Community quilts

A donated collection of 2 1/4” strips, used to
make a simple but striking 480-square
checkerboard by Lynette.

Susan M donated a lovely collection of five quilt tops from
her ‘to be quilted’ pile early in the year, and we are working
our way through quilting and binding them. This one
is Susan’s version of Jen Kingwell’s ‘Flutterby’ design,
quilted by Janet.

The large scale floral backing fabric is
from our community stash.

She pieced this top so long ago that Susan can no longer
remember the pattern name or designer, but look at it
carefully and you will see that it is a clever intersecting design
with the appearance of curves using only straight lines.
A very large number of bright fabrics makes it very vibrant.
Also quilted by Janet.

Susan K’s late mother was a traditional quilter, but she joined
Susan in making a ‘jelly roll race’ quilt, eventually making
these blocks. Susan recently took the unfinished quilt top out
of storage after many years, did some repairs, finished the top and
 pieced a modern backing (below)from her own stash.
Laura quilted it, and now it has been generously donated
to our community collection.

 

Just under a month …

 … till 18 - 19 May, and our 40th Anniversary Quilt Exhibition!

This is where you will find us, at the Thornleigh Community Centre,
 corner of Phyllis and Central Avenues, Thornleigh 2021.
There will be bunting.

The Community Centre is next door to Bunnings Warehouse, 
and Phyllis Avenue turns off Pennant Hills Road, at traffic lights.
Parking is available nearby.
The nearest train station is Thornleigh, on the Northern Line
about 10 - 15 minutes walk away.

The quilts are made, the display is mapped out, the white
gloves are laundered, the craft items are beautifully packaged,
and sensibly priced, the shops are booked - 60 Stitches, Sew Can I,
and Fortunes and Fairies.
Hornsby District CWA have the cafe organisation under control,
 and the raffle tickets are ready for you to buy.

The show will be open 10am - 4pm on both Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th May.

Entry is $8

We hope you can join us then.

May events

 ‘Looked At… And Overlooked’ pays homage to remarkable
women whose achievements have been excluded from
successive histories written by men.

Curator Mary Brown has brought together a phenomenal
group of creatives and thought leaders to produce stories about
fascinating women, spanning ancient Byzantine to the present,
and share them through this exhibition of spectacular textile art.

Gallery 76

76 Queen Street Concord West 2038

Full details

Full details

Annandale. Community Centre
(‘Back Hall’)
79 Johnson Street
Annandale 

www.craftalive.com.au/events/newcastle/

The Sewing Basket is holding its inaugural Big Basket Sale!

Browse through over 15 stalls of 100% donated goods at very 

affordable prices. Unique fabrics, patterns, embroidery materials,

 knitting and crochet yarn, haberdashery, and more.

Big Basket Sale

Canberra Quilters Exhibition

and 

Craft Alive Canberra

23 - 26 May 2024

EPIC, Budawang Building

Flemington Rd, Mitchell ACT 2911

https://www.craftalive.com.au/events/canberra/

National Gallery of Australia - online event

Details and booking:

https://nga.gov.au/events/the-rajah-quilt-up-close-online /

Show and tell

Lynette is a prolific quilt maker, many of them for our 

community collection, but she bought this beauty

during a recent trip to Hawaii.

It is hand appliqued and quilted.

Lynette was told that the demand for Hawaiian quilts is now
such that some of the work is outsourced to stitchers in
The Philippines (and acknowledged on the quilt labels). 

Jeni’s very stylish bag is hand stitched in Japanese Kogin
stitch (counted Sashiko) using beautiful soft dark grey
Japanese linen with leather handles. 

A pretty hydrangea print pouch, made by Daphne.

Julie’s Canadian quilt (first described here) is
completely finished!

Not all the blocks made for the front were needed there,
but they do very well on the back.
Quilted by Sue Olma.

Quilts at AQC

AQC (Australasian Quilt Convention) is in full swing in Melbourne over four days including this weekend, and there is so much to see and do. For those of us not able to be there, some of the quilt exhibitions are previewed online, with great photography, and the award winners have been posted.

