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Tuesday 26 June 2018

Sydney Quilt Show 2018- Guest artists

Bob James and Anna Brown were the guest artists in the recent Sydney Quilt Show. They both had a number of their works on display. I was disappointed that I didn't get to meet them but I did enjoy looking at their quilts.

Bob James runs workshops on Design and Composition that are very popular and I am told that the people in his classes work very hard.

This first quilt is only very small and the strips of silk are only about 1/4" wide.

Silk Collision by Bob James


In contrast this next quilt is large.

Summer in New York by Bob James


Whispers- Abstract geometric by Bob James


This next quilt was actually in the judged show and won a prize.

Homage to NY Abstract Expressionists 1940's

Bob James sounds like a very knowledgeable guy and I wish he lived down in Melbourne and could come along to the Waverley Art Quilters.


The other featured artist was Anna Brown, I have seen her textiles in exhibitions for years so it was lovely to see many of them together. She really has found her signature style.

I love her use of black and white.

Flora 6 by Anna Brown

Flora Canopy no 5 by Anna Brown

What is not obvious from a distance is all the stitch that Anna Brown adds to her work.

Flora Canopy detail by Anna Brown

This next work is slightly different to her usual work but still in her style.


Rain Forest by Anna Brown

I really enjoyed my time at the Sydney quilt show and I will try and get there every year from now on.

To see all the prize winners click on the Sydney Quilt Show 2018 link

To see my previous post on the Sydney Quilt Show, please click here 

Bye for now,
Linda

Sunday 24 June 2018

Sydney Quilt Show 2018

I was very honoured to be asked to judge the Sydney Quilt Show this year. It is the biggest quilt show in Australia and with over 400 quilts it was a big task. Luckily we had two days to judge and we did our best to be fair and choose the prizes. There were some huge categories and with only a certain number of available prizes and so many fantastic quilts missed out on a prize including some of my favourites.

I was the interstate judge and the other two were Sandra Lyons and Belinda Betts, both from Sydney. Here is a photo of us at the Prize giving ceremony, we were lucky to have front row seats.

Belinda, Linda and Sandra
I hadn't met them before but we got on well and managed to pick the winners with friendly debate.

Best of Show went to Jenny Bowker with her quilt After the Last Sky. Jenny Bowker has written a large blog post all about her winning quilt so please click on her name to find out all about it.

After the Last Sky by Jenny Bowker.

Here is a selection of some other quilts that I liked, some are prize winners and some missed out.

Flannel Flower by Amanda Daly


Rebecca by Carolina Da Mata


Star Talk by Caroline Sharkey

Painted Magnolia by Catherine Butterworth


Painted Magnolia was a beautiful quilt by Catherine and you really need to see a detail photo to appreciate it properly.

Painted Magnolia detail


Shag by Catherine Mosely


Floris Circularis by Denise Griffiths


Faces of India by Helen Godden and Jonathan Evans


Hannah by Leanne Harvey


Feather and Pearls by Linda Crouch


The Explorer by Michelle Marvig and Leanne Harvey


Toffee Apple by Leanne Cuthbertson


Arctic Celebrities by Vicki Martin


Matariki +/- 1 by Wendy Welsh


At the end of the judging, each judge is able to choose her Judges Choice and I chose Reflection of Love by Jennifer Horsford because I really liked the quilt and I was disappointed when it didn't get a prize.

Reflections of Love by Jennifer Horsford


Each Judge has a quilt on display and I chose to display my quilt The Bleaching.

The Bleaching by Linda Steele

I took many more photos and some I haven't put here because my photo did not show it at its best.

I really enjoyed my time in Sydney and would like to thank the President Megan Manwaring and Exhibition Coordinator Sandra Harvey and all the Quilt NSW committee and members for being so kind and welcoming to me.
I stayed with Quilt NSW life member Lynn Hewitt and she took care of my every need and I felt very pampered in Sydney.


Please click on the QuiltNSW link to see all the winning quilts.

Bye for now,
Linda

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Transparency with Fabric

How to achieve transparency in fabric? That was our recent topic in the Waverley Art Quilters.

