Having a lovely time this weekend doing all things quilty. After spending weeks trying to get my new website up and running I put that all aside this weekend.
A free evening on Friday (just me and the muts) inspired me to try to finish one of my UFOs – a souvenir from Strasbourg at Christmas – and indeed I did manage to complete the entire project – a sewing machine cover – by Sunday night.
An early morning call on Saturday to take the teenager-in-residence to soccer meant I was back in time to travel over to Mexico (the south side of Brisbane for those not in the know) to attend the Beenleigh Quilt Show.
These girls know how to put on a show and there was entertainment, lots of quilts, demonstrations, stalls and cake! The theme was military and everyone received one of the poppies when they entered. I tried to take photos of a selection of techniques including piecing, appliqué, stitcheries and so on so hope you enjoy:
How was that for a visual feast? And yet there’s more…
Another early start on Sunday led to breakfast at Woody Point where it was a beautiful day. I took this photo of a windsurfer enjoying the sunshine and the wind of course. Can you see him on the board?
Bugger – just missed him
The Apatcheez were also busy last week and produced quite a few projects which they were happy to share…..
Jan finished her amazing three dimensional project and it caused quite a bit of interest in class. Here are some close-ups…
Margaret wanted to try out printable fabric and turned her trial into this beauty…
Not content with that effort, she also finished bespoke table setting again with cats – is there a series developing I wonder?
But wait there’s more! She also showed us this beauty – what a great design and what great use of novelty fabric.
Does that woman ever sleep? Apparently not. It is always exciting to be around someone who has so much enthusiasm for quilting and wants to make EVERY quilt. I know how she feels.
Speaking of excitement we had a surprise last week when Cathy from Cathquilts Bits n Bobs came to visit. We have been following her sea change on her blog Cath@Home but it was great to hear her stories first hand.
If you want to read about a wonderful crafty lifestyle check out her blogs.
And now to indulge in a little more of my crafty lifestyle. Until next time happy quilting.
So I’ve been AWOL for a couple of weeks but much has been happening. I’ll have to tell you about all that in another post because this one is to let you in on the goss.
The Brookfield Show is on tomorrow and Sunday and if you happen to drive out there for a weekend excursion make sure you check out the building with the needlework and quilt entries.
If you do you will find that the Apatcheez have been victorious! Fortunately we had paparazzi Don in attendance and can bring you some photos live from the venue…
Firstly Chris won two prizes with her wonderful tea cosies. She entered the tea cosy challenge sponsored by Nerada. Can you tell it was sponsored by Nerada?
Next the amazing Lesa won two prizes for her awesome, hand-pieced hexagon marvel – best in her section as well as Best use of Colour.
And finally… Part of the reason for my silence over the past fortnight is because I was finishing this quilt – my entry for last year’s challenge. Bowing to pressure from several people I entered it in the Art/Pictorial section of the show at Brookfield and was very pleased to win first prize!
Go and have a look at the show, not just the Apatcheez creations but also the other beautiful works that you’ll find there. Make sure you wear your winter gear though because it was quite chilly on Thursday night. Not that we cared – we were too busy jumping for joy!
The Apatcheez were very busy this week and several projects were begun after the finishes of the past two weeks. That means that I don’t have any finished quilts to show you. What I can show you are parts of ‘The Gallipoli Quilt’ by Lucy Carroll. Lucy was the guest artist at the recent Melbourne quilt convention. She is a veteran of the RAAF so has combined her love of quilting with personal experience to create an impressive 12 metre long artwork. The quilt is actually made up of ten panels, each one illustrating an aspect of an Australian soldier’s life from his dockside departure to his arrival at Gallipoli Cove.
The quilt was one of the major attractions at the show so it was difficult to take a photo without a crowd of people around each panel. Nevertheless, infused with the Anzac spirit of persistence I did manage to get these images. I hope you enjoy them.
For more information about each panel and for more photos go to Lucy’s website.
She is also recovering from heart surgery and we wish her all the best. Also recovering from surgery is my No. 1 son and I would like to thank everyone for the waves of positive energy we all received! Everything went well and he is “ticking all the right boxes”.
So knowing the Apatcheez want to be at the forefront of fashion and also want to know what’s ‘chic on the streets’, this post is dedicated to what’s trending in the quilting world. As you know I had to attend AQC in Melbourne for two full days to determine what’s hot and what’s not (tough life) as well as do extra research to bring you the most up-to-date ideas on colour and composition. So here’s what I’ve found:
1. Vintage is In Vogue! Still!
You’ve all heard about the rise of vintage style in fashion and homewares and you may be a little bemused at the popularity of some items that you may have thought outdated – especially if you wore them the first time around. But don’t be fooled. Vintage is still big business and naturally the fashion flows through to all aspects of our lives – including our pastimes. So put the Ludo aside while I’m talking to you and concentrate!
