QSG of NSW talk by Rhonda Pearce on 30th April 2016

On Saturday the 30th of April 2016 Rhonda Pearce, who owned Post Office Patchwork at Glenbrook for many years, will give a talk for the Quilt Study Group of NSW. 

Rhonda has made and designed many award-winning quilts, including the famous “Insanity Quilt” exhibited at the 2007 Sydney Quilt Show, and “Baltimore Classic” which won 1^st prize in the traditional appliqué section at Houston in 2013. We will hear how she designed them, the steps involved and details of the particular techniques she used.

The talk will be held at 2pm on Saturday the 30^th April 2016 in The Meeting Room at The Glover Cottages, 124 Kent Street in Millers Point. Entry is $5 for Guild members and $10 for non-Guild members. Afternoon tea is provided.

Report on Lisa Walton's QSG of NSW Talk

At the end of November 2015, Lisa Walton spoke about her quilting journey at the Quilt Study Group of NSW meeting. Most of us first met Lisa at her ‘Dyed and Gone to Heaven’ stalls at the quilt shows where she sells her hand-dyed fabrics and books, beads, fabric paints dyes and markers, and kits. Her quilts have won prizes in Australia, Paducah USA and Birmingham UK.

Her topic ‘Leap and the Net will appear’ became clear when she stated at first that her motto is ‘failure is an option’ and then recounted how many ‘leaps’ have been responsible for the development of her different skills and business opportunities taken.

Lisa’s first quilt made 20 years ago was a traditional quilt made from charm squares that ended up as the dog’s quilt. Her next one was made from Laura Ashley squares in a Mariner’s Compass pattern but unfortunately she ‘missed the quarter inch seam allowance’ – hence her ’15 minutes of traditional quilting’. At a SCQuilters Christmas Party her Secret Santa gift was a pack of hand dyed fabrics. She was fascinated by it and this led her to a class in USA in fabric dyeing - thus starting her journey in making hand dyed fabric and using them in her quilts. 

When others wanted to buy the fabric her dyeing business started. Then when they wanted patterns to use, the first leap in her career started. She made a quilt using her fabrics but when it was rejected by a well-know quilting magazine as being ‘too contemporary’, she decided to follow her heart and, rather than produce what was then ‘commercial’, put together kits of her own fabrics and her own style of pattern and sold them direct.  

When Quilters Companion asked Lisa to contribute to their videos she took a leap to putting herself out in front of the camera. At the same time she started producing associated simple kits for each of the projects. When her husband retired she was still working fulltime so when he offered to help in her business by cutting fabric and dyeing it, she ‘leapt’ at the offer.

Her next leap occurred when commercial batik fabrics became popular and the market for hand-dyed fabrics slowed. She changed the business accordingly to producing custom ordered fabrics, stocking Australian-made fabric paints and dyes, selling beads, and value-adding fabric by over stamping.  At this time too she started using more textured fabrics, playing with beading, paints, surface design and stencilling on her own quilts.

Her next leap occurred when she was awarded the Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship for Quilting Teachers in 2010.  As a result she developed new classes using overlay paint techniques. After she sat next to the C&T Artistic director in Houston she ‘leapt’ at the chance to write her first book – ‘Beautiful Building Block Quilts’ 

When her second book was cancelled, she leapt into the world of self-publishing and started the ‘Creative Journeys’ series which cover the different techniques she uses in her work. Another leap came when the Quilters Guild of NSW asked her to be a featured artist at the 2011 Sydney Quilt Show and her work to date was exhibited (You can see some of them at  http://thelastpiece.typepad.com/the_last_piece/2011/06/its-a-wrap.html)

Lisa is an active user of Facebook and contributes greatly to discussion on SCQuilters. She teaches classes on free-form fabric construction, indigo and shibori dyeing, fabric and thread dyeing, stamp carving, screen printing, beading, embellishing, couching and quilting around the world. She said she is inspired by her travels and continues to take tours of quilters to Italy, USA and Japan. All this while running her business ‘Dyed and Gone to Heaven’ with her husband, and working as Vice-President – Administration and Oceania representative for Studio Art Quilt Associates Inc. She is certainly a wonderful example of why we should take every opportunity to ‘leap’.

Wartime Quilts exhibition goes to Melbourne to the Australian Quilt Convention AQC April 2016

If you missed the exhibition at Manly Art Gallery in Sydney where 35,000 people viewed this stunning quilt exhibition of wartime quilts, curated by Dr Annette Gero, it will be on in Melbourne for four days in April.

These are extraordinary Woollen Quilts - all made by men from their uniforms, dating from 1800 to 1950, and pieced in a myriad of tiny pieces (some quilts have 15,000 pieces). A collection of such quilts has never been shown before and their design and colour are mesmerizing. Not to be missed.  Annette has written a book to go with the exhibition which will be on sale at the show 

Wartime Quilts from Military fabrics

Australian Quilt Convention AQC

April 14-17, 2016

Royal Exhibition Building

Carlton Gardens

Melbourne Australia

10 am to 4.30 daily

Australian Embroidery Exhibition at Government House Sydney in January 2016

From the 15th to 31st January 2016, The Embroiderers' Guild of NSW will hold an exhibition at Government House, Macquarie Street, Sydney. 

