Summery community quilts

Sue C's sewing room is comfortably cool, so she has done quite a bit of sewing during the last few weeks, and our community quilts program is benefitting

The first finished quilt top ... now to choose the backing,
shopping the stash.

Much of the appeal of this quilt is the 'Hello Kitty'
fabric in the star centre, that set the tone for all the rest.

Sue's second top is made from quarter log cabin blocks
donated by anther quilter in a regular class Sue attends
- she had got 'stuck' and kindly passed it on. Sue made
a couple of additional blocks, and massaged them all
together for this bright, refreshing community quilt

The blocks are made from a jelly roll, all with dark centres

Patchwork in the city at Sydney Chinese New Year Festival

Sydney Chinese New Year Festival runs until 12 February 2017.

One of the attractions is the display of 12 'larger than life animal signs of the lunar zodiac at Circular Quay'  - they are all gorgeous, and some are fine examples of urban patchwork designs, especially the horse, and the pig lanterns.

2017 is the Year of the Rooster - and the logo on the City of Sydney's festival web page could be adapted (with permission, of course) for a fun applique design.

Launching into 2017 ... community quilts

Some of the currently in-progress community quilts were worked on during the break ... we know there are several more that will appear at our first community sewing day in February.

Robin W has a gorgeous stash of fabric in bright saturated
colours, and is very generous in making it into quilts for
children - here is a preview of her latest finish.

Susan M picked out a selection of prints that play
very nicely together ...

... her selection included some very cute 'critter' prints.

The triangles in this quilts are the offcuts from the large strip
pieced diamond shapes in one of our 2014 raffle quilts.
After a three year 'rest' in the community stash, they were
improv-pieced into an approximate square with a few additional
scraps, and Jill is now adding some big-stitch hand quilting
along side organic lines of machine quilting. 

Pour l'Amour du Fil 2017

In case you are heading for Europe around April:

 Pour l'Amour du Fil 

 19 - 23 April 2017  -  Nantes, France

Launching into 2017 (3)

Robyn L handled sewing in the summer well - she
embroidered this beautiful flower on linen for a cushion ...

... that will compliment the one she made in 2015
incorporating her embroidered bird panel.

Launching into 2017 (2)

More post-summer break show and tell ...

Sue H's teddy bear blocks are for a baby's quilt that is
already very high on the cuteness scale.

Val also needed a baby quilt ready to be delivered to a new
great nephew in Canada in a few weeks' time, so she whipped
up these gorgeous houses, and will quilting them very soon.

Zilla has rejoined Fairholme having returned to live in the
area after twenty years. She brought along her quilt with
3D elements, to show that she had been a quilter during
her absence!

Jo started the top of this quilt in a workshop with Margaret
Sampson George in 2013, and has finished the quilting and binding
recently after getting back to her long arm machine to work on
her own quilts, following an injury that has kept her from it.

Lyn made appliqued library bags for four grandchildren over
the summer, and made this vibrant quilt top from over-sized
pre-cut Drunkard's Path blocks

Miriam showed us her cute little origami boat block - she
used the photo as her 'January' placemarker on Instagram
The patten can be purchased online from Right Patterns, here.
 

Launching into 2017 (1)

Catching up after our summer break is in full swing from this week - some are still on holidays, or involved with family and other summer commitments, but our first gatherings gave us much to see and talk about.

Last year Daphne discovered the joys of English paper
piecing, with Katja Marek's book The New Hexagon.
Over summer she fussy cut and pieced this lovely block,
and she has started her next one, in a purple and aqua
colour scheme.

A closer view of Daphne's fussy cutting.

Diana enjoyed stitching her Sashiko panel, but the
gold metallic thread cause a little frustration ...

... while being well worth the effort.

Elaine B is putting the finishing touched to the binding
on a string pieced placemat for a friend.

Fabric sale, workshops: Cottage Quiltworks

Cottage Quiltworks at Warriewood are holding a sale today and tomorrow - Friday 20 January and Saturday 21 January.

Sale fabrics $10/m (minimum purchase 1m) Over 1,000 bolts! 

Kits 1/2 price and assorted off cuts

Visit Cottage Quiltworks on Facebook for photos, and for recent posts about workshops starting from next week.

2017 events - update

Have you started/filled your 2017 diary yet?

Our 2017 events page has been updated, with information and links to events starting in February - just a few weeks away!

Current listing include:

A Matter of Time exhibition, Gosford
Mad Quilters Gathering, Penrith
IntoCraft Live, Rosehill
Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne
Quilts in the Shearing Shed Exhibition, near Bathurst
Springwood Community Quilt Show
Sydney Quilt Show/Craft Fair, Darling Harbour

The permanent link is just under the banner at the top of this page ↑ ... it is updated regularly.

