Sydney Quilt Show 2011

Sydney's Quilt Show for 2011 is currently exhibiting more than 400 quilts.  Congratulations should go to all who entered their work, for we all know how much effort is involved in producing a quilt.  Even more goes into a quilt that is entered into a judged show.

A few of the quilts that caught my eye are below:

"Diagonal Madness" by Terry and Jennifer Minchinton of South Australia;

"On the Amstel River" by Denise Griffiths of Shellharbour;

 "Lots of Dots - a Circle Sampler" by Chris Jurd from Blaxland.

  With such a high standard, it couldn't have been easy to judge this show and I think the judges got it right generally.  To see all the prize winners click here and make sure you check out the other 4 categories by clicking on the red bars below the banner.  I think it was a great show.

All the visual stimulation encouraged me enormously.  Particularly 
                                                        

and

They are plates of sweet and savoury food knitted by the "Knitters Guild of NSW" who also had a stall at the show.  I came home with enough wool to knit a jumper (translation - sweater) and cardigan.  Seems like I may have gone over to the dark side.

Relaxed and grinning

By now, if you've been following this blog, you may have observed that I don't start a quilt and finish it in proper chronological order.  I'm that sort of quilter.  The one who starts something, comes up against an obstacle, puts the offending object out of sight and then returns to it sometime later.

Possibly one of my quilts has suffered from this more than others

If you are interested in its slow progress you can read about it here and here.

Now the final border is on and it's time for the backing.  Usually, the backing is done in a huge rush.  Generally a fabric from the bolts in my header surrenders up enough for the backing.

With this quilt I thought I'd do something I haven't done before.  There are so many checks and plaids left over from the front, and I no longer do "country" quilts.  It seemed like a reasonable way to divest myself of some fat quarters and 30cm strips of  fabric.

Instead of 45 minutes, the backing took all day...but I really enjoyed the process.  I just squared up the remnants of fat quarters and strips and sewed them together, trueing them up as I went.  It may be described as liberated piecing.  It was certainly fun and it was great to know that I am finally using up that part  of my stash.  I think I'll call it a relaxed quilt back.

The plan is for me to machine quilt using my walking foot.  One day I'll be brave enough to do FMQ (free motion quilting), but right now I am rationalizing that I still need more practice on straight lines and rolling the quilt up under the machine arm.

I am mulling over a name for this quilt.  It isn't finalized until the binding and label are on, but I may call it "Pointless".   To get the pun, you will have to go back to the original post if you haven't already.

Moments after I cut into my stash and pieced the back, the local quilting guru advised me that "country" is making a comeback.  Not into my stash, it isn't!

Fabric Hunt

Quilts full of scraps visually entertain me.  I just love them.  They dazzle.  Best of all, I get reminded of times past; when the fabric was purchased, where I bought it...sometimes.  "Under the Big Top" is finished

but not without teeth grinding.

In the fabric department, I started with a blue 'big top' perimeter.  It was intended as a small quilt, but it soon became apparent that my quilt wanted to be bigger.  When I wasn't able to buy more blue stripe, I reluctantly bought red and replaced the blue bits I had already used.  Being foundation (paper) pieced, that proved challenging.

I like fussy cutting, which doesn't usually go hand in hand with scrap quilts, but the opportunity presented itself.  Each centre has something special.  Here is one

and here is another:

The quilt decided to get bigger and I needed more red stripe fabric.  I scoured the Sydney basin and made  a few phone calls.

Knowing the fabric range is a huge advantage when searching for the elusive, so always cut into the selvedge that has that information printed on it,  last!  Eventually, with more than enough red fabric for 25 blocks and a binding, I happily settled down to finish the quilt. 

The tale doesn't finish there.   I realised I didn't have enough of one of the star shirting fabrics.  No amount of hunting unearthed that fabric, so 20 blocks was all that was possible.   Moral of the story;  I'd like to say, "be organized", but when a quilt is growing itself, how can you predict fabric requirements from the outset?

Kate Cox from "Kimpossibilities" had promised to quilt it when "Under the Big Top" announced its larger size, and kindly stitched an allover Baptist Fan pattern that I love.  Thanks Kate!

Last night the label went on

and now the circus is ready to move on.

