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.