sydney quilt show 2010

Just wanted to share some quilts from the Sydney 2010 quilt show.

My friend was honoured with an invitation from the Quilter's Guild to display her traditional style quilts. It was wonderful to revisit these old friends, having witnessed the evolution of some from idea to completion.


Upon entering the show visitors were presented with two of Gai's quilts. She doesn't believe in small quilts....(had to laugh - this is very very last of 100's of photos I took...note right of screen.)



Hand quilted, hand pieced and all hand appliqued. Her dedication to excellent work has continued to inspire me over the years to improve my own work.





Gorgeous echo quilting.



Inspired by a quilt in the American Museum in Bath. Love the clamshell quilting.

Sigh...more on the show soon.

fun with baptist fans

Ever see a quilt where the quilting on the outer borders is a bit thin on the ground and you think to yourself - uh oh, she must have got sick of it?

I can sympathise completely!

Over the past few months - on and off...mostly off - I have been struggling with the quilting on this string pieced quilt. The quilt was constructed using a combination of an antique centre star and new satellite stars made up from antique fabric. The border is a mixture of reproduction and antique black prints.


The antique blocks were foundation pieced, so to try to make things easier for myself, I chose to do big stitch quilting using Sulky thread... how hard is it to quilt large and even when for years I have been trying to perfect small? Totally nuts.

Several mistakes conspired against me. The batting I chose is awful (mistake no. 1) 100% cotton to try to achieve that flat antique look, it is tough and hard to needle and I'm sure it has extra scrim; the reproduction black border fabric is extra stiff (mistake no.2) maybe because it's black and heavily printed? and big mistake no. 3, I chose to do a mini Baptist fan on the border and not something simple.


This weekend, out she came again after an extended holiday in the cupboard, and we sat together watching the World Cup at ridiculous wee small hours of the morning (oh dear! our poor Socceroos!)


One more side finished - so now there is only one more to go. Happiness is close at hand.