Brave Outing

It was minus 2 this morning. This is last year's baby magpie trying to get a bit of warmth from the sun, while standing on frozen grass:

By the time I got in my car to set off on a big adventure, the temperature had climbed to zero. At Ballan Station it was 3.

I was bravely catching a train to Melbourne, to attend the Craft and Quilt Fair. I must have gone to it in 2019, although I don't seem to have mentioned it on my blog. And then of course it wasn't held in 2020 or 2021. The events company that run it must have been a bit nervous that numbers would be low this year, because they gave away many free tickets, and lowered the general admission price to $15. (From memory it was around $20 in 2019). I had a freebie, but even up to yesterday I wasn't sure I would go.

The area devoted to the Fair seemed smaller than in previous years. There were fewer quilts on display, fewer vendors, and a significantly smaller sitting/eating area. That was the only part of the show that was uncomfortably crowded.

As well as the 2022 Victorian Quilters Showcase, there were the winners of last year's showcase (which was held online only) and another whole section called "Australian Quilt Show". That's a new competition run by the events company which had a $10,000 prize for best in show, as well as other prizes of cash and Janome machines. I wonder what effect that will have on the state guilds' competitions? You can see a gallery of all the prize winners here.

On Thursday the Vic Quilters awards are announced, so it was nice to be there for that. In the photo above, the ladies with the trolley were finding the prize-winners and adding their ribbons after the announcements.

You can see from my photos that the show wasn't very crowded:

Although part of that was me avoiding other people!

Here are a few close-ups of quilts that caught my eye.

For lovers of hexies, this is part of the 10,500 hexagons in Mary Hichens' The Geraldine Mary Fitzgibbon Quilt:

Keren Terrens' Finally Finished - A New York Beauty won a couple of awards. If you look at the bottom left of my photo you can see the edges of the ribbons - the colours of the ribbons matched the colours of the quilt!

This is just a small part of Robyn Cuthbertson's Circles in Bloom. Amazing quilting and interesting edge treatment. This quilt was runner-up Best in Show:

 Not a great photo though.

Another beautifully quilted piece was Desley Maisano's Starburst:

 More beautiful quilting in Wendy Blyth's Perky Pinks:

I liked the way she filled in the grey background with random rectangular quilted shapes (they seemed random, anyway).

And lastly, a prize winner from the 2021 virtual Showcase, Linda Crouch's Fibonacci Fandangle:

My photo doesn't do it justice at all! I'm glad I got to see it in person.

It was great to see the quilts in the company of one friend, and bump into a few others at the show. I had a very small shopping list of 2 items, neither of which were actually available from the vendors, so it was a cheap day for me. The trains each way were not terribly crowded, and almost everyone wore masks.

I wore my N95 mask all day except for when eating or drinking. Hopefully I didn't pick up the virus anywhere along the way!