Australian Quilt Show Award Winners - best of show, plus fifteen categories

Best of Show Grand Prize: ‘Tathra Wharf’, Gloria Loughman

Runner Up: ‘Mexican Hats’, Susan Sheath

Check these out, click on the thumbnail images to see the full design:

 

‘Oh My Stars’ 2024 Challenge - award winners and finalists

A Travelling Selection of QuiltCon - spectacular quilts from QuiltCon – the largest modern quilting event in the world, hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild, in Raleigh, USA in 2024.

SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) ‘Colour in Context - Red’ - an exhibition of international textile artworks exploring the theme of RED.

The New Quilt

Many of us really enjoyed the first New Quilt exhibition in 2021, a beautifully curated show in the fantastic Hawkesbury Regional Gallery. This year we have additional pleasure of seeing our Life Member Val Nadin’s work in the exhibition - congratulations on being juried into this exhibition. Well worth a visit to historic Windsor.

From the Quilt NSW Newsletter, April 2024

THE NEW QUILT 2024, HAWKESBURY REGIONAL GALLERY

QuiltNSW proudly presents The New Quilt 2024 at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. 

The New Quilt is a juried survey exhibition showcasing the art of quilting. The exhibition features 36 quilts by contemporary textile artists from across Australia, highlighting the rich diversity of stitched and layered materials. This includes two invitational works by jurors Ruth de Vos and Fiona Gavens. Look out for the daily social media preview of each of the quilts along with an introduction to the relevant artist(s).

Plan an art excursion! Hawkesbury Regional Gallery is open 6 days a week.

• Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm
• Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm 
• Closed on Tuesday and public holidays (e.g. King's Birthday)

Hawkesbury Regional Gallery is at 300 George St, Windsor and is accessible by car and public transport. See the gallery's How to Find Us page for more information.

The public program at the gallery includes the following events:

• Friday 3 May from 6pm: official opening and awards ceremony for The New Quilt Prize and The New Quilt Prize Runner Up. 
• Thursdays 1-3pm: meet an artist - more details will follow
• Sunday 19 May from 1-3pm: artist floor talks
• Saturday 6 June: Artful Stitching with Sustainable Materials, a workshop with Jessica Wheelahan with a focus on hand stitching techniques and processes for the sustainable use of materials - more details to come.

For information about exhibition tours and group bookings, please contact the gallery at: gallery@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

More new finishes

Laura contributes so much to our community quilts
collection by longarm machine quilting so many of our quilts,
it is a pleasure to have one of her own quilts to showcase.
Her spectacular version of ‘Antelope Canyon’ (designed by
Laurie Shifrin) was made for a family member.

It was quilted with a design developed especially for the
quilt pattern. The dramatic pieced design, for which there
are a number of layouts, is made without curved pieces,
using a modified log cabin process

Pat has worked on this beauty on and off for several years.
The appliqué centre and borders are from different patterns,
requiring quite a bit of thinking! It eventually all came together,
 and has been expertly quilted by Laura Ujhazy.

Jo-Ann’s new quilt for her own bed is her take on 

‘Holiday Party’ designed by Suzy Williams at Suzy Quilts. 

Jo says constructing the blocks takes care, but Suzy’s 

pattern is very clear. 

Quilted by Laura Ujhazy.

All the fabric, including this fabulous
backing is from Jo’s stash.

New finishes

The elongated hexagons between the tumbling blocks 

in Julie’s latest quilt make its construction more complex 

than it looks. It provides negative space that gives the 

design lightness and highlights the use 

of tone in the tumblers.

Then they had to be aligned in the regular 

sequence Julie preferred.

It’s all worked beautifully, complimented by 

Sue Olma’s quilting.

‘It’s just clamshells’ said Marilyn. 

It’s a bit more than ‘just’ clamshells!

The clamshells are dainty (more than 500 of them!) but the
quilt is big. Many, many beautiful fabrics.

Beautifully quilted by Cathie Calvert. It is magnificent.

Miriam’s crocheted fabric bags have inspired Daphne to
make a cotton yarn version using two strands of yarn,
 for a more stretchy finish.

We swooned over the very chic Paris print that Julie used for
 the centre for this small quilt, and its pastel borders.