Friday Showcase 2 September: Brenda Gael Smith

Brenda Gael Smith presents Friday showcase at the Guild office at 10am on Friday, 2 September 2011. All welcome! ($5.50 entry fee).

Sewing in the Office: 22 August 10:30am-2pm

The next Sewing in the Office event for Community Quilts is on Monday 22 August 10.30am-2pm Bring along your sewing kit and join in the fun. For further information contact Maree Gebhardt.

2012 Australian Patchwork & Quilting Australasian Quilt Convention Challenge

Announcing the challenge theme for 2012 - 'What the World Needs Now'.

Is it 'Love, Sweet Love', an end to the global financial crisis or carbon tax? Quilters are called to give their answers in a textile interpretation for this thought-provoking annual challenge.

Sponsored by Expertise Events and Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine, the AQC Challenge is run in conjunction with the annual Australasian Quilting Convention. The 2012 event will be held 12 - 15 April at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton, Melbourne.

Full details and entry forms are available here.

German quilt challenge

Home of Jolanta in Germany has challenged all quilters to make a quilt in traditional patchwork with the theme RED worked into it. Deadline for entries is 6 September 2012, so there's plenty of time to sew.

There will be three prizes: one for international entries, one for German entries and the Best of Show. The exhibition quilts will be on display in the Blue Salon of the Kurhaus in Bad Lauterberg, Hauz, Germany from 2-14 October 2012.

More information about the challenge can be found here.

Burwood General Meeting: 20 August 2011

The next meeting will be held on Saturday 20 August at Burwood RSL. The program is as follows:

Theme - Art quilts - bring along yours to share!

Demonstration - Julie Woods from Superior Threads (11am). Julie will be presenting information gleaned from her Superior Threads workshops in the USA, a trip which was partly funded by a Guild scholarship. She will discuss threads suitable for all projects and will have threads for sale.

Guest Speaker - Kate Chidlow from the Power House Museum will discuss the Australian Dress register.

Market Day - sell your unwanted fabric, notions, books etc $5.00 per table. Bookings essential - contact the Guild Office to make a booking.

QSG Report: Trish Bloomfield on the Joys & Pitfalls of Collecting Old Quilts

Trish Bloomfield owns over 100 old quilts and quilt tops, most of which she has bought over the internet. She came along with a sample of them to show us and illustrate her talk on how to become a more discerning buyer of old quilts. She started by showing us some quilts that were made in China and represented as being antiques that she owns and uses as everyday quilts on her bed. She said she has seen brand new US$50-60 quilts on e-bay being bid up to US$500–600 so it was very good to hear this warning.

 

Trish gave us a number of hints for trying to make sure you pay the correct price for a quilt. She believes that firstly you must research quilts by reading as many quilt history books as possible and checking various websites on the internet before you commit to buying an old quilt. She recommended http://hartcottagequilts.com/archquilts as the major site to look at for recent commercially made reproduction quilts that have been sold on e-bay as old ones. The three photos above are examples of such quilts she has bought or been given. Also, by googling the block name used in a quilt you are interested in buying, you can see if there is a suspiciously large number of them for sale.

We learnt how she cares for her quilts and quilt tops and she explained how she keeps a numbered catalogue of all the quilts she buys. She transfers this information onto old doilies which she then sews on the back of the quilts. Examples are below –

Trish showed us some of her first purchases and some wonderful examples of how her taste in quilts has changed over time. Some great purchases included a whole cloth Mennonite wedding quilt that was advertised as being cotton, but turned out to be made of silk, a rare blue Marie Webster kit quilt, a Ruby McKim state flower quilt, a 1960s cross stitch kit quilt and a bright poly cotton 1960s Seven Sisters quilt. She finished her talk by showing us her latest purchases of a French bouti petticoat bought from a Swiss antique dealer’s website and two North England whole cloth quilts.

Friday Showcase 5 August: Maree Blanchard

Maree Blanchard presents Friday showcase at the Guild office at 10am on Friday, 5 August 2011. All welcome! ($5.50 entry fee).