'Being, Nothingness' and 1000 quilt blocks

Helen, a Brisbane quilter, started a blog in late 2012 to document the two challenges was about to embark upon:

Where to start… I might as well get straight to the point. I have set myself two challenges for the year ahead. Challenge one is to make all 1000 quilt blocks in Maggi McCormick Gordon’s 1000 great quilt blocks. Challenge two is to read Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre.

... and on 13th January 2012, she announced that she had completed both.  Her blog, Being, Nothingness includes a gallery of all 1000 blocks!

100 Days of Modern Quilting

For those interested in Modern Quilting, here is a real online treat:

Get ready for a lot of beautiful modern quilts coming your way. Starting tomorrow and for the following 14 weeks we’ll be posting every single day right here on The Modern Quilt Guild blog! Here’s what you get to look forward to:

Shapes
Colors
Blocks
Improvisation
Inspiration
Composition
Prints
Solids
Using What You Have
Techniques
Collaboration
Participation
Tools
Machine Quilting

Each week will feature 7 different modern quilts that represent the topic. We’ll also include tutorials from around the web on each topic, and a brand new tutorial each and every week!

This series of posts will educate, inform and inspire. We hope that after 100 days of posting you’ll have learned a lot about modern quilting!

This link will bring up all the 100 days posts - the most recent will appear at the top, so scroll through to start at the beginning (that's just how blogs work).  The button in the right hand column will also take you there as this post disappears off your screen.

Free Motion Quilting 'Quilt Along'

Leah Day reached her goal of 365 days of free motion filler designs recently (see the link in our blogroll - right hand column).  Her blog series has been hugely popular around the world.  What will she do next?

Well, this week she has started a new series of blog posts that promises to be really useful for those of us still developing our free motion technique - a 'quilt along'  that provides virtual lessons, breaking free motion quilting into small steps, with strategies for practising and incorporating them into quilts. New posts will be published weekly.

Leah uses close-up video, static images, diagrams and very clear explanations.

Quilt Along #1 - Let's Wiggle! starts here.

Fabulous for beginners, for anyone not able to get to classes, or to augment your practice sessions in your own time.

2012 Colour of the Year

The PANTONE name is known worldwide as the standard language for accurate color communication, from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer, across a variety of industries.

Since 2000, Pantone has selected a colour of the year, that has wide influence on colour trends and all kinds of products ... including fabrics, of course. 

Pantone's colour of  2012 is Tangerine Tango.

Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge ...is an online challenge (you make an item according to the challenge criteria, and  post photos of your entry to a Flickr group) that celebrates the 2012 colour of the year in a quilted item. It runs for two months, until 2nd march 2012.

Could be fun - anyone who has a tangerine paint chip for the current Fairholme Quilters' challenge would be streets ahead.

Australian Quilt Study Group in 2012

The NSW Quilt Study Group has published its calendar of events for 2012 - there are some very interesting looking offerings.

The AQSG blog also features updates and reports about 2011 events, including a series on antique quilts, with excellent images and some video. A link has been added to our 'blogroll' - right hand column.

Stash and Treasurer Recyclers' Market: Marrickville, 14 January

Lisa Walton from Dyed and Gone to Heaven will be at this market at Marrickville Town Hall in January.  Who else might be there to pick up a treasure from? Fabric and notions appear in lots of the publicity photos! Or you might have some de-stashing to do ...

Information from Stash and Treasure Market blog, and on Facebook:

Start 2012 by decluttering your studio, your sewing basket, your art and craft cupboard or work space, your book shelves, your magazine racks of your art and craft stash and treasure excess!!! Pack it up, book a table, bring it along to Marrickville Town Hall on January 14 2012 to recycle / sell for dollars. Book and pay for a table - Early birds before 31 December $40 - January 1-14 $45 or share a table with a friend ... easy ramp access to the Town Hall ... no stairs! Supporting Miracle Babies Foundation. Contact: stashandtreasure@gmail.com.

An online challenge with a great prize!

To kick off your quilting year, here is an opportunity to win an excellent fabric prize, and you don't even have to sew anything - just play with virtual fabric, and put together a combination that you like. Just like starting a quilt - what fun! 

