Waverley Quilt Show

Right on schedule, winter arrived:

 View from the train window as I headed off to Mt Waverley for the Waverley Patchworkers biennial quilt show. Grey and rainy. Quite appropriate for the first day of winter!

The Waverley show was wonderful! Here are a few random shots of a tiny percentage of the quilts on show. I was told it was OK to blog photos, as long as they were credited. But for these first couple, that's a bit tricky - these are the (anonymous) challenge entries that greeted everyone as they arrived:

The challenge theme was "Red and white with a touch of black". Sometimes you had to look closely to find the touch of black! As you can see, there was an amazing number of challenge entries, and a huge range of techniques and subject matter. Here's the view from the other end:

 Well done to everyone who entered the challenge. It was a fantastic display.

This quilt is "Technicolour Dreaming" by Marlene McPherson:

Marlene designed, pieced and quilted her quilt on a domestic machine. I loved the colours, and the way they flowed across the quilt. It is not a complex piecing design, just 4-patches interspersed with plain squares, but what a wonderful result! It must have been fun trying to keep track of it all as she assembled the quilt.

Another stunning quilt that stopped me in my tracks was "Fiesta" by Nola Gibson:

Nola hand-dyed all the fabrics, including over-dyeing some commercial fabrics. She designed, constructed and quilted the quilt herself. Once the quilting was done (in thick black thread), she painted areas with "Lumiere" fabric paints. Here's a closer view of one small part of the quilt:

 Isn't it amazing?

Here's a quieter quilt, "Bali Forest Zen", by Wendy Cadby:

The design is from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Wendy used Bali batik fabrics to create this beautiful quilt for her son. It was  longarm quilted with a leaf design machine by Naomi Hynes of The Elegant Stitch. This is another quilt with a fairly simple piecing design and beautiful use of colours.

Here's an example of complicated piecing; "Tessellating Swans" by Fiona Worthy:

The pattern is an interpretation of an Escher design by Kay Parker. Fiona pieced the quilt by hand and machine and quilted it on a domestic machine. She described the piecing as "quite difficult". I'm sure it was!

Guess how big this quilt is:

 "Summer Breeze" by Linda Crouch. Linda drafted this traditional block to 1" squares! That's 14 pieces of fabric making up each square inch. Linda described it as "very difficult to assemble". She quilted the blocks in the ditch, and added a zig-zag and looping quilting design in the border. Exquisite!

My last picture is of a set of quilts made by the Crosstown Quilters Group. They were made as a mystery quilt designed by Annette Burton. Notice how they are all quite different?

Annette's design results in a "choose your own" mystery quilt, where each part of the quilt is selected by rolling a die. So each quilt made from the design is unique. Annette is apparently writing a book on the technique, to be called "Mysterious Paths", which sounds like a book to look out for.

There really was something for everyone in this show. There were quilts to inspire everyone, from beginners to the most experienced.  I bumped into a few people I know, and it was great to catch up with them all. And I haven't mentioned the wonderful refreshment area, with the scones baked on site, and lots of yummy cakes etc. Plus a room full of traders.

Well done to everyone who was involved in organising the show, and to everyone who had quilts on display. It was a great day out.