Birthday Gift

A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday and received some lovely presents. One of them might be interesting for everyone because I used a tip from another blogger named Gina.

Dianne gave me a very pretty table runner that she had found in an Op shop. It was embroidered with ballerinas and she bought it for me because she knew that I loved ballet things. It looked perfectly clean and no doubt Dianne had washed it herself but I noticed a slight mark on it.

It was very slight and you probably can't notice it in the photo. Gina collects old linens and a couple of years ago I went to the display of her collection of linens at the Bundoora Homestead Gallery. Gina always soaks her linens in Nappysan and I took her advice and soaked the table-runner for a couple of hours. It really made a difference the mark was gone and the entire table runner looked fresher.

It is not finished yet though. The embroidery is absolutely beautifully done except it is not quite finished. There is a head and couple of arms that were not completed.

I will have to complete it when I get some spare time!

Thanks for the tip Gina. You can go to Gina's blog and see some of her linens.

Bye for now,
Linda

Round Robin 2014- Florence

I am participating in a Round Robin with the Southern Cross Crazies an online Yahoo group.

This month I had Florence's block to work on. Everyone has made six blocks and we pick one of them to embroider. Florence's blocks were all cream and she was very specific in what she wanted.

Here is the block that I picked to work on.

Florence's base block

Florence has picked a floral theme and requested very subtle colours. She only wanted white, cream, beige, pale apricot and soft shades of olive.

I am used to using a lot of colour and so this was very different for me. I had to be very subdued.
I think the end result turned out very well though. It is a very soft, pretty block.

Florence's Block

I hope she likes it. Now I have to pack it up and send it off to the next person on the list.

Bye for now,
Linda

AQC 2014

The Australasian Quilt Convention or AQC is over for another year and it was just as wonderful as ever.

It is always a pleasure to go to the beautiful Royal Exhibition Building and see such wonderful quilts and shop for all those quilting goodies and catch up with friends, I couldn't ask for a better time really. People come from all over Australia and it's so good to catch up with everyone.

I took quite a few quilt photos and I can't show them all but I will show some of my favourites.

Every year at the AQC dinner a Rajah Award is given to an Australian quilter who has done much to promote Australian quilting to the world. This year the award went to  Michele Hill and she is a very popular recipient. Michele makes quilts that are inspired by William Morris and she also had her quilt on display as Best of Show for South Australia.

Michele Hill's Quilt

In 2007 Lessa Siegele won the award and she decided to make a copy of the famous Rajah Quilt that was made by convicts when they sailed out to Australia all those years ago. She got permission from the National Art Gallery but only made it a quarter of the size because the original quilt is very large.

Rajah Quilt by Lessa Siegele
 

The pattern is for sale and because Lessa doesn't have a website or blog you can get the pattern though Michele Hill.

AQC has been going for ten years and to celebrate they had a challenge to make a quilt inspired with the theme 10. There were so many lovely ideas but they had to pick some winners. Alison Withers won the first prize with her fun idea about team work. Anyone who has been involved with the running of a quilt show will know how important team work is.


Ten Together Equals Teamwork by Alison Withers

There were two second prizes and one of them was a quilt by Jill Hessing.



Ten in my Tank Today by Jill Hessing

 I also loved Sue de Vanny's tram quilt.


Tram Route Number 10 by Sue de Vanny

Yvonne Chapman did a really god job of depicting a wave with her quilt called Hang Ten.

Hang Ten by Yvonne Chapman

There was a wonderful exhibit curated by Brenda Gael Smith with the theme Living Colour. They were all wonderful but I'll show you a couple of photos that I took. I didn't take a lot of photos of them because I bought the book catalogue that had photos and all the details in it.

Ordinary Folk by Sue Duffy

Yum Yum by Kay Haerland
 

There were other quilts from around Australia there and I loved the beautiful quilting by Ming Hsu of South Australia.

It's the Singer not the Song by Ming Hsu

Red and Green and Yellow Too by Glenys Cheng

There was a wonderful display of quilts by Jenny Bowker who won the Rajah Award last year and her quilts really glowed. I think it's the heightened colour palette that she uses.



