Members on show at Mandelson's of Goulburn

Several members of Canberra Quilters will be showing quilts at Mandelson's of Goulburn this weekend, 16-17 March.
Claire Ayling, joint owner of Mandelson's, is one of our sponsors through her Bali Batiks fabric business.

Quilts at Mandelson’s

Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th March

10am - 4pm

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Opening Presentation on Saturday at 10.30am by Margaret Rolfe

  

    Evolution of Quilts

Mandelson’s of Goulburn

160 Sloane Street Goulburn. 4821 0707



Entry by Gold Coin Donation to Goulburn Anglicare

                                                       

Spectacular Display of the Quilting Journey of 7 Award Winning Quilters

Jenny Bowker  Helen Gray  Ann Haddad  Beth Miller

Margaret Rolfe  Carolyn Sullivan  Judy Turner

From their first quilt to their most recent!

Available for Purchase:  
·         Bali Batik fabrics from Claire Ayling
·         Superior Threads from Julie Woods

·         Quilting supplies from Bungendore Country Patchwork
·         Quilts by Pattern- Beth Miller and Wendy Keegan

Cash Sales Only

Morning and Afternoon Tea available in Mandelson’s Historic Dining Room

Claire Ayling Bali Batiks

4821 0707 / 0421334404
claire.ayling@bigpond.com

Busy Week Ahead

The second week of the month is always a busy one for the special interest groups of Canberra Quilters. These groups are open to any member to participate - they just might have what you are seeking.

We have just had the Art Quilters meet on Saturday (9th). They generally have a mini-workshop of some kind and discuss art quilt ideas.

On Tuesday(12th) the Quilts for Others (QFO) group meets between 10am and 2.30pm for its monthly working bee. Quilts are made for donation to various charitable organisations around the ACT - Tedd Noffs Foundation, Marymead, Karinya etc.Three hundred quilts were distributed in 2012.

On Wednesday  (13th) the ROWmakers design group meets 10.30pm until 12 noon. Participants in this group make a quilt, or a group of objects like bags, placemats or pin cushions over the course of a year. It started off in 2011 making a quilt row-by-row but has expanded in scope each year. This is the second meeting for the year and the first round is due to be revealed - incorporating green and circles/curves.
Here is the first gathering for the year in February. We are all paying close attention to the instruction from convenor Joanne!

On Thursday (14th) Creative Clothing meets between 10am until 2pm. This group is interested in making clothing and accessories tending to the creative end of the spectrum. Members discuss current projects, get help with fitting, cut garments out on the cutting tables.

Also on Thursday is the Modern Quilting group, meeting between 7.30pm until 9.30pm. This group is interested in the Modern Quilting movement. At the moment they are working on scrappy trip-around-the-world as described on the Quiltville blog http://quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml
Co-convenor Michelle has some images on her blog http://buttontreelane.blogspot.com of last month's get together.

Of course there is the usual drop-in on Wednesday afternoon (1-4pm). This week the Friday drop-in won't take place because of the Sue Bennett workshop in the room. Normal service resumes in Week 3 of the month.

Vale Helen Hassall 1933 - 2013

Long-time Canberra Quilter, Helen passed away on 7 March 2013.

Helen was well known for her machine embroidery, machine quilting and surface design. Her quilt 'Come See My Garden' was voted Viewers' Choice for the 2004 Members' Exhibition.

A service for Helen will be held on 18 March, view details here.
In lieu of flowers Helen has requested donations be made to Quilts for Others.

Art Quilters meeting on Saturday 9 March

The Art Quilters will be meeting tomorrow from 1-4pm. Here is a message from Wilma about the afternoon's mini-workshop:

we are playing with food colouring, shaving cream, fabric and paper.

You will need all the above. The shaving cream can be “No Frill or Home brand” and you could share a container with a friend. The fabric needs to be white or off white several A5 pieces will be great.

