Fairholme Quilt Show has NOT been cancelled - Facebook rumour only!

If you have received a Facebook message (or heard from another source) that our Quilt Show 8 - 10 April 2016 has been cancelled, please note that it is NOT SO!

We had to replace the Facebook event page to provide public access, and when we deleted the old page, Facebook sent out a notification that the event had been cancelled. Not quite the same thing.

The Quilt Show is definitely still on, and we hope to see you there. The new Facebook event page is here.

Recently at Fairholme ...

Louise W made this lovely version of Elizabeth Hartman's
'Marmalade' design for her daughter who is taking it to
her new home in Perth next week - what a beautiful
 memento of home. It is also her 21st birthday quilt
... a year or so later. It is the same pattern that we used
for one of the raffle quilts for our 2014 Quilt Show.

Christy Wang, of Quilting Treasures quilted Louise's quilt
- she is very happy with it.

Georgie is have a quilt and fabric declutter, and our
community quilts collection is benefitting by the
donation of this classical beauty - baskets in oriental
fabrics. Many thanks, Georgie.

Georgie's beautiful hand quilting.

Pop-up shops at our Quilt Show, and event page link

Under two weeks until our 2016 Quilt Show - 8-10 April - here's who will be there with their lovely merchandise, should you be in need of quilt, fabric, thread, patterns and textile goods, and the wonderful textile art of Studio ARTES:

• Gallery ARTES (Hornsby) 
• Cherry Pie Designs (Somersby)
• Cottage QuiltWorks (Warriewood)
• Kate Quilts (online)
• The Stitching Post (Katoomba)
• Grandmas Treasures - vintage linens

Grandma's Treasures at our 2014 Quilt Show

We also have our own additions to the display of around 100 quilts:

• Fairholme cafe - open for afternoon tea on Friday 8 April, and morning and afternoon teas and lunch on Saturday 9 - Sunday 10 April
• Fairholme craft boutique - a range of hand-made goods

Facebook event page for the Quilt Show

Fussy cutting - a tutorial, or just a beautiful post for looking at the pictures, and an introduction to 'Passacaglia'

Blog posts can be prepared ahead of time and scheduled to post automatically - but you have to check the 'schedule' box in the blog editing program. Sometimes that doesn't happen, and posts (like emails) languish in the 'drafts; folder, like this one from 2014!

We have some virtuoso paper piecers at Fairholme, with expert fussy cutting skills ... but some of us have not ventured there yet.  This post from UK quilter Flossie Teacakes (who obviously doesn't take herself too seriously), is both an excellent tutorial and a beautiful little feast for the eye.

Other tutorials that might catch your eye, too are linked from her side-bar (left side). If you are captured by the Passacaglia 'cogs' in her banner, take a look at the first and last images (more about that second image here) in this post too (which is not about epp) ... there is much to see in this blog
'from between the stitches'.

Passacaglia is one of the projects in Millefiori Quilts, published by Quilt Mania.

And if you want to see more about a Passacaglia quilt in progress, Lilabelle Lane's dedicated page is a good place to start ... or just put 'Passacaglia' into Google, and follow the links under 'images'.
See you on the other side.

Some quilty reading and viewing for the long weekend

The backstory of a popular book in our library, Sunday Morning Quilts, by Cheryl Arkison:

• How Sunday Morning Quilts Changed My Life

Cheryl Arkison will be visiting Australia as the guest tutor for the inaugural Creative Retreats, to be held in NSW and Victoria in June-July .

The Invisible Quilter
The Off-Kilter Quilt, 15 March 2016

The other day I went to a friend’s birthday lunch at a local cafe. I was seated among a group of women I didn’t know, and when I mentioned that I made quilts I got the response I almost always get when amongst the muggles (i.e. nonquilters): admiration (“that’s so cool!”) underscored by confusion. People still make quilts? ...

Why Does My Longarmer Charge ‘So Much’?

AndiCrafts, 21 March 2016

... It was obvious she had used all of her talent, training and PASSION for quilting to turn this top into a show stopper. And do you know how much she earned for all of this hard work? Around $13 per hour ...

Paper pieced 'Unicorn' block
Robynieland publishes interesting paper piecing patterns, including a very attractive unicorn block:

... R. T. Rognstad is an American artist and sewist creating in New Zealand. Her work involves a variety of animals as curious and alluring characters ...

And in case you are travelling to the US sometime, a fabric store you might want to check out ...

• Obies, the fabric hoarding store of your dreams

Ingenious patchwork

Val brought in an interesting news clipping this week, that we were delighted to find online as well. We are so lucky to be able to drop into one of several local quilt shops when we need more fabric, or dip into our own or friends' extensive stashes ... Scroll down to about half way through this story to see the mention of the patchwork, and a photo:

Dharavi Biennale puts Slumdog Millionaire slum back in artistic spotlight

Amrit Dhillon Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 2016

Slums are ugly, crowded places that generate rubbish, not art, let alone art festivals like the Venice Biennale. But Dharavi slum in Mumbai ...  starred in Danny Boyle's 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. And now it is proudly hosting the "Dharavi Biennale" ... 

... The name is a playful tease ... The aim was to provide an opportunity for creativity ... the Biennale was conceived to give an opportunity for artistic expression to its young residents, a luxury which the struggle to survive does not allow them ...

... The works are well conceived and executed ... A group of women took scraps of waste denim to create a giant patchwork map of the slum. To mark buildings such as toilets and shops, and water pumps, they used buttons, covered bottle tops, and embroidery. To show the railway tracks, they ingeniously used zips ...

