Barbara's quilts

My friend Barbara McIntyre, in the foreground, has a display of her American Civil War inspired quilts at the Quilt Show. She is in attendance most days so have a chat with her if you are visiting and learn the background to these unique creations.

 

Anzacs

One of the many displays to be enjoyed at the Quilt and Craft Fair is this tribute to the ANZACS.

My quilt Mateship is in good company with R Tini Cook and above L-R Susan Price and Suzanne Gummow. 

Quilt Show

The annual Queensland Quilters Inc show begins today at the Convention Centre at Southbank. It is part of the Craft and Quilt Fair and open from 9am- 4.30pm each day to Sunday. Yesterday Chris and I set up the 2QAQ area ready for demonstrations by our members.

 

Wattle printing

This variety of wattle is lovely to print as it gives the imprint of the balled flowers.

And some further experiments on bigger pieces. 

If you are interested in learning this technique and other surface design practises, I shall be teaching A Sense of Place for Queensland Quilters at the end of October 24-25 in Brisbane. Please check the 2Q website for specifics, thanks.

 

 

Tempting you

Today I want to tempt you to consider a couple of things. At the Queensland Quilt Show last week I spent a couple of days volunteering at the 2QAQ table explaining that the art quilt group is part of Queensland Quilters [2Q] and membership of 2Q has many benefits. The photo above shows the bookmarks promoting 2Q and they were part of the table display I set up.

So if you are new to quilting joining a group or guild is a good way to expand your knowledge and one of the biggest benefits is the friendships developed with like minded people.

Part of the display of the 2QAQ 2014 Calendar Challenge on the back wall. The other thing I want to tempt you with is travel and more specifically, travel on a Down Under Quilts fully escorted, small group [maximum 16] tour to South Africa ending with 4 days at the biennial South African Quilt Festival. We will also go on safari and visit many worthwhile projects making a difference to lives in this country. Full details available from the Active Travel button on my blog side bar.
And now the temptation of my new quilt is drawing me to the sewing machine!


 

Queensland Quilt Show

This week the quilt show is on at the Brisbane Convention Centre at South Brisbane and I was happy to be awarded an Highly Commended for Not your usual Souvenir- Hawaii a quilt made from fabrics printed in Hawaii at the studio of Phyllis Cullen. I visited Phyllis on the Big Island in January and we had a lovely arty time together.

Another of my quilts Holiday Flags is in the State of the Art quilt 14 display. This touring exhibition promotes 2QAQ, the Queensland Quilters Art Quilters of the guild. I have been volunteering on the 2QAQ table and catching up with lots of friends and meeting interesting new people too.

I get to play on a Bernina 550 sewing machine so do drop by and say hello- I will be there today.

Brenda Gael Smith is also giving a great floor talk about the Living Colour exhibition, each day at 1.30pm. Here she is talking about Caroline Sullivan's work.

The very talented Jane Rundle is also demonstrating machine quilting on a Bernina. Jane was awarded the Best Modern Quilt prize for Grated, detail below.

And this is another of her gorgeous quilts, made using an old linen, embroidered tablecloth.


 

Queensland Quilters

Queensland Quilters Guild have a display area at the Stitches and Craft Show also. Congratulations to the winners and entrants of the "Thirty"challenge. 2Q is celebrating it's 30 year anniversary and the challenge was to make a 30cm x 30cm quilt. Bernina are such good sponsors.

2Q also has a new subgroup- 2Q Mod for those interested in Modern Quilting. This eye catching quilt is by Rebecca Staunton Coffey. Great to see the organisation catering for the members interests.

Club news

How do you keep track of what is going on in your quilt Guild or patchwork club? For members of Queensland Quilters Inc and The Quilters' Guild of NSW there are the publications Material Facts and The Template, as well as online information.

As I don't get to many regular meetings it is a good way to keep up to date.

Best of Show

Congratulations to all the prize winners and to Pam Hill who is the 2013 winner of Best of Show for the Queensland Quilt Show. On the Wing is painted, machine quilted and embellished with crystals- a crowd favourite!

