Show and tell this week

These lovely little spools were a sample quilt at
Cottage Quiltworks in Warriewood. The quilt top
came to us via Margaret K, and will be finished for
our community quilts collection. Thank you CQW
- we'll see that it goes to someone who needs it.

Another finish from Miriam's recent bag workshop - a wonderfully 

vibrant colour combo by Daphne - don't mess with that cat!

A beautiful, soft Liberty backing for Janice's pretty pink liberty
quilt (quilted by Jo) - Janice is binding it in the same fabric.

Helen picked up some fabric at Reverse Garbage in
Marrickville, and passed it on to Margaret, who quickly
re-purposed it into pillow cases and a baby wrap for one of
the many causes she sews for.

Hilary is making dolls for the '100 Dolls, Countless Hearts'
book for the Uthandu Project supporting children who have 
lost parents to HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu Natal, in South Africa.
You can read more about the project, how the dolls help to 
support the children and why the patterns have been 
chosen here.

Sydney Craft Week 6 - 15 October

... Bringing together the creative diversity of Sydney’s contemporary craft community, the inaugural Sydney Craft Week runs from Friday 6 to Sunday 15 October 2017. 

An initiative of the Australian Design Centre, this ten-day festival celebrates the beauty of the hand-made and the pleasure of making. Not limited to one material or mode of making, the program features a range of exhibitions, workshops, talks and open studios.

The Sydney Craft Week events guide is now available in print and online. Lots of textile craft to see and events. Quilt NSW is participating in the 'Craft Up Late initiative' on Wednesday 11 October, and the unveiling of the 2018 Suitcase Challenge, Remembering at the AGM on 7 October is in the program.

• Sydney Craft Week events page on Facebook
• Sydney Craft Week on Instagram

Community sewing day, September 2017

The community hall was buzzing with fourteen quilters, a pin basting marathon, and preparations for our 2018 quilt show ...

A little stitching on new quilt tops was fitted in around the
bunting and basting. Julie is making a marine themed machine
appliqued circles, and Susan is working peacock blues, which
she loves.

New bunting for our 2018 quilt show. Janice had us organised
with beautiful fabric, a simple process and great enthusiasm.
More will be needed, but we made HEAPS!

We pin basted nine quilts of various sizes, so a lot of quilting
is our future. These quilt tops are the work of Dawn,
Margaret K (x2), Julie (x 2), Dawn and Elaine B.

Community quilt finishes

Lots of community quilts action recently. Here are the six most recent finishes. There are many more in progress.

Two kids' quilts made by Margaret K, quilted by Lynette

Hilary has been busy - this is the first of two quilts she handed
over last week. Look from a distance and the nine patch layout
created by distributing the squares by value is more apparent. 

Hilary's second quilt - these squares are just 2 1/2" ...

... and there is great variety in the prints, although
 that giraffe has to be a favourite!

Soft, oretty quilt, top made by Barbara, quilted by Julie

Lynette's been our of the country for several weeks,
but she still managed to get a bunch of quilts to us! 

Look closely and you can see Lynette has used regular nine
patches, rather than random placement of her squares.

2017 end-of-year challenge - early progress

We've decided to run an open challenge to be revealed at our end of year event - some of us will share our progress along the way, to encourage others, and maybe pass on ideas about transforming the 'lost' blocks they have selected from members' contributions.

Of course we have found many unfinished projects, some almost entirely forgotten, as we have dug deep into our stashes for abandoned blocks, or partly or nearly finished quilts. So while we have more than enough to pass on to our fellow quilters to see what they make of them, the challenge has also prompted a flurry of finishing some of those treasures ourselves, as well ... win-win!

This little quilt sparked the idea for the challenge.
Jill found the six 4 " hour glass blocks tucked away 
from an earlier project, and gathered up some some 
scraps from her stash, and a pale blue fat quarter from 
the community stash. 

Elaine knew she had some bits and pieces left over from a
large quilt, but she was delighted to find that she had enough
for a smaller lap quilt, and that most of the blocks were already
made and packed away with enough fabric to finish it, including
borders. She likes it better than the original! She is also working
on a collection of red and white blocks for the group challenge.

Helen thought she would discard a small quilt top made from
eight red and navy log cabin blocks many years ago, but Jill 
chose it for her actual challenge quilt, and is remaking it by 
recutting the blocks for 6" half square triangles, adding some 
new slashed log cabins and some contemporary prints 
arranged in an asymmetric chevron. About a third of the half 
square triangles are joined together so far.

Pat selected a diverse collection of blocks from the challenge
pile, and has put them together beautifully. So far she has added
just one block of her own (the upper left hand corner), but we are
encouraging her to keep going, to make it larger, using her talent
for improvisational piecing (see here and here).

A finished appliqued block will make a fine centre for Julie's
medallion - she has chosen complimentary border fabrics
from the community stash.

Hilary auditioned blue border fabrics from the community stash.
Her herring bone quilt top started with the half square triangle
blocks with the yellow fabrics, and has grown with the addition
of new ones from Hilary's extensive stash.

Will Hilary bend to pressure to include a narrow
yellow/pink border?

Show and tell ...

Margaret K is sewing Christmas presents. These little baskets
are about 6" x 6" x 6", and stand up when empty.
They are all gorgeous, but those zebras! 