Fairholme 'show and tell', March 2016

We are working away at preparations for our Quilt Show in just over 2 weeks ... quilts to exhibit, making stock for the craft boutique, plans for mechanics of the display, food, selling raffle tickets, rounding up volunteers for set-up and take-down, hoping for good weather, but not too hot ... so not a lot of show and tell this month!

Janet has signed up for The Splendid Sampler - these are
her first seven blocks, all hand sewn. She's using fabric from
her stash, and the colour scheme is emergent. 

Elaine W had some spiderweb blocks left over from a
grandchild's quilt, so she has made them up into a baby
quilt that she has generously donated for sale on the
craft stall at our Quilt Show. 

Linda P has stitched up a bright and cheerful
class sample for a beginner's class that she will
be teaching soon, using a toucan print as the
feature fabric. 

The jungle print feature fabric with the hot pink hippo was
found in our community stash - the selvedge says
 'Alexander Henry 1995'! Jill had fun making up some odd
sized tilted block and not quite as much fun fitting them
together with a thin sashing,

The creature prints in this quilt top of simple squares
are also from the community stash, complemented by
some excess pinks, yellows and oranges from Jill's stash.
Susan is making a similar top in similar prints in turquoise,
yellow, white and grey - they will make a pretty pair.

The craft of politics ...

We don't see much quilting and other craft in the news sections of daily print media, and when we do, it is not usually aligned with politics. This article from today's Sun-Herald hits that spot:

Craft activists are changing the world, one stitch at a time
Joanne Brookfield, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2016

Concerned citizens have always taken to the streets, to rally, wave placards and chant for change.

Some end up in scuffles with police as a result, or locked up. Other activists intervene more directly , chaining themselves to trees or bulldozers or getting into small boats and placing themselves between a whale and a harpoon ... And then there are those who knit ...

Clever diagonal cut quilt backing

17/3/2016 - broken link is now fixed.

This page shows a method of making a quilt backing wider than a single fabric width with less fabric, and fewer seams than standard methods. We'll give it a try at our next community sewing day ... which happens to be tomorrow. We often make quilts 45" - 50" wide, so it could be very handy.

Diagonal Backing Calculator - Multi-Patch.com

Rousillon on tour

Miriam has taken our 2016 raffle quilt, Rousillon, on tour - to Berry, Mittagong, by the water, and it is now settled at Cottage Quilt Works in Warriewood, where it can be seen, rather than being kept under wraps until its grand outing at our Quilt Show (8 - 10 April), and tickets are for sale there too

Both the raffle quilt and Cottage Quilt Works will be at the show - thank you for hosting it at your beautiful shop, Gerri Johns.

Thanks to Sew Miriam for the use of her photos - see her blog post, and more photos, here.

This weekend ...

A different 'show and tell' ...

Studio ARTES is a unique organisation operating in our local area - arts focused, member led, community based, it provides a range of opportunities and supports for people with disabilities, including both recreational arts and the development of professional arts practice. Other recreational and educational programs are also offered. Staff in the arts programs are all arts qualified and practising artists. We are thrilled that some of the highly talented Studio A artists (those on the professional practice path) who make textile based works have agreed to exhibit some of their work at our 2016 Quilt Show 8 - 10 April, and that Gallery ARTES manager Lise Anderson is organising a pop-up shop to give show visitors an opportunity to buy Studio A pieces, as well as seeing them on display.

This week we had a different 'show and tell' session when Jem Muharrem (CEO) and Lise brought a number of artworks to our Monday meeting, to tell us about the broader work of Studio ARTES, and to allow us to see particular pieces up close. Their enthusiasm for their work and respect for the artists was infectious. We delighted and astonished by the quality, vibrancy and variety of the textile work being produced at the Studio and Gallery, and hope we can, in a small way, bring it to the attention of a new audience through the show.

Here are just a few examples of what we saw, and what you will see at the show:

Cushion cover designed, made, and embellished by Meagan Pelham

'Punk Queen' soft sculpture designed, made and embellished
by Emily Crockford

'Koala' cushion designed, made and embellished by Emily Crockford
Note the price tag on his ear - this means the piece is for sale
in the Studio A online shop.  

Designed, made, quilted and embellished by Emily Crockford 

'Mermaid' designed, made and embellished by Annette Gaulston

Cushion covers designed and woven by Damien Showyin

Designed, made, quilted and embellished by Emily Crockford

You can also follow both Studio ARTES and Studio A  on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for information on activities, events and exhibitions.

Also in April ...

After the Fairholme Quilt Show, comes Springwood Community Quilt Show:

• Other April events are listed here

A nice coincidence ...

If you found the links between our  2016 raffle quilt being named Rousillon and the French town itself interesting, you might also be intrigued to realise that Rousillon was the location for the wonderful photography in Kaffe Fasset's book Quilts en Provence. This French online bookstore features several pages from the book that clearly show the beautiful townscape.

We learned this after choosing and publishing the name, but it's good to know that there is another quilting link, and it's a famous one among Kaffe Fasset's many fans.

Avalon Quilt Show

9 am - 7 pm  Friday 11 March 2016  
9am - 5 pm  Saturday 12 March 2016

Avalon Uniting Church, Bellevue Ave
Avalon Beach

Proceeds to Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation

Enquiries: Anne 02 9918 7196