Pantone just released their Spring/Summer 2015 Report and lo and behold the colours do seem to be a tad, well ‘granny couture’. A little bit like the shortie pyjamas Nanna used to give you for Christmas perhaps? Lucite green indeed!
Now don’t those colours correspond to the cushions above perfectly? And the cushions were made from vintage sheets! They were on The Crafty Squirrel stand.
We saw lots of quilts that have these cooler softer colours, generally they were teamed with white and they did look fresh and crisp. The look is called “en plein air” and flowers prevailed.
Remember yo-yos? We’ve been playing with their more sophisticated cousin the kanzashi flower for a couple of years but the standard yo yo is back – and it’s vintage now!
2. Whimsy Rules
Designers are keen to show you the sweeter side of life – probably a reaction to the constant onslaught of bad news we seem to be under. We saw this in all manner of projects from large quilts to small items like the mouse above.
I showed you the Kellie Wulfsohn stand yesterday and it underlined this style perfectly. I noted with interest that she has changed some of her standard patterns to more subtle colours. For example, the Alphabet quilt below was originally in primary red blue and yellow. Her designs have been sought after since she started and always have a ‘delicate’ look even when they are in primaries – maybe it’s the raw-edge applique technique she uses. Whatever it is we will continue to stock her patterns because they make us happy.
A very clever stand was this one promoting the Alice in Wonderland fabric:
and another was the Material Obsession girls:
3 Pincushions are Back
Well they never really went away did they? We always need a pincushion and some of us have collections. Making a pincushion is a great way to use up fabric remnants and is a lovely gift for someone when a large quilt is out of the question because the UFO list is already too long.
Helen Stubbings has a lovely wrist pincushion as one of the Hexie Club projects so look out for that – here it is in Helen’s colours:
You can make lots of other projects if you have the energy and you can see that cushions were also big this year.
Sorry about the picture quality there but I was dazzled by the colours and that brings me to the next trend –
4. Felt is In
Felting has gained popularity over the past few years and there are some very talented people around who can conjure up chic bohemian garments and even arty farty compositions. Putting felting together with quilting has not been seen too much until now. Well it’s been seen but not with cotton fabrics and not in general quilting world.
This is one of Segolaine Schweitzer’s quilts and she predominantly works with wool felt.
And here’s a basket of felt matched with fabric that is just crying out to be taken home:
I think it was at the Material Obsessions stand. Sue Spargo has been utilising this medium for some time and I think these were for one of her cushions (should’ve taken better notes).
Marg Low, who I mentioned yesterday, had a perfectly delightful stand with all kinds of felt applique from tree skirts
– to Christmas baubles –
to bunny-related designs –
which brings us to the next trend –
5. Embroidery is Hip
Now my Embroidery Guild ladies already knew this but embroidery is certainly making its presence felt in the quilting world. While it was almost unheard of in Europe and America for quite some years it is now quite common to see some embroidery incorporated into a quilt. I also showed you Segolaine Schweitzer’s work yesterday. Here it is again.
And here are some closer details of the embroidery she did on each week’s ‘block’
I think this little guy ticks the whimsy box as well. Isn’t he charming?
And while we’re looking at these blocks we can’t help but notice that they are hexagonal which brings us to:-
6 Hexies are still taking the world by storm
They’re everywhere!
You see them in kitchen shops
and you see them in stationery shops
and you see them in the quilting world too of course. The Apatcheez have been working away at the Hexie Club projects that I mentioned before but you could really decorate the whole house in hexies
Linda White from Gum Valley Patchwork had this beauty on her stand that I think also ticks the vintage box.
Maybe the whole world could be covered in hexies. Think about that until next time happy quilting
Names, names names darling that’s what we have for you today. Over the past few days I have walked the halls of the Exhibition Building with the who’s who of Australian quilting. And I have the stories and the photos for you right here. Call me the patchwork paparazzi if you like. Lesa, my partner in crime and I have rubbed shoulders with everyone who’s anyone in the world of prairie points and here’s what we found:-
Our first piece in the quilt sandwich of AQC was Helen Stubbings from Hugs ‘n Kisses. Helen designs the projects for the hexie and appliqué clubs and she had those any many more on display.
It was useful to see the finished projects and gave us an idea of what to choose for the following months. Helen also had some other interesting projects that the stitchers in the group would love.
Next up we had a laugh with Deb Layt. Deb has just published a book on her original technique she calls ‘Geoweb’. If her quilt ‘Fire and Ice’ is anything to go by this will inspire many people to read how she achieves such wonderful results.