Laura at Quokka Quilts explains it all clearly, and several examples are already posted.  The deadline is 15th January ... so you might need to get onto it sooner rather than later, to enjoy maximum playing time.

Thanks to Sue C from the Fairholme Monday group for the link.

Play isn’t just for children

Alfie Kohn's essay for The Big Think (3rd December 2011) on children and play is not about quilting, but this paragraph easily could be ... not that we need justify what we do, of course!

Play isn’t just for children. The idea of play is closely related to imagination, inventiveness, and that state of deep absorption that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi dubbed “flow.” Read virtually any account of creativity, in the humanities or the sciences, and you’ll find mentions of the relevance of daydreaming, fooling around with possibilities, looking at one thing and seeing another, embracing the joy of pure discovery, asking “What if….?” The argument here isn’t just that we need to let little kids play so they’ll be creative when they’re older, but that play, or something quite close to it, should be part of a teenager’s or adult’s life, too.[4]

The Point of Play is That it Has No Point

Egyptian Tentmaker as historian

If you enjoyed this post about the tentmakers of Cairo, you might also be interested in this recent post from Jenny Bowker, telling the story of an unusually political piece very recently completed, and its sale to The Oriental Museum at the University of Durham (UK), where it will have a wide audience and protection.

In the tradition of the Bayeux Tapestry (link to Wikipedia entry includes an image of its full length) and other histories told through textiles?

Celebrate Hand Quilting: a new(ish) blog

As a complement to the modern Christmas tree quilts flagged here, Celebrate Hand Quilting has recently posted some more traditional Christmas quilts, including a very fine Christmas Baltimore.

This relatively new blog (dates from mid-November 2011) explores all aspects of hand quilting, across a range of quilt styles. An invitation to participate is open.  At least a couple of Australian contributors are listed already.

A static link is now added to the blogroll (right hand column).

Country Pickin's: Boxing Day sale

Country Pickin's at the Corner (at Dural) is having a Boxing Day Sale from Wednesday 28th  to Saturday 31st December.

Opening hours during the sale period:

Wednesday 28th December 9-30am—5pm

Thursday 29th December 9-30am—5pm

Friday 30th December 9-30am—5pm

Saturday 31st December 9am—4pm

(closed Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd January, regular business hours resume Tuesday 3rd)

30% off all bolted fabric and fat quarters.

Modern Christmas tree quilts

Here are some Christmas tree quilts, in a modern style, just to enjoy looking at for now ... it's a bit late to start making one for this year!

Nettaquilts Christmas Tree (FITF = Film in the Fridge, the well known blog of a modern quilter) 

Christmas cushion by Elsie's Girl (could easily be translated into a quilt ...)

EschHouse quilt appliqued Christmas tree

Moda Bake Shop Christmas Tree Quilt (the wondrously versatile half-square triangle ...)

Basting a quilt on a small(ish) surface

Access to large trestle tables (and the assistance of willing friends) for pin or thread-basting quilts is a great perk of belonging to Fairholme Quilters ... but do you struggle to layer and secure your quilts that just have to managed at home?  Maybe this blog will help:

MG Quilts posted this useful picture-tutorial a few weeks ago, showing an ingenious set-up for table-basting quilts at home without access to a large table, and without damaging a tabletop with basting pins or needles.  Beats kneeling on the floor and crawling (and trying to get up again ...)!

Tentmakers of Cairo - interview and demonstration

Bonnie McCaffrey interviews Jenny Bowker and two of the Cairo tentmakers whose exhibition and sale of work Jenny organised at the Birmingham Quilt Festival earier this year.  Includes some footage of the men demonstrating their applique techniques, and lots of examples of the beautiful work.  Jenny gives valuable background information.  14 m 6 sec video.

You Tube link in case you have any difficulty with the embedded video.

(Thanks to Lisa Walton for the link)

A finish

Pam made her spicy X block top 2 years ago ...

... pieced a coordinating back, and has been carefully hand-quilting it. And on Tuesday evening this week, it was finished. The borders are constructed from the off cuts of the x-blocks.

Congratulations Pam - it's a beauty.

Earlier posts on X block quilts are here and here.