Kona Colour of the Year 2017: Pink Flamingo

Robert Kaufman Fabrics 2017 Colour of the Year is Pink Flamingo:

It will be available for one year only, in Kona Cotton (a solid), and will feature in a promotional campaign that includes a series of free quilt patterns. Previews are in the 'Look Book'.

Tidying up ...

Our 'Quilts made in workshops' pages have been updated and edited -  a single link, just under the banner photo above, now takes you to the links for images from the workshops we have held over recent years.

The individual workshop pages include further links to the workshop teachers' own web presence, and to other workshop images in this blog.

It sometimes takes quite some time for what we learn in workshops to translate into finished projects, so they are all still open to further additions, so check back from time to time to see how we're going.

Summer reading ...

For the days when it is just too hot and humid for actual quilting, here is a little online reading, starting with a lovely tribute to a dedicated needleworker ...




Heather Joynes - needleworker restored 1778 Captain Cook Hawaiian feather cape

Sydney Morning Herald, 3 January 2016

When Heather Joynes took up a needle in her early schooldays in London, to make the first of many annual samplers, she could hardly have realised what it would lead to. She went on to assist in the conservation of many unique museum artefacts, not least of which was a Hawaiian feather cape presented to Captain Cook in 1788 held at the Australian Museum. She would teach in Australia and internationally while developing her own unique style ...

Sewing Circle drawing thread to tradition, culture and work

Luke Walters, SBS, 9 December 2016
What began as a simple sewing-circle for women in Melbourne's South Sudanese community, has transformed into a budding enterprise fusing culture, fashion and opportunity ...

America's Earliest Quilts: Necessity Not the Mother of Invention

Bill Volkening, Wonky Quilts, 4 December 2016
When it comes to America's earliest quilts and coverlets, necessity was not the mother of invention. Quiltmaking required time and resources. Quilts were elegant objects made by affluent families, and decorative sewing was a skill developed in finishing schools by refined young women ...

Dutch patchwork celebration skirts - healing the Netherlands after World War II
Judy Anne Johnson Breneman, 2004, published online by Patches from the Past
The story begins in 1943 with eight women in an Amsterdam prison cell, all jailed by their Nazi occupiers for acts of resistance. The women were stressed and at odds. The cell stifling and dismal. Then a miracle happened. Somehow someone managed to smuggle a patchwork scarf in with a bag of laundry ...

The Discontinuation of an Icon: Some Thoughts on the Quilting Industry …
Thomas Knauer Sews, 15 July 2016
Today it was announced that Quilters Newsletter will no longer be published after its October issue; news that brings a major loss for the quilting world, one that I believe is a harbinger of things to come ...

Quit magazines - relevant or not?

Generation Q Magazine, 21 July 2016

This week, our tiny q-niverse reels with news of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine’s shuttering. Owned by F+W Media, QNM was one of the longest-standing quilt-only publications in our country. Started in 1969 by Bonnie Lehman, this publication helped bring quilting back to relevance in our modern era, in a huge way ...

I Made It: Mount Gambier migrant sewing project teaches independence and business savvy
Kate Hill, ABC South East SA, 27 July 2016
Jolie Hirwa is keenly watching as the bright print material slips under her fingers, the needle of the sewing machine humming away in front of her. The refugee from the Republic of Congo is one of six women involved in a new project at Mount Gambier's Migrant Resource Centre called I Made It, aiming to equip migrant women with both sewing skills and business savvy ...

The many amazing benefits of quilting
So SewEasy, 2 October 2016
A lot has been written about the many benefits of quilting, but it is only in the last couple of years that scientists and scholars really started to study this claim. A long time ago, quilting was done for a very practical reason –to keep the family warm especially during the cold winter months. This is not really required as much anymore because of advances in technology and with women working more outside the home, there has been less time. Surprisingly and thankfully however, this did not cause the demise of quilting which is still alive and popular as a form of hobby and expression of creativity ...

Graceland
Thom Garrett, Personal Growth, 6 June 2016
Grace was a quilter, which, to the uninitiated, might sound like I’m telling you that she had a hobby. Ha! To put it in perspective, Miles Davis played a horn, and Picasso liked to color. Grace was a quilter ...

Two January sales

Patchwork Plus at Miranda 

81/7-15 Jackson Ave

02 9540 2786

Annual Sale 

Wednesday 4 - Saturday 7 January 2017 

Patchwork Products at Rydalmere

21 Myrtle Street

02 9638 1475

Closing down sale
All fabrics on bolts reduced to $4 - $6 per meter
Fat quarters $1 to $2

Through January 2017

Happy New Year

All the 2016 community quilts!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to and encouraged our community quilting efforts in 2016.

Our community quilting activities continue to go from strength to strength - we don't set targets for the number of quilts we make to donate to various community causes, but we do hold a monthly sewing day to give members access to our community fabric, thread and batting stash. The day is a welcome additional communal sewing opportunity each month. 

This year our efforts were boosted by a generous donation of six quilts from a small home-based group that has folded, who passed on to us their six completed quilts for donation, and the remainder of their community stash. Another Fairholme friend who lives too far away to join us has made several tops that we have finished.

Our members are generous with their time, expertise and contributions from their own stashes, making for a very considerable donation to community. These quilts have all been completed and donated during 2016, most of them to groups who will distribute them to individual community members, and two were raffled to raise funds for community causes. 

We donated two quilts to Quilts of Valour NSW, in addition to our established recipients, a local aged care centre, and (via Quilt NSW) foster children, Sydney Children's Hospital and the NSW Blankets of Love program.