A frequent visitor to Apatchy Quilting, Lisa Walton was on duty at the show and in fact had to step in to cover Lenore Crawford’s classes when the latter was unable to attend due to illness. Quite big shoes to fill but I’m sure Lisa managed. We were discussing another class at Apatchy and she suggested her ‘Fusion’ class. It involves improvisational piecing and proved very popular at AQC with the classes being booked out in two hours. Way to go Lisa.
While we’re on the subject of improvisational piecing, Deborah Louie, on the Bernina stand, was obtaining interesting results from improvisational stitching providing additional texture to quilted fabric.
Marg Low had whimsical stitcheries on her stand, many of which she partners with buttons from Theodora Cleave. She has promised to send me a catalogue so that will be another blow to the budget.
We already stock patterns from ‘Don’t Look Now’ and the designer Kellie Wuhlfson had a delightful stand full of whimsical projects. I particularly liked the woodland creatures in the one shown on the left here-
Another impressive display was from the guest artist Segolaine Schweitzer. She works with wool and although we haven’t seen anything like this at Apatchy, it was very interesting and inspired us to think what we could do with our projects. Particularly interesting was her 52-block piece – that’s one block every week for a year – does that give you any ideas?
Ironically we came to Melbourne and caught up on the Brissie gossip with Kez from CheraBella Buttons. You can always rely on her to know absolutely everything that’s been going on in town and she promised to drop in to Apatchy to do a trunk show very soon so we will lock her into that when we get back! I didn’t get a photo with Kez because I was too busy talking to her!
Just up from Kez’s stand were the Bloc Loc people. I watched a demo on Saturday from Janna Andrews showing the rulers that she and her husband developed. These rulers have been designed to take the stress out of half square triangles and actually just about every other tricky piecing shape including the drunkard’s path block. These rulers ‘lock’ onto the diagonal seam and take your accuracy to a whole new level. I was quite impressed and thought of several girls who could benefit from one of these rulers (me for one). I think they will have to be on next month’s purchases list. Thanks Janna.
Speaking of demos, the amazingly talented Helen Godden was showing everyone how to use the Sweet 16 machine to couch wool. Have you ever heard of a couched wool quilt? Helen said she thinks it is the first one in the world and I wasn’t about to disagree. Here’s the quilt
And here’s Helen effortlessly making it happen.
Looks easy doesn’t it?
The highlight of the show was meeting Molli Sparkles. Molli blogs about his quilting adventures and I have followed his blog for some time. For much of that time he has been the darling of the modern quilt movement. And rightly so. His photographic training ensures that his composition is spot on and an artistic eye ensures his quilts are striking. I did wonder how he would manage the crowd at AQC – more the sensible-shoe brigade than his usual followers and Melbourne such a conservative city. Knock me down with a feather boa though I should not have doubted – His Shineiness was in fine form. Even as his alter-ego Joshua Helms, the ambassador for Juki sewing machines, he was charming and I’m sure they sold more machines because he was there.
Of course many people may not have known Molli Sparkles the blogger (and maybe you don’t. Have a look here then) but there were enough of the glitterati, as he calls his followers, to ensure that he was kept busy. We had a chat about the difficulties of running a successful blog. I would have liked to discuss this in greater detail but his public beckoned. He had a quilted sign on his table saying “Selfie with Sparkle” designed to encourage the fan photo and really how could you refuse?
I’ll have to leave the stories about what’s trending until tomorrow as it’s midnight now and I’m back home and plum tuckered out.
Did you enjoy seeing all the True Blue quilts yesterday? Ready for more brilliant quilts? Ok well here’s a photo bomb session like no other. I tried to get a photo of the quilt as well as a photo of the detail. So here we go:-
‘Summer Rhapsody’, Joanne Johnson
An amazingly tiny hexagon quilt didn’t get the maker’s name sorry
‘Coxcomb and Currants’, Janet Treen
‘Through the Garden Gate’, Rose Lewis
A Michelle Hill extravaganza
‘Enchanting Stars’, Jacqueline de Jonge
Circle of Life, Jacqueline de Jonge
More Michelle Hill
Another one I didn’t get the name for
And another
‘Audrey’, Andi Herman
‘Aunt Millie’s Garden, Wendy Hunt
‘Priscilla’, Bronwyn Hill
M is for Mast and M I’d for Mackenzie, Margaret Sampson
‘Quilt Police’, Liz McAnish, Elizabeth McCallum, Mavis Wright, Marilyn Hall and Barb McIlvain
Quilted Wallpaper, Robyn Ginn
So there you have the B’s for best in Show and Brilliant design. Tomorrow we’ll do C for the Celebrities I met and D for the direction quilting seems to be going in the ‘what trends I noticed over the past two days’.
On a whim I decided to jet down to Melbourne for the AQC (Australian Quilt Convention), the bees knees of quilt shows in Australia. I had previously discounted the idea of going on the usual mundane grounds of cost and time. Then Luvvy said “why aren’t you going”? Why indeed I thought. So a few thousand frequent flyer points later and a quick hotel booking on wotif I found myself at the domestic terminal of Brisbane airport at an extremely uncivilised hour.
