Quilt tops ready to baste and quilt

Jan’s gorgeous scrappy ‘Plus and Crosses’

Janet took a break from blue and white/cream to make

 this kaleidoscope of bright flying geese. There’s still blue, but 

here it is used to give some space to the other colours. 

A fun quilt top - how will she quilt it?

Daphne worked on her 6” red and white blocks over
several months, and once she decided on the cross blocks
as counterpanes, the top was quickly finished.

'Little Women, designed by SewMiriam works with lots of
fabric combinations, like Julie's pretty floral and geometrics.

Noelle's baby quilt is bound for England when it
has another border and is quilted and bound.

Noelle bought these fabrics for Christmas tree skirts
a few years ago - after two skirts, there were just
enough scraps for a quilt as well.

On Miriam's design wall using left over red, white and 
special blue scraps, she's calling this one '
Social Distance Blues'.

Quilts 2000 - 20th anniversary

 Many Australian quilters will recall the Quilts2000 initiative involving quilters nationwide twenty years ago.

More than 600 quilts were made and donated by quilters from all over Australia. More than $500,000 was raised from the quilt auction to support the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. The initiative was endorsed by the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC), as one of two official community projects for the Paralympic Games (the other was a celebrity art auction). Quilts 2000 was recognised as the most outstanding event of the year by the Fundraising Institute of Australia in 2001.

The event is recorded in the book

‘Quilts2000: Australia Celebrates’

by Karen Fail and Dianne Finnegan.

'Victorian quiltmaker, Eileen Campbell, was commissioned to make '
The Lizzie Quilt' as the signature piece for Quilts 2000. It was unveiled
at Customs House on 10 February 1999 as part of the Quilts 2000
launch. Campbell's design is machine appliqued, machine embroidered
and machine quilted, illustrates the frill-neck lizard and Paralympic
mascot, Lizzie, running through the bush to the Games.'
It was purchased by Sydney Paralympic Organising
Committee for AUD$16500, and is currently in the collection
of the Museum of Applied Arts and Science (Powerhouse)
- you can see more information about Quilts2000 on the
MAAS website, here.

Fairholme Quilters donated a group quilt, ‘Fair Weather’, and several individual members contributed quilts as well.

‘Bushfire Weather’ was made by Alison Schwabe, and donated to the Quilts2000 sale and exhibition Fairholme Quilters bought this quilt and donated it to Hornsby Shire Council to be hung in our local library at Pennant Hills.

Val Nadin was our Convenor in 2000 (and is still an active member), and was a volunteer at the Games.

Val's quilt 'The Big Drought' was sold during the auction.
Fairholme members Evelyn Gray, Robin Williams,
Chris Hawker, Louise Church and Roslyn Pullen 
also made and donated quilts.

French Market Bag

There was a lot of interest in Sharron’s chic crocheted French Market Bag, and discussion about how good it would look full of baguettes, fresh vegetables, cheeses and flowers. She used Alexandra Travel’s pattern, purchased as part of a kit. You can buy the pattern online, or follow a free copy from Alexandra’s blog ‘Two of Wands’ here (the blog version comes with ads, the purchased pattern is ad-free) ...

Recent community quilt finishes

Lots of community quilts being made during pandemic down-time, and we have able to distribute them ...

Made by Elaine W and Julie

Made by Lynette

Made by Lynette

Made by Jill

Made by Lynette

Made by Robin B

Made by Robin B

Made by Dawn

... quilted by Yvette

Five finishes

Lynette’s granddaughter has waited patiently for her
second birthday quilt, and was very pleased that it was
finished just in time for her sixth birthday last week.
The stars are 1930s reproduction prints, all English
paper pieced with white hexagons between. 

The pretty backing fabric is also now its binding.
It will be treasured.

Jan’s baby quilt - fresh and bright slightly offset 

squares against sharp white. The prints are charm squares. 

A quick make with a great result.

Jill's quilt started with the 70s style print, and was
made from stash scraps. Quilted by Yvette.

The pieced backing includes every last little scrap of the print.

At her daughter's request, Julie is making quilts for her
future great grandchildren.

She has made six so far!

Evie's quilt

If you were turning six this month, and your Grandma was a quilter, wouldn't you just love to have her make a quilt for your birthday that was all about you, and how loved you are? Robin B's granddaughter Evie is that little girl. Evie's Mum gave Robin a collection of Evie's clothes from the first five years of her life, to be featured in the quilt blocks. Evie loves hearts, rabbits and pink - lots of pink, lots of rabbits, and lots of hearts. This quilt is sewn with so much love and appreciation for Evie - it is quirky, fun, special and very pink! Evie is going to just love it.

It's hard to pick a favourite block, but the orange 

sequined glasses is a definite contender!

It’s not all quilts ...

Lots of our members are multi-skilled and talented with a needle.  Here are just a few of the beautiful and clever things they have made recently.

Janice loves embroidery, Liberty and linen, so the exquisite 
‘Little Audrey Pin Bowl’ from Bella Fabrics (a pattern by 
Susan Smith) was a perfect weekend project

Elaine W's daughter has learned to crochet during the
pandemic, and of course she needs a bag for all her crochet
things. So Elaine pulled out her brightest Kaffe stash,
a very big zipper, and a tape measure ... 

... and launched into a bag with ideas of what was needed
but no actual pattern. Not bad at all for a ‘made-up’ bag.
And her daughter loves it.

Lovely to see Louise's Instagram progress photos.
For this piece, inspired by Sue Spargo she is using
 Eleganza thread and wool felt.

Louise also spent a recent 'contemplative afternoon with
Wattle & Loop's pretty Figs slow stitch kit'.
Time well spent.

Elaine's quilts

We have three Elaines in our group. These quilts were made by Elaine G who has been busy during the pandemic sewing for a program that supports sick children, and for a friend. She particularly enjoys embroidery, both by hand and machine. The first two quilts are just two of the sixteen children's quilts she is currently readying for the program.

The bird blocks are machine embroidered.

Quirky frog print for the backing!

This nautical delight is embellished with
machine embroidered details on the
boats and water.

Each of the children's quilts has its own
co-ordinating bag.

A collection of hand embroidered blocks looking for a
quilt to be part of are now a log cabin quilt for a friend
moving to a new home in aged care

Adding log cabin strips of varying width but to a consistent
colour plan allowed Elaine to make the blocks up to
a consistent size to join them together.