Thursday, June 29, 2017

Tula Pink is coming to Quiltsmith


Quiltsmith (Annandale) has announced the return of popuar designer Tula Pink to Australian shores this coming November/December.

Quiltsmith dates:

Friday 1st December - Lecture and Trunk Show

Saturday 2nd December - Tula Nova Workshop

Call or email the shop now to put your name down on the Expression of Interest list:
Phone - 02 9550 4947

Email - quiltsmith@ozemail.com.au

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Quilt shows for the diary

These events have been added to our '2017 events' page:

Glenbrook Cocktail Quilters
2017 Quilt Show
Saturday 22 - Sunday 23 July
10.00 am - 4.00 pm
Glenbrook Primary School Hall, Woodville St, Glenbrook

Mad Quilters Gathering
4 - 6 August 2017
Penrith Panthers Exhibition Marquee, 123 Mulgoa Rd
Penrith

Wangi Quilters Biennial Quilt Show 2017
Friday-Saturday-Sunday 25 - 27 August 2017
10.00 am - 4.00 pm
Wangi Workers Club, 11 Market Street, Wangi Wangi 
(on the shores of Lake Macquarie)
0408 616 629

Saturday 14 - Sunday 15 October 2017
9.30 am - 4.30 pm 
Mosman Art Gallery, 1 Art Gallery Way, Mosman 2088
Enquiries: Sue 0417 068 855 or barnquilters@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Sydney Quilt Show: Viewers' Choice awards

The Viewers' Choice Awards from the 2017 Sydney Quilt Show have been announced:

  • The Viewers' Choice quilts(winner and runner-up) are here
  • Three awards were made in the new 'Recycled, Repurposed, Revitalised' exhibition.



Sunday, June 25, 2017

A great day of show and tell

After a week's break for our larger meeting over the long weekend, we had a bumper show and tell session last Monday.

We are accustomed to Robin's working mostly with Kaffe
Fasset's bright, bold fabric, so it was very interesting to hear
how much she loved these blue tones on sight, and bought two
charm packs to make a large wonky pinwheels quilt (detail below).



It was good to see Dawn last week after a long break.
But she had not stopped sewing while she attended to
pressing family needs - she brought along three of the
four quilt tops she has made recently. For this one she
used a pack of 5" wide 'jelly roll' strips, with a
complimentary print to add interest.
When Miriam first showed us her 'Whirlwind' pattern and
described her technique (Miriam's free online tutoral is here),
Dawn was immediately drawn to its simplicity, and set about
making her own - this is the first and larger of the two
we saw last week.
This one is a little smaller, but brighter
- a celebration of yellow.
Pink and pretty in beautiful soft Liberty prints
 - whose could it be, but Janice's?
Nerida has an unfailing eye for mixing colours and prints
- and her finished Emma Mary quilt made from Judy Newman's
pattern is no exception (detail below).
 

But this top is not recognisably Nerida's style at all!
She didn't make it, but found it in a country 'everything'
shop ... she looked at it again, recognised it as a sampler
several years old but in excellent condition, and decided
not to buy it. And yet here it is, and it came out of
Nerida's bag ...

Thursday, June 22, 2017

2017 Sydney Quilt Show award winners

As always, Quilt NSW has published the award winners at the 2017 Sydney Quilt Show, within minutes of the presentation finishing this afternoon, and issued a photo of the Best in Show winner for sharing.

Congratulations to Pamela Brockwell, and all the award winners, and to Quilt NSW for mounting this major event.


There will be many, many images on Instagram and Facebook, and in blogs - enjoy the Show however/wherever you see it.

New community quilts one-by-one

Here are the latest community quilt finished, that are pictured stacked and lined up in Sunday's post:

Some quilts just materialise from the scraps of others - this
one is the scraps from at least two others, with the addition of
a lovely raspberry spotty border. Magic, Chris and Lynette!

Perfect backing fabric for this vibrant top made by Robin,
quilted and bound by Lynette - and it was picked up in a
snap sale for $4 a meter at Craft Depot.

Sue C's second quilt from these jelly rolls, generously donated by
a friend, with a cream background from deep in Sue's own stash
- and a pretty blue backing, of course!
But wait till you see what 'Blue Sue' comes up with next!

Sue M has been hard at work for community quilts - she has
finished the one on the left made from small pieces sourced from
the community stash and the border fabric from her own stash,
and quilted and bound Robin's second donated top, on the right.
Margaret has packed a lot of fun into this beautiful, bright
patchwork with colourful swirls on the back. A little
kid, or maybe a big one, is going to love it.
Lyn pieced this beautiful patchwork flower garden as a 
background for an appliqued wrought iron gate that wasn't 
quite realised. Lynette has added a complimentary border
and floral backing 
from another donation. 
It will be well loved, with the 'gate' left wide open ...

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Anita's Arrowhead quilt pattern


We did a little internet digging for a pattern for Denise's quilt (posted in February), since the one that she used no longer seems to be available.

The same block, at a different size makes up Anita's Arrowhead, for which there is a free downloadable .pdf pattern here, via Quiltmaker, from 2010.

This version was designed by Anita Grossman Solomon for a 51”x 59.5” throw sized quilt - go to the 'gallery' tab at Make It Simpler for photos of other versions.