Other things you will need are: newspaper to protect the tables, gloves, wooden spoon or a small stick and a squeegee (old credit card or a piece of firm card board).

I would encourage recycling your used  printing paper while you are trying this method out.

I will bring trays, food colouring and anything else I can think off.

Meeting on Thursday evening - 7 March

This Thursday is the normal evening meeting in the Hall at the Cook Community Hub. From 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.
All the usual fun - notices, show and tell, raffle, lucky door prize, library.

Also guest speakers:
Liz Dawson from Common Ground- an organisation looking to build accommodation in Canberra for low income or unemployed people. QFO have donated a quilt to the cause.

Canberra Quilters member Stephanie Newman will be sharing with us many of her top quilting techniques.

Blankets of Love

Canberra Quilters participates in a nationwide program called Blankets of Love.
Blankets of Love is a long-running program of Canberra Quilters, co-ordinated by Joan Porta and Anne Eccleston. Last year many quilts were donated to Canberra Hospital and Calvary John James.

The program donates quilts (about 50-60 cm square) to the maternity wards and neo-natal units of hospitals for use in the case of a still-birth or a death in the neo-natal unit. The baby is wrapped in the quilt. A small postcard-size quilt, replicating the design of the larger quilt is also donated. This is put in a memory box for the parents and is only one of the important keepsakes included in the box.

All the quilts are donated anonymously.
Here are some of the quilts donated in the last month:

Twelve by Twelve Colourplay Sydney Exhibition 7-10 March

The exhibition tour of the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay collection has been extended to include Sydney.

Yes! all 144 art quilts from this series will be on display at the Stitches & Craft Show at Rosehill in Sydney from 7-10 March 2013. Canberra Quilters member, and one of the Australian Twelves, Brenda Gael Smith will be presenting a floor talk at 12 noon on Sunday, 10 March.  All welcome!

If you would like to learn more about the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge, there's a fun article about the project on the Stitches and Craft Show website.

Quilts for Others (QFO) working bee - 12 Feb

QFO holds its first working bee for the year on 12 February from 10am until 2.30pm. Come along and help make quilts for charity. You can piece, baste tops, cut strips, quilt, iron for someone - there are any number of ways you can help out.

Tea and coffee provided, bring your own lunch.

Below is one of the quilts made last year, closeup and full quilt.

March workshops with Sue Bennett and Jinny Beyer

Canberra Quilters are very excited to be hosting Sue Bennett from Miss Sampson's Drapery and Jinny Beyer when they present three workshops and a lecture in March 2013.  

 

Sue will teach a folded Mariner's Compass Class on Friday 15th; Jinny will talk about colour in a 2 hour presentation that evening.

 

On Saturday 16th March, Jinny will teach two workshops. The first is a morning workshop, working with her famous Border Prints, and the second  starts in the afternoon and continues on Sunday 17th for a session of colour and piecing joy with Jinny's techniques for colour selection and quilt construction.

Contact workshop coordinator for details. (Contact informational in Connecting Threads magazine.)

Art Quilters meet on 2 Feb

The Art Quilters are changing their meeting day for this month, due to the clash with a workshop. They are meeting this Saturday, 2 February from 1-4pm.
Here is a message from the convenor of the group:

Hi, all

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful break … happy new year  : D
Next Meeting:  this Saturday, 2^nd February at 1pm
Mini-Workshop:  using soy wax as a resist (Wilma and I will bring the soy wax)
          Please bring:
·       3 acrylic paints, easier to stick to warm or cool colours
·       white fabric, although a quiet batik fabric could be used as a base and added to
·       plastic to cover your working surface
·       newspaper, lots
·       spray bottle
I will bring an electric pot for melting the wax, a bucket, an iron, etc.

See you there,

Buffy

Modern Quilting group- 14 February preparation

Michelle has passed on a message for the Modern Quilters, ahead of the meeting on 14 February:

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and a decent break to do some quilting. The modern quilt group are meeting again in 2013, with our first meeting on Thursday 14 February. 

