Recent finishes

 

Susan Mac’s hand applique skills are famous -
look at the fine poppy detail on her bolster style cushion!

Jo-Ann made what she calls ‘jeans and red shirt’ quilt for
 a young woman who looked a little hesitant at the mention of
a quilt. Both the design and the palette are modern,
crisp, and not at all fussy.
The curves were achieved with Sew Kind of Wonderful’s
‘Quick Curve Ruler’.

Laura’s modern wave quilting compliments those choices well.

The backing is a complimentary too.

Lyn’s I Spy baby quilt is for a new member of her family
- and she has three more to make before Christmas!
She was puzzling over a border when she came
across the multi-stripe fabric in her stash.

New community quilt finishes

Half square triangles - always popular and so versatile.
Made by Chris, a generous friend of Fairholme who donated
four quilt tops ready for quilting. Thank you Chris.
She thoughtfully included binding with each one!
Quilted and bound by Lynette.

Elaine G featured a vibrant daisy print and two colours from the 

print for her second version of ‘’Travel to Esoterra’.

 This time she redrafted the block pattern to produce a smaller 

block size in keeping with the smaller lap sized quilt she 

aimed for. She quilted subtle cross hatches randomly placed.

‘Travel to Esoterra’ is a free pattern from Mara Quilt Designs

 @mvquilts adapted for Art Gallery Fabrics ‘Esoterra’ fabric 

collection - generously made available as a .pdf download 

from the link in this blog post: 

https://maraquiltdesigns.com/free-patterns/travels-to-esoterra-quilt-in-agf-lookbook-and-free-pattern/

It looks quite at home amongst the fuchsia and hydrangeas
 (thank you for the photos Helen).

‘Play Ball’ designed by Emily Bailey,
this version was made by Susan K.

The feature fabrics were 5” squares from Susan’s stash,
the background an end of bolt bargain …

… and the backing an Anna Maria Horner print from
the community stash, also a sale bargain.

A panel quilted up hy Lynette …

… with a cute backing.

 

Houston 2024

This week has two big events in the quilting community - International Quilt Market, followed by International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. 

You will see lots of social media covering both the industry  and public events, new ranges of products, classes, and the biggest judged quilt show. 

The quilt show was judged several weeks ago, and you can see the prize winning quilts online now at www.quilts.com/quilt-festival/judged-show-winners-2024/

Congratulations to all the award winners, and a particular shout out to two Australian quilters who won prizes:

Tania Tanti of Altona Meadows, Victoria has won the Janome Master Award for Innovative Artistry, for her quilt ‘The Naughty Corner’. Tania was also the winner of Best in Show at the Sydney Quilt Show 2024 in September.

Linda Steele of Park Orchards, Victoria won second prize in the Pieced category for her quilt ‘Citrus Zing’.

PREMIERE SCHOOLHOUSE EVENT: TULA PINK DEBUTS 50TH COLLECTION AT QUILT MARKET’S PREMIERE SCHOOLHOUSE, October 14, 2024, by Bob Ruggiero

She is one of today’s bona fide “rock stars” in the quilting industry. And at the Premiere Schoolhouse event at this year’s Quilt Market in Houston (Fri., Oct. 25, 10 am), this designer will unveil her landmark 50th collection of fabrics …

New finishes

Elaine embelled her plain canvas tote by hand embroidering
outlines and fine details around small fabric shapes, machine
appliqued with a small zigzag stitch. 

Some of the very fine lines are drawn with a fabric pen.

Jo-Ann is drawn to modern piecing and quilting designs,
made in a modern palette. She’s achieved all of them with her
latest quilt, longarm quilted by Laura Ujhazy.

Janet’s latest Little House quilt us called
‘Happy Little Townhouses’.

Jenny has been busy with her crochet hooks.

Jenny made this beautiful warm crochet blanket
 for a friend’s 80th birthday.

Home Sweet Home workbox

We enjoyed checking out Carol’s delightful embroidered ‘Home Sweet Home’ workbox recently. It took her about a year to finish with bursts of intense stitching and construction followed by letting it rest for a while. The walls and roof are made with cardboard covered with felt under the fabric. There are several small charms amongst the exquisite hand embroidery - so much to look at.

The workbox measures 16 cm high x 15.5 cm long x 9.8 cm wide.

The design is by Carolyn Pearce, whose internationally popular 2011 book ‘Home Sweet Home - An Embroidered Workbox’ published by Inspiration Studios is readily available, sometimes with a kit of all the requirements. The book includes a number of small accessories - Carol hasn’t made them all yet, but she might get there!

Click on individual photos to enlarge for more detail.

 

November events

 

Details of the indoor and outdoor exhibitions, 
of other associated events and of how to enter quilts:
Braidwood Quilters and Textiles

Bringing to life the joy and nostalgia of childhood sewing 
adventures, it features a whimsical collection of oversized 
buttons, drawing inspiration from the vibrant array of materials 
found in her beloved local haberdashery shop in the 1980s. 

Based on the NSW South Coast, fibre artist Samantha Tannous
appreciates the sculptural possibilities of felted wool 
and particularly loves using Australian-grown Merino wool.

Gallery 76
76 Queen Street. Concord West 2138
Weekdays from 9am - 4pm 
and on weekends from 10am to 2pm 
(public holidays excluded)

A solo textile exhibition which encourages us to 
take a closer look at our physiology and appreciate 
its natural beauty in abstract form. Helen MacRitchie 
is a textile artist based in Oxfordshire, UK, working 
both in the UK and Australia. With an academic 
background in pharmacy, scientific and medicinal 
subjects often feature as inspirational 
sources of her work. 

In Mind and Body, Helen uses felted wool, embroidery 
and mixed media to create works which challenge 
our perceptions of our internal workings.

Gallery 76
76 Queen Street. Concord West 2138
Weekdays from 9am - 4pm 
and on weekends from 10am to 2pm 
(public holidays excluded)

Slow stitching - a calm, enjoyable example

A couple of years ago Helen discovered the art of using cloth from old about-to-be-discarded book covers in vintage slow stitching. Her recently completed cloth book incorporates them with other vintage textiles and hand stitching. She found it a relaxing, meditative process, and the result is a beautiful, mellow one-of-a-kind piece, made over long time, with few rules and no time constraints.

Helen found numerous websites and social media sources of information on techniques for removing and re-using the cloth covers, and suggestions for vintage textiles to re-purpose, and found quite a few materials in fabric and notions already in her stash for use ‘one day’.

Click on individual photos to zoom in for a closer look.