Bits and pieces ...

Some things to do now, and some things to look forward to ...

• Sue Miller is expanding her online quilting shop, Fabric Garden, to a bricks and mortar shop at Suite 15 185 Neutral Bay, with a planned opening date of 2 March. You can see her renovations in progress on Instagram and look over her range of modern fabrics, threads, patterns and notions on the Fabric Garden website and Facebook page. 

• QuiltCon, the international modern quilt event, has just been held virtually for 2021. You can see the quilt show winners here. 

• RachelDaisy Dodd  (Blue Mountains Daisy) has a solo exhibition of her quilts, Into the Fold, coming up at Braemar Gallery in Springwood, from 18 March. Details are on our 2021 Events page here. 

• The New Quilt 2021 exhibition and program of tours and talk continues until 11 April at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.

www.australianquiltersassociation.com

judybell@bigpond.com

 

 

Recent community quilt finishes

Helen and Julie delivered 23 quilts to a large aged care
facility last week, and Helen had delivered another 23 to
Quilt NSW for distribution to foster children a couple
of weeks prior.

Lynette does lovely things with 'just squares'.

Elaine G came up with a modern design
using half rectangle triangles.

A fabric panel from the Sewing Basket finished f
or a child's quilt by Lynette.

Robyn B shopped at the Sewing Basket with Lynette,
and also finished a panel into a child's quilt.

Another quilt made by Lynette, from 2 1/2" fabric strips.

The 'Plaidish' quilt is a free pattern and tutorial from
Erica Jackman @kitchentablequilting. Jill used it to reduce her
stash of navy and turquoise scraps ...

... with a bargain backing from the community stash.

Anna Williams, quilter (1927 - 2010)

 Sherrilyn Woods, contemporary improvisational quilter, teacher and writer,  recently posted photographs of renowned quilter Anna Williams, who died in 2010 leaving a lasting legacy of her work and inspiration for others. It recalled a long ago conversation with one of our group members who cited Anna Williams as a key figure in improvisational quilting, and prompted a search for online examples and information.

Barbara Brackman's blog post from 2010, 'Anna Williams and Inspiration' is a great starting point, with links to some who have been infuenced by Anna Williams:

Occasionally an artist comes across a direction-changing inspiration for her work. Anna Williams has given that gift to many contemporary quilters. She's from Louisiana, born in 1927. Her quilts are hand-pieced of small shards, worked into powerful compositions ...

A Google image search will give you many wonderful images too.

Community quilts in progress

Its looking good for our community sewing days to be getting back to normal, at least in terms of the numbers that can attend, as long as suppression of COVID-19 by community transmission holds as vaccines are rolled out. In the meantime, sewing continues ...

Dawn has completed another SuperStars quilt top with 

a pretty small scale blue print for the background - the 

white star points highlight the secondary design 

of windmills between the stars. We'll take another 

look when it has been quilted.

Quilt express! Julie put her hand up when Jo mentioned
during a recent Monday Zoom meeting that she found this
fabric pack during her recent house move. Jo delivered
them to Julie on Wednesday, and the quilt top was
completed on Saturday.
'It was just measuring, cutting and sewing,' said Julie ...

Sue is sewing up a pile of scrappy blocks in 

a controlled palette of rusty oranges and tealy 

greens, based on an Instagram sew-along run by 

two Sydney quilters late last year. She is aiming for 36 

blocks, that will look something like this mock-up 

prepared with the Layout app.To see more versions

 of this quilt, check out 

#salandsusanssewalong on Instagram.

Helen has two community quilts on the go at
the moment - a striking black, white and red
graphic design ...

... and the other will be these crisp scrappy green
and blue blocks, offset against a white background.
The pattern is from Camille Roskelly's book,
'Simply Retro'

Helen donated a collection of bright flannels, and Julie
has made one top, with enough remaining for another.
Getting ready for the cooler weather.

Under our needles

Pat been making new clothes for her vintage doll,
now more than 60 years old ...

... including her shoes, that Pat says are very 'fiddly'!

Marianne recently travelled to New Zealand to visit
her elderly parents. Knowing she would be in hotel quarantine
for 14 days she shipped a small sewing machine as luggage,
and took prepared pieces and thread ...

... and made good progress on making Elizabeth Hartman
designed whale blocks for her daughter who is studying marine
biology. Next level multitasking, planning and organisation.

Linda has been following Lori Holts You Tube Channel
where she demonstrates her method of dealing with scrap fabric,
down to very small pieces ...

... and making short work of some multicoloured star blocks.

Janet is sewing many, many triangles for little boat
blocks designed by Laundry Basket Quilts.

Daphne recently entertained her three year old
granddaughter by playing with fabric scraps. She wonders if
 this little girl might become a patchworker?
We think she already is.

We know Nerida is hand quilting a big quilt at the moment,
 but she's already started on the next one, Jen Kingwell's
'Dear Jen'. It's scrappy, hand stitched, and it will be beautiful.

For your diary

As the pandemic continues, we will continue to see postponement of events that were hoped to be held this year.  While the vaccine roll-out will make an enormous difference, we are still months away from its completion, and whatever adaptations will still have to be made , especially at large gatherings.

Our 2021 events page is updated regularly, but please confirm all events with the organisers during this uncertain time.

The Australasian Quilt Convention is currently scheduled for

19 - 22 August 2021

Royal Exhibition Centre, Melbourne

The Blue Mountains Quilt Show (formerly the Springwood 

Community Quilt Show) has been postponed 

until April next year, instead of the 2021 date 

recently advertised.

Recent community quilt finishes

The feature fabric in Sue's Irish Chain (also used for the
backing) was from the bargain shelves at our local large
quilt shop just before it closed down. If she'd known is
was going to close, Sue says she would have bought the
bolt. The background fabric is a great choice too. And the
chain fabric is a tiny red and white check, rather the
pink that might appear on your screen.

Linda used a pack of 2 1/2" squares bought long
ago in Japan, and simple white sashing for this 
gorgeous quilt.

Dawn made a series of jelly roll quilts after a sewing
day a few years ago when we focused on using strips,
and she is still working her way through her
strip stash. This one evokes sunrise.

Three beautifully made foundation pieced blocks
that were generously donated to the community collection
form the central strip of this quilt, with borders of large
scrappy flying geese in complimentary colours.
Jill put the top together, and it has been expertly
quilted by Yvette on her longarm machine.
A team effort, with special thanks to the original maker of
the blocks, which are a Chris Jurd design.

Some of the Art Gallery fabrics from Sharon Holland's
'Sketchbook' range used in the donated blocks were sourced
to be included in the flying geese and sashing.
Other fabrics were donated by members.

Jan's 'Thought Bubbles'

Jan started her beautiful, fun felt appliqué ‘Thought Bubbles’ in a class with Wendy Williams (flyingfishkits.com) that was suspended by the pandemic, and resumed late in 2020. Seven of nine completed - lots of lovely hand stitching here ...

... to be continued ...