Stalled?

If you have the odd stalled project (and who doesn't?) this article might help you to give it a kick-along ...

Getting back together with your UFO

Mary Kate Karr-Petras, Quilters Newsletter Blog, 26 May 2016
A couple of weekends ago, having just completed the pieced backing for a queen-size quilt and faced with the prospect of then basting said quilt, or maybe finishing marking and basting a twin-size quilt top, or perhaps marking and basting a throw-size quilt top (are you sensing a pattern here?), I took the easy way out: I pulled an even older UFO out of the closet and decided to work on it instead ...

Images from the Fairholme Quilt Show (5) ... Challenge Quilts 8 - 14

Check back to this post for the inspiration photo for this year's Challenge. Here are the rest of the entrants, including the winner, chosen by viewers' votes.

"The Bush Always Surprises" by Robin Williams

"The Forest Floor" by Jo-Ann Phillips 

"Happy Fungi" by Nerida Williams 

"Falling Leaves" by Margaret Weir 

"Silken Leaves" by Roslyn Pullen

"Tidying up the Forest Floor" by Jill O'Connor

"Forest Floor" by Elaine Walton
Winner of Viewers' Choice

Thanks you to all who contributed to the Challenge exhibition, and to Roslyn for curating it.

Images from the Fairholme Quilt Show (4) ... Challenge Quilts 1 - 7

Roslyn once again volunteered to curate a quilt challenge for the Quilt Show, providing a small exhibition within the exhibition. The challenge as to create a quilt no larger than 50cm x 50 cm, based on or inspired by the first photo (below), taken by Roslyn's son. The inspiration could be any aspect of the photo, such as colour(s), shape(s), an associated idea, but not a realistic representation. There were 14 entries, with the winner chosen by the viewers.

Challenge photograph: Lachlan Pullen

"My Mushroom Garden" by Lynette Harvey

"Malalo" (Resting Place) by Dawn Cox 

"Moonlight" by Miriam Jones

"Challenge Quilt 2016" by Pat Nerlich 

"Fairyland" by Susan McMahon

"Fungi in Folklore" by Val Nadin

"Down the Rabbit Hole" by Virginia Coote

More tomorrow ...

Images from the Fairholme Quilt Show (3)

MEMORIES OF LANCASTER COUNTY
Sue Hodges
I began this quilt several years ago on a workshop
with Anne Sommerlad. I was inspired to make it in the
Amish style after seeing some exquisite miniatures in a
quilt shop in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA.
The quilt is to be displayed with a small collection of
Amish pieces bough during my trip to the USA.
It was completed recently in an effort to reduce my
collection UFO’s.
(This quilt is approximately 30 x 42 cm, A3 size)

MY CAT JOSIE
Lyn Lang
I have made this wall hanging as a tribute
to my ginger cat Josie using Lorraine Carthew's
design from her book ‘Mosaic Applique'.

LIBERTY LOVE
Miriam Jones
After her mother passed away, my dear friend Elaine gave me a
tablecloth that her mother had embroidered and edge-crocheted.
I fell in love with it immediately. Being of a certain age, this
tablecloth had a few rust marks and a couple of wear holes.
What to do to make it into a special, meaningful piece?
Being white on white embroidery, it needed a gentle touch. I
 chose to finally use my Liberty pieces that I had been squirrelling
away for years. I mixed these with some modern fabric pieces.
The pattern I used is called Joseph's Coat. I hand - pieced the
rounds and then joined them together. What I adore about this
pattern is the wonderful rounded edges that are formed if you
work it in a circular fashion. To cover minor imperfections in the
tablecloth I chose to make fabric circles and appliqué them on.
Repairs were made to the crocheted border. I love the way this
tablecloth has turned out. Thank you Elaine for sharing this
tablecloth with me. Your Mum was a wonderful sewer and
I hope that it honours her memory.

FABULOUS FACADES
Dawn Cox
There are many wonderful buildings on Norfolk Island
but we chose this freighter at the Kingston Historical Precinct
which is used for transferring freight from cargo vessels to
shore. As part of the construction technique we built each
layer and featured an outline of a thin black line to create a
more graphic image. The Norfolk Island Quilt Retreat
was tutored by Gloria Loughman.

