Our 2022 Quilt Show is nearly here! Make sure you visit our wonderful Bright and Beautiful show on Saturday June 4 and Sunday June 5.
Over 100 member quilts on display plus a challenge, special Art Quilt display and demonstrations from the Gift Quilt team. Shops are in attendance too and best of all the fantastic cafe with home made goodies to tempt and refresh. Find all the details on the Quilt Show page.
Entry $8, plenty of on site parking at Mulgrave Community Centre, 355 Wellington Road, Mulgrave.
Raffle Quilt – Chasing Rainbows pieced by members and quilted by Naiomi Hynes
It was a long time coming but at last we were able to celebrate and we did so in style.
In the beautiful surrounds of the Box Hill Golf Course we caught up with friends, stitched, laughed, stitched some more and had a wonderful time. It was lovely to have a fully catered event.
The Ruby Surprise Challenge had to be a highlight of the event. There are so many talented people who had such clever responses to the theme. Two were selected on the day for prizes and a final vote took place at the March Monthly Meeting.
Presidents Award ‘Ruby Surprise Challenge’ by Heather
Committee Acquisition Award ‘The Ruby Surprise’ by Mariya
Like many events in the past two years, Victorian Quilters had to radically change the way Quilt Showcase was presented. In 2020 it was cancelled and in 2021 it became a virtual show.
Congratulations to Victorian Quilters and convenor Linda Steele for this remarkable show in difficult times.
As a long time supporter of Showcase Waverley Patchworkers sponsored a significant prize and many of our members entered the quilt show. We were delighted to receive the following letter from Julie Adamson who won Best Original Design. Julie is well known at Waverley having been a guest speaker and taught a wonderful class in silk appliqué.
Dear President, committee and members, firstly my apologies for taking so long in sending my thanks for your generous sponsorship of Showcase.I was honoured to be awarded “Best original design” at the Victorian Quilters Showcase late last year. Waverley Patchworkers were the major sponsor for this award. I am absolutely thrilled with the $500 and will be putting together an extensive sewing shopping list! Your ongoing support of Victorian Quilters is greatly appreciated, especially given these challenging times. I have attached an image of the quilt but hope to be able to bring the quilt to show the members in the near future and to thank you all personally. Take care. Yours faithfully Julie Adamson
Old Favourites
Waverley Successes
Congratulations to all who entered, and for those who received ribbons and awards, we are so proud.
Morna Sturrock Award
Excellence in Embroidery and Embellishment
Linda Steele
The Great Barrier Reef
Excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting Professional
Runner Up
Innovative – Contemporary Quilts
Linda Crouch
Fibonacci Fandangle
First
Modern Quilts
Heather Cartmel
Star Garden
Excellence in Use of Colour
First
Innovative – Contemporary Quilts
Linda Steele
Connections
First
Other Techniques
Annie Andrews
Pretty As No 1
Judges Commendation
Michael Hammer
Mother Nature
Highly Commended
Mainly Pieced Traditional professional
Annie Andrews
Pretty As No 2
Runner up
Mainly Pieced Traditional two person amateur/professional
In November we had to meet virtually once again and our wonderful speaker Gloria Loughman made sure we ended the year in a spectacular fashion. The presentation on creating landscape quilts was a true master class. Gloria uses photography as a starting point and has developed a number of strategies to interpret these images as quilts. She generously shared many of her ideas, leaving everyone inspired. We were also taken on a trip around the world as Gloria uses images from her travels in her work.
After making a number of realistic landscape quilts, one made by a six year old grandchild opened Gloria’s eyes to what a landscape could be. What follows are some examples shown of that journey of exploration.
In this abstract landscape Gloria used a photo of the Loddon River in Kerang. She picked out the elements she wanted to include then arranged them in a pleasing way.
This linear landscape of the Arctic Circle in Canada has two layers for each element, cutting back to reveal the darker lines. Colour value is used to show distance and the water reflects the sky.
Photographs of both the natural and man made world can inspire a landscape quilt.
Gloria has developed a distinctive technique using strips or tiles to create the background for appliqué. This image of wind turbines off Bruny Island combine painted and print fabrics in the sky to create movement. The quilt also shows Gloria’s mastery of colour.
Student work using the one design shows the huge variety of effects that can be achieved using Gloria’s techniques.
During the talk Gloria took us through the many decisions made on the path to an award winning quilt. We saw this in the one from the cover of Radiant Landscapes hanging behind her in the wonderful studio she has created on the Bellarine Peninsula. More information on her work, publications and online workshops can be found at glorialoughman.com
Update
Congratulations to Gloria Loughman in winning Best of Show at the Victorian Quilters Quilt Showcase 2021
This time last year we thought it would just be the one time that we would have to hold our AGM remotely. But here we go again.