Bubble and Squeak

"Under the Big Top" is off being quilted.  I didn't quite get 25 blocks made because I ran out of one of the star fabrics - common story I'm sure.  At 20 blocks it is a big quilt.

In the meantime, I was left with with metres of 1.5" strips of reproduction fabric and no more storage space in the cupboard.  The choice was ' tidy up or continue sewing'.  Not a hard decision, really.

Inspired by this antique quilt owned by Gai

and by a front cover quilt from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts I sewed and cut and pieced and trimmed to make these

which go together like this:

I thought the new needle required some more running in, so with the short strips too small for the rail fence blocks I am making more of these:

 I have never actually eaten "Bubble and Squeak" but I understand it is a made from leftovers.  That describes this quilt to a T.

Leftovers

As a kid I hated "leftovers".  The reason they were left over was no one wanted them.  That's not the case  with fabric.

Last year I had some scraps I felt were too good to throw out and with reference to the frugal patchworkers of previous generations I thought I'd try to use them.  I made lots of these

I had an idea and put them together but they didn't really appeal so if you look closely you may see some threads still at the edges.  There are quite a few more where these came from and it would be a shame to toss them out so I am trying to come up with an alternative design to use them.

Speaking of leftovers I seem to have accumulated lots of 1.5" strips so I thought I'd try a slightly different version of "Muffet's Way".  If you do look back, it is the quilt in the middle picture of that post.  Below, I have used reproduction fabrics in smaller blocks

I have been working on it this weekend and would like to have 25 blocks all sewn up by Tuesday.  Scrap quilts appeal to me above all other styles, even though I love album quilts.  It feels good to avoid throwing leftovers out.

Comings and Goings

Don't you just love receiving something in the mail?  Emails are fine and fun in their own way, but when I know that sender went to the trouble of putting something in an envelope and then travelled to the post box or post office to send that something my way just thrills me.

Imagine my excitement when  Sharon from Washington State in the US sent me a package containing this:

Above the cute little nail file is a double sided 4 page pamphlet about the recent Red & White quilt show in New York.  Sharon knew I'd love it because she has seen my blog's left sidebar, full of links to other blogs with  beautiful photos (including Sharon's) of the show.

In amongst the notes from Joanna S Rose was this little tidbit:
"It is my hope that the show will travel far and wide - inquiries have come from several continents."
I hope that includes Australia.  I would certainly travel as far as Perth or New Zealand if the exhibition were to be staged in Australasia.

So a huge thank you to Sharon from Grassroots Quilting who has some colourful liberated quilts on her blog right now as a result of a weekend retreat with Gwen Marston.  Lucky duck! Go on over and check out her fun quilts.

So much for incomings.  Now for outgoings.  Last week I heard that Linda was organising her annual Quilts in the Barn Show.  This year Linda has managed to snag Jo Morton (yes, THE Jo Morton) to come over and show her quilts in a fund raiser for breast cancer research.  On top of this, Linda has decided to make a raffle quilt from only Jo Morton fabrics.  She has asked for blocks from around the world to include in the quilt.

This is my humble offering.  Not yet trimmed to 5.5".

It's not too late to join in and it would be nice for Linda to know that all her efforts are supported by the blog community.  I don't think Linda would mind me telling you that the block is so simple and she gives clear instructions here.  So simple I am tempted to make my own quilt using this block.

Slowww Progresss

Quilterie has been very quiet recently.  I've been busy with lots of little fiddly things.  You may remember a quilt I showed before called Georgetown Square.

Well I needed some of the sashing fabric for some fussy cutting in another quilt, but you know how it is...you can't cut into a fabric if there is the tiniest possibility that there won't be enough for the initial project.

So, after some phaffing about I finally put some sashing onto the Georgetown Square:

 I didn't get very far before I realised that the directional fabric  may require mitres in the corners.  Too late.  Anyway  with such a complex fabric pattern, that seemed like a poor option.  Before cutting any more of my sashing I thought I'd better consider further border options.  At this point the quilt only measures 52" square, just too small to be useful.

So I am not much further along with the design.  In spite of my dislike of curved piecing the quilt seems to demand it

but now I know why this top keeps ending up in the cupboard.  Pity, really.  I would love to liberate the sashing fabric!