Recently finished ...

Nerida's lovely version of Jen Kingwell's pattern 'Midnight at the Oasis'
- hand appliqued, machine pieced and hand quilted, and ready
to be entered in our 2016 Quilt Show!

Robin W is renowned for her use of Kaffe Fasset fabrics,
particularly in cool blue palettes, as in this little basinet quilt ...

... and in warm oranges and pinks as in this larger cot-sized quilt.
Lynette quilted and bound this one. Both will be donated to children.

Lynette had a busy time completing some quilting and binding
tasks on community quilts before she left for her current overseas
trip. This top is one of two she has worked on from a large
donated top, re-working them into two smaller quilts to meet
the needs of our community recipients. The star points and centres
are all Liberty fabrics, and Lynette has used a complementary
floral print for the binding.

The fourth of our Pittwater Quilts has been
finished by Elaine B, who managed to squeeze
out those blue borders with just millimetres
to spare. Obviously these were the pink blocks
needing to play together. Just one more to go,
and it is very nearly finished too.

Roslyn returned form Uluru and Alice Springs
with some beautiful fabrics, but we'll have to wait
 to see what she makes from them - we only have
a photo of the veil she wore to cope with trouble-
some small wildlife. She loved the trip and
recommends a visit.

And Miriam has posted about her pretty new bag on her blog, Sew Miriam.

International Quilt Festival, Houston 2015: award winning quilts and other galleries

It's October, so that means the trade show, Quilt Market in Houston (last weekend) and the International Quilt Festival (open to all) this week, 29th October - 1st November.

Award winning quilts, including the Best of Show (Ewe Are My Sunshine by Janet Stone), have been announced, and images are beginning to appear online.

The International Quilt Association's official photos of the judged competition, World of Beauty, are on the website, here.

A slideshow of 28 quilts from some of the special exhibits can be seen here.

2016 Raffle quilt - a preview

Of course, we are making a quilt to raffle in conjunction with our 2016 Quilt Show on 8th - 10th April 2016. The raffle proceeds will go to Studio ARTES, who will mount a small guest exhibition within the main display, showcasing the work of textile artists working at the studio.

Work on this very special quilt has been in progress since early this year, under the excellent and expert guidance of Miriam and Janice, with input from many members. The fabrics are mostly French in origin, of very high quality, and were donated via QuiltNSW. It is now with our member JoAnn who is a very accomplished professional long-arm quilter, for her to add her magic.

We will start selling tickets at Studio ARTES Ride-a-Day event in Hornsby mall on 5th December (more about that in a few weeks). For now, here is a review of the finished top and the backing fabric ...

The individual blocks were made by group members

The on-point layout was designed and sewn by Janice and
Miriam, with much precise measurement to ensure it all fit
together perfectly.

A beautiful French toile, part of the donated fabric bundle was
chosen for the back - the quilt will be reversible.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making of this lovely quilt.

A second raffle prize of a basket of quilting and swing related items is being put together over the next few months.

You can follow the quilt's progress, preparation for the Quilt Show and out collaboration with Studio ARTES here, and via the Facebook page we have started to help promote it, on Instagram: @fairholmequilters #fairholmequilters #fairholmequiltersquiltshow2016

Art Quilt Australia

Should you be in Victoria between tomorrow and 13th December ...

Where do all the quilts go?

We give away about 60 quilts each year through our community quilts project. We often don't know who has received them, or what they mean to the people who receive them, and that is fine: once they are given, they are no longer ours, and we trust the role they can play.  They won't all be kept and cherished, and we hope many will wear out from use. Sometimes we do know that a quilt has been much loved, and that is always nice to hear. A heart warming story about a quilt that has done its job very well for a very long time circulated through social media this weekend:

The man who kept a quilt for 70 years

Camila Ruz, BBC News Magazine, 17th October 2015

After World War Two, thousands of British families were sent packages of food from strangers in the US. But nine-year-old Joseph Briddock and his family were given something unexpected. Seven decades later he is still keeping it safe ...

This week at Fairholme (3) ... October community sewing day

Fairholme Quilters are in demand ... lots of diary clashes last week reduced our monthly community sewing day crew to just four, but we made good progress. By three o'clock our roll of batting was all but depleted and ten quilts were well on the way to being finished ... while one more is a bit of an idea, perhaps ...