A good attendance once again as the group has really embraced virtual meetings. The very smoothly run meeting resulted in the election of a new President, Jenny who was Vice President and Heather is now our immediate Past President and Vice President. A very orderly transition. We also welcome Ann back to the committee, this is her second time as Membership Secretary. If you join Waverley Patchworkers she is the first person who will help you get to know how you can become involved in our activities.
Speaker on the night was Waverley Patchworkers member Denise Muschamp who is a long arm quilter. She spoke of the pathway that lead her from passionate sewer and knitter to maestro of the long arm machine. Her business is The Quilt House located in Narre Warren.
Denise explained the various quilting options using her own quilts. Kaffe and Co is an example of a carefully chosen and sized “edge to edge design” enhancing a busy pieced quilt.
On the other hand Strawberries and Cream has custom quilted blocks and borders to enhance this very pretty border print. Accurate piecing is the key to success here.
Denise also explained why it is important to have batting and backing larger than the quilt top.
Other tips for preparing your quilt for professional quilting included
Press very carefully, generally to the dark side.
Measure border size from your quilt top, do not rely on pattern dimensions.
Leave embellishments until after the quilt is quilted.
If all her clients followed her advice Denise would be a very happy quilter, so she has provided a comprehensive list of suggestions, many applicable even if you are doing your own quilting.
Each September Waverley Patchworkers celebrates its birthday. This year we turned 40, a fantastic achievement. We were not going to let a lockdown prevent us marking the occasion.
For the first time we conducted a Sit and Sew meeting via Zoom. A big attendance, lots of chatter including breaking off into smaller “rooms” and individual cakes with candles made for a great night.
Members had sent in photos of their Show and Tell and here they are. As you can see some people have been very busy finishing off UFOs or working steadily through their stash. Many of these quilts are destined for our gift quilt program
Jenny
Anne
Jo’s Badges
Wendy
Peggy
Anne
Jenny
Anne
Peggy
Val
Margaret
Margaret
Margaret
Margaret
Anne
Margaret
Margaret
The next meeting in October is our AGM again conducted online as we are still unable to meet in person. Fortunately 2022 is not far away now and we can have a really special Ruby Celebration.
A big thank you to our President and committee for keeping the group going in the world’s most locked down city!
What a fantastic response we had to the virtual visit from Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession in Sydney. Her presentation was from her studio and we felt right at home, particularly when she turned the camera to her design wall to explain her design process.
Kathy is known for her love of bright colours and large prints. This caused quite a stir when she first opened the shop. As a self taught quilter she was not into following others, instead she created what she liked herself.
Kathy’s fabric choices, which have flowed into her own fabric collections, are a mix of traditional and contemporary fabrics, larges prints, spots and stripes and directional prints which are great for large borders.
Her first appliqué quilt is composed of very simple shapes and is of the view from her window.
A design breakthrough came when Kathy met Kaffe Fassett and was taught to look at value rather than colour.
As well as the shop Kathy has written a number of books, first with Sarah Fielke and then on her own. In Making Quilts the simple patterns focus on fabric selection, the importance of the background and making the most of what you have.
Wedge Quilt
Soul Searching
According to Kathy inspiration can come from anywhere including fabric and pattern. The Turkish Quilt has large areas to showcase fabric. The flying geese and the blocks are deliberately not perfectly formed.
The next one she showed was inspired by the Gees Bend quilts and uses the scraps that were under the cutting table. The black and white are important as they tie it all together “…otherwise it would be moosh”.
Finally Kathy showed was an example of just how far you can push the fabric. It utilises fussy cutting and finding shapes within large print fabrics.
Over her career Kathy has been influenced by many quilt designers and in the process has created her own distinctive look.
The seventy six member and visitors who attended the August virtual meeting left totally inspired and quite exhausted, thrilled with the opportunity to experience such an enthusiastic speaker.
Over 40 members and a few guests attended this month’s meeting. On a cold night all appreciated that was from the comfort of our own homes. We welcomed speaker Lisa Walton beaming in from her studio in Sydney and she took us around the world looking at her quilt inspirations.
First stop was Barcelona, home to the organic architecture of Antoni Gaudi. Lisa is a big fan of his work and used motifs found on tiles to create stamps for her hexagon quilt.
Lisa finds textures and patterns everywhere. She uses rubbings, stamp carving and screen printing to transfer images to the fabrics in her quilts. Quilting motifs too come from her close observation of architectural features.
Our trip included Japan, Italy, Morocco, Guatemala, the United Kingdom and proved that inspiration can be found anywhere. A most inspiring meeting.
Planning in the time of COVID is very challenging because rules change month by month. We are in lockdown again, however this month we have been able to book a guest speaker who is well prepared to deliver online.
The Zoom meeting on July 26 will feature Lisa Walton, a NSW based textile artist. Well known to Waverley members, we are looking forward to her talk Travelling Textile Inspirations.
I am who I am
Our well travelled members are sure to be inspired to dig out the photos and get going with their own travelled inspired creations. Details of the Zoom meeting have been distributed by email.
