The Sydney Quilt Show 2013

Sunday was my 5th Anniversary of quilting!! 

It seems like yesterday that Gbf and I thought it would be fun to have a look at the big quilt show round the corner from where we lived at the time.  We were overwhelmed and amazed by all the beautiful quilts and fabrics that decked the halls. Coming away from the show with a rotary cutter, cutting board and ruler was the best thing I've probably ever done. 

Five years later and I'm strolling through the aisles, once again amazed by all the beautiful quilts of all styles, shapes and sizes, but now I have the added bonus of recognising names of friends, blogging friends and favourite quilters. Here are a few of these quilts. 

First up is Homage by the Springwood Quilt Show Committee.

Homage won 1st prize in the Group/Collaborative Category. I helped make a few of those hexagons so I feel like a mini winner.

This is the 4th time of of 6 entries that The Springwood Quilt Show's quilts have won first prize, not bad eh?

The next quilt is the very deserved Best in Show, and winner of other categories too -  the magnificent Rings and Roses by Janet Treen of Quiltsalott. This quilt has everything, lovely fabric choices, perfect piecing, stunning applique, a fabulous quilting design that includes trapunto and beautiful hand quilting. 

This quilt deserves a standing ovation!!

The next quilt really jumped out at me. I really love the way it sparkles with colour. Leanne Harvey of Mount Vincent Quilts has called her kaleidoscope quilt Loulou. 

Leanne is a Professional long arm quilter and I love how she quilted the grey diamonds and the curls in the points. Look at all those fun fabrics!! 

 Here is Chris Jurd's entry this year. It's called Hatchet. What is there to say about the quilt but WOW!! The block was inspired by an antique quilt and then was tweaked and placed on point. Chris will have patterns for this in her Etsy shop soon or you could leave her a comment on her blog Patchwork Fundamentals to pre-order.

Civil Dahlia is Pamela Westmacott's beautiful version of Chris Jurd's Ancient Dahlia Quilt. 

Absolutely beautiful!! Gorgeous fabric choices, just look at that border fabric!!

Perfect quilting too, done on her trusty domestic machine.  

Here is  Trip around Australia made by Verity Hinwood. 

I just love the fun wonky nature of this quilt. It has an airy feeling to it with the illusion of the stars, squares and rows of triangles floating against the white text background. The border frames it perfectly, not too heavy, not too light, just right!!

Not only did Verity create an amazing quilt but she also designed the fabrics. The text fabrics features names of Australian towns and places, the other fabrics depict native flowers.

You can see her fabrics on her website Veritas Designs

Hello Super Stars!

The Material Obsession Stand is always a work of art in itself. I just love the hanging hoops and the pillar of cushions and pillows. And piles of gorgeous fabrics!!

Looking at 400 beautiful quilts can really make you hungry so Gbf and I headed off to a favourite nearby Chinese restaurant where we had this fun dish. The yellow "cups" are made from corn bread. You scoop in the filling and gobble it up. 

And on the way back through Darling Harbour I was mesmerised by this fountain. 

Gbf mentioned that the water droplets sounded like an audience clapping

There's that standing ovation for Janet's Best in Show quilt I thought.  :)

All in all it was a fabulous quilty day!!

Octopus's Garden

Hello!! 

I know I've been pretty quiet over the last few weeks...

I wish I could say I've been sailing to faraway places surrounded by a flock of flying geese...

Or on adventures looking for sea savvy seagulls.

I haven't gotten lost whilst wandering through the rain looking for flowers, feathers...

...shells and starfishes.

You may be thinking it, but no, a giant octopus didn't come out of his underwater house to kidnap me....

If only I'd been off chasing butterflies...

...under rays of sunshine.

 Birds in the bushes have been chirping and frogs croaking their songs but...

...try as I might , I'm sorry to say I really don't have any good excuses to give you about my absence.

 But ...
I do have a new quilt top to show you!!!

A combination of my precious stash of Tula Pink fabrics, snippets of 8 different collections, 

and Chris Jurd's fabulous Emperors Wheel Pattern.

I think I'll call my version Octopus's Garden.

Linking up with LeChallenge whose challenge theme for this month is Maritime.

Dollop of Cream - Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hi There!!

3 Cheers for the Bloggers Quilt Festival and to Amy's Creative Side for doing a wonderful job of hosting such a great event! And thankyou to You for stopping by to have a look at my quilt!

Dollop Of Cream started when I noticed I had a growing collection of fun cream and beige fabrics in my stash. 

Around that time I did a class with Chris Jurd in which we made the Ferris Wheel circles - a perfect excuse to play with those fun neutrals, and a good change from the brights that I usually work with.

I made a patchy background but was careful with my placements so the circles wouldn't cover up favourite prints.

On the left hand side we have a couple dancing..

Above and to the right there is a cupid keeping an eye on them.

A fun repro flour sack...

And doilies- big, small and even a rectangle one.

I then decided it needed a bird..

and another bird.

And a heart in a hand... I tried to make the hand's edges look as though it had be torn out of a newspaper, and the heart has pictures of paper boats - a symbol of hop if ever there was one. 

So finally the top was finished and the quilting began. I hand quilted with lots of perle thread and just followed the lines of the quilt, making it up as I went along.

I even started sewing crosses, just for fun...

So that's my Dollop of Cream quilt. I hope you liked it.

I have another quilt in the festival -  it's a bit brighter than this quilt - pop over and have a look at 

 Jumpin Jack Flash

Ps, I usually like to respond to comments but its going to be a busy week trying to see as many fabulous Festival quilts as possible so I'll thank you now for taking the time to read about my quilts. If you leave me a comment I'll pop over and visit your blog and leave you a comment in return. :)

Jumpin Jack Flash- Bloggers Quilt Festival

First up, I'd like to say a big Thank You to Amy's Creative Side and the wonderful sponsors for putting on the Bloggers Quilt Festival !! 

 Looking at fabulous quilts and discovering new fun blogs, 2 of my favourite things!!! Yay!!

Presenting Jumpin Jack Flash!!

I made this quilt over a year ago so it's about time I share photos of it quilted and bound.

This quilt is the result of pulling out bits and pieces of lots of my favourite novelty prints and throwing them all in together.  Afterwards I realised it was like a big scrappy I-Spy quilt. 

I started by sewing pieces together, then those pieces went with other pieces and so on until I had a quilt top approx 85inches square.  It came together like magic and was a pleasure to sew. It's funny how some quilts behave perfectly and others can be a bag of trouble. 

 I quilted it myself. I was going to do simple straight line quilting across the quilt but halfway through the first line I decided to make it a bit more interesting by quilting where the sewing machine took me, so there's zig zags, loops, stitch in the ditch and all sorts of wonky stitching.

The name of the quilt came to mind because the recipient is a Rolling Stones fan. I dug out my favourite Stones Cd's to listen to as I sewed. The title of the song Jumpin' Jack Flash just seemed to, well, jump out at me. I think it really suits the quilt.

 This photo gives a peek of the backing... Golden yellow fabric with scattered vegetables by Martha Negley.

 And the binding is a scrappyluscious mix of fabrics.

This festival we're allowed to show 2 quilts  so I have another entry called Dollop of Cream, scrappy circles in neutral colours and lots of hand quilting.  click here to have a look.

Thanks for visiting.  I always try to reply to comments but it's going to be a busy week of trying to visit as many festival blogs as I can so please excuse me if I don't reply. If you leave me a comment I'll make sure I visit your blog and leave a comment in return. :) .