Forest Threads Exhibition

This week I went to the Forest Threads Exhibition which is being held at the Box Hill Town Hall in Melbourne.
Australian Quilts in Public Places(AQIPP) is an initiative of AQA (Australian Quilters Association) designed to enhance the public awareness and appreciation of Quilting.
Because 2011 is the International Year of the Forests the theme for the Juried and Judged show was named Forest Threads.

It was a wonderful exhibition and all the quilts were displayed really well. I only took a few photos of some of my very favourites but there were many other quilts that were just as inspiring.

This first photo is a quilt by Les Clarke, named Forest Threads. This is one of the first quilts that you see as you are entering the exhibition and it was hard to photograph because it was in a glass case. Les has used a lot of thread work showing flowers, water, insects and birds in the forest.

The next quilt is by Barbara Bennetts and it is named Diversity. Barbara used elements from many different regions to form a mystical place of her own imagining. I liked this quilts when I was close to it but I didn't appreciate the depth until I was across the room and looked back at the quilt. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The next photo is a quilt named Ashes to Ashes by Noelle Lyon. This was a lovely quilt using layers of sheer fabric to depict the bushfires in the Alpine National Park in 2006. Noelle says that the fire was so hot the trees have not regrown.

The next photo shows Jan Frazer's quilt named Chromatropes.This quilt was exploring the changing light in the forest using many different techniques.

The next picture is of Annettes Bauneis's quilt named Roots and All. Annette was inspired by the flowing Tingle Trees in Western Australia.

The last photo I have to show you is a quilt by Alison Withers called Clearfell. This quilt was made using hand dyed felt and was all about the changing environment in a man made landscape. This quilt was very different from the others in the exhibition and the more I looked at it the more I liked it.

My photos don't really do these quilts justice and I can highly recommend a visit to the exhibiton. It is on until 21st December, so there is still plenty of time to get there if you live in Melbourne.

You can find the details and opening times of the exhibition by clicking Here

Bye for now,
Linda

Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012

The Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 has just begun. Registration is open to everyone from 15th November to 27th December 2011.
The idea is to create a Crazy Quilt block every month for 12 months and share them with everyone in the group if you want. People from all over the world are going to participate and it will be a lot of fun seeing everyone's different blocks.

I have never done a group project like this before but it has come at the right time for me. I am just finishing up two hand work projects, a crazy quilt and an applique quilt. The next quilt that I have in my mind to do is by machine so I will be without any hand work.

I always like to have some hand work for when I am watching TV or going to a sewing/friendship group. Now I will have my Crazy Quilt Journal blocks to sew. I am feeling quite excited by this because I haven't started a new project for over 12 months.

If you are interested in participating look at their website and read all about it.

http://www.cqjp.org

The blocks can be any size from 6" x 6", so it shouldn't be too much work. Maybe you have never done any Crazy Quilting before, this could be the ideal time to give it a go.

Now I just have to decide what my theme will be. I am thinking Christmas, but I have also thought about doing some pale floaty lace type blocks...No, Christmas it is. You don't have to have a theme, that's just the way I do Crazy Quilting.

Bye for now,
Linda

Another Student Quilt

While I was teaching my Crazy about Australia class, Kaye, one of my students from last year dropped by to show us her completed quilt. It's always a great thrill for the class to see a former student's quilt finished.
I have been teaching this class for a few years now and everyone's quilt looks different.

We were all looking closely at her embroidery and colour scheme. It's good to see what little changes Kaye made. I love teaching this class because people usually start out a bit scared and tentative and by the end of the 12 months they have become so confident with colour choices and their embroidery skills increase tremendously.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that day, so Kaye emailed me a photo.

Thanks Kaye

Bye for now,
Linda

Scottish Dance

My quilt Scottish Dance seems to be appearing a lot lately even though I made it back in 2006. I was inspired to make a Scottish themed quilt after reading the series of books by Diana Gabaldon that are set in Scotland. I thought about how I would design it for at least two years before I started to sew anything.
Everything I thought of just didn't seem right. One day I sat down and wrote a list of all the quilts that I would like to make. It was a long list and I knew that many would never get done. I combined three of the ideas together and was finally happy with my design.
The three ideas were;
A red and green quilt
A quilt with two different coloured backgrounds and
A Scottish Quilt.

