Canberra Quilt Show

Up at the crack of the dawn this morning and off to Canberra for the Canberra Quilters show! It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive from my house, so we crept out super early and got on the road. This year is the Canberra Quilters' 50th anniversary - they are the oldest state guild in Australia!

In celebration of their 50th anniversary, they held a challenge. The theme for the quilts was "Gold", and they had to be a vertical 40cm x 100cm (16" x 40"). The challenge was open to anyone, anywhere - so I decided that I would play along. I have promised myself that I will do more things like this, partly in my role as President of QuiltNSW, because I believe that supporting other guilds is important - and partly for myself, because its fun and it gives me a chance to make something that is purely for me. No pattern, no stress, just making.

I started out by pulling a load of my favourite yellow-pale orange fabrics and arranging them in a sort of semi fade situation. I had in my head that I wanted to make the sunrise, and the cockatoos swooping through it that I see every morning over my valley. Never one to want to do things the easy way, I decided to square patchwork and improv piece the sun rays instead of using a ruler for the angles.

I made a load of rows of gold squares, getting wider as they went along, and I started at the shorter end of the quilt for my own sanity. I free cut the angles into each wedge, just measuring by eye, and then cut a wedge of solid fabric to sort of match or mirror it, and started sewing them together in a circle as I went.

Despite being fully prepared to throw the lot in the bin, and against. all the patchwork odds, this worked 😂 I kept piecing out in a circle, making each row of squares and corresponding wedge longer and longer until they were more than the required 1 metre, and when I got back to the beginning of the circle things more of less fit. I tightened a few seams, and my circle was done!

A big press, some starch. I trimmed everything into the correct measurement and then ironed some Pellon fleece to the back - I did NOT want that thing to stretch while I appliquéd!! I added the sun in the middle of the rays, and then got to work on the big boy cockie.

I hand quilted and knife edge bound the finished piece. It's called "Top of the Morning to Yez".

These quilts were the winners of the challenge!

Anyway, all that to say that I wanted to go down to the Canberra show for a few reasons! To see my quilt hang, which is always fun. To show my face and offer support as the Co-President of QuiltNSW. And to see the Governor General!

Canberra Quilters had organised for our new GG, Sam Mostyn, to open their show in honour of their 50th anniversary. Sam just happens to be someone I've met many times - my dad was her mentor, through a lot of her early career. He always says she is one of the most honourable and generous humans he has ever known, and he is right. Her Excellency made a wonderful and heartfelt speech this morning, sharing her experiences with sewing and even bringing a quilt from her own house!

(While freely admitting that she does not sew.) I didn't expect her to remember me as its years since I saw her, but as soon as she realised who I was she gave me a huge hug and said, "Let's take a selfie and you can send it to Geoffrey!!" So here it is.

Fab trip peeps. I simply to DO NOT have time to have made it, but here I am anyway and I'm glad I am. And as for my trip away to Darwin with my school friends, it will live peacefully in my busy heart for quite some time. Until the next one.

Here's a couple of my favourites from the show - that group quilt winner (the string quilt) is a COMPLETE stunner and was my viewer's choice!

The gorgeous thing below was made by that dear little gorgeous thing. I have forgotten her name I'm afraid (bad me!!) but she was the winner of the Junior Encouragement award - she won a Bernina sewing machine! She was so so sweet and shy when she came up to meet the GG but she soon lost her shyness and was chatting away to Sam telling her all about her creation. What a beautiful advertisement for new quilters!

Sarah x