SUNSET ON NORFOLK
Dawn Cox
A Gloria Loughman workshop creating a simple
landscape quilt that features an unusual palette of
colours. The emphasis was a colour choice and
value, using colours not necessarily seen before
in nature, but work harmoniously together
for a stunning and different effect.

Images from Fairholme Quilt Show (2)

More from our April 2016 Quilt Show ...

Animal Fair
Virginia Coote
I used a pattern from Kathy Dougherty and Sarah Fielke’s
book, 'Material Obsession'. It was called ‘3 Ring Circus’
but I couldn’t find circus material at the time. It was quite
a challenge to cut the spotty and stripe material the right
way. I have enough mistakes to make a matching cushion!
It was made for the birth of my grandson Tristan and
he likes all the bright colours.

SO MANY HEARTS
Robyn Leek
My favourite occupation is hand applique by needle turn.
My favourite things to applique are hearts!
Also great to have fun with colour.

KIRI'S QUILT
Virginnia Coote
This quilt was made in memory of Kiri's mother Jill,
who sadly died 18 months ago. Jill made many of her own
clothes and loved large patterns and bright colours. She was
also famous for the dressing up outfits she used to make.
I have made the quilt using as many fabrics from Jill's
stash as I could (cutting up clothes where necessary).
The centrepiece I found among her stash is typical of
things in her home. I attended Brenda Gael Smith's workshop
'Serendipity Circles' a while ago and I felt the large circles
would display the large designs on the fabric to advantage.
This has been rather a sad quilt to make, but I have been
happy to do this for Kiri.

SCAREDY CATS
Helen Battellino
This started as a black and white quilt, but
I couldn’t resist adding a few cheeky cats.
Quilted by Christy Wang of Quilting Treasures.

SPRING
Lyn Lang
I started this quilt in a workshop with Anne Sommerlad,
using her method of 'no pins- no tack' machine applique
and eventually finished it in 2014.

THE LESS SAID THE BETTER
Val Nadin
When visiting exhibitions I've been amused, bemused
 and confused by 'artists' statements'. So I decided to
collect some of the comments - yes, these are actual
quotes!! This quilt was shown some years ago but
it was decided to give it another airing to help
viewers who are lost for words.

Photos: Andrew Freelander

Images from Fairholme Quilt Show 2016 (1)

Our thanks to Andrew Freelander for photographing the quilts in our April 2016 exhibition. We'll publish them over a number of posts. Captions are the 'story cards' prepared by each quilter.

OLIVIA’S QUILT
Elaine Walton
One of a pair made as a 'welcome home' for my granddaughters
who have returned to Sydney after four years living in Germany.
Pattern is ‘Millefiore’ by Sarah Fielke. It took me some time to
come to terms with the colour palette, and not a reproduction fabric
to be seen. Hand appliqued and mostly hand quilted. 

LA BELLE EPOQUE
Janice Freelander
I named this quilt ‘La Belle Epoque’ after the fabric
used in the Celtic knot border. The centre medallion is
from Kim Mclean’s ‘Flower Basket Medallion’ quilt,
however I wanted to create my own borders.
The quilt took a little longer than I would have liked,
however the 2016 quilt show gave me further inspiration to
finish it. The quilt is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

GATHERING AT THE OASIS 

Nerida Williams
I completed this quilt as a very new member to Fairholme Quilters.
The design is inspired by Jen Kingwell’s 'Midnight at the Oasis'.
My quilt’s name 'Gathering at the Oasis' reminds me the warm
welcome I received, new friends and the special group that
Fairholme Quilters is for all of us.
Techniques used are machine piecing, needle turn
applique and both machine and hand quilting.

OLD WITH THE NEW
Susan McMahon
This quilt began with a Jinny Beyer border fabric given to
me by a friend. I agonised over the design, then spotted the
toile fabric. The quilt was then to be a medallion quilt.
The colour style was to be of a more traditional range.
However, this was not to be the case. I began putting away
fabric from my previous quilt, when the Kaffe Fassett aqua
fabric jumped out at me. Do I dare put this fabric with the
border fabric? It just went. How could I refuse? The colour
direction of the quilt completely changed. I was very happy
with the outcome as well as it forced me out of my
comfort zone. I designed and quilted the quilt myself.

