SewMiriam Etsy Shop

A number of SewMiriam patterns are now available as downloads from her Etsy Store:

 

Miriam’s quilts in Quiltmania magazines

 Congratulations to Miriam who has two quilts currently published in Quiltmania magazines.

‘Most Wanted’ is a project in Quiltmania Issue 148.

‘Vintage Spools’ is the cover quilt and a project in
Simply Vintage Issue 42. It is also travelling in with the
Quiltmania team to event in France and Spain.

‘Improvisational Contemporary Quilts’ - new book

Congratulations to award winning Sydney quilter, teacher, designer, textile artist and now writer Jessica Wheelahan on the publication of her first book of quilt designs and patterns, ‘Improvisational Contemporary Quilts’, published by Quiltmania.

Jessica Wheelahan lives and works in Sydney, Australia. For the last ten years, Jessica chose textiles as a means to express herself and creates quilts inspired by fashion, art, design and pop culture. In her creative process, she mainly uses improvisational techniques which she loves teaching to her students.

In her very first book Improvisational Contemporary Quilts, Jessica guides us in her creative universe, gives us tips and techniques to free oneself from the burden of the more traditional methods. Liberty in the shapes, freedom in the assembling, Jessica revisits in a daring and original way the traditional blocs that find a brand-new dimension and a strong visual impact.

For all of you who always wished to push back the limits, while never daring to actually do it, for the colours, the movement and the joy that burst out of her quilts, Jessica’s book is a must-have! … Quiltmania

    You can order it from Quiltmania, or from the Australian distributor Can Do Books

Quilty long weekend reading

It's the Labour Day long weekend here in NSW, so no meeting and show and tell for us on Monday. Here is some quilt related reading and pictures to entertain you over the break ... hope you get time for sewing too.

A little piece of Australian history

Addicted 2 Fabric, 25 September 2019

Every quilt has a layer of storytelling, but for this special quilt recreated by South Australian pattern-maker Lessa Siegele, the story began all the way back at the beginning of quilting in Australia ...

Fabric of Life

Rich Warren, Ohio Magazine, July 2019

Artist Nancy Crow draws inspiration from near and far to create beautiful and inventive quilts that take the medium to a new level ...

Artist's polychromatic quilts tell powerful stories using recycled fabrics,
Kimberly Mok, Treehugger,  5 March 2019

 ... some of the seven "R" strategies to shift toward a more sustainable fashion industry include reducing, reusing, recycling, repairing, researching, renting, and of course, repurposing. A great example of repurposing with inspiring results is Brooklyn-based textile artist Bisa Butler, who creates these stunningly intricate quilted tapestries that are primarily made with vintage and repurposed fabrics. 

But Butler doesn't just strive to bring a bit of environmental consciousness in her choice of materials, she also strives to highlight the richness of African-American culture as well through her polychromatic portrayals of everyday citizens to historical figures like Paul Laurence Dunbar, Basquiat, and Josephine Baker ...

One from the LA Times archives, recently posted online:

The Quilt Circle: How to make an American movie? Start by piecing together a network of OC seamstresses
Kathleen O'Steen, Los Angeles Times, 6 October 1995

When they needed quilts, the producers of the movie 'How to Make An American Quilt', based on a novel written by Whitney Otto at UCI, they called Patty McCormick of Corona del Mar ...

Quilters Newsletter magazine closing

This news has caused some ripples and concern among subscribers and readers of one the most popular quilting magazines published in English:

Quilters Newsletter shuttered amidst cutbacks at F + W

Abby Glassenberg, While She Naps, 16 July 2016

In an email sent on Thursday, July 14, to contributors, Editorial Director Bill Gardner delivered some difficult news about the fate of the magazine Quilters Newsletter. 

“Quilters Newsletter has held a very special place in the hearts of quilting enthusiasts for 47 years, and has been a source of inspiration and learning for quilters around the world. However, the magazine will no longer be published after the October/November 2016 issue,” the email reads ...

Read to the end of the post for the publisher's future plans. Subscribers will apparently be offered a substitute magazine. The subscription pages of the Quilters Newsletter website are currently closed.

Stalled?

If you have the odd stalled project (and who doesn't?) this article might help you to give it a kick-along ...

Getting back together with your UFO

Mary Kate Karr-Petras, Quilters Newsletter Blog, 26 May 2016
A couple of weekends ago, having just completed the pieced backing for a queen-size quilt and faced with the prospect of then basting said quilt, or maybe finishing marking and basting a twin-size quilt top, or perhaps marking and basting a throw-size quilt top (are you sensing a pattern here?), I took the easy way out: I pulled an even older UFO out of the closet and decided to work on it instead ...

For quilting Jane Austen fans

For Margaret, and all the other Jane Austen fans who are quilters ...

An interest in Jane Austen and in quilts are not strangers, and Barbara Brackman brings them together in her 2014 block-of-the-week blog, Austen Family Album.  The first block pattern will be published today (perhaps in a few hours since she is in the US) ... while you wait there are some introductory posts to whet your appetite, and many links to related material.

Katrina Hajimichael's blog posts on her Jane Austen Quilt Collection - a series of quilts she has designed and teaches, based on locations in Jane Austen's novels. If you are interested in them, you might want to follow up on Katrina's show and tell day at Kim Bradley Creations (Castle Hill), on Sunday 4th May 2014.

Jane Austen Quilts Inspired by Her Novels, by Karen Gloeggler was published by the American Quilt Society in September 2013.

A Pinterest board of quilts associated with the works of Jane Austen.

Ready for some more quilts online?

A selection from recent net surfing:

• Australian quilter Margaret McDonald's quilt Wrought, quilted by Susan Campell, has won Best Use of Colour - Traditional at the 2013 World Quilt Competition XVII in Manchester, New Hampshire. Margaret's website also includes an extensive galleries of her quilts.

• Images of the interesting award winning quilts from the American Quilt Society's recent Quilt Week Grand Rapids are now online, here. Click on each image for a larger, single view, then click again for a much larger, very sharp close-up.

• Jen Sorenson, at A Quilting Jewel has posted a great series of photos from the recent Lowell Quilt Festival, featuring the exhibition by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild. The gallery space looks spectacular.

• Studio Art Quilt Associates publishes a series of portfolios of members' work from time to time. Portfolio 19 has recently been released, featuring the work of 246 artists in very high quality images. The online version allows you to zoom in for very close-up views.