Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show 2016

The Waverley Patchworkers quilt show is over for another year, but we are still basking in its success. Thank you to the people who read my blog and came up to speak to me at the show. It was such a fun couple of days catching up with people, I even met some people that I only knew from Facebook, it's amazing how we felt that we already knew each other.

The theme was Carnival this year and there were little clowns decorating tables everywhere.

In the foyer all the challenge quilts were displayed for the Carnival theme. We were amazed at some of the creative entries. Here is some photos of a few of them. I can't tell you who made them because the voting was anonymous.

Visitors to the show could vote for their favourite and the winner was Naomi Hynes with her exquisite entry.

Winning Challenge entry by Naomi Hynes

There were many beautiful quilts in the show but because I was so busy talking or selling raffle tickets or receiving door money I only got to take a few photos.

Here is a snap shot of some of the quilts.

City of David by Marlene McPherson

Crossword by Ann Boyle

Ann had made this Crossword quilt pictured above for her daughter's birthday and had gone to a lot of trouble to include names and special meanings for her daughter.

Spearmint Ice cream by Jenny Lindton

Jenny won the June Lyons award for her Spearmint Ice Cream quilt, it is the prize chosen by the Quilt Show committee. Here is a detail photo.

Spearmint Ice cream by Jenny Lindton-detail

Chelsea by Lynette Mackey

The Pleasure of Patchwork by Darelle Castelow

Waterlilies by Suzanne Moore

Miniature by Naomi Hynes

The quilt that won the Dawn Burrows Award that is chosen by the President (which was me this year!) was Windmills of your Mind by Desley Maisano.

Windmills of your Mind by Desley Maisano

Desley was absolutely thrilled when her quilt also won the Viewer's Choice award. Here is a detail photo of the beautiful quilting.

Windmills of your Mind by Desley Maisano- detail

At the end of the quilt show we had to pick the winner of the beautiful raffle quilt designed and quilted by Naomi Hynes of The Elegant Stitch.

The winner was Wendy Cadby who is a Waverley Patchworker's member. We had to drag her out of the Quilt Show Cafe where she was working to tell her that she had won the quilt.

She was absolutely thrilled.

Naomi Hynes and Wendy Cadby

The Waverley Patchworker's Website  has lots of posts about the show and pictures of other quilts, so please click on the link and read all about it.

Bye for now,
Linda

Are you coming to the Quilt Show?

Waverley Patchworkers has been working towards their quilt show for 12 months now and it is finally time for the show.

Naomi Hynes and friends have made an absolutely beautiful raffle quilt which will be displayed at the show.

Waverley Patchworkers Raffle Quilt

Tickets are being sold for this beautiful quilt for only $2 each.

The quilt show is being held at the Mt Waverley Community Centre, Miller Crescent, Mt Waverley. Victoria Australia. It is across the road from the Mt Waverley railway station, so it is possible to avoid trying to find a car-park and come by train.

The dates are Saturday 28th May 9am -5pm and Sunday 29th May 9am to 4pm.

Entry is $8.

I have heard that the quilts in the show are absolutely fabulous and not to be missed, there will also be a cafe, shops and quilting demonstrations.

We are trying to encourage new quilters to our club and with that in mind we are going to provide beginner classes for 4 weeks after the show, for the bargain price of $10 for all four classes. If you are a beginner or have a friend or relative that is interested to learn how to piece or applique, please come along to the show and sign up for the classes.

There will also be an applique display and a display from the Waverley Art Quilters. The Waverley Art Quilters are going to show some of their quilts on the topics of Jeffrey Smart, Flinders Street Station, Sydney Long, Industrial and Hundertwasser. Here is a sneak peak at some of them.

We only run our quilt show every two years and last time visitors were very impressed and thought our show was a marvelous event not to be missed.

As I am the current President of Waverley Patchworkers, I will be there at all times. Please drop by and say hello, I'd love to meet you. I am looking forward to catching up with many friends.

Here are a couple of close ups of the wonderful quilting in the raffle quilt.

See you at the show!

Bye for now,
Linda 

Heather's Quilting Emporium Retreat

I have recently been away for a luxurious two night stay in Moama, NSW at Heather's Quilting Emporium. A friend of mine won a prize at last year's Victorian Quilters Showcase for a two night stay and she was allowed to bring 3 friends. I was lucky enough to be chosen!

