Some More River Quilts

All the quilts featured have straight sides - blame my poor photography

Helen: Love's Temple

Inspired by an oil painting by Michael Zavros - Love's Temple. 2006.  Helen's amazing quilt is done in silks and glows.

Inspired by an oil painting by Michael Zavros - Love's Temple. 2006.  Helen's amazing quilt is done in silks and glows.

Welcome to Queanbeyan
My welcome to Queanbeyan River - we have lived next to the Queanbeyan River for 25 years. We have shared our back yard with platypus,kangaroos,snakes,water rats and ducks to name a few. We have seen the river in full flood and witnessed it as a trickle.
It's my home and I enjoy being here.

Is that a zebra in the jungle?

...or is it a lion?

Bargello with Ducks
Most of my friends know I love ducks! A simple bargello design provides the border for the pre-printed panel. the gum tree branch came from a second hand shop so I cannot take credit for it.

Phillippa: Tibooburra River
I printed the fabric for this quilt. The river bed is fabric and I added to it with drawing and crayon.

Phillippa: Tasmanian River

This idea for this river is taken from a photo of a Tasmanian river.

This idea for this river is taken from a photo of a Tasmanian river.

This idea for this river is taken from a photo of a Tasmanian river.

Individual River Quilts Part 1 More to post

RIVER QUILTS at the 2012 QQ EXHIBITION

Robyn McPherson and Kay White issued a challenge to members to participate in creating a series of interconnecting River Quilts.

Robyn based the Challenge around the exhibit of River Quilts at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah.

The basic guideline was that the quilts were to have river entry and exit points of 4, 5 or 6 inches wide which could be at any point on each side of the quilt. The river could then meander across the quilt according to the quilter’s own creativity.

Such as been the success of the project that Robyn and Kay have a vision that the ‘River Quilts’ will become a ‘living’ and ‘growing exhibition  being expanded not only by Queanbeyan Quilters but by all quilters.

‘River Quilts’ is available to other quilt groups  for display at  meetings or shows. The guidelines developed by Queanbeyan Quilters are also available for interested groups.

Joan: By the River

This quilt was inspired by memories of the 1930's depression days when the 'swaggie' was a constant sight on country roads. We had many of them call to the farm where they always did odd jobs - wood chopping etc in exchange for a meal. My mother always sent them away with a parcel of sandwiches. 

Sue: Eat Money

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish caught will we realise that we cannot eat money" (Cree Indian saying)                                                                                               

 My River Quilt is the ugly one, the one that people would prefer not to look at. Yet it is the reality check that we must have if we are to preserve the precious beauty to be found at such places of nature. The future of the planet requires the cooperation of its inhabitants. We all need our natural world to survive but exploitation threatens its very existance.                                                                                              
We witness pieces of our environment being taken when it is not rightfully theirs to take, and they destroy that which affects us all.                                                                                                       

 Our seas are being emptied, our last trees cut down. Our land is mined, our air polluted and our food supply contaminated. Around the world, the earth's resources are being plundered with no regard for the long-term health of our planet or the future lives of our children.                                                

 I am horrified that the 'Gunns' company in Tasmania, a wood chip supplier, can claim to be able to totally destroy heritage forests yet not pollute a pristine environment at all. There is always the cry that they will provide employment, but for how long. Once the last tree is felled......where does the woodcutter turn to next. Queenstown in Tasmania is still a stark reminder if the devastation that occurs when the earth is stripped bare, simply because we can.

Kay: Log Cabin River

We specified in the guidelines for this project that traditional blocks were OK. A number of years ago I learnt to do log cabin pieced houses and trees. I have used this technique in my river quilt.

Sandra: River Sunrise

Constructed using techniques I learnt in a workshop with Gloria Loughman. The background is painted, the applique is raw edged, definition is achieved with stitching.

Sandra: Walking with Pardy

I based this quilt on photos taken of the Queanbeyan River below our house. The three girls are my grand-daughters walking with their 'Pardy'.

Leslie: A Celtic River

My stained glass river quilt with free motion machine quilting. I learned how to work with bias binding at a Fiona Hammond Celtic workshop.

Wendy: Night time Magic

 Robyn McPherson showed me how to use BoNash and foiling on fabric and I have applied this to my nightime river quilt. I had a ball with the neon light signs - Singer, Janome plus QQH(eadquarters), AMEX, VISA etc. What more could a quilter want?

Wendy: Sitting by the River

Inspired by Robyn McPherson and artist Sandy Hellis in Gundagai. I had fun constructing this using liberated raw edge applique, crayons,

Wendy:  Panther in the Jungle.

