospital bassinet, and will be donated through the Quilters Guild of NSW.

Video 'walkthrough' of 'Out of Africa'

If you missed this exhibition in Gosford last month, you can see it in this video:

Out of Africa - An Exhibition of Wax Cloth Quilts
by Alan R Tremain (video 5m 18s)
Featuring quilts, dolls, cushions and placemats.

The soundtrack is "Isimang Salomhlaba" by Ladysmith Black Mambazo from album World 2002

This week at Fairholme (3): some other finishes

This isn't the quilt Sue H originally planned for her granddaughter,
but we're sure she was pleased with it. That's a lot of piecing, Sue!

... and the back made from the 'bits and pieces' is just
as vibrant, so it's two-in-one.

A baby quilt for Pat's great-nephew - she started with the fox
panel, adding borders and then making her first, and very
successful attempt at hand quilting with Perle 8 wt thread.
The fox's whiskers and tail details are just right.

Roslyn used this bag pattern for the first time,
using Japanese linen. Those handles grip
very well. When she makes it again, she plans
to quilt the side panels.

Miriam calls her version of this design 'Pikelet'. She has adapted
the technique for ease of construction and finish.

... the reverse of 'Pikelet'. Visit Sew Miriam for workshop details

This week at Fairholme (2): Susan's Epic Quilting Week

Susan M grew tired of having a number of projects that never seemed to quite get finished - she'd made good starts, so over a couple of weeks, she put her quilting mojo on, and got to work. She's really pleased with the progress she's made - two big finishes and one well on the way:

This quilt was driven by the Jinny Byer border fabric that
Robin W passed on to Susan to 'do something' with.
It then grew organically from the toile centre panel,
and Susan was surprised to find what she had in her stash
that 'went'. She had no intention of including orange, but
with very little encouragement, she has used it very effectively. 

This one is a break out into modern, for Susan - her
interpretation of Kim Kight's Lucky Strikes - one of five
free patterns issued by the Cotton and Steel fabric designers,
to promote the release of their second collection.
Susan is contemplating how she will quilt it to complement
the modern design. 

It is always good to see finished quilts from workshops -
Susan's Jolly Stars began in Catherine Butterworth's workshop
in March, on using acrylic templates for precision piecing.
The contrasting value between the fabrics Susan has used make
 the most of the design - throwing the faux circles (all the
lines are actually straight) into prominence. She was
determined to finish it completely before the year was out -
six months is a very good effort indeed, and will encourage those
of us still lagging a little behind on this one ...

This week at Fairholme (1): works in progress

Most quilts are not made quickly, and often that is exactly the plan. Some works in progress this week:

After our very full day on Saturday, attendance might have
 been down on Monday morning ... but the beautiful spring
day brought almost everyone to the table, and there
was still more to chat about!

Not quite works in progress yet, but you can be sure that
Janice has plans for these Liberty beauties, including the one
that matches her Liberty shoes! 

Nerida is quilting her very large quilt, 'Oh no - it's bo-ho!'
for our 2016 Show (we hope)

Sue S is finely hand quilting her Candied Hexagons
(using Aurifil Mako 28 wt thread) - we hope it too will be ready
for our 2016 show.

Noelle is on holiday at the moment, but we're pretty sure
she will still be working on this hexagon beauty when she
is home again - each medallion has 37 pieces, and there are
a lot of medallions!

Fabric sale

Robyn's Spring Clean Sale

25% OFF ALL FABRICS

Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, 

Anne-Maria Horner

Cotton and Steel, Riley Blake, 

Reproduction and Civil War

Moda, Dots, Stripes and Blenders

Batiks and lots more

(excludes Liberty)

MINIMUM CUT 50CM

Instore Only 

Until 1st October

www.patchworkonpittwater.com

Suite 28, 4th Floor (The Gateway Building)

1 Mona Vale Road, Mona Vale

Into the (other) Shire ...

We headed south on our annual bus trip on Saturday, to take in Labours of Love at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Art Centre in Gymea, and the counterpoint of the contemporary Evolution, Change, Challenge exhibition at the same lovely venue (galleries, gardens, cafe), By chance we arranged the date enjoy the privilege of  Kay Haerland's talk and trunk show of her life's work, making for a very substantive day of quilting appreciation.

Kay has now retired from teaching, but is in the process of making a series of DVD to pass on  her skills and techniques - the first two are already available (visit Kay' website for details). We'll be ordering them for our library.

The Labours of Love catalogue alone is beautiful - excellent, large images of every quilt, with all the curatorial information - a copy is now in our library.

Do go if you have the opportunity - the contemporary quilts will be gone after tomorrow, but Labours of Love continues until 5th October.

Our day was bookended by shopping at Patchwork Plus in Miranda and Quiltsmith in Annandale, forming long but orderly queues for the registers at both. It takes skill and organisation for shops to cope with more than 30 customers descending all at once, and both welcomed us and looked after us efficiently. Lots of happy parcels came home with us.

Thanks to Georgie for organising such a good day - you set the benchmark high for your final event as workshop coordinator, Georgie. Thanks also to Phyl for keeping us in the right place at the right time, and Warren, our driver. 

Quilt show next weekend:Tahmoor

Craft exhibition and sale: St ives

North Shore Craft Group

Spring Exhibition and Sale

Friday 9th - Sunday 11th October 2015

(Fri 1-5pm, Sat 9-5pm and Sun 9-4pm)

Education Hall, Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Gardens
420 Mona Vale Road, St Ives

This week at Fairholme ...

It was mixed bag of show and tell this week:

Jo-Ann's large modern half square triangle quilt top is
made from a kit she bought at the Sydney Quilt Show.
The feature fabrics are from the 'Paint' range designed by
Carrie Bloomston and distributed by Windham Fabrics.
It is very stiking, and we look forward to seeing it finished
with Jo's expert quilting.

Margaret W has cleverly combined blocks made from
two workshops with Anne Sommerlad, both using some of
her Asian fabrics. Access to tables and many hands for basting
is a great advantage of belonging to a quilt group!

Jill has made a second 'Sew Together' bag ...

... and thinks she is getting better at it.

Definitely not a quilt, but it might end up beneath one ...
amongst a bag of fabric passed on to her by a friend of a friend,
Dawn found a fine brushed cotton full length night dress, with 
all of the pieces cut out, and the yoke beautifully smocked. 
The pattern was not with it, so Susan enlisted experienced
dressmakers in the group to advise on what goes where.

Smocking detail.