Following a recommendation I checked in to the Windsor Hotel. This hotel is the last of the 19th century hotels and is soon for renovation so there is a strange air of faded glory and lost regret in the building. I’m almost certain I saw Miss Marple sitting on one of the leather lounges in the foyer.
The hotel is a classic beauty with sweeping staircases and stained glass – the bastion of graciousness of a bygone era. Unfortunately it lives in a time which loves only polished concrete and tempered glass and it will soon be “extensively renovated”. Time passes as it must.
But I digress. The business at hand is the quilt convention and so it was that I made my way up the hill to the Exhibition Building (another architectural masterpiece) to see what architextile masterpieces I could find. And I was not disappointed. I took so many photos that I will have to ration you lest you be overcome. I’ll start today with the ‘True Blue’ entrants for the AQC challenge. Unfortunately I neglected to get all the names of the quilters and their entries and I apologise for that and also for the fact that not all the photos are of the best quality (well the light was bad in some areas and I was working under pressure).
A great day yesterday after our annual Challenge Quilt competition and Christmas event. We had a record number of entries with 16 clever ladies going with the theme ‘Music’ and creating wonderful projects. Because the scope of the entries was wide open we had a wide range of exhibits and techniques.
Suzanne’s winning entry
The winner of the day was Suzanne with her amazing creation called “Bad Moon Rising” after the Creedence Clearwater Revival song. Not only was her piece filled with all manner of visual allusions to the song but she had LED lights lighting the alley but also had an MP3 player with the song playing. One person who looked at it said “is that really coming from there?” And yes it was!
The runner-up was Margaret with her musical cat table runner. Apparently Margaret’s husband suggested the design so he was in the good books. Here’s their joint effort-
Margaret’s musical table runner
Since this competition was such a broad scope we decided one judge would be hard-pressed to determine the winner. So we came up with the perfect system – let the people decide! So it was viewers’ choice that determined both the runner-up and winner.
Here are the other entries:
Chris’ bird song quilt
Sue’s musical score
Angie’s homage to Michael Jackson
Bev’s Sashiko meets song
Cathy’s “Madame Butterfly meets Liberace”
Debbie’s abstract guitar canvas
Elaine’s wonderfully colourful instrument quilt
Bec said that “even at dawn the laugh of the kookaburra is music to my soul”
Stephanie produced this sumptuously embroidered treble clef
Jan cleverly made a beautiful stitchery and some squares into a wonderful file book cover
Julia was inspired by Mozart for her beautiful piece
Lesa thought outside the box and created “My Green Tambourine” with a matching bag – a child of the 60’s indeed
Sharyn’s creation reflected her love of Mozart and his ‘Moonlight Sonata’
Speaking of ‘outside the box’ June’s purple people eater definitely ticked the creative box
I talked about some of the trials and tribulations of my own creation and the fact I had decided to have it quilted by a professional. Here is the top so far:
My Top 40
The other important event was the drawing of the raffle of our collaborative quilt ‘Flowers for Trudy’ (won by Susan Seeney). We were very happy to welcome members of Trudy’s family Arnold, Julie, Thomas and Anna to witness the event. Julia from Bluecare drew the winning ticket and was happy to accept a cheque for an amazing $972.20. (sorry I don’t have a photo yet). I was so pleased to be involved with this and really glad when we added the ticket sales and found we had raised so much for such a worthy group of people. Well done Bluecare and well done Apatchy people!
I thought you might like to see some more photos from last week’s craft show at Laidley:
There really was some beautiful work at the show – aren’t the people of Laidley and nearby clever?
Now not content with three days of peach blossoms and craft we decided to drive out to Samford on Sunday to check out their quilt show! We weren’t disappointed as we found wonderful quilts including miniature marvels from Lorraine Sheane-Smith. This lady’s work is truly amazing. I thought you might like to visit the show now albeit virtually. Prepare for a photo-fest…….
I’m sure you must be impressed. We certainly were. We also caught up with some old friends. Some of you may remember two delightful beginners from a couple of years ago. Tash and Joanne were both making baby quilts for their first babies and hurried to finish in time. They brought their babies to visit and then we have’t seen them for a while. Quite a while as it turned out. Those babies (Angelina and Asher) are now 3 years old and now have a brother and sister (Charles and Evie) respectively. How did that time go so fast? Just goes to show – life is short – quilt faster! Another reason to get all those UFO projects finished.
I believe there is another show in Toowoomba this weekend. Now should I do the laundry, work on my challenge quilt or nip up to Toowoomba tomorrow???
How was that for a visual feast? And yet there’s more…
Smoke Signals from a Log Cabin 