Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award & Forum

Congratulations to CQ member Dianne Firth who is one of the textile artists selected for the inaugural Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award and associated exhibition that opens at 11 am on 20 June and runs to 19 July 2009 at the Wangaratta exhibitions gallery, Ovens St, Wangaratta.

Image: Louise Saxton, Home-Tree, 2008

The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Forum takes place on Saturday 20 June 2009 from 12.30 – 4.30pm

KEY NOTE SPEAKERS

Liz Williamson
Head School of Design Studies College of Fine Arts University of New South Wales

Intriguing the Senses: Contemporary Textiles
Textiles artists and designers have embraced innovative research techniques to explore complex concepts producing individual and innovative textiles. By exploring current issues of sustainability, environment and place combined with historical reference and new technologies, all are developing intriguing ways to inform the senses.

This lecture will illustrate current research projects by staff and postgraduate students at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and at UTS in Sydney. It will also document research undertaken in developing woven textiles for Liz Williamson: Textiles a solo exhibition held at Object Gallery, Sydney in late 2008 as part of the Living Treasures series and now touring nationally.

Laura Jocic
Curator Fashion & Textiles National Gallery of Victoria

Australian textiles in the collection of the NGV
How the collection has developed and the range of works and techniques represented, including 19th century embroideries and 20th century printed and woven textiles.

ARTISTS FLOOR TALK
Sara Lindsay, Julie Montgarrett, Louise Saxton, Patrick Snelling, Emma Sulzer

Cost: $22/$16 concession includes light lunch
Bookings & prepayment essential. Tel: 03 5722 0761

CQ Evening Meeting: 4 June

The next evening meeting is set for Thursday, 4 June, 7.15 for 7.45-10pm. There will be a special show and tell of applique quilts. Doesn't everyone have an applique quilt tucked away? Please bring them, old or new, for us to all enjoy.

Joanne West - In the Red
Bed Quilts Non-Professional - First Place - Canberra Quilters' Exhibiton 2008

And don't forget the entries for Canberra Quilters' Exhibition close this Friday - 5 June! You can download the entry forms from the CQ website.

Quilting Market Day: 4 April 2009

Come and visit the Quilting Market Day for the sale of good quality cotton fabrics, books, magazines, and quilting notions:

Saturday, 4 April 2009
1:30pm - 4pm
Weston Creek Uniting Church Hall
Parkinson Street, Weston

Recipe Book Competition

Members of Canberra Quilters are invited to contribute to one or more of their favourite recipes, for the compilation of a recipe book to be published in 2009. You can send your recipes to out post address or hand it personally to a committee member by 7 May 2009. Depending on the number of submissions, either all the recipes wil be included, or only a selection, at the committee's discretion. In addition, a quilt competition on the theme of "Food" is also taking place, and pictures of the winning quilts will be included in the Recipe Book.

Competition Guidelines:

• The competition is open to all financial members of Canberra Quilters Inc.
• Each member may submit one entry only.
• An entry fee of $5 must accompany each entry.
• The theme is "food" which can be represented in any style you like, keeping in mind that it must come up well in a photograph.
• The finished quilts must be received, accompanied by the entry form in the newsletter by no later than 7 May 2009.
• The quilt must measure 12" x 16" (30cm x 41cm) in portrait orientation, with variations within one inch acceptable.
  

Sushi by Fiona Hammond

Annual General Meeting: 2 April 2009

Don't forget to attend the 2009 Annual General meeting! It's this Thursday:

2 April 2009, 7.15pm for 7.45 start
Weston Creek Uniting Church Hall
Parkinson Street, Weston Creek

Important business includes voting on adopting a new constitution. Bring along your bags from the bag workshops last year for a special show and tell.

CQ Evening Meeting: 5 March 2009

The next evening meeting is set for Thursday, 5 March, 7.15 for 7.45-10pm. This is an information night about the proposed new constitution. There will also be information about the Sales Room at the annual exhibition.

Help for Victorian Bushfire Victims

We are all dismayed by the terrible loss of life and property in Victoria. We are asking members to donate finished quilts to be given to those who have suffered losses in the Victorian fires. As well as donating quilts individually, friendship groups might like to combine their skills and time and make quilts for donation. We stress that it is not possible to accept quilt tops or blocks as we do not have the resources to complete them.