Bernina is the major sponsor and each year supply a couple of machines as prizes. I got to catch up with lots of people I know and work on the Queensland Quilters Art Quilt table with below L-R Jane, Lois and  Lajla. State of the Art 13 quilts are in the background. This is a juried exhibition for Queensland Quilters members.

Unfortunately all did not go smoothly today, with the theft of a prize winning quilt! If you see the quilt Feathers Unfolden by Brenda Wood please contact Queensland Quilters. It is less than 1 metre in size.
 

Judy Coates Perez

Can you guess who's in town? Yes, we are very happy to welcome Judy Coates Perez to Brisbane where she has been giving lectures to the Queensland Quilters Guild and a weekend workshop.

Judy shared lots of stories and brought several of her beautiful quilts to the meeting and kindly allowed us to take photos. This is painted silk and just glows.

The Quilt Show begins on Wednesday at the Quilt and Craft Fair at the Convention Centre, Southbank and Judy will be teaching and demonstrating for Unique Stitching during the 5 days.
 

Exciting news

Yesterday I received the exciting news that I have been awarded a Life Membership of Queensland Quilters Inc. I walked around with a very big grin all day. Thank you Queensland Quilters.

Tutor work- AQC #4

Last, but not least was the colourful, multi layered work of Sue Benner. After AQC Sue travelled to Queensland & taught & lectured for Queensland Quilters.

'Blue Leaves'

Yesterday was the due date for the completed 50cm x 70cm challenge quilts for Queensland Quilters using the challenge fabric supplied, which must show on 20% of the front. My entry 'Blue Leaves' allowed me to play with the blue raw silk used in the central panel.

I machine stitched with a varigated thread, cut the repeated shapes out of tulle & stitched that layer to the silk with more varigated thread. I hand stitched inside the larger leaves before putting the quilt sandwich together. It was a fun quilt to make that came together quickly.

Challenge quilt

Yesterday I was very happy to finish my challenge quilt for Queensland Quilters & deliver it to the meeting.

This is a view of the back & the challenge fabric we had to work with. I'll reveal the front when all the entries are in next month.

'Counting'

When the poinciana trees are in full bloom they are magnificient.

The flowers are a combination of red & orange hues & very bright. After, the green elongated seed pods decorate the tree. When they are dry & brown they split & tumble their seeds down for germinating & small poincianas come up all over the place in our garden.

'Counting' is my quilt which uses the poinciana as inspiration & it has been selected for the STATE of the ART quilt 10 exhibition to premier at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, April 29 - May 2. Hope to see you there or in one of the 3 workshops I'm presenting.

More Christmas table decorations

These are some of the other Christmas decorated tables that were part of the Queensland Quilters Christmas Party.

The green fabric tree was made by Nancy & the silver tree is a palm seed frond repurposed.

Fantastic Christmas at 2Q

The theme was for a 'fantastic' Christmas party at Queensland Quilters, so I took it literally & got the fan quilt from 1994 out of the cupboard. Barbara added the decorations for the centre piece & with help from Sunnybank members we arranged our beautiful fans. We won Best Decorated Table- yeah!! first time ever. L-R Bev, Sue, Barbara & Denise, some Sunnybank members before the party got underway.

Rusting fabric update tomorrow.

Queensland Quilt Show # 9

When you have an event such as the Queensland Quilt Show linked into the Craft & Quilt Fair, of course there is a lot to see & do. But, this is my last post from the event for this year!
These are some of the beautiful art quilts made for the Bid 4A Cause auction raising money for breast cancer research. All pieces speak of the individually of the maker & are addressing the theme 'Goddess Roseus'. The blog button on my sidebar takes you directly to the Bid 4A Cause blog.

Queensland Quilt Show # 8

The Mt Isa Quilters group challenge 'Reflections' was on display at the quilt show. Congratulations to Debbie Alford the winner with her quilt 'Reflections'. Karryn Pogorelc was awarded Best Use of Colour for 'Galactic Orb' & my quilt 'Connect' at the bottom, was awarded Most Creative Interpretation.
It was wonderful to see the way in which the quilters had embraced the challenge of using the 3 supplied fabrics, with imaginative & diverse interpretations.