Australasian Quilt Show

What a shame they have to cram so many people into so small a space. I attended the Australasian Quilt Show in Melbourne for the first time on Friday and I have to say I was very disappointed with the venue. It wasn’t even the weekend and it was so choc a bloc you could hardly move. After attending the Craft and Quilt shows at Jeff’s Shed (aka New Melbourne Exhibition Centre) which has a huge space I have to say I won’t go again unless it’s moved to a bigger venue. They had some big names but the seminar rooms were way too small and access in and out was very poor. However I did attend some seminars. Dale Rollerson did a great show and tell but wasn’t game to pass around her art peices as she’d had some go missing the day before. It was good to see her new Marrakesh work in the flesh and I bought some nice Oliver Twist perle cotton from her stall. Have to email off an order this week for the items she didn’t bring with her.

I also bought, from the top, antique Japanese silk and cotton pack, silk hanky, some lace to paint/dye and a pack of silk fibres in a luscious colour. And the gorgeous braids below were irresistable. I can feel some bags coming along with these trims for pressies, I’ll have to check out the web for some freebie patterns.

The other seminar I managed to get into was a booked one with Bernina, which I did to try out their new machine. (I’m checking out some machines before I buy a new one) At the seminar we made this cute as chicken, which has a zip at the back (with the tassel on) so you can place treasures/presents/easter eggs inside. We FME over the fabric, sewed on the face, beak and comb, then inserted the zip. The pattern is just a rectangle with one side twice as long as the other. (This one was 10 inches x 5 inches). This will be daughter No 2’s easter present, so now I just have to make 3 more!! One will be funky fabric, minus the chook bits for daughter No 1 and then there will be two boy style ones. Should have some appropriate fabric in my stash.
I forgot, in my rush to go out for dinner, to include Susan Lenz’s lovely, creative ATC which she sent from the US, in my last post. It is an embellished background with velvet leaves and beading. I intend to pop it into a little box frame above my work area as inspiration. Susan is working on a very interesting installation at the moment so do visit her blog or the Cyber Fyber site.
Cheers