Canberra Quilters' immediate response is in conjunction with the four local patchwork shops, who have offered to act as receivers of finished quilts. The shops are Addicted to Fabric, Phillip; Rosemont, Tuggeranong; Calico Patch, Nicholls; and Hobbysew, Belconnen. Quilts delivered to them will be collected by Canberra Quilters Inc. up to the beginning of May and forwarded on to the Victorian Guild which is setting up a distribution network. Some shops may also use their own contacts for distribution – but all quilts left with them, will find their way to those in need in Victoria.

Later on in the year we propose to ask members to donate fabric, books, sewing notions, etc., which we will put into stash rebuilding packages for distribution to Victorian quilters . The arrangements for this project are not yet firm and, in any case, we do not believe that the need for such quilting items is immediate. However, we would like members to start casting an eye over their stashes to see what they can spare.

Renew Your Membership Now!

Have you renewed your membership?! The membership period for Canberra Quilters is 1 December to 31 December so subscriptions for 2009 are now due. The membership secretary will be at the evening and day meetings to accept your subscription or you can download membership form and send your fees in by mail.

Remember current membership if essential if you want to:

• exhibit at our annual exhibition in August;
• enjoy discounts from our sponsor;
  
• borrow books from our library;
• receive Connecting Threads newsletter;
• vote at the AGM and any special general meetings; and
• be an office holder.
  

tACTile @ CQ Evening Meeting: 5 February 2009

The first evening meeting for 2009 is set for Thursday, 5 February, 7.15 for 7.45-10pm. Please join us for a full and inspirational program including:

• accredited teachers decribing their forthcoming workshops;
• a special show and tell with the theme of "Summer Quilts" or "What I did in the Holidays"; and
• a presentation by tACTile sharing their latest exhibition of contemporary quilts - Collections - which will open in February 2009 at the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne.

Passions by Beth & Trevor Reid (see My Place Quilts)

tACTile was founded at the end of 2001 by a group of Canberra based textile artists to advance contemporary quiltmaking in Australia by exploring the opportunities of the art quilt. tACTile comprises 6 members; Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray and Beth Miller with Beth and Trevor Reid working together in partnership. All the artists are individually acknowledged as leaders in the field of contemporary quiltmaking at local, national and international levels. The name tACTile was chosen to allude to the touch of textiles while incorporating the fact that they all live in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory). The group has toured nationally and internationally three very successful exhibitions, ‘Pathways’ 2003-2004, ‘Five Squared’ 2005-2007 and ‘Eyeline’ 2007-2008 and are now in the process of completing their fourth exhibition ‘Collections’.

Collection (noun)

• The action or process of collecting
• A group of things collected or accumulated, Collectable (Adj)
• Worth collecting
• Able to be collected, Collective (Adj)
• Done by or belonging to all the members of a group.

The exhibition brief was for each artist to construct a number of quilts to fit within a defined area on the theme 'Collections', it could be a literal interpretation of a personal collection or whatever an individual sees as a collection. As in other tACTile exhibitions there will be a collaborative component to this exhibition. We are all collectors of something, look around and see how many collections surround you, it may be shoes, plants in the garden, books, buttons, rusty bottle tops, nails or a collection of interesting shapes, when two or more like objects are grouped together a collection begins.

4 December Evening Meeting

The final CQ evening meeting for 2008 is tomorrow:

Thursday, 4 December 2008
Weston Creek Uniting Church (Parkinson St)
7.15 for 7.45-10pm
Special Show & Tell: Putting on the Glitz!
Christmas gift exchange

Dress up in your glitzy clothes and bring along your sparkly quilts to share. Visitors welcome!

Christmas Skills Share

Join the Christmas Skills Share with other CQ members at Turner on Saturday, 8 November 9.30am-3.30pm. Cost $5.

Christmas quilts and decorations are always popular items in the CQ Sales Room and are fun to make. Bring your patterns, ideas and fabric and share inspiration with other members.

Helen's Houston Hat Trick

Canberra Quilters extends its congratulations to member Helen Godden who has been awarded three top prizes at the International Quilt Association festival in Houston as follows:

• First Prize, Painted Surface Category - Screeching Cockatoo
  
• Second Prize, Painted Surface Category - Mother Earth
• Inaugural World of Beauty award ($7500) - Seasonal Sisters, a collaboration with Gail Thomas and Annette Hendricks
  

Seasonal Sisters by The Three Sisters

6 November Evening Meeting

The next evening meeting is on 6 November 2008 at 7.15pm for 7.45-10pm, and there will be a whole lot on!

