September events

 

Gallery 76

76 Queen Street, Concord West 2138

Open 9 - 4 Monday - Friday; 10 - 2 Saturday and Sunday

Closed public holidays

Doorknobs - a textile journey 

Exhibition dates: 25 September - 20 October 2026

The Design Divas are 12 contemporary textile artists who met while studying at the Embroiderers' Guild NSW in 2019. United by a love of stitching and creating, they continue to share their artistic journey together. They now invite you to turn the doorknob, step inside, and discover the worlds they have found by visiting their exhibition at Gallery76, the heart of Sydney's textile community.

Recent show and tell

 

A winter coastal retreat with Wendy Williams was the perfect 

time and place for Amanda to make her woolen blanket bag. 

with embroidered camellia appliqué.

The precious out-of-print Anna Maria Horner lining is her
popular ‘Social Climber’, first released in 2008.
So much goodness!

Sharron was at the same retreat as Amanda, and is also
working on woolen appliqued bag.

 More appliqué on the reverse.

Chris knitted a warm asymmetric scarf for her daughter
who has moved to snow-country.

Carol is up cycling a long term favourite knit top
with hand embroidery.

The JulyNorth Shore Craft Group exhibition and sale
was an opportunity for Noelle to buy her scarf and
bag both handmade by Trudy Billingsley.

In the news

Handmade quilts weave culture into Forster NAIDOC Week baby celebration

On Worimi Country in northern  New South Wales, a baby's tiny hand clutches a handmade patchwork quilt, eyes captivated by its striking  red, black and yellow patterns. The quilt is one of many gifted to families during a NAIDOC Week baby celebration at Forster's Tobwabba Aboriginal Medical Service. The annual event brings together Indigenous mothers and local elders to celebrate babies born over the past year, strengthen community connections and honour each child's cultural heritage … ABC Mid North Coast, Emma Siossian and Wiriya Sati. 11 July 2026

Liberty embraces sewing boom with craft classes as it expands fabrics section

Liberty has more than doubled the size of its fabrics department as it prepares to embrace the social media interest in sewing by hosting crafting classes this autumn … This autumn, Liberty will also be expanding its haberdashery area, where it will be providing workshops for crafters. “More and more department stores have moved away from [haberdashery and fabric] but we want to celebrate and elevate the customer experience,” King said.

The rising popularity of crafts such as quilt making and crochet has been partly driven by social media demonstration videos on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, as well as crafting TV programmes such as The Great British Sewing Bee … The Guardian, 27 July 2026

Recent community finishes

A recent generous donation to our community collection
for a children’s support service. Amanda combined curved
elements from some classes in an original layout, a saturated
palette and animal prints, all designed to appeal to a child.

Beautiful blue batiks in several shapes are an absolute
winner, made by Janice. Quilted by Laura.

Hilary paired the large donated tree-of-life panel with the wide 
print border donated by a friend to produce this handsome 
quilt, generously quilted by Janet. It is finished with a black 
and white striped binding. Quilted by Janet.

Julie has made several versions of the ‘Zoo Dwellers’ pattern
by Andy Knowlton. This one highlights the happy
sunflower print donated by Hilary. Quilted by Laura.

Another ‘Zoo Dwellers’ community quilt made by Julie
features soft floral prints. Quilted by Laura

Fairholme members’ recent finishes

 

A large stash of animal prints prompted Amanda to make a
quilt for her grandchildren 

And more and more animals on the back!

Summer school was way back in January, but Miriam has
finished her Rachel Porter designed zip pouch well before the
next event! This side is appliquéd.

The reverse is elongated hexagons.

Marilyn’s grown-up book bag protects her book as it
bounces around in her large tote.

Laura made a quick quilt for a an old school friend
she will meet up with on a trip.

The patches are are a mix of Japanese prints.

She incorporated a subtly quilted message in the border for the
friend who is navigating a difficult time …

… and a nod to his fondness for cats.

A stack of May Gibbs gumnut prints, and her favourite
Zoo Dwellers pattern allowed Julie to make this baby
quilt, quilted by Sue Olma.

It is for a friend to gift to a newly arrived couple expecting
their first child with no family in the country - a lovely gesture.

August events

 

Living Ornament - Islamic Architecture in Needlepoint

By Natalie Fisher

Exhibition dates: 24 July - 18 August 2026

Gallery 76

76 Queen Street, Concord West 2138

Open 9 - 4 Monday - Friday

10 - 2 Saturday and Sunday

Closed public holidays

Timeless Textiles Gallery

90 Hunter Street Newcastle 2300

Open 10 - 4 Wednesday - Saturday

10 - 2 Sunday

Closed public holidays

The Great Hall, Tocal Agricultural College
815 Tocal Rd, Tocal NSW 2421
Tocal is 180 km north of Sydney via the M1;
 14 km north of Maitland on the Paterson/Dungog Road

Book free tickets at Humantix

The Third International Art Textile Biennale

Presented by Fibre Arts Australia

Exhibition dates: 21 August - 22 September 2026

Gallery76 is proud to be the Sydney host for this touring 

exhibition of innovative artworks by 39 artists 

representing ten countries.

Gallery 76

76 Queen Street, Concord West 2138

Open 9 - 4 Monday - Friday

10 - 2 Saturday and Sunday

Closed public holidays

New community quilt finishes

 

Our community quilts are often made as a team effort.
This one landed with us as a small collection of churn dash
blocks, made in her typically bright prints, and generously
donated by Bernice Krige. Susan Mack added in some
additional blocks with animal print centres and a mix of
bright and pastel borders, and added a very cute elephant
print outer border, for an enchanting quilt.

A quilt designed to use lots and lots of small scraps.
Elaine G made this one for our community quilts collection,
using Vinuta Sewing’s video tutorial on You Tube:
https://youtu.be/cGUo_RDVHFQ.
It’s less complicated than it looks, using just two pattern
pieces, and clever rotation in each block.

It aroused a lot of interest, so we expect to see more.

The larger low volume square is the meeting point of four
smaller squares.

This quilt grew from just a few left over hand appliqued purple
circle blocks and grew and grew as Jill added more turquoise to
reduce the purple-ness, and push it to the edges.
And now it’s a 50” x 60” community quilt.

Brilliantly quilted by Laura.
The Tula Pink ‘Swallows’ wideback
was a donation to the community stash.