Monday group today ......

The photos can't really do justice to Robyn's gorgeous applique and hand quilted Australian native flowers quilt .... so be sure to have a close look at it during the Fairholme Quilters Exhibition, 16 - 18 April 2010 at Thornleigh !

Fairholme Quilters profiled in AP & Q

Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine, Volume 18, Number 12 is due in the shops on Wednesday 10th March (subscribers already have received their copies by mail) ...... this is the issue in which Fairholme is the quilting group profiled.

You can see a brief preview of the issue (but not "our" pages) here.

Quilt Flap - a blog about vintage quilts

Quilt Flap is one of Cory Pepper's blogs - its focus is vintage and antique quilts, Cory Pepper is a well known teacher and designer, and a dedicated hand-quilter from North Carolina. There is much to entertain you here, and on the other blogs she maintains - just look at her profile for the others.

Dina's BIG quilts

Dina is off to the US in a few weeks, to visit her sister, a fellow quilter, and to visit the odd quilt exhibition (like Paducah!) and possibly to shop (and shop, and shop) for fabric. She's been getting some projects finished before she goes, so that Cindy can see what she has been up to (she's taking photos, not all of the quilts!)

This butterfly, like Jane's, is made with the aid of the wedge ruler. The wing fabric is stunning!

The "1778 Quilt" was a picture in a magazine, and Dina has drafted her own version, made with Japanese prints. It was quilted by Ellie Harrison, in a pattern called Carolina Rose, to reflect the provenance of the original quilt. The main motif of the quilting pattern is clearly visible in the detail below:

Several Tuesday Nighters made a version of Jane's "woven pattern - this is Dina's indigos woven into a square spiral, and quilted, again by Ellie Harrison, with butterfly pattern.

Another intriguing large quilt from Dina, made with just two fabrics - the light one has enough variation in colour and tone to give it great interest. A lot of triangles and bias edges went into the making of these blocks. The graphic patterns, including the "star-in-a-star-in-a-star" and the chain effect of the dark squares lined up on the diagonals are a lot more visible from a distance or in the photo, than at real size.

We look forward to what Dina brings back from her trip!

Online library for quilters

Here's a very handy blog (more of a website really): the Quilting Library of online resources for all aspects of quilting. The blogger doesn't say anything about herself, but she's done us all a service in putting these many links into categories ... an ordered mind at work.


It will take quite a while to work through all of the categories and individual links here, so a bookmark will help!


A permanent link is now in the right hand column.

Sydney Quilt Show - entries close Monday 1st march

NSW Quilters Guild reminder:

Entries for the Sydney Quilt Show close next Monday, 1st March. Links to entry form are available here.

Ann Ferguson: PNG Exhibition

Ann Ferguson is a Queensland quilter, designer, store owner and teacher, with strong ties to Papua- New Guinea, where she exhibited in 2009. She has made the works from the exhibition available as a slide show here.

Click here to go to Ann's blog, which has a very cute animation of the stitch action of a sewing machine at the top.

February sales

Country Pickin's At The Corner, at Dural has a sale on until the end of February - more than two weeks of bargains left! Visit the website and click on "In-store fabric sale" for details of discounts.

Aussie Patches (Asquith) sale coming up: Wed 24th Feb - Sun 7th Mar - Massive Clearance Sale in the Warehouse. Ends of bolts on sale from $4.00 per metre!

Margaret's Vietnamese quilt top

On our first quilting day for 2010, there were lots of new quilts and tops to show, and to tell about. Margaret's Vietnamese quilt top has a more unusual provenance than most, and she kindly agreed to give us some more detail about it:

I was in North Vietnam in November with husband Roger and daughter Katrina (celebrating her 40th birthday!). We spent a couple of days in Sapa in the highlands, where it was very cold and damp, with spectacular scenery when the mist cleared. Some of the tribal people of that area are Black Hmong. This quilt top is from that group. I bought it in the Sapa market from a lovely young woman who said she had made it herself, she shared the stall with her mother. It has strips of cross stitch, a braid in dark red, indigo dyed pattered fabric, and heavy dark indigo dyed fabric, sewn together by machine.

On one of the walks into the valley we came to a display of indigo works. I was excited about this as I’ve tried some indigo dyeing myself. The guide had pointed out to us the indigo plant nearby. There was fabric hanging out to dry, and a large vat of dye. I couldn’t get any more information. Katrina bought a more interesting quilt from this ‘shop’, which I think is better than this one.

In the market in Sapa people were selling powdered dyes, mostly in dark blue, but I needed translation to find out how they use it. The colour runs and runs, but must eventually stop. The people wear clothes made from these fabrics – probably now for tourist reasons. They are all very keen to sell their goods – I now have a few!

It was an interesting experience walking through these villages. Maybe tourism is exploiting them, but it also brings income through these cottage industries. We appreciated being able to see them.

We/re back!

The holidays are over, although we aren't finished with summer yet! Obviously not everyone took a break from quilting ....

Robyn T's very large medallion quilt is hand and machine pieced and will be hand quilted - it was much admired on Tuesday evening.

Susan just has a little binding to sew down on this lovely soft blue and yellow quilt.

Louise taught a group of women to patchwork during last year. They made the quilt on the left for one of their number who is ill, and had enough fabric left over for the simply effective quilt on the right.

What's in the bag?

A travel iron! The bag is its carrier, and becomes an ironing mat when opened out. Ingeniously designed and made by Jo S, from a fat quarter, a $12 ironing board cover (provides enough material for two), some binding and two buttons with loops.

The bag is formed by folding the mat around the iron.

Janet's second crazy hearts in a log cabin quilt has a braid border, and she has nearly finished the quilting.

Jane put her wedge ruler to work again, to produce this spectacular butterfly. Isn't the main wing fabric gorgeous?

Jane's card trick , whose blocks are cut from a single striped fabric, was quilted by Dina for Jane's birthday.

Jill's daughter Emma presented her with a box of lovely fabrics for Christmas (there were two striped fabrics too, that didn't make it into the photo).

One of Helen's favourite things are cats - these are for the Tuesday night "Our favourite things" quilt".

Lousie quilted Elle's Cut-Out Magic from the Lisa Walton workshop in November.

Dina tried her hand at chenille ......

..... and a second circular quilt with the wedge ruler, using more high-contrast fabrics, which reveal the pattern of a star or flower.

Lorraine's embroidery machine has been busy, producing "Geisha Ladies" (all of the blocks are embroidered)

..... and her granddaughter will be thrilled with these ballerinas!

The blue "Woodpile" blocks were made by Tuesday night members last year, put together at one of our "quilt in" days, and quilted by Jo with her very effective "Waves". Lynette is in the process of binging the finished quilt which will be the second prize in the raffle at our exhibition in April. Very much a group effort, with a wonderful result.

Elaine needed to make a quilt at fairly short notice, and found that she had just the right collection of rose and sashing fabrics put aside!

Monday show and tell

Robyn calls this a recession quilt - made from small and tiny scraps from her many beautiful and bright quilts for kids, to make another bright and beautiful quilt. Even the black was in her cupboard.

Jo made a top for herself, with colour-saturated Reece Scammell shot cottons. The photo does not do the fabrics justice.

Susan completed her "X block" top from Dina and Jane's tutorial late last year. It's easier than it looks .... but maybe we shouldn't say that!