Fun at the Fair

On Wednesday I took the train to Melbourne and met up with a friend to visit the Craft and Quilt Fair.

We enjoyed a session watching Dai the Patchwork Ninja demonstrate making his Accordion Wallet:

Picture from their website. 

I couldn't resist buying a kit to make 3 of them. He is an excellent salesman and it would have been easy to spend a lot more at his stall than I did!

The kit includes pattern and instructions, interfacing, 6 fabrics (3 outer, 3 lining), press-stud type closures, and fancy marking pen.

My only other purchase was a fat quarter I needed for a birthday gift later this year. I was on the lookout for some sewing supplies (nice elastic, in particular), but there weren't any vendors with that sort of thing.

In the Quilt Showcase, this amazing quilt won Mariya Waters another Best In Show award:

Dreadful photo, so look at the applique and quilting details:

Four years in the making! It also won ribbons for Excellence in Appliqué and first prize in the Mainly Appliqué - Professional section. Mariya is a talented quiltmaker!

Perhaps we have been quilting too long, but there weren't a lot of stand-out quilts. Many looked just like quilts seen in other shows and other years. However this one made me stop and have another look:

I thought it was a printed fabric at first glance. The colours blended together so well I thought it was a lovely printed design that had been turned into a wholecloth quilt. But then I noticed there was some embroidery as well:

and in fact when you look closely all the leaves and flowers are needle-turned appliqued. And look at how the branches around the edges are done - they are a continuation of the border, appliqued in place:

This beauty is called "Springtime Meadow", and was made by Pat Leviston and quilted by Vicki Jenkin. They won a two-person prize, but sadly I can't read the rosettes in my photos. Just a gorgeous quilt, anyway!

This one won a special heart-warming accolade:
 

Isn't that sweet?

All in all it was an good day out.

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!

Golden Textures

It was a lovely day for a road trip to Maryborough to visit the 6th biennial Golden Textures contemporary art quilt exhibition at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery. Here are a few shots of some of the interesting pieces.

 I have to include this one, because it is the winning piece, and was also made by a member of Ballaarat Quilters:

Crown of Thorns by Suzanne Lyle (detail)

 

This next piece was free-motion quilted on a long-arm, but the stitching is incredibly fine and there is no sign of needle holes. I wonder if she uses a very thin needle, or washes the work after finishing the quilting, or ... ? Just how does she manage this:

As the Sun Sets by Robyn Cuthbertson (detail)

 

This is a tiny part of a work showing canola fields glowing at various times of the day:

Snapshots - Triptych by Beth and Trevor Reid (detail)

My photo doesn't really capture the glowingness!

The colours in this piece are also not at all accurate, but the piecing is amazing:

Microcorrossion by Katherine Jones (detail)

I know from the artist's statement that she used foundation paper piecing to create the shapes, but how she designed it is a mystery. I expect a computer graphics program of some sort was involved. I've shown some of her work before, including the amazing "Bling", which also featured incredible piecing.

Lastly, a fun piece "celebrating" Melbourne's lockdown life in 2020:

Staring at the Wallpaper by Noelle Lyon

I didn't get a shot of the whole thing. She also has very fluffy slippers on her feet, for attending Zoom business meetings.

You can see more of the works on Instagram: #goldentextures2021

Long Weekend - Day One

This weekend is huge in Ballarat. The main event is the Begonia Festival, but there are many other things to see and do.  Today was the best day for me to visit a couple of the events, and I had the pleasure of the company of a Melbourne friend who has already blogged about it with much better photos than mine. Check out her post here.

After a cuppa and a tour of our garden, our first port of call was the Begonia Quilters exhibition.

Although photos of quilts were allowed, they were not allowed to be published online. I hope this overview of the room will prove we were there, without breaching the rules. The show was in the Masonic Centre, a building I had not known of before. I have driven past it without noticing it, as it is well back from the road and downhill. (I have since spoken to several long-term Ballarat dwellers who also had no idea it was there, so I don't feel so bad now.) Refreshments were available here, so we had another cuppa, this time accompanied by scones with jam and cream.

Our next stop was the Embroiderers Guild exhibition. My photos of this don't do it justice at all, so you should definitely check out my friend's pictures. (Link in first paragraph).

I really liked this informative display of different types of embroidery:

There were a few quilts too,

mainly featuring stitchery panels. Look up at the ceiling. You might recognise this venue from my photos of setting up our quilt show last year. The ornate ceiling panels served as inspiration for a challenge for the Embroiderers:

After the embroidery, we popped in to a nearby cafe for a coffee and cake, then quickly checked out the book fair at less ornate church hall across the road. I picked up a couple of novels before they closed at 4pm, then we were on the road again.


