Across the Universe - the official photoshoot

Over the last week I have worked really hard to get the last of the quilting done on my second quilt for the Canberra Quilters' Exhibition.



By Tuesday night very late I was done, and then I spent the next couple of nights binding, adding a sleeve and a label.



And I'm pleased to say that it's all done! Both quilts were handed in early this afternoon and I'm really looking forward to seeing them exhibited at the show in two weeks along with the quilts of my friends.

Before we handed our quilts in today, my trusty photographic assistant Bron came with me to Mt Stromlo Observatory to take photos of both my Across the Universe quilt (which I had never photographed before! Probably because I wasn't blogging when I finished it), and my second exhibition quilt.



If you don't know Mt Stromlo, it's an astronomy and astrophysics research facility in Canberra's west. It was pretty much destroyed during the 2003 Canberra Bushfires, but the Australian National University is slowly building it back up (although without research telescopes), and they've also kept some of the ruins there. This telescope was built almost 100 years ago. It's just a shell now, and it's incredibly sad to be reminded of the devastation of that terrible day. However it also reminds you that some amazing skies have been seen through the telescope over the years, and also that from destruction can come new life.



Photographing "Across the Universe" with it's zooming planets inside the old telescope was kind of perfect.

Bron performed incredible Pilates moves to hold up this quilt. At only 151cm in length, it is far shorter than both Bron and hairbun and we also seem to have acquired an aversion to shoes showing at the bottom of our quilts since we started to do our on-location quilt fashion photography! Talk about best photographic assistant ever.



(Don't worry - the other quilt we photographed required her to stretch her arms up way over her head and battle the stiff wind while holding a heavy quilt. Photos soon...)