We had the most wonderful time and Heather could not have been more kind and thoughtful. She had thought of everything to make our stay a memorable one.

First we were shown to our rooms, here is my room.

After we had all unpacked we all met in the giant sewing room for a coffee.

The sewing room had two seating areas, a large table, cutting board station and ironing boards.

There was even a cosy fireplace.

Heather said that some people go out and look around the town or go to the neighbouring town of Echuca, not us, we stayed in that sewing room for three days, chatting, sewing, checking out our phones and Ipads and eating.

We didn't go hungry because we were served the most delicious food.

Heather also has a shop on site where we could buy fabric and threads etc, just in case we ran out or just wanted to buy. We did of course, she had some lovely batik fabrics that I just had to have.

We did actually leave the sewing room for a short time to inspect the garden.

This was the view out the back, it was beautifully isolated and felt so relaxing.

It was only a two night get-away but I felt so relaxed and had such a wonderful time that I really felt as if I had a holiday.

Here we are happy and relaxed on our retreat.

As well as talking non-stop; I did my homework for the Art Quilters group. It was a little underwater scene.

 On the way home we dropped into two patchwork shops, South Fabrics in Echuca and Canterbury Quilts in Bendigo. We just had to have afternoon tea at Beechworth Bakery in Bendigo as well!

Here are my purchases, I am looking forward to using them soon, I have an idea in the back of my mind for them.

I would highly recommend Heather's Quilting Emporium for a get away with your quilting friends. There is room for 4 but Heather has plans to change the double beds for singles so that 6 friends can stay.
Heather regularly has teachers up there for workshops so keep a lookout for a class that might interest you as well.

Thank you Heather for a quilting retreat to remember. In fact it was so good we are thinking of making it a yearly event.

Bye for now,
Linda

Material Girls

The Highway Gallery in Mt Waverley held an exhibition of textiles from around the world and named the exhibition Material Girls. The exhibition had fashion, craft, photographs and fabrics from India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Africa, Australia and Holland just to name a few.

There was a beautiful red silk hand-painted kimono from Japan.

Japanese Kimono

A beautiful embroidered jacket from China.

Perankan top from China

There were so many beautiful garments from all over the world. The gallery asked the Waverley Art Quilters if we would like to exhibit our Indian inspired quilts in the show. Here are a few that were in the exhibition.

Lois Munro

Heather Molinia

Linda Steele

Margaret Cooper

Pat Yong

It was lovely to see our art quilts on display. The exhibition is over now so I cannot suggest you go and see it. It is great to have a gallery that is interested in showcasing textiles and so
Waverley Patchworkers is very happy to support them.

Bye for now,
Linda

My 60th Birthday

Last month was a big month for me because I turned 60! I grew up in a very quiet, conservative family who didn't believe in making a big fuss about a birthday and so parties were a rare event. I decided that if I was going to turn 60 I might as well do it in a big way and I ended up with three parties.

Here are all my birthday cards and would you believe they are all different, who would have thought that there are so many 60 cards although to be fair they didn't all have 60 printed on them.

My children organised a High Tea at The Windsor Hotel for the family the day before my birthday. It was very elegant and I always love it when the entire family gets together. After we had eaten the waiter brought out a little cake for me.

Here is a photo of me with my two daughters and little granddaughter Savannah at The Windsor.

It's not a very good photo of my daughters but I am pretty sure they don't read my blog!

The next day was my actual birthday and I had a luncheon at my place for my friends. I was thrilled that two of my friends from Adelaide came over to be there, it helped make the day very special. It was so much fun to have so many people that I like all in the same room. I wish that I had have thought to take a group photo with everyone in it.

This is what the table looked like before we started eating.

That night the family came over for dinner and my daughter Bec had made me a sewing themed cake. I couldn't believe the trouble that she had gone to, it was delicious as well.

So here I am a woman in her 60's but the parties I had really helped soften the blow and made me so happy. I am so grateful that I have such a hardworking, supportive husband, four beautiful children, a dear little granddaughter and some wonderful friends. I am able to spend my time sewing and quilting and although life sends all sorts of ups and downs, I have a wonderful life.

It was a big week for us because two days later my son graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition. No more children at school, hooray!

AQC, my birthday and Cam's graduation made it a very busy week.
Bye for now,
Linda