Over the Christmas holidays, I took part in an informal online quiltalong and it was such a great fun block Jenny and I thought you might like to give it a go. It's perfect for those scraps, fat eighths and fat quarters of modern fabric you have in your stash that you never know quite what to do with. It's also perfect for jelly rolls!

The quilt I speak of is the Scrappy Trip Around the World, as detailed on the Quiltville blog. http://quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml  The technique is really very quick and fun, and in fact I can whip up a block (not including the initial cutting of the strips) in around 20 minutes.

Over on Flickr there is a Scrappy Tripalong group - check out their quilts! (I'm onto my second one already) http://www.flickr.com/groups/scrappytripalong/

Take a look at the Quiltville instructions, and if you like, bring with you to the 14 February meeting:

• 16 inch x 2.5 inch strips of fabric of varied values - just bring 6 to start you off, or 12. Or 18!
• Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter
• Pins (very important)
• Unpicker (also very important!)
• Scissors, thread
• Sewing machine (we will set up the guild machines, but if you prefer to sew on your own, please bring it along)

I'll demonstrate how the block is put together, and then we can sew and design a layout.

Of course if you're quick off the mark you might like to get started on the block before the meeting. All the instructions are in the Quiltville link up above.

If there are any questions in the meantime, please ask me. Otherwise I will see you at 7.30 (it starts at 7.30, doesn't it?) on Thursday 14 February (or at the evening meeting the week before - Jenny and I plan to do show and tell or our scrappy trip quilts!)

Stay cool and safe, and see you soon.
Cheers
Michelle

Rowmakers group to meet again in 2013, results from 2012

The design exercises that were undertaken in 2011 and 2012 will happen again in 2013.
In 2011 the group met on the second Wednesday of the month and made row-by-row quilts based on design elements set each month.
In 2012 the group met again and this time the design opportunities were expanded. You could make a row-by-row quilt, or create a feature block each month and then incorporate the blocks into a quilt. Some members chose a different path- one made a jacket, one made a set of Christmas-themed placemats, one a tree skirt and another made a pincushion each month.
Set out below are images of the final (or nearly final) projects.

many hands to pin everything up

Jenny made pin cushions

June went with quilt-as-you-go and a unique method of joining



Elizabeth combined spikey feature blocks with log cabins and delved into the Kaffe Fassett fabric stash

Margaret D - Black,white and brights

Kay went with an art quilt interpretation, including hand stitching

Margaret had a chook theme

closeup of Liv's quilt

Closeup of Berys's quilt - hand stich and beading

Anne tried foundation piecing

Closeup of one of Anne's blocks

Joanne made placemats in blue, based on trees

Joan made a tree skirt

Sandra displays the back of her jacket



Mary went with the rows option

Look out for future blog posts about the first meeting in 2013 on February 13.

 

Canberra Quilters premises have re-opened

Last week was the first meeting of the year and the meeting schedule and drop-ins have resumed their normal cycle.
Tomorrow is the regular Wednesday drop-in day. In the morning Wendy Pang will lead the group with Small Japanese projects. In the afternoon I will help out with UFO pledge quilts.

On Friday the 25th,  the first Friendly Friday meeting of the year will be held. All welcome.

On Thursday 7th of Feb, the first evening meeting of the year is held. Traditionally this is when teachers and sponsors show us what they are planning in the year ahead. Meeting starts at 7.30pm in the Cook Hub Hall. This meeting is the deadline to hand in pledges for the UFO pledge activity.

Art Quilt Australia 2013 - Call for Entries

 

In 2013 Art Quilt Australia will be a curated exhibition of innovative, new contemporary art quilts to celebrate the centenary of the naming of the nation’s capital city as Canberra.

Works will be selected that are inspired by, or reflect on ideas of people, place and nation.

With the definition of a quilt as "a stitched layered textile", the exhibition is open to all artists across Australia. It will be curated by Valerie Kirk, Head of Textiles at the ANU School of Art and be held at Craft ACT Design Gallery in Canberra from 31 October to 14 December 2013.