Patchwork in the wild ...

... well, not pieced patchwork, but an eye-catching design on Bondi Beach during a very hot Sydney summer. Keep your eyes peeled for other examples.

Kona Colour of the Year 2017: Pink Flamingo

Robert Kaufman Fabrics 2017 Colour of the Year is Pink Flamingo:

It will be available for one year only, in Kona Cotton (a solid), and will feature in a promotional campaign that includes a series of free quilt patterns. Previews are in the 'Look Book'.

Tidying up ...

Our 'Quilts made in workshops' pages have been updated and edited -  a single link, just under the banner photo above, now takes you to the links for images from the workshops we have held over recent years.

The individual workshop pages include further links to the workshop teachers' own web presence, and to other workshop images in this blog.

It sometimes takes quite some time for what we learn in workshops to translate into finished projects, so they are all still open to further additions, so check back from time to time to see how we're going.

Summer reading ...

For the days when it is just too hot and humid for actual quilting, here is a little online reading, starting with a lovely tribute to a dedicated needleworker ...




Heather Joynes - needleworker restored 1778 Captain Cook Hawaiian feather cape

Sydney Morning Herald, 3 January 2016

When Heather Joynes took up a needle in her early schooldays in London, to make the first of many annual samplers, she could hardly have realised what it would lead to. She went on to assist in the conservation of many unique museum artefacts, not least of which was a Hawaiian feather cape presented to Captain Cook in 1788 held at the Australian Museum. She would teach in Australia and internationally while developing her own unique style ...

Sewing Circle drawing thread to tradition, culture and work

Luke Walters, SBS, 9 December 2016
What began as a simple sewing-circle for women in Melbourne's South Sudanese community, has transformed into a budding enterprise fusing culture, fashion and opportunity ...

America's Earliest Quilts: Necessity Not the Mother of Invention

Bill Volkening, Wonky Quilts, 4 December 2016
When it comes to America's earliest quilts and coverlets, necessity was not the mother of invention. Quiltmaking required time and resources. Quilts were elegant objects made by affluent families, and decorative sewing was a skill developed in finishing schools by refined young women ...

Dutch patchwork celebration skirts - healing the Netherlands after World War II
Judy Anne Johnson Breneman, 2004, published online by Patches from the Past
The story begins in 1943 with eight women in an Amsterdam prison cell, all jailed by their Nazi occupiers for acts of resistance. The women were stressed and at odds. The cell stifling and dismal. Then a miracle happened. Somehow someone managed to smuggle a patchwork scarf in with a bag of laundry ...

The Discontinuation of an Icon: Some Thoughts on the Quilting Industry …
Thomas Knauer Sews, 15 July 2016
Today it was announced that Quilters Newsletter will no longer be published after its October issue; news that brings a major loss for the quilting world, one that I believe is a harbinger of things to come ...

Quit magazines - relevant or not?

Generation Q Magazine, 21 July 2016

This week, our tiny q-niverse reels with news of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine’s shuttering. Owned by F+W Media, QNM was one of the longest-standing quilt-only publications in our country. Started in 1969 by Bonnie Lehman, this publication helped bring quilting back to relevance in our modern era, in a huge way ...

I Made It: Mount Gambier migrant sewing project teaches independence and business savvy
Kate Hill, ABC South East SA, 27 July 2016
Jolie Hirwa is keenly watching as the bright print material slips under her fingers, the needle of the sewing machine humming away in front of her. The refugee from the Republic of Congo is one of six women involved in a new project at Mount Gambier's Migrant Resource Centre called I Made It, aiming to equip migrant women with both sewing skills and business savvy ...

The many amazing benefits of quilting
So SewEasy, 2 October 2016
A lot has been written about the many benefits of quilting, but it is only in the last couple of years that scientists and scholars really started to study this claim. A long time ago, quilting was done for a very practical reason –to keep the family warm especially during the cold winter months. This is not really required as much anymore because of advances in technology and with women working more outside the home, there has been less time. Surprisingly and thankfully however, this did not cause the demise of quilting which is still alive and popular as a form of hobby and expression of creativity ...

Graceland
Thom Garrett, Personal Growth, 6 June 2016
Grace was a quilter, which, to the uninitiated, might sound like I’m telling you that she had a hobby. Ha! To put it in perspective, Miles Davis played a horn, and Picasso liked to color. Grace was a quilter ...

Two January sales

Patchwork Plus at Miranda 

81/7-15 Jackson Ave

02 9540 2786

Annual Sale 

Wednesday 4 - Saturday 7 January 2017 

Patchwork Products at Rydalmere

21 Myrtle Street

02 9638 1475

Closing down sale
All fabrics on bolts reduced to $4 - $6 per meter
Fat quarters $1 to $2

Through January 2017

Happy New Year