Australasian Quilt Convention 2013

Melbourne really turned on a beautiful Autumn morning, it was almost too nice to go indoors to the Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC). 

It was held in the Royal Exhibition building

Which is set in the Carlton Gardens, I was there early so I had a bit of a stroll around first. It's so nice to see and hear water in our fountains after so many years of drought when they lay dry.

 

There were plenty of tributes to nature inside. 

These are the quilts that caught my eye. 

I apologise in advance for not crediting all the photos.

Enjoy. 

There were quilts from Korea...

These were from the AQC challenge: Free

'Free Board and Lodging' by Kay Murray

 These were from the New Zealand Hoffman Challenge...

Two quilts from the Garden Path theme...

Random quilts that I liked...

Moon Garden by Judith Coates Perez - whole cloth painted & quilted.

 

The workmanship in this quilt was just stunning - love the colours...

'Southern Stars' by Karen Malone

Interesting use of colour...

Infinity by Deborah Laurie

 This modern quilt included the creative use of tea towels!

'A Little Bird Told Me' by Anieta Barendrecht

Absolutely stunning...

'Night Bloomers' by Beth Miller

 It's amazing what you can do with leftovers, the blocks were quite small.

'Left Over Madness' by Wendy Blyth

'My Mrs Billings' by Shirley Lodington

  Great fussy cutting...

An amazing achievement considering the maker confessed to not enjoying making the hexagons! (read the label)

'Basket Case' by Kathy Doughty

'Constellation' by Ros Luck, quilted by Leslie O'Rourke (Quarry burn Quilters)

Loved how this was quilted...

These small quilts by the twelve by twelves were beautiful but difficult to photograph as the sun was shining on them.

'Floral Nine' by Jane Rundle

Something Borrowed Something Blue exhibit from the UK.

This was my favourite, the effect of the shadows was achieved not by an amazing use of fabric colours.

'Curious Cate' by Gillian Shearer

Phew! 

Then I went shopping and discovered some new shops, including Pieces to Treasure where I bought these French table runner kits and was very tempted to start their new BOM 'Love Birds'.

And Mai Misake where I bought some beautiful Japanese Taupe fabric for my Comfort Quilt. Here's my little stash.

What are you doing today?

Sharon has posed this question as part of her fat quarter give-away to celebrate her 25 posts and 25,000 visitors to her Chester County Criswell Quilt blog. If you leave a comment on her give-away blog post you could win these repro fat quarters.

Sharon's blog and her family's Chester County Criswell quilt inspired me to start my own blog so I'm more than happy to celebrate her milestones. So pop on over and leave a comment about your day, the give-away is open until April 25th.

Today I had to work and didn't do any sewing on the bus - I had the CCCQ #9 block ready to applique but didn't have the right thread, frustrating! But I did manage to make a start with the needle-turn this evening. 

I also did some squaring off and finishing of the blocks for the first row in my Morrell quilt. For instance I had completely missed sewing around one of the butterflies.

First row all finished and pieced. It's very exciting to be finally putting this quilt together. Each row has 8 x 10" blocks - it's going to be big!

This is the layout that my sister helped me work out yesterday. 
This is the first attempt...

Then after a number of changes and swaps 

this was the final layout that we were happy with.

As well as numbering all 61 blocks it's great having a print out of the layout to refer to whilst sewing it together - thanks J!

First Block Last

This is the first Morrell block I worked on and now I think it's the last to be finished! Over the years (!) I just avoided doing the diamond border and then I ran out of the background fabric for the borders, then I mucked up the corner pieces and so it got banished to the 'naughty corner' (to use an expression from another blogger). Now that I have learnt to hand piece I have been able to finally finish off those pesky corner pieces.

I'm going to lay out all the blocks for my Morrell at my sister's place tomorrow, I literally don't have a large enough flat surface area (wall or floor) in my home. Plus it'll be great to have a second opinion on which blocks will work well together as I won't necessarily be following Di Ford's layout - wonderful as it is, the colours and fabrics I have used may lead to something else. I'll keep you posted.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I think this one of the last pieced blocks required for my Morrell quilt. I ran out of some my favourite cheddar fabric so I could only use it on every second point of the star  - the one with the white floral pattern (I have no idea what it is) but I actually think it makes the star more interesting.

CCCQ Block #7

This week I've finished William and Harry Clendenen's Royal Palm block for my Chester County Criswell quilt. The fabrics are from the Somerset Shirtings range by Windham.

CCCQ Block #7

Not feeling quite so behind now and it's great to be able to put the 6 in one picture to see how they are coming together...

I also baked a very delicious tea cake (even if I do say so myself). 

Perfect with a cup of tea.