Sewing in the Office: 24 October 10:30am-2pm

The next Sewing in the Office event for Community Quilts is on Monday 24 October 10.30am-2pm Bring along your sewing kit and join in the fun. For further information contact Maree Gebhardt.

Annual General Meeting: 15 October 2011

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 15 October at Burwood RSL. In addition, the program will include:

Theme - Japanese quilts - bring along yours to share!

Demonstration - Bob James will demonstrate foundation piecing techniques.

Guest Speaker - Male members of the Guild are invited to display their quilts and give a brief talk about their quilting journeys.

Shop - Country Pickins'

And don't forget - the 2011 Guild Purple and Yellow Challenge quilts will be on display and the prize winners announced. The theme for the 2012 Challenge will also be announced.

Fibonacci Workshop: 24 - 25 October

Join Amanda Daly for her Fibonacci workshop:
Monday and Tuesday 24 and 25 October (9.30am for 10am - 3pm)
Epping Creative Centre, Dence St, Epping.

Download and return a Workshop Booking Form to reserve your place.

Hurry - only three places left!

Amanda Daly is a very popular tutor and her technique employing the Fibonacci numbering sequence is an exciting way to look at quilt design. For those who have done previous workshops with Amanda, this will expand the technique for you and, for those new to the idea, it will give you fresh insight into design layout.

Fertile Imagination Challenge

In association with Expertise Events, the Guild has arranged a special challenge - Fertile Imagination. Quilts entered in this challenge will be featured at the 2012 Craft and Sewing Shows at Rosehill and Newcastle and the Guild meetings in March and May.

This is a fabric challenge, where your quilt must be a finished size of 50x50cm.

The challenge fabric.

Conditions of entry and an application form are on the Guild website.

Forward your application form and payment to the Guild office no later than 8 December 2011. By return mail, you will receive a fat quarter of challenge fabric and an entry form.

Completed quilts and entry forms must be received in the Guild office by 20 February 2012.

Novocastrian Quilters Inc Exhibition: 8 & 9 October

The Novocastrian Quilters Inc Exhibition - Quilted Gems will be held on 8 & 9 October. It will feature members' quilts, challenge quilts, handmade goods and merchants' stalls. Entry is $5 and includes free workshops daily.

When: 9am - 4pm, Saturday 8 October and Sunday 9 October.

Where: New Lambton Community Centre, 14 Alma Road, New Lambton.

Enquiries: Novocastrian Quilters Inc

Southern Quilters Finishing School Quilt Show: 7 & 8 October

The Southern Quilters Finishing School Quilt Show opens at 9.30am on Friday 7 October. Entry is $6 and there will be more than 90 quilts on display. As well, there will be two raffle quilts, sale of work, refreshments and two local patchwork shops will have goods for sale.

When: 9.30am - 4.30pm Friday 7 October and Saturday 8 October.

Where: Gymea Baptist Church, Tea Gardens Avenue, Gymea.

Enquiries: Marilyn Lowder

Friday Showcase 7 October:

This month's Friday showcase will feature members' show and tell. Bring your quilts to the Guild office at 10am on Friday, 7 October 2011. All welcome! ($5.50 entry fee).

Sewing in the Office: 26 September 10:30am-2pm

The next Sewing in the Office event for Community Quilts is on Monday 26 September 10.30am-2pm Bring along your sewing kit and join in the fun. For further information contact Maree Gebhardt.

5-6 November: Unfolding Tradition - 2011 Australian Quilt Study Symposium

The 2011 Symposium will be hosted by the Quilt Study Group Victoria at The Immigration Museum, Old Customs House, 400 Flinders Street, Melbourne.

Keynote speakers include: Dr Annette Gero (quilt historian), Lynette Nilaweera (Geelong Wool Museum), Bronwyn Cosgrove (Conservator, NGV), Strathdale Quilters (1895 Heritage Signature Quilt) and Alan Tremain (To create, or recreate, is the question).

Click here to see the full program and booking form.

QSG Report: Jennifer Corkish Antique Quilt Inspiration

Jennifer Corkish is a noted quilt designer and teacher who lives in the Southern Highlands of NSW and who specialises in antique looking quilts. She spoke to us about her inspiration when designing quilts and the process she follows for reproducing antique quilts. She was accompanied by five of her students who showed us their quilts, completed and in progress, demonstrating the variety of modifications to her quilt patterns that can be made. 

Jennifer (2nd on left) with her students

Jennifer told us that she looks at quilt auction and sale websites, museum collections, magazines, books, quilts brought along to Quilt Study Group meetings, private quilt collections and old embroideries to inspire her in designing her quilt patterns. She often takes ideas from different quilts to come up with a design that is modified in class to meet each of her students’ aims, sewing preferences and fabric choices.

Here are 3 students' variations of one of her designs  – 

 

We were taken through a series of images of antique quilts, their source details, Jennifer’s designs inspired by those quilts, and then we were shown 2 to 3 examples of quilts made in her classes from her patterns. Jennifer carefully explained exactly how each pattern was created and then varied for each student. Many of her Australian quilt inspirations came from photographs in Dr. Annette Gero’s books (the Frederica Josephson quilt, the Roebuck quilt, the Sarah Evans quilt, Elizabeth Hardy’s 1840 quilt, Jessie Wilson’s 1870 Medallion with Heart quilt, Mary Tolman’s 1850s hexagon quilt), Jenny Manning’s book and Aunt Clara’s quilt from the Powerhouse Museum.  

 

Her inspirations are many -  patterns on tiles, photographs of quilts in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Beamish Collection in the UK, and antique quilts she saw at Houston in USA. Jennifer said she prefers to use ordinary materials to design her quilt patterns – graph paper, propelling pencil, compass and protractor, but she has been known to use EQ7 and Photoshop software. Her final statement was apt: “I can’t imagine living without a needle and thread. That’s why I design, colour, stitch and teach others to do the same.”

Liz Bonner.

17 September: Quilt Study Group Meeting

The Quilt Study Group of NSW is a Guild sub-committee that promotes interest and research into quilting, particularly in Australia. The next meeting will be held on 17 September, 2pm-4.30pm and will include afternoon tea.

Jennifer Corkish will talk about her inspiration when designing quilts and the process she follows for reproducing antique quilts. She will bring many of her quilts to illustrate the talk and some of her students will also be there with their quilts to show. Please bring along your own reproduction quilts for show and tell.

Venue: The Ambassador Room at Burwood RSL, 96 Shaftsbury Avenue, Burwood.

Cost: Free to Guild members; $15 to non-Guild members.

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).

Sewing in the Office: 25 July 10:30am-2pm

The next Sewing in the Office event for Community Quilts is on Monday 25 July 10.30am-2pm Bring along your sewing kit and join in the fun. For further information contact Maree Gebhardt.

30 July: Quilt Study Group Meeting

The Quilt Study Group of NSW is a Guild sub-committee that promotes interest and research into quilting, particularly in Australia. The next meeting will be held on 30 July, 2pm-4.30pm and will include afternoon tea.

Trish Bloomfield will talk to us about her experiences of buying quilts, quilt tops, and fabrics on the internet and in person, both here and overseas. She will bring along a sample of her purchases to illustrate the talk. Please bring along your own examples and join us discussing how to expand your quilt collection and what to look out for.

Venue: The Ambassador Room at Burwood RSL, 96 Shaftsbury Avenue, Burwood.

Cost: Free to Guild members; $15 to non-Guild members.