... was so much fun!

I arrived to help set up and found that some busy bees had already made the stands and placed the quilts in the places they were to be hung. I'd always wondered how it was decided which quilt was to hang where when the organisers hadn't seen the quilts. I mean what if the colours clashed, or the styles competed? My father worked in art galleries and so much planning went into the placement of artworks. Well, it turned out to be based on the dimensions of the quilts. Simple as that! And they all looked great next to each other.

As we worked our way around the room each quilt unfolded to reveal a delight. I know it sounds twee but every single quilt was just beautiful and they were all so different. At one point I looked up and saw the mixed pale green backing of my Summer Bubbles quilt. What a buzz!! One of the benefits of working behind the scenes is seeing the backings. Some of them are just amazing. There was one with a rich purple toile. Another with the most gorgeous Noahs Ark panel that was too good to hide. And the labels have so much character. One had a big face of a bulldog!!





I got ladder duty. I figure this is an angle you don't usually see at a quilt show.

The big empty walls around the hall ended up covered with the most amazing large quilts. It created such a spectacular backdrop, reminding me of big medieval tapestries.

The stage was up with a display of mini quiltlets by Ruth Buchanan that have been featured as a series in Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It was great to see them in real life.

Those chairs are ready for demonstrations. ( I attended a very informative demo on EQ6 on Sunday)




Here's my hexagon quilt, Afternoon Tea with the Birds. Its a bit of an eye spy quilt of birds, food and flowers.



And here's my Summer Bubbles quilt.

It features Amy Butler fabrics with a few others. I just loved those muted brights! It's based on a pattern called Ginger Spice by Hugs and Kisses which was a baby quilt using jelly roll strips. I enlarged it to a queen size quilt and decided the bubbles needed padding. The border fabric had been in my stash for about 5 years. I'd bought it to make a skirt but it turned out it was destined to be a quilt.

There's my name up in lights. A big thank you to all the lovely people who chose this quilt as their favourite and for the special comments, it's really encouraging.

Due to copyright reasons we were not asked to take photos of the quilts so you'll just have to imagine lots of beautiful quilts in all sizes and styles, bright and colourful, soft and dreamy, modern and traditional.

The viewers' choice was a large applique quilt with blocks featuring Australian native flowers. The quiltmaker ( I'm sorry, I didn't get her name) really captured the look and colour of the flowers and foliages. It really was exquisite. If I was a bee I'd have wanted to pollinate it.

Another quilt described as a "stand out" was called Birds of Paradise by Chris Jurd. She's taken a traditional block, given it a twist and come up with an amazing design that conjures up Bird of Paradise flowers. Not to mention the lush green bird fabric that has me drooling. There's even some ric rac incorporated. 3 cheers for ric rac! I know it's teasing not to be able to show a photo but if you keep an eye on her blog it may come up one day.



Around the edges of the room were the traders tables, and boy did I snap up some goodies!

Here's a jellyroll of OZ by Sanae for Moda. I've been eyeing this range for a while now...



Check out this panel. It's sooooo beautiful! I love the blue bearded iris and little slipper orchid popping out. It reminds me of my friend Leonie's garden. And the pale dusty mauve background is so dreamy. Definitely love at first sight. This is the beginning of a fun and flowery medallion quilt journey together.


I really hit the jackpot with a couple of lucky dip bags of ufos and leftovers..
How amazing are some of these blocks? Even the simple little squares are fun because they're made with different fabrics from the ones I usually buy. I'm thinking about combining them all together as a ufo sampler quilt...


Packing up was a lot faster than setting up. All in all it was a fun weekend and I'm looking forward to next year's show. I'm already planning my quilts...

Cheerio.