This is Quilt Pledge Night, so bring your pledge certificates and UFOs to join the finishing drive. Will yours be a UFO for QFO?

There will be a special show and tell for Block of the Quarter quilts. This activity started in 1989 and lasted 18 years so please bring along your BoQ quilts for an evening of memories and laughs.

In addition this is Bring and Buy Night. After the formal part of hte meeting, members may set up to sell their wares - fabric, thread, tools etc. So bring along your goods and bring your money!

My Place Website Update

The gallery pages of the MY PLACE contemporary art quilt exhibition website have now been updated to feature thirty striking quilts from South Africa. You can view these quilts, along with the others from New Zealand and Australia (including CQ members), at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne next year.

Sharing Our Legacy Seminar: 17-19 October

The Quilt Study Group of Australia's 'Sharing our Legacy' seminar, which is held every two years, will be in Brisbane between the 17th and 19th of October. It will start with an informal dinner on the 17th October followed by Saturday's full day of presentations by speakers such as Annette Gero, Margaret Rolfe and Pam Holland plus a number of Queensland presenters on local topics of interest to us all.

The details and seminar registration form can be found at www.sydneyquiltstudygroup.blogspot.com

At the same blog address, the current newsletter which contains more details on the agenda and presentations can be downloaded.

Twelve by Twelve: A Collaborative Art Quilt Project

CQ member Brenda Smith belongs to the Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project, an international group of twelve quilt artists who have embarked upon an online art challenge together. Every two months, they each make a small quilted art piece -- 12 by 12 inches – based on a theme chosen by each member in turn.

The group share their process and progress on their blog and the finished works, together with artist statements, are showcased on their dedicated website gallery. The group's latest challenge quilts are due to be revealed online today (1 October US time). The theme is "shelter" and it is always interesting to see how the theme is interpreted.

"Favela" ©2008 Brenda Gael Smith

This marks the midpoint in the Twelve by Twelve challenge timetable. To celebrate this milestone, they encourage readers to leave a comment about this project and to enter a draw for some notecards featuring the collaborative quilt mosaics.

Evening Meeting: Thursday 2 October

The next evening meeting is Thursday, 2 October 2008 at the Weston Creek Uniting Church Hall, Parkinson St, Weston Creek (7.15pm for a 7.45pm start). The guest speaker will be longstanding CQ member, Judy Turner. Judy has moved to Tura Beach. Come along for a glimpse at Judy's quilts and to hear about her new directions.

Batemans Bay Exhibition 19-21 September

The South Coast and Country Quilters Guild will be holding their ninth Biennial Quilt Exhibition this weekend at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club. The Exhibition is open on Friday 19 September from 10 am - 5 pm, the same period on Saturday 20th, and from 10 am - 4 pm Sunday 21st. Members who head for the coast this weekend will be very welcome.

Dare to Differ 2008 Exhibition now online

Dare to Differ 2008 is the seventh Dare to Differ exhibition of contemporary quilts held in Prospect Gallery in Adelaide, South Australia. Entries were selected by members of the SA Quilters' Guild from quilt makers all over Australia and includes works by CQ members Dianne Firth, Helen Gray, and Brenda Smith. The emphasis is on original and innovative work. The exhibition continues until 28 September but you can view the quilts online at the Prospect Gallery website.

GREAT NEWS!!!

Late last week we were contacted by the ACT Government to be told we have been allocated 128 square metres (that’s equivalent in area to a small 3-bedroom house) in what was the Cook Primary School. Please see the Press Release from the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Disability and Community Services, Katy Gallagher MLA. We have been told to expect a formal offer some time after October. The school is to be refurbished and a lift installed, with the estimate for occupation about mid-2009. So we won’t be moving in for a while!!

We have been told the space is one big area on the second floor, which we can subdivide. Some members of the Committee hope to be able to inspect it in the next few weeks.

Cook is fairly central and is reasonably easy to access from all parts of Canberra. Of course, some of us will have a shorter distance to travel to meetings and some of us will have longer – but the advantages of having space of our own which is truly ‘Canberra Quilters home’ will far outweigh the disadvantages.

Just think – access to the library, flexibility for QFO, a drop-in place, friendship group meeting place, small group exhibitions, workshops ... the list goes on.

Your input is important. Now is the time for you to let the Committee know your thoughts and ideas on the HOO (Home of Our Own) and the HOOT (Home of Our Own Transition) – so talk to them, email them, phone them ... or even post a comment here.