Wendy: Close up

Narell:  

Having finished two Helen Godden workshops I decided to try out my set of paints. I was inspired by the Tour de France, thinking of the Swiss Alps and wonderful farming land with meandering rivers.

Narell: 

I've had the river piece for a while and thought that it would make a great river quilt as nearly all rivers finish in the sea.

One more Challenge Quilt

How could I have missed Phillippa's 3rd quilt?
This beautiful quilt was based on a story from the 13 August 1960 Daily Telegraph about a father who brought a pair of pink satin ballet shoes home from England for his ballet loving daughter. Trip around the world setting...very clever.

Last of Challenge Quilts

Noreen said that her newspaper only had stories about spys. We all saw the penny drop as she said it and off she went and created this fabulous Spy vs Spy quilt.
Noreen was busy with helping out with other tasks for the exhibition and didn't get it completed in time for showing. The quilt is square  - my poor photography.
28 September 1954

PAMIR - a New Zealand owned barque in full sail from Antwerp to  New Zealand on 3 May 1948. A journey that took three months.  It was really enjoyable to revisit old newspapers and to research the stories. 

Look how Sue interpreted 3 advertisements for alcohol.
Drunkards Path in drinks printed fabric....brilliant!
Clever, clever, clever.

Wendy elected to use the '$2000  Rose Show' header for her quilt
All these photos can be expanded (hopefully) and if you look closely at this one it has spider webs and beaded red back spiders - she said if it has been on display since 27 September 1959 they would feature.

Robyn's funny looking quilt   - if you stand at 60% either side you can see both horses.
This is about a horse race in country Victoria where it was alleged the horse that raced and won had been substituted with a similar looking horse.  Date used was 3 June 1972
The prize ribbon refers to the winner of the race.

Was it Royal School?

Or was it Regal Vista?

2 more 'On this Day' Challenge Quilts

The explanation behind these challenge quilts from our 2012 QQ Exhibition. 

We are happy to share our guidelines with other groups who are proposing a challenge for their exhibitions.  Alternatively, we could arrange to lend our quilts to other guilds for exhibition.

This has been one of our most popular challenges.

We were able to access digitised newspapers in the National Library of Australia for all the papers used.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/

ON THIS DAY

The Challenge this year was set by Robyn McPherson and Kay White. Participants were asked to provide a date between the 1st January 1901 and the 5th September 2011. They were also to pick a number between 2 and 10.

Each quilter participating in the challenge then received the front page of the Queanbeyan Age and the page corresponding to the number they had picked, for the date they had provided. If the Queanbeyan Age had not been published the participants were provided with pages from the Daily Telegraph or Sydney Morning Herald. Up to 3 entries per date were permitted and extra dates could be purchased.

The Challenge was then to take something from either of the pages and make a quilt representing that. The quilt could be any shape but needed to have a least one point on each side able to touch the sides of a 24inch square.

The quilt could be made using any technique but was to at least 75% black, grey and white fabric. The only other colour allowed was red (or shades of ) which had to be a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 25%.

Cassandra used the headline from her 9 September 1977 Queanbeyan Age newspaper  to recreate the early building stages of the Karabar Shopping Centre. 
Cassandra has also added more quilting to this quilt since the exhibition. I love the reflections in the front window and the addition of the motor bike.

Robyn felt that there wasn't anything quilt worthy in the stories of her 3 May 1948 newspaper. She took the selling price printed under the newspaper name which was 2d.
Remember pennies?
Newspaper boys would stand at the station and call '2d. Tuppence for a Herald.

Black, White and Red or Read

Our local newspaper, The Queanbeyan Age, did an article on our 2012 'On this Day' challenge quilts this friday...we all wore black, white and/or red to the launch:)

http://www.queanbeyanage.com.au/news/local/news/general/a-stitch-in-time/2647461.aspx

Challenge Quilts - part 2 more to come

A story featured in a paper from 3 May 1948 was 'Life of Ease for Cats'. Robyn used the story of a Philadelphia spinster who left a $75,000 legacy to her 9 cats to lead a life of luxury. They were not allowed in the parlour and were to be fed a diet of fish, milk and beef. The apartment was in NY, the spinster from Philadelphia - Phillies lead Yankees. 
iPods and McDonalds in 1948?

The first two words on the 2nd page of Margaret's 25 April 1940 newspaper were 'ANZAC Memories' and what a beautiful and moving quilt Margaret has created to represent these words.

