Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sydney Quilt Show - part 1

After ten or so years of attending the annual Sydney Quilt Show, I decided last year (while I was at the awards ceremony, actually) that I would finally join the The Quilters' Guild of New South Wales and enter their show in 2014.

So I joined, and I entered.  Two items on the bucket list ticked!

I entered my favourite quilt in the world - a hand appliqued, heavily quilted piece that I designed myself. It's called "Across the Universe". I shared it a bit here, and a tutorial for how to make the perfect circles here. It was a quilt borne out necessity - a very stressful period at work required me to force myself out of the office and into the park for an hour each day. For three weeks of lunches I stitched circles onto fabric patches. Then I sewed them together. Even though the quilt was made during a pretty rotten time, I have nothing but good feelings about this quilt. It hangs in my entry at home, and we look at it and walk past it every day.

Imagine my surprise when someone from the committee called me last Saturday night to tell me I'd won a prize? She wouldn't tell me what, though. Unfortunately I couldn't get to the awards ceremony this year, and had already planned to go on the weekend.

So I was super surprised to find out I had won this.

Sydney Quilt Show

I still can't believe it. Entering this show was on my BUCKET LIST! Winning a category wasn't.

What?

I can't tell you how happy, and humbled, and amazed, and bloody chuffed I am.

Sydney Quilt Show

The quilt show was AMAZING. It was at a different venue this year, and I don't know whether it was the extra natural light, or the extra colour in the quilts, but everything looked so beautiful. There were certainly some show stoppers there, and it was fun to examine them further while I was white glove duty on Saturday. I shall do a second post soon with the quilts that I got permission to publish photos of (from the makers themselves).

I picked up my prize (so generous. And thank heavens I brought Mavis, my nonna trolley with me). Came in handy when taking two ferries back to our apartment. I'll show you my amazing prize in the next post.

Sydney Quilt Show

It was a wonderful day. My husband came to the show for a few hours and to take some photos and people kept stopping us to ask about the quilt, and to say such wonderful things about it. I was complimented by some pretty well-known quilters on how straight it hung! (and hardly a 1/4 inch seam in there! Told you I was lucky). A couple of other quilters told me they would want to take it home. I finally started to believe I had made something special - to others and not just to me. And for the first time in a long time, no one questioned why on earth I would hand applique it, and then matchstick quilt it (instead, everyone I spoke to said they totally got it. THANK YOU SYDNEY!)

Sydney Quilt Show

I think I smiled all the way back to Double Bay. Also - Sydney you're beautiful. Thanks for giving me a wonderful weekend.

Sydney Quilt Show



23 comments:

  1. Wonderful quilt!
    Wonderful news!
    Wonderful weekend!
    Wonderful city!
    And most of all... wonderful you!
    Thanks for such a joyful post today! x

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  2. Oh, wow. It's really a gorgeous quilt. I love the small circles and the blocks with different backgrounds. They provide just the right amount of interest. Great job!

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    1. Thank you! As I finished each square I would put it on my design wall and work out what else I needed to make, colours, shades etc. I really had no plan until the end.

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  3. Congratulations Michelle, your quilt looks fabulous!

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  4. Yay for you and you're beautiful quilt!! The blue ribbon suits is perfectly! Wasn't it fun being able to go to a quilt show on a ferry.

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    1. Thank you! And the ferry was the BEST. Beat the usual train to Town Hall and a long walk down the hill to get hopelessly lost on a staircase somewhere! Well, that was always my experience ...

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  5. Fabulous quilt and my heartiest congratulations to you. You've certainly inspired me!!!! Looking forward to part 2

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    1. Thanks Stephanie! I hope you got to go to the show and see the quilts - they were amazing!

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  6. Congratulations Michelle! Your quilt looked fabulous, hanging in the show.

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  7. Congratulations and very well deserved. I'm so glad I saw your quilt when it came to Melbourne so that I could see the colours and fabrics in person but it was your skill that really stood out, your appliqué is immaculate!

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  8. Congratulations Michelle on such a well deserved win! Your quilt is absolutely gorgeous. How wonderful!

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  9. Wow - beautfiul. Congratulations.

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  10. Gorgeous quilt, congrats on winning 1st prize!

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  11. Freaking.
    Rad.
    Epic work, lovely lady!

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  12. CONGRATULATIONS . That needed capital letters , well done :)

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  13. I love that photo of you with your amazing quilt. You look stoked. And surprised! You shouldn't be. What a well deserved win to a great gal. Oh and great post and photos Michelle.

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  14. Michelle, this quilt is amazing! I am blown away by how intricate and beautiful it is. Making a quilt (and getting you to teach me) is on my bucket list. Congrats my dear.

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  15. Congrats on your prize! Very well-deserved.

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  16. You took some beautiful pictures of Sydney, the water looks great in all of them. Your quilt is beautiful as well. You have a wonderful eye for placing shapes and colors.

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  17. I can't believe how behind I am on blog reading. So a very belated congratulations! A gorgeous quilt. Looks so amazing, and what a great win. Well deserved.

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