Robin made a quilt for her daughter using these luscious
turquoise and blue fabrics selected by her daughter, and had
enough fabric left to make this beauty for her granddaughter.
Robin thinks she still has enough for one more smaller quilt.
Cool tiled floors in an exotic location?

Pat has finished her bag from Miriam's recent workshop
- a lovely combination of prints and colours.

Yvette had an unexpected opportunity to do an improv piecing
workshop with designer and quilter Denyse Schmidt  at
The Happen Store in Annandale recently. Starting with two
solids and adding print highlights, Yvette made the most it,
and really enjoyed the class.

Elaine B finished her bag from Miriam's workshop in just
under a week, in time to take to Alice Springs as a gift for a
friend's birthday! Her friend loves it.

Louise is very organised, making great progress on a quilt
for a baby not yet born.Photo from Instagram.

It's always good to see Nerida start a new quilt, like this one
started in a workshop with Judy Newman - we know there will be
lots of loveliness to come. Those little stripey corner triangles
will turn into fabulous diamonds of tiny crosses.
Will we see this one in our 2018 quilt show next April?

Photo from Instagram.

'Sunshine' in 2017 Bloggers Quilt festival

Miriam has written a fabulous blog post at Sew Miriam, with gorgeous photos,  about the design and making of our 2018 raffle quilt, and entered it into the 2017 Fall Bloggers' Quilt Festival, in the lead up to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

Thanks for sharing this beautiful quilt so widely, Miriam.

Proceeds of the quilt raffle at our 2018 Quilt Show will be donated to Studio ARTES.

Visit all the quilting bloggers participating in the 2017 Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival here.

New books

Many quilting books are published each year, here is just a sample of recent/upcoming releases that might make it to your wish list:

Patches of Blue, Edyta Sitar, 2017
Edyta Sitar's blog post about Patches of Blue

Modern Quilt Magic, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 

C and T Publishing, 2017 

Quilts in Ireland, Kaffe Fassett, Taunton Press 2017

Hat Creek Quilts, Deirdre Bond Abel, 

Quilt Mania, 2017

Erica Spinks's interview with Deirdre Bond Abel

Recent show and tell

We had a preview of Nerida's 18th birthday quilt, but it has
been under embargo until gifted to her nephew last weekend.

Dawn has been called on recently to make three quilts,
two for close family members and one for a nursing home
in the country. This one is for her sister-in-law, a pretty
mix of prints, with a clever use of a birder print. She
is now finishing off a community quilt from the left-over
fabric from one of the other two - nothing goes to waste.

Forty 10" star blocks were made for last year's end-of-year
challenge, so we've made two quilts. One is nearly done, just a
few threads to bury and binding. Jill put these blocks together
and quilted it. Noelle is working on the second one.

Helen has already made a start on her 2017 challenge quilt.
She chose the single blue star block from the orphan pile, and
is building a medallion quilt from fabric in her stash. She
says there is plenty of fabric, so a few more borders to go.

For this weekend's diary

Contact: Hilary Best 0409 249 503 
or hilarybest5731@gmail.com

Singleton Quilters 2017 Quilt Show

'Traditionally Modern'

15 - 17 September 2017 

Mechanics Institute, 74 George St, Singleton

Enquiries: Marea 0408 731 529; Kim 0415 804 456

Workshop with Sew Miriam

We've done bag making workshops with Miriam a couple of times, but it was time for another one, since we have a number of members who've joined since the last one, and those of us who hadn't done one see the fabulous results every week, and wish we had.

Miriam has posted great photos of our work on her blog, Sew Miriam, and we have seen the first complete finish this week. Thanks Miriam for a fabulous day, and Nerida for organising it.

Before and after - Miriam set up an ordered, beautifully
arranged demonstration table. We used it often.

Flowers for the teacher.

Fabric sale at Craft Depot

Just in case you need fabric at great price, Pennant Hills ...

craftdepot.com.au

Show and tell and a challenge

Garment sewing/ quilting crossover. Ginnie made a happy
discovery in her stash of some Sarah Fielke 'Enchanted' fat
quarters, and immediately thought of two little girls who
would love swirly skirts. This one just needs some elastic,
then some for its purple trimmed twin. 

Janice has been happily practicing clam applique.
Liberty and linen - made for each other.

Julie says we will see no more of this until the
quilt is done - no clues!

Pam has been in South Africa, visiting her daughter who works
on an educational aid program. She found shweshwe fabrics
in brighter colours than her previous purchase some years ago.
Wikipedia describes shweshwe as 'a printed dyed cotton fabric
widely used for traditional South African clothing. Originally
dyed indigo, the fabric is manufactured in a variety of colours
and printing designs characterised by intricate geometric patterns.
Due to its timeless popularity, shweshwe has been described
as the denim or tartan, of South Africa.'
Its history is described here, by Meerkat Shweshwe Fabrics

We launched our end-of-year challenge this week. We brought
in left over, abandoned, surplus-to-needs blocks from our
stashes, placed them down the middle of a long table, then selected
someone else's to make a reborn quilt or whatever our imaginations
 come up with. We'll vote on the best 'rebirth' in progress at our
Christmas lunch when we go on summer break. There was
much enthusiastic inspection of the options and comments of
'how could you let this go?' Fun, and possibly productive.