Threadbear Applique Group - Biennial Quilt Exhibition - Castlemaine 2016

I have a confession to make - I've been in a bit of a funk lately.  I was very unwell at the beginning of the year and it has left me feeling very flat. So when my friend Alison (from Melbourne) contacted me one night and asked if I would like to meet her down in Castlemaine the next day for an applique show, I jumped at the chance.

Here are some of the quilts that were on display.  I've taken a few close-ups of the quilting as that is something I am still learning how to do.

Castlemaine Visitor's Information Centre was home to the exhibition.

"Flowers in the Garden" designed by Alma Allen.  Hand appliqued & machine pieced by Dianne Rickard.  Quilted by Carolyn Konig - Wodonga.

"Irish Circles" - designed by Karen Cunningham.  Hand appliqued & machine pieced by Susan Jones.  Quilted by Susan Campbell.

"Irish Circles" close up

"Floral Beauty" - designed by Irene Blanck.  Hand appliqued & hand pieced by Ellen Walters.  Quilted by Desley Maisano.

"A Tribute to Mrs Williams" - designed by Corliss Searcey.  Hand appliqued, hand & machine pieced by Donna Williams.  Quilted by Boutique Quilting and Donna Williams.

"A Tribute to Mrs Williams" close up

"A Tribute to Mrs Williams" close up

"Enduring Hexagons" an original design by Jenny Bacon.  Hand pieced & hand appliqued by Jenny Bacon.  Quilted by Jenny Bacon. 

"Enduring Hexagons" close up

"Chardonnay" an original design by Jenny Bacon.  Machine pieced & hand appliqued by Jenny Bacon.  Quilted by Jenny Bacon.

"1812 Chintz Bouquet" - inspired by "Chintz Quilts from the Poos Collection" by Kay and Lori Lee Triplett and Xenia Cord.  Hand appliqued by Meghan Leslie.  Machine quilted by Helen Hayes.

"English Baskets" - designed by Corliss Searcey.  Hand appliqued and machine pieced by Wendy Blyth.  Quilted by Windermere Quilting. 

"St Barnabas Pearl" - An original design.  hand appliqued & machine pieced by Michelle Yeo.  Quilted by Desley Maisano.  This was my favourite quilt at the exhibition!

"St Barnabas Pearl" close up

"St Barnabas Pearl" close up

"Bird Dance" - designed by Sue Spargo.  hand appliqued & hand pieced by Margaret Brown.  Quilted by Rowdy Flat Quilting.

"Oscillation" - designed by Margaret McDonald.  Machine appliqued & machine pieced by Margaret McDonald.  Quilted by Susan Campbell.

"Oscillation" close up

"Peonies and Plumes" - an original design.  Hand appliqued & machine pieced by Michelle Yeo.  Quilted by Desley Maisano.

"Peonies and Plumes" close up

"Ruby Runes" - designed by Susan Garman.  Hand appliqued & machine pieced by Wendy Blyth.  Quilted by Rowdy Flats Quilting.  

"My Morrel Quilt" - designed by Di Ford.  Hand pieced & hand appliqued by Annie Andrews.  Quilted by Annie Andrews.

"Corliss' Baskets"  - designed by Corliss Searcey.  Hand appliqued & hand pieced by Sharon Ghalayini.  Quilted by Shirley Lokys.  

"The Beamish" - an original design, based on a quilt in the Beamish Museum with their permission.  Hand appliqued & hand pieced by Merri Garton.  Quilted by Katrina Wilson.

"The Beamish" close up

"Miss Matty's Parlour" - designed by Megan Carroll.  Hand appliqued & hand pieced by Carolyn Mellor.  Machine quilted by Simply Quilting - Warrandyte.

 

The exhibition was very inspiring. I had a lovely day out with Alison and was so excited to later discover that she won one of the door prizes!  

Jen Kingwell class

Back in March I had the opportunity to do a class with Jen Kingwell (of Amitie Textiles in Melbourne) which was hosted by Cotton Factory in Ballarat.  Alison from Cotton Factory had hired a local hall for the class so that we would have plenty of space to spread ourselves out as there were about 20 students enrolled (people had travelled from New South Wales, Tasmania and various parts of Victoria to participate).

 

The class was based on Jen's quilt pattern "The Circle Game". In the class we covered several techniques including; hand piecing, machine piecing, English paper Piecing (EPP), foundation piecing, and applique.  Jen also demonstrated her hand quilting techniques.

