Happy New Year

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Community quilts 2015: all the quilts ...

We have had a very productive year in our Community Quilts program. You've seen our collection of 23 Blankets of Love from our Christmas gathering. Here are the other 38 quilts we made this year to donate to community causes:

These four quilts might look like a pair of duplicate photos, but they
are two pairs of quilts that are very similar but not exactly the same 

Four of the five 'Pittwater" quilts made from the end-of-year
challenge blocks for 2014. The fifth will be the first 
community quilt finished in 2016!

Blankets of Love made throughout the year

Colours of 2016

Hope you are enjoying these often casual, relaxing few days between Christmas and New Year, with some time to think about where your quilting might go in 2016.

You might want to contemplate which colours are likely to appear in fabric next year (somewhat subject to the forces of fashion as it always is). Here are two contrasting campaigns for particular colours:

Robert Kaufman Fabrics has announced the beginning of an annual release of one its popular Kona solid cotton patchwork fabrics in a 'colour of the year' that will be available only for that one year. The first one is the bright and cheerful yellow,  Highlight. A 'look book' of free patterns has been released as part of the marketing campaign to stimulate ideas. It might be just what you have been waiting for. 

On the other hand, Pantone's colour of the year for 2016 was released earlier in December to a mixed reception, and is actually two colours, Rose Quartz and Serenity.

Does either proclamation excite your colour sense? 

(Depending on the calibration of the colour rendition of your screen, these images might not match actual fabric colours exactly)

 Merry Christmas

For 2016 online: sign up now, with Sarah Fielke

If you like Sarah Fielke's designs, books and classes you might be interested in her newly advertised 2016 Block of the Month. It's a new pattern provided by email with online support in a number of different formats - there is no fabric provided (Sarah knows about our stashes!), so the price is very reasonable and can be paid upfront or monthly.

All the details, including a sketch of the whole design is on Sarah's website - check it out before Christmas, just in case you want to add it to your wish-list.

It looks like fun.

'Making The Australian Quilt: 1800-1950': Melbourne, 2016

Another reason to visit Melbourne in 2016!

Making the Australian  Quilt  1800 - 1950
NGV Melbourne
22 July - 6 November 2016

Tickets are on sale now, from the National Gallery of Victoria.

Storage bargain

The current Aldi catalogue includes this three tier metal trolley on special from Saturday19th December, for $39.99.

Similar trolleys available elsewhere are popular with quilters and other crafters because they are relatively compact, and can be easily wheeled to where you are working or stored away. The drawers are a good depth to hold a lot of supplies, but not so deep that you lose sight of everything. All dimensions are in both the print and online catalogues.

Blankets of Love, 2015

A collection of Blankets of Love (tiny quilts, 18" - 24") made by Fairholme Quilters as an end of year challenge, will be donated to maternity units via Quilt NSW, to be offered to parents of babies who die in the neonatal period:

Christmas lunch

Take thirty women with a common interest, and a long history of meeting and working together, supporting each other and being creative, a warm summer's day with a cool breeze, a beautifully appointed venue, a wonderful spread of summer food provided by those women, a bowl of punch, twenty two small quilts to admire, and you have the ingredients for three hours or so of enjoyable chat and friendship - that was our Monday group's Christmas lunch/end-of-year wrap earlier this week.

The small quilts hanging from the pelmets are our end of year challenge - Blankets of Love, to be offered to parents of babies who die in the perinatal period, via Quilt NSW. We voted for Viewers' Choice, which was won by Robin S:

Our thanks to Louise and Dennis, who organised and prepared the venue, for the tenth year. Is it too soon to book for 2016?

Mad Quilters Gathering Penrith: February 2016

You can't read the small print in this flyer here, 

but you can download a larger print/printable copy from here.

An outing for the raffle quilt

We kicked of ticket sales in our 2016 raffle quilt at the weekend, with a stand at the Studio ARTES fundraiser in the Mall at Hornsby. It was a great opportunity to show the quilt to community members, invite people to our Quilt Show in April, and to meet some of the Studio ARTES members who will benefit from the raffle proceeds, and to see their beautiful work. They will be our guest exhibitors in April.

Meagan often works with textiles, and might have some work
in our exhibition. She was a great model for our quilt,
on a beautifully sunny day in Hornsby.

Naylin, Emily and Sarah are all members of Studio ARTES,
and were very willing to help us display the quilt.

Today we are going to take the quilt out again, to our Christmas lunch, where we will take some more photos, generally admire it, and maybe come up with a fancier name than 'the raffle quilt'.

2016 Fairholme Quilters raffle quilt

Our 2016 raffle quilt is finished ahead of schedule, so we took it out yesterday for a photograph in the afternoon light ... but the wind was up and gusty, so it became more a case of the 'quilt as spinnaker'! We will re-visit that exercise on a calmer day ...

However, we have an opportunity to sell tickets in the quilt this weekend, at the Studio ARTES Ride-a-Day fundraising event, so that's where we'll be if you want to get in early.  The quilt is approximately 80" x 60", hand and machine pieced, machine quilted (long arm), all cotton fabrics, with wool/polyester batting.

General ticket sales will open in the new year, when more details about the quilt will be released, and the raffle will be drawn on 10th April 2016, at the close of our Quilt Show. Watch this space.

Hornsby Mall
Saturday 5th December
from 10.30am

We will be located next to the fountain, between the Blu-Water restaurant and the south entry to Westfield (the David Jones wing).

Tickets will be $2 each or 3 for $5

Proceeds to Studio ARTES

This week at Fairholme ...

That was quick - our last regular Monday meeting for 2015 was this week. We take a break for a few weeks over the summer, after a Christmas lunch next Monday, with a display of the Blankets of Love we have made for our end-of-year challenge (so there are still some finishes to see). Since we have a Quilt Show scheduled for 8th - 10th April 2016), it might be a break from meetings, rather than a break from sewing for many of us.

Simple rail fence blocks were elevated in design by the addition
of a narrow sashing strip - Roslyn chose all of the fabrics from
our community stash, and quietly and expertly produced this
stylish, calm quilt while she is also coordinating stock for the
exclusive craft boutique to be offered at our 2016 Quilt Show,
and the members' challenge for the Show.

Jill repaired a 25 year old baby quilt of great sentimental
value, made for her daughter. It is to handed back to its maker's
daughter as a memento of her late mother, along with a new
baby quilt that Jill made for her daughter, due be born this week.

Dawn has been making bags of all shapes and sizes for our
craft boutique - we know they will be popular, because  a select
few have been released for re-Christmas sale to our members at
their request, with proceeds going to the craft boutique.
We don't know when Dawn sleeps!