Our community quilts collection for 2024 kicks off

Fifteen years ago we initiated a monthly sewing day to make quilts gif various community causes. We’ve made and donated hundreds of quilts over that time, and this year’s collection is off to a good start.

Stephanie worked through her stash last year, producing a
number of community quilts from her hexagon collection,
and colourful fabric scraps. This one was quilted by Janet.

Helen also spent time sorting through her stash, finding
some unfinished projects, and making a number of  community
 quilts. She too found  basted hexagons looking for a home.
Quilted by Laura Ujhazy.

Another find for Helen was a twenty five blade Dresden
plate that She has built a quilt around, using fabric
from her stash. Quilted by Janet.

Another scrap-buster small quilt from Stepnie’s
stash, also quilted by Janet …

… it has a pieced back, featuring flowers and a print of tiny
skull and cross bones in blue and in yellow.

Hilary @flynn_hilary has made a delightful version of the
popular ‘Little Women’ quilt (designed by Miriam Jones
 @sewmiriam) from a wide range of fabric scraps
 for our community collection.

All the bags!

 We’ve returned to regular meetings after a few weeks of summer break. But the sewing and related activities did not stop for everyone. There has been a great deal of de-cluttering, stash tidying, rationalization of the number of quilts one needs to keep at home, quilt making of course, and bag making - we’ll start there.

Dana’s latest (of many) Kayo drawstring project bag 
(design by @kandoucrafts) is packed ready for mid-air 
stitching on the way to Europe.

Made with just the right Liberty print!

February 2024 events

‘Wandering Stitches’
Embroidery Class
with Miriam Jones

The Crewel Gobelin 

9 Marian St, Killara 2071 

Contact The Crewel Gobelin on 9498 6831 for booking details.

Friday 2nd February, 1st March and 5th April. 

Take your embroidery to the next level in a 

fun and supportive environment.

www.60stitches.com.au

www.60stitches.com.au

Gallery 76

38 Queen Street, Concord West 2138 

Julya Hegarty is a multidisciplinary artist based on the 

Sunshine Coast whose work is characterised by its unique 

blend of techniques, textures, and colours. 

Through large raffia woven panels, Julya aims to capture

 and depict the vivid recollections of her childhood 

spent in the Yodda Valley, nestled in the highlands 

of Papua New Guinea. 

In February 2024, Gallery76 will be honoured to host the sale of textile works from the renowned collection of Elinor and Fred Wrobel. 

Over many decades, the Wrobels were influential in Sydney’s cultural life as avid art collectors, owners of the Woolloomooloo Gallery and as curators. 

Textiles form a particularly significant part of the collection, with this exhibition reflecting the Wrobels’ extraordinary vision and interests as diverse as ancient Coptic weaving, 17th century stumpwork, Chinese goldwork and contemporary textile art.

 

40th Anniversary Quilt Exhibition

 

2024 Colours of the Year

The 2024 Kona cotton Colour of the Year has been announced by textile company Robert Kaufman. Kona cotton in Julep will be available for a year. You can view the Look Book, featuring three free quilt patterns, four designer pattern to purchase, and the manufacturers pre-cuts on the Robert Kaufman website here, and on their Instagram and Facebook pages.

Pantone 2024 Colour of the Year

Two challenges to start the quilting year

Looking for a stimulating quilting challenge for the new year? Here are some newly announced local opportunities to stretch your wings. See our ‘Calls for entries’ page for others.

QUILT NSW

2024 SUITCASE CHALLENGE - BLACK and WHITE

The 2024 Suitcase Challenge theme is 'Black & White'. 

It's time to get creative and start planning your entry now!

You can use solid colours or prints but they must read as black and white 

(no grey, cream or other colours are permitted). 

 As always, your quilt must be 40cm x 40cm and made of three layers.

Entries will close on Friday 11 October 2024. 

 The quilts will be judged, and winners announced at the 

Annual General Meeting in November.

More information and the conditions of entry are on the QuiltNSW website.

TEXTILE FEST 

ONE RED THREAD ART PRIZE 2024:

‘I SEE RED’

The competition/exhibition

• is open to fibre, thread and textile artists  
• is a non-acquisitive competition and exhibition
• accepts entries representing any use of fibre, threads and textiles andencourages the artist to explore traditional and non-traditional practices
• the focus of this textile art prize and exhibition is Colour, Composition, Creativity and Craftsmanship
• textiles encompasses fibre, thread, stitching, quilting, embroidery and includes fabric, fibre, felt, wool, wire, paper, even metal
•  works to be received no later than 14 June 2024
•  judging and prizes will be awarded at the Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair 2024

More details, conditions of entry and online registration are on the Textile Fest website 

A collection of quilts for teachers

Jenn finished off her quilting year with four quilts given to her children’s teachers. More details of the quilts’ stories, designs and fabric selections are available in Jenn’s Instagram posts @pennypoppleton.

A modern ‘Lone Star’, in appreciation of the work
and care of her daughter’s principal …

… and class teacher (Modern Fans by @suzyquilts) as
she finishes primary school.

‘Modern Fans’ again for her son’s teacher, in a modern
palette she would appreciate.

‘Storyteller’ for a teacher librarian, made mostly true to 
@angelapingel’s pattern “Book Nerd”, incorporating the
tiniest of scraps of Jenn’s Jane Austen text fabric for
the pages, and selvedge for the spines.

Happy new quilting year!    

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.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Made by Fairholme quilters

 

A dive into Elaine’s stash revealed an unfinished
quilt-as-you-go block from a workshop ten years ago.
Her granddaughter liked it, so they turned it into a cushion
cover. Going a little further into the stash, some more
Japanese prints were discovered, and now a new quilt
is planned (maybe started?) for one happy granddaughter.

The cushion is complete with a complimentary 

back in a cherry blossom print.

Susan is a serious bag maker - she had already made one of
this design from these fabrics, for the craft stall at our
2024 Quilt Show. But it sold to a member before reaching
the craft stall storage. So she just produced another!

The other side features another churn dash block,
 and Susan’s skilled free motion quilting.

A small quilt made as a gift by Pat in her characteristic modern
improv style, with an appealing mix of prints, hand quilted.

Improv quilters need to be adaptable. The first block in Jill’s
plan for a quilt-as-you-go Kawandi style quilt is now going
to be used as a smaller something else, as she feels the batting
she used is too heavy. She is pivoting to using much lighter
batting in nine 20” x 20” blocks for the larger quilt, a
long term hand stitched quilt-as-you-go project.