I know I could've have used tulle or organza and I have used both of them in the past but this time I wanted to extend myself and wanted to achieve transparency using just the value of fabrics.

I started my doing some test samples using a 9 patch block. I just glued the fabric onto paper for the samples. I got the idea to do this from the book by Christine Barnes called The Quilters Color Club.

I have used her book before and you can see the posts Here and Part 2 Here

 In this first one I used just the values of blue, I was hoping that it looked as if the transparent light blue fabric was crossing over the transparent dark blue fabric and and the patch in the middle would look like a medium value.

Transparency using value

In this next sample I used value and colour.

Transparency using Value and colour

Finally I used Value, Colour and Pattern.

Transparency using Value, Colour and Pattern

I enjoyed doing these samples but they were harder to do than they look. I had fabric everywhere as I tried to get the values and colours correct.

Anyway it spurred me on to try a little A3 sized quilt for my sample.

I got out lots of batik fabrics because they have lots of colour variations and don't fray as much.



I was quite happy with the effect I was getting but I thought I would try another background fabric, so I got out a yellow/gold ombre.


It didn't look as good as I hoped so I went back to using white as a background. Here is the finished quilt.

Transparency by Linda Steele

I have had such a busy month that I must confess I made this very quickly 2 days before it was due. I didn't piece or even fuse the fabric, I just cut it out and put some glue behind the pieces.
I would never do that if it was a real quilt.

I learnt a few things by taking this short cut though.

If I did this again I would line up the fabrics properly and not do it by eye, I would piece the fabrics rather than glue or fuse and I would take more care with the spacing of the quilting lines and not just go by eye. Even though I was free motion quilting this with a ruler as a guide, it is much harder to get an accurate 1/4" when quilting on a diagonal.

Bye for now,
Linda

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show 2018

The Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show was on over the weekend and was a great success. We had to use a new venue because the usual one was being renovated. We loved the new venue with it's large windows and high ceilings and we hope that we can use the venue from now on.

As well as the display of all the members quilts we had a large display of the work from the Waverley Art Quilters.

Waverley Art Quilters Display 2018


The large cafe was very popular and we had the Birds of a Feather challenge on display on one of the walls. The display was so large I couldn't get them all in a photo.



Marie Hart is in her 90's and she had a quilt on display. She had made the quilt a few years ago and her friend recently quilted it in time for the show.

Marie Hart with her Poppies quilt


My friend Eileen Campbell came to visit and I managed to get a photo of her in front of her quilt. It was called A Parliament of Owls which was very fitting seeing as we had a bird themed challenge and plenty of birds decorating the building.

A Parliament of Owls by Eileen Campbell

Jenny Mulligan made a quilt using the doilies she had collected on her travels around the world.

Doilies from our Travels by Jenny Mulligan

She wrote where she had bought the doilies on the quilt.

Doily detail

I loved the quilt by Lyn Nethercott, there was something about it that appealed to me even though I am not usually drawn to such a traditional quilt.

Round and Round the Garden by Lyn Nethercott

Val Grandin had entered a Christmas embroidered quilt and it was beautifully sewn.

Snowmen A to Z by Val Grandin

Here is a close up photo of one of the blocks.

Snowmen A to Z detail

My friend Linda Crouch entered 2 quilts that were very different. I love magpies so I was drawn to her small quilt featuring them.

Early bird by Linda Crouch

Linda also entered an amazing miniature machine quilted quilt called Feathers and Pearls.

Feathers and Pearls by Linda Crouch
The quilt is actually square it is just my bad photography. Here is a detail photo so you can see her gorgeous stitching.

Feathers and Pearls detail

So the quilt show is over now and we will do it all again in 2 years time.

I have saved the best news to last! My quilt A Time for all Seasons won Viewer's Choice!!



It was such an unexpected thrill because there were so many beautiful quilts on display.

Here is a photo of the entire quilt if you haven't seen it before.

A Time for all Season by Linda Steele


To see the other prizes go to the Waverley Patchworkers Website  here and here

Bye for now,
Linda