We have our quilt labels printed on white Kona cotton, 
by Spoonflower - the website guides you through the 
online submission process once the design is prepared.
We order 2m of printed fabric at a time (two - three
yearly), giving us about 180 labels, and we have found 
the soft labels easy to sew by hand or machine.

We pieced backing and pin basted these quilts plus two others. 
A friend of Lynette's generously donated two pieced tops.

These five quilts plus one other have their bindings attached
to the front, ready to be hand finished

Dawn is diligently working her way through a stash of plaids
donated by Helen two years ago. We think this is the tenth quilts
made from that one donation, plus a few complementary
fabrics from the community stash.

The fourth (of five) of our Pittwater quilts is now ready
for Lynette to quilt and bind.

Leftovers from a raffle quilt made in 2013 ... can we wrangle
them into another quilt with some improvised piecing?

Just one more community sewing day left for this year - how did that happen?

This week at Fairholme (2) ... fabric storage hacks

It just happened that three people came up with storage ideas for show and tell this week ...

Georgie picked up this fabric container with a tray perfect
for hexagons (these are 1") at Woolworths, in the craft aisle ...
The beautiful little Liberty cuts were not from Woolies,
but from Cottage Quiltworks.

Sue S discovered that Daiso's soft-sided CD containers are just
the right size for fat quarters, so she bought a few.
Daiso is a Japanese variety store where everything is
$2.80. If you need to locate your local Daiso, ask a pre-teen
- they'll know, and be happy to accompany you there.

A savvy young quilting friend alerted Jill to this $20 metal
mesh trolley from K-Mart which bears some resemblance
to a popular Ikea product that costs a bit more than $20.
It is sturdy and goes together easily, without tools.
The trays are about 15" long.

This week at Fairholme (1) ... finished tops

Was Lynette thinking of coffee, chocolate, caramel and cream
when she pulled all the browns from the community stash for
this rich, warm disappearing 4-patch?

How much of a dent has this top made in Val's blue scraps?
That's right - almost none! Better make another scrappy quilt, Val.
But look at the 3 dimensional 'bricks' made by the squares,
triangles and diamonds pieced together ... and is that
red stars in the background?

Nice to have a look at Sue C's masterpiece being made under
the guidance of Margaret Sampson George ... she has confessed
to two more planned borders, one narrow, one wider
- fabrics and block designs have been chosen.

Contemporary textile and fibre arts exhibition: Hornsby

Out of Hand is a Hornsby Festival of the Arts event - other visual arts events are listed here.

Queensland Quilters 2015: award winners online

If too many quilts is never enough, here is some vicarious pleasure:  images of the award winning quilts from last week's 2015 Queensland Quilt Show are now online for your viewing pleasure.

A fine sewing Saturday ...

Yesterday, a group of us took ourselves off to the light and airy classroom at Cottage Quiltworks at Warriewood for a day of stitching - we worked on our own projects, consulted each other, took some lunch to share, enjoyed a show and tell session, shopped a little as necessary, and there might have been a bit of chat too. A lovely way to spend a spring Saturday with friends. We think we might do it again.

Thanks Gerri (the new owner of Cottage Quiltworks)
and Annette for making us so welcome

Elaine W is hand quilting the first of two similar Millefiori
(pattern by Sarah Fielke, Hand Quilted with Love) for her
little granddaughters in preparation for their return to
Australia to live just after Christmas. The background
fabric is a beautiful lemon yellow linen.

Helen's large collection of hexagon are being tamed by monthly
classes with Margaret Sampson George at Cottage Quiltworks

Miriam's applique is being worked on a beautiful piece of linen
given to her by her husband's 96 year old grandmother

Phyl has a number of works in progress (how odd!) -
this one is Candied Hexagons, using many of the
Kaffe Fasset large scale prints in Phyl's stash.

It was a treat to see Georgie's Jane Pizar again - she is about half
way through hand-quilting it with Aurifil 12 weight threads in
many colours (the horizontal lines of stitching are machine
basting). Georgie is aiming to get as much done as possible
before it gets too hot to handle this large beauty.