Entry is open to full members of Ozquilt Network Inc and all Australian artists. Large quilts are preferred but must not measure more than 2 metres in either direction.The closing date for entries is 19 July 2013.
Go to the Ozquilt Network site (click here) to download entry form and get further details.

New Year's Day Mystery Quilt

Want something to while away your New Year's Day?
Each year Janet Wickell of qilting.about.com provides instructions for a mystery quilt. Click here to go to the site to get the cutting instructions and then return on New Year's Day to start your quilt.

http://quilting.about.com/

Beneath the Southern Sky @ Queanbeyan: 4-18 December

Textile works by CQ members Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth and Helen Godden feature in the travelling exhibition Beneath the Southern Sky curated by Brenda Gael Smith.   The exhibition continues on tour in 2012 to the The Q Exhibition Space, Queanbeyan, 4-18 December 2012.  Come along to the opening night function at the Q from 5.30-7.30pm, Tuesday 4 December. Please RSVP to Brenda.

The UFO Pledge is coming back in 2013!

In 2009 and 2010 Canberra Quilters ran a program where you signed a pledge to complete an UnFinished Object (UFO) by the end of the year. It will be running again in 2013.

Whether you call it a UFO or a WIP (Work in Progress) most people have something started that has stalled for some reason and they would like to finish. Here is your chance to get motivated. Sign the pledge and commit to finishing!

The rules are simple - sign the pledge certificate published in the December newsletter and hand in to Elizabeth Rose by the February 2013 evening meeting (7th Feb). You are committing to complete your quilt by November 2013 and reveal it at either (or both) the Wonderful Wednesday meeting on 20 November 2013 or the evening meeting on 5 December 2013.

You will need to nominate a specific project on the pledge and be ready to show the completed quilt at the meetings mentioned above. You may choose to show the incomplete UFO and tell the story at a meeting between now and February 2013.

You have until February 2013 to make the pledge and you can nominate more than one project to complete. Blank certificates will also be available at the meetings.

To help you stay motivated and work on your UFO the 3rd and 4th Wednesday afternoon drop-ins will be designated "UFO Days" in 2013. Come along for some help and to offer support for others.

Wonderful Wednesday Meeting - Christmas party on 21 November

The Wonderful Wednesday meeting wraps up the year on 21 November. The Meeting is in the Cook Community Hub Hall from 9.30am until 12.30pm.
Tables are decorated, eveyone brings a SMALL plate of food to share, fun and games deciding the best response to the Chrismas fabric challenge. Voting is by coin donation - the one with the most coins wins. Coins are donated to charity.

ROWmakers last meeting of the year- 14 Nov

Joanne has sent a reminder that next Wednesday is the last ROWmakers meeting of the year. We should get to see all those completed tops (at least) from this year's design exercise. Meeting runs 10.00 for a 10.30 start, until noon.
Here is a bit more from Joanne:
I'll be letting everyone know about the outline for next year. It's a little bit different and some advance notice might allow ideas to percolate. But we all need a little bit of a challenge to keep those grey cells active.

If convenient, a small plate would be appreciated. And you might want to bring your cameras.

I'm hoping for a really good turn-out.

The final list of design options is:
1- black, curves/circles, stars
2- orange, diamonds/hexagons, people
3- blue, piecing, plants
4- purple, crazy picing, words
5- white, applique, houses
6- red, spots/ stripes, hearts
7- green, embellished/ embroidered, birds
8 - yellow, pictorial, bugs

QFO working bee - 13 Nov

The monthly Quilts for Others working bee will be on this Tuesday from 10 until 2.30pm. Come along and help - pinning, sewing or cutting. Morning and afternoon tea provided. BYO lunch.

QFO had made and donated over 200 quilts this year to organisations in the ACT - Marymead, Ted Noffs Foundation, various of the refuges, Karinya.