November events

Exhibition - inTransit

Untethered Fibre Artists

31 October - 12 November 2017

Wallarobba Arts Centre

25 Edgeworth David Ave, Hornsby

Modern Quilt Show Australia 2017

presented by Sydney Modern Quilt Guild

3 - 5 November 2017

Petersham Town Hall, Sydney

107 Crystal St, Petersham NSW 2049 

Campbelltown Patchwork and Quilters Guild Quilt Show

11 - 12 November 2017

Campbelltown Civic Centre

History of Coverlets

Linda Butcher

Australian Quilt Study Groups

Susanne Cody, Gillian Hamilton - quilt and coverlet collectors

2 pm Saturday 11 November 2017

The Glover Cottages, 124 Kent St, Sydney 

Please bring along your own coverlets for show and tell, 

especially any that have been entered in quilt shows. 

Entry $5 members, $10 non-members. Afternoon tea is provided.

Last week's show and tell (1)

Pam has finished hand quilting her large quilt, made with a 
collection of aboriginal prints. It is constructed of one large pieced 
block, cleverly rotated to add interest to the layout. The colours 
glow. One for next year's show?

A long term project interrupted became the perfect wedding
quilt for Louise's son and daughter-in-law a few weeks ago.
Much of it was already done, and a friend offered to help
out by quilting the background! Each curved seam is embellished, 
creating rich texture. The newlyweds will have it very soon.

Jo-Ann and Roslyn bought the same kit at a Sydney Quilt
Show a couple of year's ago, and have each been hand
piecing their Avenue quilts. Jo-Ann decided she wanted her to
be a wall hanging, finishing smaller than the pattern and kit
allowed, so she has generously given Roslyn the extra fabric so
she will have a larger quilt. Jo-Ann added the fabric strips
between the blocks for a little more colour. The design is by
Louise Papas, and the kit is available from Amitie Textiles.

Elaine bought the pattern for her alphabet quilt many years ago, 
thinking she might have grandchildren one day. She now has four 
grandchildren, and finished the quilt last week! One of the children 
asked her to include some numbers as well as letters, so of course, 
she did. It is hanging in their 'sleepover room'.

End-of-year challenge progress - Susan chose some blocks
and fabrics donated by Diana. She has made up more blocks
from the donated fabric and some from her stash to make a bed sized
quilt. The paler pinks compliment the rich jewel tones beautifully. 
Sue's husband Mark suggested that their daughter who is returning 
from a long stint in an isolated area of northern Queensland 
would like the colours in the quilt, so hers it will be.

A very slow burner, it took Jill four years to complete this
42" square quilt made from off-cuts and scraps from
one our raffle quilts, hand quilted with Aurifil 12 wt thread
in a mix of colours. The free-cut curved facing-on-the-front is
a compromise between straight edges with square corners and
the organic curves of the improv piecing.

Recent community quilt finishes

As our community quilts program barrels along, quilts continue to roll in as they are finished either at community sewing days, or by members working at home.  These were handed in over a recent ten day period ...

Julie stretched out a pretty lily print with a little
maths and background fabric.

Another one from Julie - patchwork can be any shape that
fits a collection of fabric scraps. Tumblers might be next.

Purposeful placement of cloud prints makes a window
in the centre of Hilary's latest disappearing four patch.

One for a tool lover! Dawn found enough 'toolie' fabric
in the community stash for this quilt, and two more in
the making. The grey print is nuts and bolts.

Helen pieced the backing for a quilt she made last year from
flowery blue-ish scraps in her stash, but she was persuaded that
it should be another top and the community quilts collection grew
by two. It has now been quilted by Lynette, in vertical straight
lines in groups of three, and backed with a bargain buy blue spot.

The community collection is benefitting from considerable
over-lap with the end-of-year challenge to finish abandoned
projects. Nerida collected some little squares joined in rows
from the table, set them around a white spot and added corner
patches with native animal prints from her stash. She finished
it with delicate lemon hand stitching and a flannelette backing
to start our next collection for Blankets of Love.

Jill's little crib quilt is also finished with a little hand quilting.

Margaret K loves to sew for children, including quilts. 

She recently made six community quilt tops, giving our collection 

a very generous boost. These five were quilted and bound by 

Lynette, and the sixth one was basted at yesterday's 

community sewing day. All different, all delightful 

October community sewing day

Another productive day of community quilt making and working with a team of friends last week, on what was our second last monthly sewing day for the year ...

Some of us use patterns, some of us wing it, and some of us are
meticulous planners - our Sue C is a planner, and it pays off.
She's also our chief photographer, among the numerous roles
she fills ... and another lovely quilt is underway!
She said on Instagram 'I like it when a plan comes together.
It was (our community sewing day yesterday day yesterday -
always such a fun day. I had my graph and most of my pieces
cut before I got there, so spent quite a while crawling around
the design floor (a low stage) ...'

'... 8 rows were pieced by the
end of the day.'

It was a marathon pin basting day, reflecting the piecing that has been done over the last few weeks ...

From the top - green bento boxes made by Sue H; the second
Star Challenge quilt from 2016 put together by Noelle;
a second 'In a Whirl' quilt made by Dawn (her third altogether.