You can also find Anita Grossman Solomon on Instagram and on Facebook, and as a columnist for Craftsy.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Community sewing day, June 2017

We did quite a lot of work at our June community sewing day last week, depleting our batting supply, making progress on at least half a dozen works in progress, and pin basted four more, while six completed quilts were added to the collection. Thanks for morning tea Elaine B!

Six new community quilts, all in a line ...

... and all stacked up.
There will be photos of the individual quilts,
when we have some brighter days - soon!

Susan is making a quilt reminiscent of Shoji screens
- she started the quilting  as soon as it was basted on Thursday
Pat's 'Logs and Ladders' quilt is for the community collection
 - it is already gorgeous, and we look forward to seeing it quilted.
The first of two quilts, each to be made with twenty of our
2016-2017 challenge star blocks, was basted on Thursday.
All the blocks are different, so some contemplation and
consultation about the quilting is in order.
These quilts will be donated to NSW Quilts of Valour.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Can I take photos of the quilts at Sydney Quilt Show?

Quilt NSW has released a policy on photography at next week's Sydney Quilt Show - photographs are allowed but acknowledgement of the maker and designer are required if your photographs are published, including on social media.

Take a close-up of the information card attached to the quilt, as well as photographing the quilt, so you have maker and designer details, ready to post in your caption.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Quiltsmith's Sydney Quilt Show sale

From Quiltsmith, at Annandale:
Our annual Quilt Show Sale is on again.

9.30am Saturday 17th June - 4.30pm Monday 26th June 2017
  • 25% of all fabrics
  • 30 cm minimum cut
  • 1m minimum cut on Value fabrics
  • 10% off Fabric Packs and Kits/Patterns/Books
75 Nelson St, Annandale
Phone: 02 9550 4947

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

More recent show and tell ...

2017 is Sue H's 'year of finishing things', so when she
found a perfect-fit print for a final border, her plan for
a pieced border gave way to a finish for the win.
The centre was made in classes with Chris Jurd.
Louise's table runner is made
especially to go with the kitchen
decor in her new house.

Susan has been busy with community quilts.  This one,
reminiscent of shoji screens, has fabrics from the
community stash and some of Susan's own and is a good
showcase for large scale prints.
Susan has also quilted and bound Robin's top. We need
to take some close ups of the quilting designs in the blue
counterpanes. Community quilting can be a very
cooperative process.
Just one fat quarter of the cute bee print was the starting
point for this cot sized community quilt made by Jill
Quilters flannel front and back, with cotton batting  makes
for a very warm quilt. The blocks are made from the
scraps of two similar quilts Jill made last year for other
family members - this one is for her.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Recent show and tell ...

Linda is teaching a group of novice quilters. Having started a
year or so ago with basic patchwork, they then requested
appliqué classes. They are now on their third course, learning
several methods of using triangles in quilts. Linda's triangle
class sample is a generous single bed size.
Julie made her first disappearing four patch quilt, and
liked it so much that she immediately made another (below)
 in the same range of soft, muted greens and cream from
the community stash (below).


Janice was wearing hexagons on her scarf, while she
worked on her tiny hexies - they are just 1/4"!
Elaine B has nearly finished her latest community quilt -
 she made a disappearing nine patch for the first time.

Elaine also finished a pretty 'Sew Miriam' zip top bag
for a friend's birthday - what a lovely gift.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Quilt West 2017 photos

Quilt West 2017 was held in Perth 25 - 28 May.
There are more photos on the Quilt West Facebook page.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Community quilts for winter (2)

More of the quilts made for winter distribution, collected together at last week's sewing day. Sue and Lynette are the star contributors ...

Pretty log cabins, blocks donated by a friend of Sue's,
put together and quilted by Sue. Complimentary backing
just in view at left.
And there were some small pieces left from the jelly rolls
Sue's friend gave her, so now Sue is quilting the sashed four patch
she made with them.

Lynette's latest blue and white beauty, made from a very large
stack of squares cut from the community stash. The pink
border is a nice touch.

Lynette found a large enough piece of the blue/pink floral
to make a two fabric disappearing four patch.

Jill also made a pink and blue disappearing four patch
- this one is scrappy
Helen also found mostly blue 'leftovers' in her stash, mostly
florals, and sashed them with more blue scraps ...


... and Lynette trialled her new quilting template very
successfully on Helen's quilt
Sometimes, cutting is just not necessary - two small whole cloths,
one with fairies, the other with dinosaurs, again made by Lynette. 

And Sue also finished her 'Hello Kitty' Ohio Stars
- much admired and coveted by Linda, but destined for the
community winter collection.

Friday, June 2, 2017

A quick guide to making a disappearing 4 patch block

There's been renewed interest in disappearing 9 patch and disappearing 4 patch blocks lately, as some of our members have made them for the first time. Links to tutorial for both are in the 'Links to techniques and resources' list just under the banner photo at the top of this page.

A small sample of our disappearing four patch quilts -
they work well with just two fabrics , a limited palette,
or with scrappy backgrounds and feature fabrics.
Here is a quick pictorial guide to making a disappearing 4 patch block. The starting squares can be any size, and the cuts to the four patch can be any width - this block started with 6 1/2" squares, and the cuts were made 1 3/4" from the centre seams. The wider the cuts, the less distinct the design becomes:


Thursday, June 1, 2017

Craft Depot June sale


The Craft Depot half yearly sale starts 9am Thursday 1st June 2017, both on-line and at our Pennant Hills store, and runs until 30th June 2017. 
Complete sale catalogue is available to view on-line here.