Abu Ali and the Gilded Chairs by Jenny Bowker

The Award for Best of Australia went to Janet Treen for her hand quilted applique quilt called Rings and Roses. The photo is a bit cropped because I met someone I did a course with ten years and got talking to her and then there were always people in front of the quilt and it was hard to get a good photo.

Rings and Roses by Janet Treen

On the Sunday I was the classroom helper for Yvonne Brown and she was busy teaching everyone how to make a quilt representing the beautiful tiled floors in the UK. They were using felt, organza, silk, thermofax screens and soldering irons, so it was a day of playing and fun and Yvonne was such a lovely lady, we got on very well.



Bristol Triptych by Yvonne Brown

Now that AQC is over I had better try to start some more quilts after all that inspiration.

Bye for now,
Linda

Waverley Quilt Show

I am very busy preparing for the Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show which is on at the end of May.

We have had some beautiful red flyers printed that we have been asking the quilt shops to display them for us.

Last week Dianne and I went and put up displays at two libraries in the area. The display areas are locked cabinets and so we couldn't hang any large quilts but I managed to fit plenty of my small Art Quilts and hopefully it will bring some people to our show.

The following two photos show the display at the Wheeler's Hill Library.

 

The Wheeler's Hill Library complex is a really nice spot surrounded by a lake with ducks. It also has a coffee shop and a gallery. After all the hard work of setting up the display, Dianne and I had a coffee and cake at the café and then we went to the Mt Waverley Library and set up a display there.

We only had one cabinet to display there but all four sides were visible.

Hopefully it helps spread the word about our show.

Here's another look at our raffle quilt that will on display at the show and tickets will be available for $2.

Waverley Stars

Bye for now,
Linda

 

AQA Quilt Show

I went along to the AQA Quilt Show last Saturday. They don't usually have their quilt show at this time of the year but they got out of their usual order because of their Dear Jane Exhibition.

I love their show because it is held not far from my place which is very convenient. They always have a car out the front covered in quilt blocks to attract the passing cars.

It was a lovely show as usual and the weather was perfect for a day out, but the main reason I went along was because I got an email from Lyn Steel to say that she had made my Scottish Dance Quilt and it would be hanging in the show.

I found the quilt and took a photo. The photo is on a bit of an angle because it was hard to get completely in front to get a square photo.

Scottish Dance by Lyn Steel

This is quite a challenging quilt to make and Lyn has done a lovely job. Isn't it amazing how close her name is to mine and she is a quilter? I had an email a few months ago from a quilter in Canada and her name is Linda Steele, exactly the same as mine. She usually goes to Houston and so we are going to meet up the next time I go there. Who knows when that might be!

Lyn had another quilt in the show, it was a pattern by Sandra Boyle and so I took a photo of that as well.

Red and Green by Lyn Steel

I took more photos of the quilts but there were signs everywhere saying that photos were for your own use. That means you can't publish them unless you have permission. Luckily Lyn had given me permission to show her quilts. Thanks Lyn.

Bye for now,
Linda

Last Charm Compeleted

Last year I signed up with the Quilted Crow Girls to receive a foundation pieced block pattern, fabric and a charm to match. They arrived every two months and I was keeping up to date until the end of the year when the last one arrived. It was so busy at the end of last year that I had to put it aside.

They always came so beautifully packaged and they were super generous with the fabric. They seemed to give enough fabric to make 5 of every block. The blocks are only 6" square and the fabrics are very traditional and unlike anything I have at home. So it has been interesting to use fabrics that are so different for me and the piecing keeps me up to date because I usually do applique and crazy patchwork.
I remembered it over the weekend and it didn't take long to make it up. The block is called Square in a Square and I have always liked that pattern.

Here is a picture of the last charm, the amazing thing is that the charm block is actually fabric! How do they make them so small!

Now I have completed all the blocks, I just have to add the sashing and make them up into a little quilt. It will be very small, maybe a table-runner! I'll have to look into that.

Apparently the shop is already running another charm bracelet mail-out and the blocks are different so people that did the first one could get more charms and more blocks. Unfortunately I missed that newsletter, probably when I was so busy and I deleted it without reading it. I might have signed up again. Oh well, too late now.

Bye for now,
Linda