STARRY STARRY NIGHT
Sue Crowe
Begun in a workshop with Margaret Cormack, and completed
in classes with her. This gave me the chance to try foundation
piecing for the first time. As often happens with my quilts it
then grew. Once I decided to set the centre on point and surround
it with all those triangles, a bit of calculation was needed to
work out the perfect size – thanks Pythagoras. Jo-Ann Phillips of
Quiltwise provided expert quilting to complete it.

New members, new quilts ...

We've welcomed a number of new members to Fairholme this year, and we are really enjoying getting to know them and their quilts:

Diana is an experienced quilter, and brought one of her favourite
quilts along for her first show and tell. We look forward to seeing more.

Elaine B is not a new member, but she has used new skills
in making this quilt. It was in our recent show, but it  now has
some additional quilting, after a close finish for the show.

Julie is also an experienced quilter. Her quilt-as-you-go quilt
has panels cut from a cloud print surrounded by watery batik
prints - very calming and a clever use of the feature fabric
(which was, of course, bought for something else entirely!)

When Linda's Year 9 Design and Technology students completed
 the curriculum requirements before the very end of the school
year, she taught them to make simple applique patches, and had
them research how community groups like quilt guilds
contribute to their local communities.

The students donated their blocks for Linda to make up into
quilts to be donated to community causes. Her use of rich prints
adds great texture and depth to the students' block. These two
will be donated to foster children via QuiltNSW

Textile exhibition at Royal Botanic Garden: May

ATASDA's blog, Fibre Tribe is an excellent source of information about fibre and textile events throughout NSW - there is a link under 'Blogroll' in the right hand column of this page.

Current works in progress ...

After the build up to a two yearly quilt show, there are inevitably not many new finishes to show yet, but there are no idle hands. Here are some of the hand stitching projects in progress at the moment, and one machine stitched top completed:

Margaret S has a particular liking for reproduction
fabrics, and she is a skilled fussy-cutter.

Robin W has been quilting for many years, and has produced
many quilts, sewing by hand and by machine- so she thought
it was time to master the Y-seam!

Sue H has been known to make both large and tiny
quilts - which will these little hexagons become?

Val is reclaiming fabric from a large collection of her husband's
silk ties - they will reappear as something stunning.

Naomi is a new member who describes herself as a novice
quilter - this recently completed top is her second quilt,
made from a beautiful range of batiks. 

A full week at Fairholme (4)

We've been trialling a longer than usual meeting on the first Monday of each month, booking our venue for 4 hours instead of the usual two. It's been popular with members who enjoy the extra time to work on projects, and/or with like-minded friends. So after Georgie's morning tea last week, we still had time for some sewing and a little show and tell:

Daphne is very fond of foundation paper piecing, and is
extending her English paper piecing experience with some  intricate
blocks from Katja Marek's The New Hexagon. You can get an idea of
the size of her block from Daphne's reading glasses in the background.

We have been watching this quilt grow as Elaine W hand
appliqued most of it. The orange-peel borders were time-
consuming, but so worth it - lovely to see it finished, Elaine.

Robin Stutchbury is just sewing down the binding
on this reputation-saving quilt for her youngest
granddaughter. Robin forgot to make her a quilt,
and she is about to turn six! But as a bonus, it will be
done in time to be hand delivered in Brisbane next month.

Lynette made this sweet quilt for a child from fabric donated
to our community stash and a pretty spot for the border from
her own collection. It will be the start of the next community
collection for children, as we have recently delivered the last
year's  quilts to QuiltNSW to go to foster children.

A full week at Fairholme (3) ... a farewell morning tea

Georgie and John are making a long-anticipated sea change to the south coast, so we held a morning tea to say good-bye, and wish them well. It's a big change after living in the same house for 47 years!

Georgie has been a member of Fairholme Quilters for about 12 years, and has made a very significant contribution - she's been a committee member, held several positions, sometimes more than one at a time, and she has been a generous participant in (and donor to) so many activities, particularly our community projects.

Georgie loves Miriam's bags, so Miriam made one for a
farewell gift, in colours she knows Georgie likes (and they
coordinated with her outfit beautifully!). We also gave
her some potted succulents for her new easy-care garden. 

We do morning tea well.

Here are just a few photos of Georgie's quilts from earlier posts:

We will miss you Georgie, but we wish you both great happiness in your new home and community - you've chosen a beautiful place, and having that ocean view will never get old. Thank you for all that you have brought to Fairholme over the years.