Community Quilts 2021

2021saw our community quilts collection grow to its largest ever number. We continued to make community quilts throughout the pandemic, and even managed a few sewing days within restrictions of numbers on our venue when it was open, and delivered just on 100 to various community organisation for distribution to individuals.  Here are just 52 that we managed to photograph before they went to their owners. Thanks to our members who used our ‘stay at home’ time so productively, and those who collected, stored and delivered the quilts as restrictions allowed.

 Collage

📷 Sue Crowe: NSW Christmas Bush (Cerepetalum gummiferum)

South Turramurra, NSW

Merry Christmas

To our readers, and to our members who generously 

allow us to share their quilts here.

 

Ten years of ‘Twelve Quilts of Christmas’

 Mary Elizabeth Kinch is currently posting her tenth annual series of blog posts ‘Twelve Quilts of Christmas’, this year featuring Welsh Quilts. 

‘… If I had a favourite genre of quilts, they are it.  Welsh Quilts are for me the epitome of what I call “Quilting with Abandon”.  Welsh quilters boldly manifested their distinctive designs with fearless exuberance, not feeling bound to fastidious, precisely drafted, and exacting executions in their work.  Instead they embraced their own individuality and let it shine in quilts that reflected their character through their stitches.’

You will easily find the previous nine years of ‘Twelve Quilts of Christmas’ in the Archives links on the blog. 

The series is also available on Instagram @maryelizabethkinch and her Facebook page Mary Elizabeth Kinch Quilts (although the current series does not appear to be on the Facebook page).

A treat to pore over during the holiday break.

Post-lockdown show and tell (1)

There was lots to see at our first post-lockdown meetings. 

Marilyn’s ‘Jean Irene’ was one of her lockdown projects.
There is so much to see - Marilyn’s beautiful scrappy mix
of fabric, the perfect background fabric, the sheer number of
pieces inthe design, and it’s gorgeous backing.

Expertly quilted by Cathie Calvert of Lakeside Quilting.

Beautifully complimentary backing.

Lyn took on finishing her quilt-as-you-go Celtic knot quilt as a
lockdown project, and it is done! The machine appliqued
pieces are cut from a single ombré fabric. Lyn quilted the
blocks on her domestic machine using her Westalee rulers.
The quilt is a beautiful gift for a friend of her daughter.

Roslyn’s son is a cat lover, so when he asked her to make him
a quilt, with some purple in it, she thought cats would
be an appropriate feature. He loves it!

Kona Colour of the Year 2022

Announcement from Robert Kaufman Fabrics:

Meet the 2022 Kona® Color of the Year - Cosmos - a supremely stellar purple, shipping to stores this month! View the fabric, projects and precuts on our website now!

https://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics/kona_cotton/

The Kona Colour of the Year promotes Robert Kaufman Fabric's Kona Cotton Solids, via a limited edition colour that will be available for one year only, from early in the New Year.

Stephanie’s quilts

Stephanie has had a year of very successful quilt finishes, even while she continues to knit prolifically, and  make her own clothes. Here is some of her recent progress, ‘borrowed’ from her Instagram account @craftypinkcreates - you don’t have to guess what her favourite colour is …

… here’s the next quilt on the finish hit list …

My #focuscuttingsewalong quilt - just one more little 

hexie to make. Lessons learnt with this quilt:

💕I didn’t have enough fabric to make it the whole 

way through the year 

💕always start small not big 

💕finished is better than it sitting on a WIP pile …

Many thanks to @naomialicec for her dedication in 

keeping this sewalong running

And on the last day of our Sydney lockdown,

here’s my Sunshiny Day Quilt. Pattern and kit from 

@talesofcloth Hexy inspiration thanks to @lambandwolfie

Batting used was Quiltlite - an absolute joy to hand quilt 

with and it’s my new favourite. My quilt is smaller than the 

original size and there’s possibly a few wobbly squares 

but I did start and finish a quilt in the same year. 

And that’s a minor miracle …

Thrilled to have my Quilt NSW 2021 exhibition quilt

 home and back on the bed !!! 

Fingers crossed for an actual quilt show in 2022… 

Thanks to QuiltNSW for organising an online exhibition 

#thepink100quilt #100days100blocks

#kinshipfusionsampler

The reverse of Steph’s 2021 exhibition quilt is a beauty 

too - totally reversible.

Pour L’amour du Fil Salon 2022

Pour L’amour du Fil Salon is a major textile/fibre arts event held in Nantes, France in April. Plans for next year’s show and competition have been released:

The special edition of the Pour l’Amour du Fil Show is already behind us and we are already working hard on the next one which will take place from Wednesday 20th to Saturday 23rd April 2022, same time, same place!

We are pleased to announce that Australia will be our guest country of honour and we will be welcoming a host of Australian designers for next year’s show.

The theme of next year’s contest is…

“ The World of Down Under”! 

The term “Down Under” obviously references Australia, but don’t let that stop you from going further! For example, the bottom of the oceans also are “Down Under”… So you can also think about the coral reef, which will be featured at the show. It’s up to you! There are thousand of things in the world “down there”!

So let your imagination run free! This contest is open to all kind of textile arts (quilting, embroidery, knitting, lace, crochet, etc…). We can’t wait to discover what you are all going to make, but we have no doubt it is going to be fabulous!