It features items (including quilts) from the Embroiderers' Guild NSW's Collection, highlighting Australiana and Australian Embroiderers and Textile Artists. 

Image:  "Channel Country" by Jean Vere from the Guild Collection.  Poster:  Yvette Stanton

The exhibition includes traditional and contemporary pieces in techniques such as whitework, quilting, surface stitchery, machine embroidery, and pulled and drawn work.  Items include table linen, infant's clothing, kaftans, quilts, fancy work, embroidered plates and framed pieces.  

 The exhibition can be viewed as part of a Government House Sydney tour.  Tours are scheduled on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, every half hour from 10.30 am to 3 pm.  Full details of tours (tickets, ID) are available under Visitor Information at  www.governor.nsw.gov.au.  Special extended viewing on Australia Day.

For other events in 2016 planned by the Embroiderers' Guild, see Embroiderers Guild of NSW

QSG of NSW 2016 Talks

The Quilt Study Group of NSW have published their series of talks for 2016. Please put these dates in your diary.

Kerry Easton from The Needlework Tool Collectors Society of Australia will give the first talk for 2016. She will display some of the needlework tools that we all take for granted and are of special interest to quilters. The talk will be at 2pm on the 13^th February 2016 at The Glover Cottages in The Rocks. 

For the 2^nd talk of the year Rhonda Pearce, who owned Post Office Patchwork at Glenbrook for many years, will talk to us. She has made and designed many award-winning quilts, including the famous “Insanity Quilt” exhibited at the 2007 Sydney Quilt Show, and “Baltimore Classic” which won 1^st prize in the traditional appliqué section at Houston in 2013. We will hear how she designed them, the steps involved and details of the particular techniques she used. This talk will be at 2pm on the 30^th April 2016 at The Glover Cottages in The Rocks.

 The 3^rd talk will be given by Megan Martin, Head of Collections and Access, at the Sydney Living Museums on Macquarie Street, Sydney CBD. Starting at 10am on the 21^st of July she will talk to us about the identification of the textiles they found between 1979 and 1981 in the under floor deposits at the Hyde Park Barracks. The talk, “What colour was that girl’s dress? The archaeological evidence of fabrics from Hyde Park Barracks”, will be followed by a tour of their new exhibit ‘Female Immigration Depot 1848-1886’ at the Barracks.  Numbers for the tour are strictly limited to 15 people who are members of the Guild. Please contact the Quilters' Guild of NSW Office to secure your place for the talk and tour. Please note: access to two of the floors at the Barracks building is by staircase only.

The last talk for the year will be held at 2pm on the 12^th of November 2016 back at The Glover Cottages. Kathy Doughty, who is well known to Guild members as a maker and designer of quilts, a judge at quilt shows, a quilt shop owner and writer of quilting books, has also designed three ranges of quilting fabrics - “Trail Blazing”, “Flock Together” and “A Wandering Mind”. She will talk to us about why she produced her own fabric ranges, the steps involved and her experience of dealing with this aspect of the quilt industry. 

 Anyone who is interested in quilting and quilt history is welcome to come along to The Quilt Study Group of NSW talks. The Glover Cottages is a beautiful light-filled venue for the talks and it is an easy walk from either Wynyard or Circular Quay train stations. Afternoon tea is provided and the talks start at 2pm. Check the Quilt NSW’s website or the latest Template Newsletter issue for more details.

'Making The Australian Quilt: 1800-1950' exhibition - 22 July – 6 November 2016

Misses Hampson
The Westbury quilt 1900-1903
cotton, hand-embroidered, hand-appliqued
223 x 191 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased through the Australian Textiles Fund 1990

‘Making the Australian Quilt: 1800 –1950’ is the first major exhibition of its kind to explore the rich and largely unseen works that constitute Australia’s quilt heritage. Exclusive to Melbourne, the exhibition includes more than eighty works from around the country. Key works such as The Rajah Quilt, and examples by renowned makers Mary Jane Hannaford, Marianne Gibson and Amelia Brown will be shown alongside a number of recently discovered pieces not exhibited before. They include quilts, coverlets, garments and quilted, patched and pieced works made in Australia or with a significant Australian provenance. The exhibition also features key 19th century English quilts that were brought or sent to Australia, informing and influencing the early quilting practices of local makers.