Superheroes made by Yvette; double Irish chain made
by Dawn; donated blocks put together by Lynette.

Julie's end of year challenge quilt, crossing over into
community quilts; Jill's end of year challenge quilt also
crossing over; bDawn made the most of bird and berry
prints from a large fabric donation from earlier in the yea

Elaine has made enough 'In a Whirl' blocks from her
raffle win strips for two community quilts.
The pretty pastel strips will be the sashing.

The work table of a multi-tasker. Julie might be doing
a second end of year challenge project in there.

Yvette isn;t sure which design/colours her sister will like
 most for her birthday quilt, so she is generously making two,
and will donate the second one to the community quilt collection

4 day sale at Craft Depot, Pennant Hills

In store at Pennant Hills, and online: www.craftdepot.com.au

This week's show and tell

Some people have been very busy lately ...

The second 2016 challenge stars quilt is ready to be
quilted, with the top put together by Noelle. Note the
rebel block with the cream background that adds a bit
of fun. It was basted at our community sewing day this
week, and Noelle will quilt it.

Elaine W chose nine star blocks made and donated by Diana
for her end-of-year challenge project. She made some minor
changes to the centre block, and found some pale lavender batik
fabric in her own stash for the sashing. One of her grand-
daughters has claimed it, and is making sure that Elaine keep
at the task of finishing it!

The lucky door prize of 72 width-of-fabric strips from our
Big Morning Tea in May have been magicked into three 'In a Whirl'
quilts by Elaine, who won them. Her younger granddaughter has
asked for this one to be her snuggle quilt to live at Nanna's house. The
 bright aqua sashing ties the mass of brights together very well, and
Miriam's tutorial is made for strip piecing. Elaine plans to donate
the other two to our community quilts collection.

Dawn made her Jolly Star block following our workshop
with Catherine Butterworth in 2015, and has recently put
them together and finished her vibrant quilt. The background
fabric is cream, with a small red spot.

The exterior of this bag was Dawn's choice for her
end-of-year challenge project. She has added the drawstring interior.

Dawn had a lot of scraps of Japanese style prints -
this is the second quilt she has made from them,
and they are now all used up!

More new books

We're perusing recent book releases (more are in this post), working up to a short list for new library books. These are the most recent ones we've added to the long list - the very mention of the first one met with a resounding 'yes please' at our Monday meeting this week, so it's currently very near the top.

The Fussy Cutters Club - a boot camp for 

mastering fabric play, Angie Wilson, 

C and T Publishing, 2017 (7 October). 

Gnome Angel's blog post about the book.

Piece By Piece, Joe and Mary Koval, 

Quilt Mania, October 2017

Quilt Giving, Deborah Fisher, Interweave 2016

A Pattern for Pepper, Julie Kraulis

Tundra Books, 2017

Post-long-weekend show and tell (3) ... community and challenge quilt progress

Robyn B had just about given up on her bushy tailed puppy
appliqué blocks, and brought them in to donate to the end-of-year
challenge pool. But she allowed herself to be talked into putting
them together, and has kindly donated the top to the
community quilts collection. A child is going to love it Robyn.

It amazes us that our friends, who are not Fairholme
members, also make and donate quilts for our community
collection. Lyn and Sue do classes together, and Lyn
recently gave Sue two large completed tops, and fabric
for backings and bindings! Thank you Lyn.

Sue has quilted and bound both of them, with pieced,
non-symetrical backings (way out of her comfort zone.
Rumour has it that Sue has now opened her basted
Miss April parcel, and hand quilting will begin any day ...

Elaine quickly spotted a collection of red and white blocks for
her end-of-year challenge project ('how could someone discard
these?'), has a plan and has started putting them together. She
was delighted when Yvette gave her some scraps from her
Farmer's Wife quilt to help get it finished.

The top of Jill's remake using Helen's log cabin blocks
is done - all the blocks are included and the old border
has been re-cut for the binding. All the 'new' fabric
was in Jill's stash waiting to be needed.

Post-long-weekend show and tell (2)

More from this week's show and tell (and one more post to come) ...

For a little great-daughter - Julie made story book blocks
from patterns by Michele Hill. How lovely to have a quilt
that your great grandma made specially for you!

Denise brought all her teacup and teapot fabric to
the bag-making workshop with Miriam last month. She
paid close attention to Miriam's advice about using a feature
fabric and finding accent colours in the print, and her pink
teapot became the star. The lining is blue and white tea
cups, and check out the zipper pull - teapot fussy cut on
one side, teacup on the other - attention to detail!

Daphne is nearly done with the large blocks for her
Katja Marek New Hexagon quilt.  Progress will slow down
for a little while she is busy checking out the International
Quilt Festival in Houston in a few weeks!

We've been admiring Nerida's Whimsy quilt blocks, and
then suddenly there is a finished Sweet Sunday quilt to swoon
over! The pattern is a rework of the popular Candied Hexagons,
from Treehouse Textiles in Victoria, and incorporates vintage
embroidered and cross stitched linen. Nerida's version is
spectacular! A few of the details below in close-up.