Last stop for the day was the Begonia Festival. I love all the different coloured begonia leaves:

 but it is really all about the flowers:

 

I made one purchase in the market section of the festival, which was something I have wanted for a while. But that possibly needs its own post, so I'll save it for another day.

Exhibition

Welcome to the exhibition! This is the table facing the door, where you pay your entry fee, and also hopefully buy raffle tickets for the quilt you can see on the right. The pattern is Meadow by Michelle McKillop:

Second prize was a $100 voucher to Millrose in Ballan, and the third prize was a $50 voucher to Avalon Nursery in Haddon. (I would have been happy with 3rd prize!) All the raffle tickets were sold, which is a good effort. The proceeds will go to the Ballarat Hospital's new children's ward. The hospital suggested that craft materials for the children were always required, so that is what the raffle money will be used for.

The show was well attended, and people seemed to enjoy it. There was a bit of everything, from Robyn Cooper's modern improvised work in the foreground, to Glenys Irvine's refined applique piece on the next stand:

A display of some of the work of the art quilt group:

Entries in our 2018 challenge,"What's in your garden?":

Some small quilts, and a few of the entries in our 2017 challenge, where we could only use the colours of our birthstone and the flower associated with that month:

A small display of charity quilts, some of which may look familiar:

Another of Robyn Cooper's improvised pieces on the left, with my Bloom in the middle and views through to other works of various styles:

My version of last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery, "Good Fortune".

One of the other quilters from the group spoke to me about joining in the mystery this year, so that should be fun - hopefully we will have some sit and sew days together to work on it and encourage each other.

This photo is the back of a quilt:

Made from cloth bags from all over - flour bags, rice bags, promotional bags of many types. I'm glad nothing was hung behind it, because it was quite interesting to read all the bags.

Another familiar quilt:

That's my temperature quilt getting a bit of attention. In fact it got a lot of attention all weekend, and a lot of people spoke to me about it. It was quite overwhelming as people said some very nice things and were much more interested in it than I expected. A few people said that if there had been a viewers' choice they would have voted for the temperature quilt.

If you would like to see some better pictures, and some interesting comments about aspects of the show, check out this post by Jeanette, who visited on Saturday.

Exhibition Set-Up

A busy day with an early start. From 8:30am the amazing hall began to be turned into our exhibition space:

A team of workers assembled frames.

The quilts started arriving at 10:30, and more workers hung them:

The stage area features the work of one quilter, Liz Dyer:

What you can't tell from the photos is that the temperature was nudging 30. A bit hot for all this physical work!

I had arranged with my employer that I would work this afternoon rather than in the morning, so at 12:30 I had to leave to go to work. The finishing touches and final tweaking were accomplished in the afternoon before the official opening at 6pm. Unfortunately I missed the opening as I was worn out after work and went home to have a shower and get changed before another engagement at 7:30pm. Long hot day!

Art Quilts at the Wool Museum

My Sweet Sixteen was booked in for its regular service (2 years or 2,000,000 stitches) in Geelong today, so while it was being worked on I went to the National Wool Museum to check out Art Quilt Australia 2019:

There are two sides to the exhibition, because of the different prizes:

• $3000 for Expressions: The Wool Quilt Prize, for a wool quilt. The winner of the Expressions prize is also acquired by the National Wool Museum for its permanent collection.
• $3000 for the non-acquisitive OZQN Award of Excellence, which is open to all quilts.

The colourful quilts glow against dark walls:

Here are a few of my favourites.

This photo doesn't do justice to Pat Forster's "Ten Shades of Rhododendron, Seven Blooms Intact":

Lois Parish Evans' "Aussie Bush Delights", an mandala of native flowers:

Alison Withers' "Change for Earth" received a "highly commended" in the wool quilt prize:

I really wanted to touch her woollen floral creations - they looked so tactile.

Denise Griffiths' "Flora Australis" used a 3D padded appliqué technique, which I also would have liked to get my hands on!

It was only looking back through my photos that I realised they all had a floral theme.

The winner of the Ozquilt Network Award for Excellence prize had nothing to do with flowers. This is a detail of Neroli Henderson's "Whitewash", a representation of churning waves:

She used a photo printed on silk as the basis for this piece, then used a heavy thread (12wt) in the quilting to add texture.