Annie Ellis

Australia 1870–1967

Dressing gown 1935

silk, wool, cotton, viscose, rayon, metallic thread

(a) 128.0 cm (centre back), 51.0 cm (sleeve length) (dressing gown)

(b) 242.0 x 10.0 cm diameter (variable) (belt)

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Gift of Mrs Annie C. Champion, 1989 (CT136.a-b-1989)

With works drawn from public and private collections throughout Australia, visitors to this unprecedented exhibition will have a rare opportunity to experience the aesthetic impact, technical skill and powerful storytelling capacity of this fascinating art form. The material used in the creation of the work is diverse and telling of the creative resourcefulness of their makers. Taffeta, velvet, furnishing fabric, dressmaking scraps, flour bags, possum skins, suiting samples and flannelette has each been transformed by the act of cutting, layering, piecing and stitching.

Unknown, Australia

Possum skin rug (late 19th century – early 20th century)

possum skin

250.0 x 180.0 cm

Private collection, Sydney

Many of the pieces were created within an intimate, private setting, yet have the ability to convey much more of their broader social and historical significance. The exhibition encompasses quilts made by men and women, those made within the context of leisure and accomplishment, created as expressions of love and family connection and those stitched out of necessity in an environment of constraint and hardship.

Mary Jane Hannaford

born England 1840, emigrated to Australia 1842, died 1930

Wedding quilt 1922

cotton, wool, applique, glass (beads), sequins

169.0 x 195.0 cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Miss Swanson 1997 (NGV 97.1336)

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full colour catalogue and has been co-curated by renowned quilt historian and collector Dr Annette Gero and Katie Somerville, Senior Curator Fashion and Textiles, NGV. Multimedia will be used within the exhibition space to provide a better understanding of the process of quilt making and the stories behind the works on display.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

A special opening weekend symposium exploring Australian quilt making leads the extensive range of public programs offered for ‘Making the Australian Quilt’. Other programs include talks, practical workshops and creative activities that allow a deeper exploration of the art, history and heritage of quilting in Australia.

22 July – 6 November 2016

Open 10am to 5pm daily

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Melbourne 

To buy tickets, go to http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/making-the-australian-quilt-1800-1950/.

Report on Shirley Gibson's QSG of NSW talk on Doll Making

Shirley Gibson has been a long-standing member of the Quilters’ Guild of NSW who has made many prize-winning quilts. She is a Guild-accredited quilting teacher and is also a valued member of the Guild’s Quilt Valuation Team. But many of us did not realise that she has another prize-winning skill – that of doll making. And on the 18th of July her audience was transfixed as she explained how she made her dolls and why.

Shirley with the first doll she made

Shirley was first attracted to this area when she was given a doll for Christmas in 1987. She was intrigued by how it was made, so had to make one for herself (a challenge she still follows). She started by buying the components of the dolls but quickly progressed to making them completely by hand: from handling the greenware through to making the accessories such as a bible, a chatelaine or in the case of her soldier doll, all his military equipment. In the process she has learnt valuable skills in porcelain painting and firing, millinery, shoe-making, smocking and pleating, and always researches historical costumes and construction in order to make authentic clothing. Along the way she has made all types of dolls, from the modern period to the late 1700s.

Shirley's daughter Merryn with the wind-up German doll her mother made for her

1920s doll with its own poupard (church doll)

Shirley started her talk by showing us the first doll she made. She explained how she prepared the greenware moulds for firing by using various tools to smooth and create attachments for eyes and limbs. She then showed how she painted the eyelashes and eyebrows using a paintbrush stripped down to 1 or 2 hairs, making sure that every hair painted is completely symmetrical. Lastly she paints the lips, nostrils and eyes (if they are not moveable) and makes teeth to insert. Finally the head is completed by making the wigs (from mohair or lambs wool) and attaching them. Some doll bodies are made from leather and some from calico and Shirley showed us all types.

After completing the body and researching the type of doll, Shirley then makes the clothing, footwear and any accessories needed to complete it. For the soldier doll going off to the Boer War, the uniform of a Tasmanian Regiment, complete with long johns and weapons, took her some time to make.

In the case of another doll, that meant making a complete wardrobe – all her clothes and accessories, along with a box to contain them.

For this doll, the ball gown with bustle and the tiara completed the ensemble.

The doll that intrigued us most was a French doll from the late 1700s that had the most beautiful clothing, including a quilted petticoat (quilted at 25 stitches to the inch). It was remarkable to see as Shirley undressed it and explained how she had made every part of the doll and its clothing.

Over the course of the talk we learnt the difference between the French and German doll and the various types of dolls – poupard, googly eyed, holly hobbie etc. Photographs of a small sample of those she brought along to show us are below.

Currently Shirley has an 1830’s doll body her son gave her for Christmas that has to be dressed, so her hobby continues still.

Shirley's next project

If you are intrigued by the speakers and topics, please come along to the next Quilt Study Group of NSW talk on Saturday afternoon, the 21st of November 2015. The speaker is by noted contemporary quilter Lisa Walton and her topic is ‘Leap and the net will appear’. For details, see QSG of NSW Events