Reading, listening, viewing …

Need something other than actual sewing to watch, listen to, or read during the lazy days of summer? Here are a few links that might interest you. 

 

How a new play is leading the push to return an historic convict-sewn quilt back to Tasmania

In a backroom of the National Gallery of Australia, an historically significant quilt is in storage. It is adorned with flowers, birds and other shapes sewn/embroidered into the yellow-faded quilt.

Sewn in 1841 by convict women on Her Majesty's ship Rajah as it made its way to then-Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), the quilt was presented to the governor's wife, Lady Jane Franklin, upon the ship's arrival.

It's had its own journey since then and was lost for almost 150 years, before it reappeared in an attic in Scotland in 1987. While the quilt is now at the NGA in Canberra, there are calls to bring it back to Tasmania.  Selina Ross and Isabella Podwinski, ABC News, 24 November 2023

ABC Conversations - Lucy Godoroja

Lucy Godoroja was unexpectedly introduced to the fascinating world of buttons in the late 1980s, in Amsterdam's old canal district.

She got hooked on these tiny treasures, buying an entire warehouse of buttons, sight unseen, from a button merchant's daughter in Milan.

Lucy managed to get this precious stash of buttons to Australia, where she's been running her own button shop in Sydney's inner west for 30 years now.

All Buttons Great and Small: A compelling history of the button, from the Stone Age to today is published by Exisle publishing.

 Conversation with Sarah Kanowski, ABC Radio Sydney, 23/11/2023

* Also available as a podcast on the ABC Listen app, or the podcasting service of your choice.

ABC Conversations - Catherine Martin

… the sequins and feathers of Strictly Ballroom, to Leo Di Caprio's Hawaiian shirt in Romeo and Juliet, and Nicole Kidman's red gown in Moulin Rouge, Catherine's designs are emblems of glamour and memory. Recently she's immersed herself in the story of Elvis Presley for her and Baz's (Lurhman) latest film.

Her work on the screen brings to technicolour life the entire world of Elvis, from the blues joints of Beale street, to the peacock stained glass windows of Graceland with its six metre sofa, and the iconic costumes of the King himself.

Catherine has won four Oscars for her costume and production design. 

Conversation with Richard Fidler, ABC Radio Sydney, 17/11/2023

* Also available as a podcast on the ABC Listen app, or the podcasting service of your choice.

The 300-year-old Japanese method of upcycling

Sashiko is easy, practical and beautiful – and gaining fans around the world. Bel Jacobs speaks to practitioners to find out more … Bel Jacobs, BBC, 14 October 2023
(includes video of Atsushi Futatsuya of Upcycle Stitches one of a new generation of Japanese practitioners (see video)

My quilt story

In my novel ‘The Crimson Thread’, my heroine Alenka embroiders messages in secret code on her wedding quilt to smuggle clandestine information to the Greek resistance.

I had to learn how to embroider in order to make sure that I described it properly in my novel. I had never sewn anything more ambitious than a loose button, so I was not at all sure how to go about it …  Slowly, stitch by stitch, square by square, my story quilt is growing – made with hand and heart.  Kate Forsyth, 2023

A secret to threading a needle

A short video of two handy tips for hand sewing. Threads Sewing 2016

10 Ways to Make a Quilt Back II

So here are some of the many ways I create quilt backs. It’s rarely my favorite part of the quilting process, but a necessary one nonetheless. And it's definitely good to have options, right?  Debbie Jesse, A Quilter’s Table, 2019

Quilts on Antiques Roadshow (BBC TV)

Antiques Roadshow Series 44 Episode 14 held at Woodhorn Museum, now on ABC iView: at 27m 45 sec - 33m 18 sec there is a segment on 3 antique quilts from The North East of England.