Australian Quilt Convention

On Sunday a small group of us ventured off to the AQC at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens, Melbourne. It is a beautiful old building but the light in the quilt show area was not very good. So I do apologise for some of the photos but hopefully you will see a little of what I saw.

There were so many beautiful quilts and you can see some of them here at Linda's blog or here at Sue-Anne's.

There were a couple that caught my eye and I would like to share them with you.

To me, this quilt says "Australia" It is a bad photo but it literally glowed with the colours of Central Australia and indigenous art work.

Here is a close up of koalas and emus with their chicks. These images move all around the quilt.Can you see the small kangaroos as well?

The lyrebirds were beautiful and the various colours moved along one piece of fabric.

It is definitely not a true representation of the colours of the quilt but it was awesome. I didn't get the name of the artist but I was told that it was made in a workshop with Ricky Timms.

This one glowed from a distance and as we were drawn toward it, like moths to a flame, we saw how it was constructed.....

Lots of tiny hexagons. It looked like a stained glass window.

Now for all my Small Quilt Talk buddies. This next one was of interest because I like working with small blocks. It is a quilt by Virginia Enright. Virginia's work was my first introduction to miniature quilts. She makes her quilts using a foundation piecing method and we were very lucky to do a workshop with her a few years ago.

Virginia's quilt is a combination of her Dear Jane blocks. She wrote that she would never finish the Dear Jane quilt and chose to set them in this design.

Those chain blocks are 3/4" and the intersection blocks are 1 1/2" finished. The Dear Jane blocks are 4 1/2" finished.

This is her book that was given to me by a friend....

and this is the little one that I hope to make one day. I love the Storm at Sea block and one day I will be able to put my name to one. The finished size is 13 x 15". Not ready to do so at the moment.

I (intentionally) spent way too much money but we had a great time.

Here are some fabrics from a new range by Melbourne quilt, and now fabric, designer Leesa Chandler, Under the Australian Sun. Only a few of these fabrics are mine. This range has been released in Australia and won't be available in the US until September. We are using the "Bluegum" fabrics for a challenge at our Bluegum Quilters' group and am looking forward to seeing what everyone makes.

And I bought these 4" squares of beautifully textured Japanese fabric. I intend to make them into pillows (I saw them made up at the store display) for our newly painted front room.

I introduced myself to Vikki from Sew Useful Designs who I recognised from her blog and met the girls from the Quilted Crow. I didn't have time to go back and have a good look at their display. Might have to take a trip to Tasmania!

And lastly pop over to Paulette's blog where she is having a fun give away that will finish on Saturday.