Craft and Quit Fair

Went to Melbourne for the "Jeff's Shed" quilt show, also known as the Vic Quilters Quilt Showcase:

The Craft and Quilt Fair is the real name of the event, but I wonder if anyone calls it that? There are lots of other crafts available and on display, but the quilts are my main interest.

This antique crib coverlet was one of a small display of antique quilts (the bottom right isn't missing, it was just behind part of the display). There wasn't much info available about it, just that it is typical of coverlets from the north of England, and it was hand-pieced, probably over papers, and is not quilted:

The red and white spool blocks created an optical illusion for me, where my brain would sometimes see them as alternating red spools and white spools all sitting up, and sometimes see them as either red spools or white spools in alternating orientation. Every time I look at it, my brain interprets it differently. The centre section also intrigues me, as it is quite irregularly regular. Or regularly irregular. So I may have spent more time looking at this one quilt than at any individual new one!

I watched the prize-giving, and was happy to see one friend collect an award. But sometimes the category a quilt was in was a bit puzzling. For example, none of the prize-winning "Modern" quilts struck me as particularly modern. And yet this one, which does look like a modern quilt, won a prize in the in the "Traditional - Two Person" category (this is a small section of the quilt): 

It is called Bay Leaves, and is the Bay Quilters raffle quilt for their show in October. I'll have to keep an eye out for ticket sellers for that one! Love the quilting, which enhanced the modern feel of the quilt.

Apparently there were floor talks on, "What Judges are looking for when they judge your quilt. Why this quilt won a prize and why this one did not win", which I'm sorry I missed. That could have been very interesting. I find it puzzling when a quilt wins an award for "innovative embellishment" when it used computerised embroidery digitised by someone else and purchased by the quilter, (which happened one year) or an award for "use of colour" when it was made from a pattern which specified the actual fabrics to use (so actually the designer's colour skills on show rather than the quilter's).

 My only purchase at the show was a colour card and two spools of thread:

I've been using pre-wound bobbins of this thread in my Sweet 16. At a previous show I did a joint purchase with three other quilters, where we each bought a box of 24 of a different colour, then swapped them around so we had 6 bobbins each of 4 colours. I didn't have anyone to do that with this time, and didn't want to buy a box of 24 bobbins of any one colour. (I haven't used up 6 of any one colour yet.) So I got these two spools, and will have to bite the bullet and, for the first time, use the intimidating bobbin-winder that came with the machine.

Anyway, it was a fun day out. The show is on until Sunday if you want to check it out.