 

Jen Kingwell & myself.  Jen autographed a copy of her new book "Quilt Lovely" for me.  Squeeeeee!!!  #FanGirlMoment



Squeeeeeee!  Jen autographed a copy of her book for me. #FanGirlMoment



 

Hand piecing in class.

A view of our class room

Another view of our class room

Me with the gorgeous Jodie Carleton from Ric Rac

Jodie & Jen

Isabella Golightly - the Bilby Lady - flew down from Sydney to join our class.  I took Greeny the bilby along to catch up with his "birth" mother.

Greeny wasn't on his own, Katharine had her bilby in class as well so they got to hang out & do "Secret Bilby Business" whilst we sewed.

Sue Clark, Carlie Lincoln & Kendra Watson - friends of mine from Melbourne

 

Me & Carlie.  Carlie was my first quilting friend and kindly took me under her wing when I started out.  This is the lovely lady who encouraged me to start foundation paper piecing!

I finally got to meet my dear friend Alison White in person!

Jodie from Ric Rac brought some of her selvage art for us to admire.  This is her selvage chair & her selvage dress.  Also on display was a selvage parasol which I forgot to photograph.  Jodie has kindly talked me through the process so I am hoping to do some work with selvages later this year.

English Paper Piecing in class.

Alison from Cotton Factory caught in the act of photographing Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis"

Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis"

Alison from Cotton Factory holding up Jen Kingwell's original copy of the quilt "The Circle Game"

The Circle Game pattern by Jen Kingwell & her new book "Quilt Lovely"

We worked on a number of blocks during class which I will feature in upcoming blog posts.

 

Rather than drive all the way back to Bendigo after such a long day, I stayed overnight in Ballarat and spent some quality time with some of the other out-of-towners who chose to stay over.  My next blog post will be the "After Party" - I mean the after class photos...

Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap

 

I recently participated in the "Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap" which was hosted by So Charming.

 

We were asked to create a mug rug for our swap partner and to include a few extra little goodies.  Unlike other swaps this one had a spending cap of USD10 (approximately AUD12 - AUD15) retail on the extras and all extras had to follow the theme of the swap.  I loved this idea.  I loved that we had a limit to stick to which meant that we had to be creative! 

 

All photos on Instagram were posted with the hashtags #whimsicalwoodlandmugrug  & #jensstitches  There are some amazing photos in this feed so please check them out when you have time to do so. 

 

Our partners are secret so we do not know who is making for us - at least we won't know until our parcel arrives.  And who we make for may not be the same person who is making for us.  Our dispatch deadline was 25 January for international posting, or 2 February for domestic parcels.

 

My swap partner was Louisa Watts @loubeelou76 who lives in Western Australia.  I was told that Louisa likes pink, green, and autumn colours.  Her favourite woodland creatures are: fox, squirrel, hedgehog & owl. 

 

This is Louisa's inspiration mosaic

Louisa's parcel of awesomeness:

  

This is what I sent to Louisa.

 

Louisa's mug rug was 3 owls sitting on a branch, and there is a 4th owl who is about to land on the right hand side.  I also made her a zippered pouch and a key fob.  All of the fabrics used were from my stash.  I only had to purchase the ribbon, a zip and I buy the key fob hardware in bulk.

The back of the mug rug

This year I am printing labels for all my swaps.

I included some stickers

A lovely hedgehog card made by my friend Libby at Willow Fox Designs.

 

I didn't know if Louisa was a tea or coffee drinker so I included both.

I also included some washi tape and a rogue charm square that I found lurking in my fabric stash.

I used the left over ribbon from the key fob & the zipper bag to wrap part of her present.

 

Louisa's gifts were wrapped in woodland themed wrapping paper.

This has been one of my favourite swaps so far this year.  I really liked the idea of having a spending cap because it forced us to be creative.  Instead of just buying "stuff" to fluff up the parcel, how could we best invest our money and make something wonderful for our partner.  It's amazing what you can make with ribbon, zips and fabric!

I love stalking my partners - purely to find out enough about them to personalise their gifts, and of course to check if and when the parcels arrive.  It gave me so much pleasure to read Louisa's comments when she received her parcel:

At the time of writing this post I am yet to receive my own Whimsical Woodlands Mug Rug parcel but when I do I will write a separate post about it.  I have no idea who my partner is but there are so many gorgeous creations posted on Instagram under this swap's hashtags!