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.

Preserving the Past Part II

There were only 4 homes out of the seven historic buildings that were open to the public during the exhibition in 2008 at Houston.  The previous quilts shown on an earlier post were housed in larger genteel homes.  However, the real treasures appeared when I went into The Yates House.  It was built in the 1870s by a recently emancipated slave for his family.  Here's some of what  it contained:

A beautiful example of crazy patchwork.  Apparently this quilt was only for show and brought out when guests appeared.  There was more:

A strippy lone star quilt quilted with an all over  Baptist fan pattern.  Note the pot under the bed! There followed more utility quilts such as:

and:

A Grandmother's garden with an allover Baptist Fan quilting pattern.

Hope you liked the show.

Preserving the Past

You may have noticed my new header - I certainly hope so! I was asked about the previous one.

In 2008, I was lucky enough to attend Quilt Market and Festival at Houston.  Concurrent with the Festival,  the Heritage Society in Houston displayed 17 quilts from their permanent collection.



The quilts were on view at seven historic buildings in Sam Houston Park.  I made a trip to the exhibition and was surprised to discover that I was the only person in Houston at that time who was interested in this amazing event.

Maybe because I was the only person on the tour, the docent allowed me to photograph the quilts.  The houses that the quilts were in, were amazing, and the stories I heard, fascinating.  If you are able to visit Houston during the quilt show this year I hope they have a similar exhibition. 

More next post.