The competition rules, as well as the application form, shall soon be updated on the Contest page (HERE) and in Quiltmania magazine. (Pour L’amour du Fil Salon website)

 

 

Recent community quilt finishes

Julie made a sunny ‘Little Women’ community quilt.
Quilted by Laura.

Jill used up black and white fabric scraps and some
bright solids for her improv version of  ‘Little Women’.

Elaine W reached into the back of her stash for the long-held
1a fabric she used for this community quilt.

ELAINE w also made this one, from a collection of  
Japanese fabrics, during lockdown,

A collection of donated neutral fabrics with a little metallic,
 all made into half size triangles by Jo-Ann, quilted by Laura

 

AQC update

From Australasian Quilt Convention, 25 October 2021:

AQC in 2022 will move to Brisbane for the first time. The change is due to a number of factors, read more here.

See the best quilts from around Australia, together with amazing international works. Learn new techniques in our convention classes with expert tutors. Spend four days immersing yourself in everything the Australasian Quilt Convention has to offer.

Recent quilt finishes

Virginia makes a quilt for each of her grandchildren for their
tenth birthdays. This one is a marine ‘I Spy’.

Jan’s newest granddaughter has two older siblings so she
made them a Teddy bear each to go with the quilt
she made the new baby.

Sharron also has a new grandchild, born during lockdown,
so she wasn’t able to see him for some weeks. But Sharron
was organised, and his quilt was ready for him.

Janet loves the sea, and enjoyed making her ‘Time and Tide’ 

quilt from Shell Rummell’s design, and her fabrics.

 It hangs in Janet’s office.

The fourth in Janet’s series of Little Houses quilts has 

‘laneways’ between the rows, allowing her to more  easily 

quilt a continuous line pattern.

Nerida says her #30daysofimprovqal quilt is quilted just 

enough to hold it together. There is a lot of interest in 

with the piecing, so minimal quilting is a 

good design decision.

 

Summer exhibitions: Jervis Bay

If you are heading to the south coast over the holidays, you might be interested in these two exhibitions at the Jerbis Bay Maritime Museum in beautiful Huskisson.

The two exhibitions, Towards Abstraction and EmpoweRed
will run concurrently at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum.

 

Reading, viewing, listening ...

https://youtu.be/jmbDaCGu8Hw

Kaffe Fassett discussing his quilts at 2021 Festival of Quilts, with Natasha McCarty.

‘Studio Spades’ is a series of posts about textile artists’ work spaces produced once or twice a week by Fibre Arts Australia. You can subscribe to receive an email alert each time a post is made. Alternatively you can simply read the posts at the website. There is currently an archive of fourteen entries:

https://www.fibrearts.net.au/studiospaces

It’s an interesting insight into how and where the artists work, and what they regard as essential to their practice.

Greg Lauren and the Gee’s Bend Quilters crafted wearable Americana

In our era of hyperfast consumption, Greg Lauren has a zeal for patience. His slow-made approach to reconstruction finds new life for otherwise unwanted scraps and textiles, a time-consuming process that undermines the typical more-more-more industry mentality.  

So, Lauren's partnership with the Gee's Bend Quilters feels like the designer both paying his dues and paying forward the renown garnered by his own designs.  Jake Silberi, Highsnobiety, 16 October 2021

 

How Singer Won the Sewing Machine War

The Singer Sewing Machine changed the way America manufactured textiles, but the invention itself was less important than the company’s innovative business … Alex Palmer, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 July 2015

 

Artist Bisa Butler on creating new narratives through portrait quilts

Artist Bisa Butler has been called a modern-day Griot – but instead of using words to tell stories, she uses stitches and cloth. Her quilts have graced the covers of magazines and she created the striking illustration for the soon-to-be-released book "Unbound," the memoir of activist and Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke. Nancy Chen reports.

CBS This Morning, 4 September 2021

Bisa Butler: Portraits
Erica Warren (Editor), et al, Yale University Press, 2020

Bisa Butler (b. 1973) is an American artist who creates arresting and psychologically nuanced portraits composed entirely of vibrantly colored and patterned fabrics that she cuts, layers, and stitches together. Often depicting scenes from African American life and history, Butler invites viewers to invest in the lives of the people she represents while simultaneously expanding art-historical narratives about American quiltmaking. Situating her interdisciplinary work within the broader history of textiles, photography, and contemporary art, contributions by a group of scholars—and entries by the artist herself—illuminate Butler’s approach to color, use of African-print fabrics, and wide-ranging sources of inspiration. Offering an in-depth exploration of one of America's most innovative contemporary artists, this volume will serve as a primary resource that both introduces Butler’s work and establishes a scholarly foundation for future research. 

Community quilts (2 of 2)

Each of these seven quilts was pieced, quilted and finished by Lynette, most of it during COVID lockdowns  - a wonderful contribution to our community quilts collection much appreciated.

The herringbone pattern comes from squares made

 from two rectangles, one light, one dark.

Disappearing four-patch, using a variety of floral prints

Light, medium and dark toned rectangles

Light and medium toned rectangles

Sashed squares

Diagonal checkerboard

 

Sixteen patch blocks in nine patch layout