I was asked by Quilters Companion Magazine to let them publish the pattern. The pattern appeared in isssue 26 and 27. I have been told that all the back issues are sold out, but I haven't checked to see if that is right.

I have received quite a few emails from people saying how much they love the quilt and many have since made the quilt. I noticed that the quilt made by others are starting to appear in quilt shows and the people must have done a lovely job because they have been winning prizes.

This morning I found that The Quilt Show Blog has featured my quilt as their Quilt of the Day. The Quilt Show is is an Internet TV Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. I have been a member since it first started because I used to love watching Alex Anderson's show Simply Quilts when it used to be on TV.
I love nothing better than having a free afternoon to sit in front of one of their shows while doing some applique or embroidery. My clever husband has connected a computer to our television, so I can watch the shows on TV instead of a computer screen.

Bye for now,
Linda

Quilters Companion Magazine

I was at the newsagent and innocently bought the latest Quilters Companion Magazine, not realising that there was an article about me in it!

It is their Great Australian Quilts No. 3. The magazine is wrapped in plastic because there is a CD with it called Learn Machine Applique with Rachelle Denneny. When I opened the plastic I noticed my name on the cover.

They've devoted 6 pages about me including photos of 7 of my quilts. The article is titled A Disciplined Designer!

I am happy to be described as disciplined, isn't everyone?  Maybe not.
I think that they have written a lovely article except that they wrongly state on the pattern page that I live in Horsham! Don't look for me there, I live in Park Orchards.

Quilters Companion asked me a few months ago to create a project for their magazine based on one of my latest quilts.
I designed a Wall Hanging named Panda Crazy based on a block in my quilt Eastern Elements.
This is a crazy quilt using free machine thread painting for all the stitches and motifs. Instead of doing all the embroidery by hand I have done it on the machine but not using the programmed fancy stitches. I think that the programmed stitches are fine for some things but I find them a bit flat for a crazy quilt. I have added some braids and beads as well.

The pattern is well set out with a lot of step by step photos. There a quite a few different techniques to use when making up the pattern including, foundation piecing, free motion machine thread painting and stitching and inserting piping into the binding.

I wonder if anyone ever makes up the patterns in Magazines? I think I might have made one once or twice a few years ago. These days, I just look at the photos and read the articles.

Here is a photo of the actual wall hanging.

Bye for now,
Linda

World Crazy Quilt Progress

 I am still working on my World Crazy Quilt (I am still thinking of what I will name the quilt). I have 12 different blocks representing different countries and after I put the blocks onto the background fabric, I thought that they looked a bit plain and bare.

Well, I thought that they needed a bit of embroidery around the borders and it wouldn't take long.
How wrong was I! Each block took two hours to complete the embroidery. That's 24 hours of work that I hadn't planned on.

When I had finished doing the little lazy daisy stitches, I had to put a bead on each cluster. Once again I miscalculated because each block took 40 minutes to add the beads. I had thought that it would take about 15 minutes.

So my little after thought took an extra 2 hours 40 minutes for each block. No wonder these quilts take me so long to do. I think it is worth the work though, judging from the photo above.

I have also been busy with the Australia block that will be in the centre.

Bye for now,
Linda

Blog of the Week!

Well, I had a big surprise this week when the American Quilters Society picked my blog as their Blog of the Week.

I was thrilled!

I have been a member of AQS for a few years now and I love their magazine, American Quilter. It is always full of wonderfully large photos of prize winning quilts.

I have entered their big quilt show in Paducah a few times and I always order the catalogue because it has a photo of every quilt in the show.

American Quilter also has a facebook page for those of you on facebook. They are always talking about interesting things.

Thanks American Quilter.

Bye for now,
Linda