There are 59 quilts here, but we know there were probably five or six more that were not photographed ... the making and the giving is the thing. And we know that a dozen or so are already in the making for next year.

2016 end-of-year challenge

Each year we set a challenge to be revealed at our Christmas lunch. This year the challenge was to make a 10 1/2 inch star block (any star design) using the challenge and background fabric supplied, with any additional fabric each quilter chose to include. Thanks to everyone who made a block (or two) or plans to.

The blocks will be made into quilts for a community donation during 2017. Thirty four star blocks were delivered at the Christmas lunch, and we know that there are a few more to come, so there will be enough to make two community quilts.

In these photos, the blocks are untrimmed, and arranged randomly on a design wall - there's more work to do: layout? sashing? borders? quilting? binding? Plenty of fun!

The blue fabric was designated as the background, the print
which includes blue and green elements, is the challenge fabric.

Viewer's Choice, voted by members at the lunch
earlier in December, was this beauty made by Val.

Love the rebels, the non-conformers - surprisingly,
there was only one ... so far!

And of course, lunch finished with a great spread of desserts!

 Merry Christmas 2016

New books ...

Just in case you have book vouchers or gift cards amongst your Christmas gifts, here are some new quilting books from Australian quilters/writers that might be waiting for you ...

Happy Days - build your quilt making skills one block at a time, Sarah Fielke
The full pattern from Sarah's 2016 Block of the Month. Available late January 2017.

It is only one quilt pattern- however, it contains enough work to keep you busy for a whole year, broken out into chapters.

Splendid Sampler: 100 Spectacular Blocks from a Community of Quilters, Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson

Patterns from the 2016 year-long quilt along. Scheduled for release 18 April 2017

Join the Splendid Sampler community with a comprehensive collection of very special 6-inch blocks created and shared by more than 80 of today's most innovative designers.

Quilts for life - made with love, Judy Newman, Quiltmania, 2016

Enjoy Judy Newman's 18 creations made of little and big projects, and a lots of inspirations.

Quilts from the colonies, Margaret Mew, Quiltmania, 2016

Enjoy Margaret Mew's reproductions of 19th century quilts from the original thirteen British colonies America, with a few from her home country’s colonial history.

World Quilts: American and Amish quilts

The International Quilt Study Centre and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska has recently added Amish quilts to its World Quilts initiative, aiming to offer a 'global perspective on quiltmaking'. The first part of the World Quilts project is on American Quilts.  Both give a comprehensive, well illustrated insight into the development of the quilts historically, methods of quiltmaking in each tradition, and their place in the quilting world today.

The summer break might be a good opportunity to explore both, while you escape the heat.

Dr Kaffe Fassett

It seems either the journalist or editor is not a quilter - no reference to quilts in this story on Kaffe Fassett:

• Is arts education important? Kaffe Fassett makes appeal as he gets honorary doctorate

Detail of a quilt made by Robin W, 2013

Janet's Splendid Sampler progress

Along with several thousand quilters from around the world, Janet signed up for the Splendid Sampler early this year, a little unsure of how she would keep up with two blocks each week, around all her other interests and commitments. She's chosen not to include a few of the blocks, but she is working through the others. There is a way to go, but like all the Samplers, Janet can work to her own timeframe - we haven't checked in for a while, so here is an end-of 2016 indication of her progress so far, and a preview of just how splendid Janet's quilt will be. Remember, each of the blocks is just 6 1/2 " - some of those pieces are very, very small!

• A book of all the Splendid Sampler patterns, The Splendid Sampler: 100 Spectacular Blocks from a Community of Quilters, by the project coordinators Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson, is scheduled for publication by That Patchwork Place in April 2017

Final regular show and tell for 2016

Nerida's abridged version of Sarah Fielke's 2016 Block
of the Month, Happy Days, finished with a border
of a Denyse Schmidt print. Hand quilting to follow!

Peggy has been planning make a Christmas tree skirt for some
years, and this was the year to finish it - no wonder it took a
while with all those pieced hexie blocks!

Julie's quilt for her granddaughter features appliqued quilts
- has that given Helen an idea?

2017 Pantone Colour of the Year: Greenery

From reactions online, it looks like Pantone's 2017 Colour of the Year, Greenery, will be more

popular with quilters than the last couple of years' choices. Expect to see lots of Greenery in all sorts of products (indicting that the choice is made well in advance of its public announcement) during 2017.

The announcement page on the Pantone website includes a collection of colour schemes including Greenery - could be a useful starting point for quilts.

'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.'

Have you used hues similar to Greenery in your quilts,
or have plans to? This 8" block was made in 2015 for the
Sydney Modern Sewists and Quilters 2016 Group Quilt
- the Mini Pearl Bracelets' print designed by Lizzy House
 for Andover Fabrics is pretty close to Greenery,
as is the medium tone in the other green print.

Community quilts (3)

Our community quilts are a great opportunity to try out designs and fabrics beyond our personal stashes. Some of the unfinished community quilt business that will emerge complete sometime in 2017, at our final community sewing day for this year ... 

Chevron's without triangles - Pat is testing this design
from Crazy Mom Quilts

Julie tried various layouts before settling on this one,
for a nice calm mix of plaid and subtle botanic prints. 

Susan split her nine patch blocks to insert diagonal sashing,
producing a lattice effect. Pin basting on large tables
with many hands is a key activity at our sewing days!

And a last look at the remaining baby quilts that have now
been delivered to QuiltNSW's Blankets of Love program.
Earlier in the year some were donated to Hornsby and
Kuring-gai Hospital, and some to Sydney Children's Hospital
at Randwick.