Another of Phyl's works in progress - she was showing us the
blue with white spot for the next border. Great choice! 

A recent finish for Phyl - it all started with the
sashiko panel in the centre.

Phyl attended a 'borders; workshop with Margaret Sampson George,
starting with just the small appliqued Celtic knot block in the centre
- she says it has been 'Margrified', and it certainly and wonderfully has!

Georgie brought along this community quilt as we had
not seen it finished. The blocks were donated by JoAnn
who had done the heavy lifting of foundation piecing
the spiked arcs and cutting the curved centres,
Georgie did the next level of curved piecing the arcs and
centres together (without a single pin!).
Then we thought about the quilting for a bit ... and
eventually Georgie machine quilted it, and Barbara
hand-sewed the binding.
All of this over about four years, phew!
The fabulous batik outer border fabric is from 
The Craft Nook at Hornsby. We plan to donate it 
to a local community group to raffle.

We put together a delicious lunch to share - it was all lovely,
but Geoff W's smoked salmon crepe rolls probably took the prize.
Thanks Geoff - has Elaine mentioned that we have a Christmas 
lunch to cater for in a few weeks? 

Thanks for organising a lovely day, Louise.

Quilt Show: Campbelltown

Also during the Fisher’s Ghost Festival:

Glenalvon House will host a quilt display by Campbelltown Patchwork and Quilters Guild. 

Built in 1840, and with buildings dating back to 1831, Glenalvon sits in the heart of Campbelltown, 8 Lithgow St. Visit this beautiful restored house during the Fisher’s Ghost Festival. 

Refreshments are available.  

Saturday 7^th November, Saturday 14^th November and Monday 16^th November, 10am – 3pm. 

Entry: donation. 

Enquiries: secretary@cahs.com.au or (02) 4625 1822

This week at Fairholme ...

Monday was a holiday, so there might have been a lot of quiet stitching going on while people stayed indoor out of the unseasonal heat. Hexagons ruled at the Tuesday evening group:

Elaine B is powering through the corners of her quilt
under the occasional guidance of Margaret Sampson George, after
starting it in a class a couple of years ago. She has some
fabulous hexies ready for the next border, too ...

Louise W has chosen large (1 1/2") elongated hexagons,
aiming for 9 bright blocks, for a quilt for her sister.

No hexagons here - Jill's foundation pieced baby quilt made
from Freshly Pieced's Cartwheels pattern.

We have an informal sewing day scheduled for Saturday, so there might be more show and tell yet, this week.

'Old Quilts, New Life' released

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a morning with Sarah Fielke, showing us many of the quilts from her books, including a preview of a few from her new book. Now that book, Old Quilts, New Life has been released, and our copy is on order. It was interesting to hear about the long and detailed process of producing a book that requires so much making for the content, that we don't often consider when enjoying the beautiful end-product.

This weekend Sarah has blogged about the release, her plans to celebrate it online, with a brief introduction to the book's concept:

... To begin, I chose 9 antique quilts from the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Each quilt has been reinterpreted in modern fabrics, and then each quilt also has a Modern quilt pattern to go with it. There's also a little bit of historical info that goes with each antique quilt, and the information about the original maker, where is was available ...

Further posts about the book are planned, and a blog tour later in the month.

We loved the quilts, and the idea of linking old and new quilts, so we are really looking forward to adding it to the 'Sarah Fielke shelf' in our library. Congratulations Sarah - here's to another success!

Call for local yarn bombers

Are you up for a little yarn bombing in Hornsby Mall? As part of the Hornsby Festival of the Arts, an event is planned that calls for some subversive knitting or crochet over the next week or two.  The grand reveal will be on Friday 16th October.

• Details are on the Fibre Tribe blog, here.

Labours of Love: catalogue online

The wonderful Labours of Love: Australian Quilts 1845 - 2015 exhibition closes on Monday, at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Art Centre. If you haven't been yet, that's not much time.

You know we loved it, and thought the catalogue was both excellent and reasonably priced. Unfortunately the print catalogue has run out before the exhibition ended, but the Gallery has made it available online - you can download it without charge - now that's generous!.