Nena used the story about a fire sweeping an Eastern city  for her quilt.  The date was 8 March 1952. Nena pleated fabric for the buildings and used a fire engine image of a 1952 fire truck complete with a firemen's dog. The smoke is crystal organza that has been twisted and stitched down to look like real smoke - the flames are 3 dimensional. 

Phillippa's 2nd quilt. She has used the headline that ice, rain and blizzards were predicted for the weekend of 13 August 1960 in this wonderful quilt.

Joan's great quilt is from a newspaper dated 6 July 1931 and illustrates a headline about pigeon wing post. The newspaper from the challenge envelope is attached and her block is called pigeon-toed. What a clever and innovative quilt. 

This quilt used a clothing advertisement from a newspaper dated 16 October 1914.  Robyn has contrasted the words 'if fig leaves would do' with modern day clothes the bind - a cumberband, suit, collar, DJ's logo, ticking and ties. Leaves are made from painted Tyvek.

Challenge Quilts part 1 - more to post.

Kathy based her beautiful quilt on a story about lost dogs - look closely and you might see some cats. Kathy's newspaper was dated 22 February 1977.

Leslie's very clever quilt is about ace airmen who cheated death by parachuting out  - see them falling? Leslie's newspaper date was 3 October 1962 and both pages of her newspaper featured this story.

Narell's newspaper headline was a story about baby Bertie who was going to be in jail with his mother for Christmas. He received a teddy bear for Christmas. The date Narell used was 21 December 1985.

Penny used some advertisements in her 29 November 1910 newspaper about  stallions standing at season, there are tiny flowers embroidered on her quilt. This quilt was the earliest date used in our challenge 

Phillippa entered 3 quilts which was the maximum number of entries stipulated for one newspaper date. This one was based on 'Reds order YMCA man out.
 Newspaper date was 13 August 1960.

Irene's newspaper had a headline with the word 'Wheeled' in it so she elected to make her quilt  based on that. This stunning quilt has since been hand quilted with the wheel spokes
The idea Irene used is based on an image by Conor Ogle, London. The quilt was made in collaboration with her daughter who was born 'on this day' - 6 July 1976.

This quilt was made with old pieces of Japanese silk and was linked to the one below by a single red thread. The local newspaper on the day of our Exhibition had a story about Hiroshima. These 2 quilts were displayed together to demonstrate  the idea behind our 2012 Challenge.

This was linked to the quilt above by a single red thread.

Sandra based her quilt on a story about a kite closing the airport. The foundation pieced kite was designed by Sandra and the shadows in the background are done with organza. There is also a tail to the kite hanging from the quilt. Sandra remembers seeing a mystery object in the sky on the way to her wedding on 31 December 1966, the date she selected.

Robyn used the headline '20 Knights in Queen's Honours' from the Daily Telegraph, 3 June 1972. The chess pieces are set up in the 4 Knights Pillsbury attack move. Included in the 1972 honours list was Pastor Doug Nichols -  the first aboriginal to be knighted. 

Quilt Exhibition at QVIC

Happy Hangers....

L-R Front: Helen, Robyn, Next: Kay, Wendy, partly hidden: Noreen, at rear: Cassandra, Sandra.

Having fun hanging our 'On This Day' challenge quilts in the Queanbeyan Visitors Information Centre.

Dressed in the Challenge colours of Red, Black and White

http://www.visitqueanbeyan.com.au

This display is on show for 2 months so if visiting Queanbeyan do call in.

Thursday Morning Friendship Group for QQ

Interested in textile arts?

Do you crochet, knit, sew and love creating?

Queanbeyan Quilters are starting a daytime friendship group.

Come along for a cuppa and bring your current project.

Details are:

Meeting at RB Smith Centre, Crawford Street, Queanbeyan (opposite council chambers)

On the third Thursday each month

beginning 16^th August 2012

From 9.30am to 12.30pm.

Quilting books available for browsing

Visitors and members most welcome.

Babies and children welcome

(under supervision – BYOT – bring your own toys)

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Queanbeyan Quilters meet on the fourth Friday each month

Extensive library – books can be borrowed by members on meeting nights only

                                                           For more information phone

                                           6299 2555 (Robyn)                              6299 8707(Bryony)

                                           6297 4649 (Helen)                               6299 8517 (Kay)

Email: queanbeyanquilters@gmail.com

Leslie's 1600 Quilt

Leslie was interested in trying out the single strip technique demonstrated by Robyn and used a Moda jelly roll to make this one. Although not finished yet, she will probably use it to practice her free motion quilting and it will become a gift quilt in due course.