Textile Conservation & Restoration Workshop

9th Oct 2010 - Conservation Workshop - a hands on workshop by Alan R Tremain from Oz Quilt Design. This half-day workshop will look at the practical implementation of Conservation and Restoration techniques for domestic textiles. Participants will need to bring along a quilt, quilt top or other textile to work on plus other notions to be advised. Alan will have some specialty items including sewing needles and thread for participants to purchase if necessary. Karen Fail will take bookings for the event. To reserve a place at the workshop please contact her via email at kfail@bigpond.net.au
This event will be held in the Powerhouse Learning Centre, at the Powerhouse Museum.
Entry is free for members of the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc. and afternoon tea will be provided.
Access to the Powerhouse Museum is via the walkway over from Chinatown and by walking from Central Station. Seehttp://www.powerhousemuseum.com/visit/howtogethere.asp#public_transport for details. If you contact the event owner, Karen Fail, beforehand it is possible to arrange for car parking in the Powerhouse's parking area for disabled drivers. Or you can use the drop off area near the entrance to the car park which provides easy access to Level 2 where our events are held.

Hexy Madness - Old and New

24th April 2010 - Hexagon Madness - Old and New. Join many other hexagon lovers at the Powerhouse Museum to pour over antique hexagon quilts, be enthralled by the many modern interpretations of the hexagon and to learn more. We hope to have several well-known quilt makers who specialise in hexie quilts along to show off their quilts. This event will be held in the Powerhouse Learning Centre, at the Powerhouse Museum on 24th April 2010 from 2pm to 4pm. Bring along any of your hexie quilts, old or new, for us to see. Entry is free for members of the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc. and afternoon tea will be provided. Access to the Powerhouse Museum is via the walkway over from Chinatown and by walking from Central Station. See http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/visit/howtogethere.asp#public_transport fordetails. If you contact the event owner, Sandra Lyons on 9589 2537 before hand it is possible to arrange for car parking in the Powerhouse's parking area for disabled drivers. Or you can use the drop off area near the entrance to the car park which provides easy access to Level 2 where our events are held.

Road to Condo #3 by Judy Hooworth

After lengthy negotiations with the Powerhouse Museum and Christina Sumner Principal Curator - Design and Society, the Sydney Quilt Study Group has brokered and funded the acquisition. At the final meeting of the Sydney Quilt Study Group, the members voted to use outstanding funds for the acquisition of a contemporary work by a NSW quilter. (The quilt study group is now known as the Quilt Study Group of NSW and is a subcommittee of the Quilters Guild of NSW). The final choice of quilt was made by the Powerhouse Museum.

Road to Condo #3 (138cm x 157cm) 2004
Torn and layered cotton strips stitched to two layers of cotton fabric. Machine stitched and quilted. Pellon batting. Black cotton backing. Zigzag stitched edge. Signed and dated with embroidery.

Artist's statement
I've travelled to Condobolin many times since I was a small child to visit my favourite uncle and aunt. Visits to Condo were special, and each visit made a huge impression on me. The colours of the landscape stay in my memory, and the variations from season to season, year to year are enduring images in my colour vocabulary. The trips to Condo were a revelation, my introduction to the extraordinary landscape of the bush.

My quilts record my impressions of the journey, the importance of family relationships and my feelings about the passing of an era that meant so much to me.
Judy Hooworth

Exhibited in Quiltessence, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, 2002; Quilt National 2003, toured 2003/2004/2005; Sydney Quilt Show - awarded 4th prize, Art Quilt Open; Stitched in Place, Orange Regional Art Gallery 2007.
Published in Show Catalogue for Quiltessence; Quilt National 2003: the Best of Contemporary Quilts.

Gentle Arts - 'Textiles'

For anyone who has some free time in Sydney this Saturday, the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill in Sydney is having a textiles-focused open day. Anyone visiting Sydney may like to add it to their trip! Here is a brief overview of the day. For more detailed information about the day, go here: http://castlehill.powerhousemuseum.com/events/open_day.php
The Gentle Arts 'Textiles' Saturday 14 November 10.00am-4.00pm
Join us when the Powerhouse Discovery Centre presents an Open Day celebrating the 'gentle arts', focused on embroidery, quilting and needlework in the Powerhouse Museum's collection. Highlights of the Open Day include; a lecture by Powerhouse Museum Conservator, Suzanne Chee, on textile preservation and how to display needlework; displays and demonstrations of fine embroidery and patchwork quilting and a hands-on workshop where visitors can take part in embroidering a convict bonnet as part of the 'Roses from the Heart' convict bonnet project, developed by Tasmanian artist, Christina Henri. Visitors can also spend time in the Centre's Collection Lab to view a selection of quilt panels from the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt Project and meet some of the Discovery Centre volunteers involved in the conservation of the quilts.

Enthusiasts of Contemporary Quilt Art

DIANNE FINNEGAN INVITES YOU
TO HER EXHIBITION
November 5th to 28th 2009

BAROMETER GALLERY
13 GURNER STREET PADDINGTON

OPENING NIGHT
Thursday 5th November
6pm to 8pm
RSVP by Monday 2nd November
dianne@diannefinnegan.com.au
t:02 9957 2401

Gallery open Thursday to Saturday
12pm - 6pm or by appointment
t: 02 9957 2401 m: 0420 372 401

View works www.diannefinnegan.com.au

Jennifer Burton - 1930s quilts

27th February 2010 - Jennifer Burton will give a 30 minute talk about 1930's quilts and will bring along some of her 1930's quilts for us to see. Please bring along your own 1930's quilts or quilt tops or any you have made that are reproductions of or inspired by these quilts for the members' show and tell after her talk. Afternoon tea will be provided.
The talk will be held at the Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo in one of the Powerhouse Learning Centre rooms on the second floor at 2pm.

Soft Furnishings Project - Old Government House

Fabric Samples Thistle design for Drawingroom sofas

The Quilt Study Group of NSW visited Old Government House Parramatta on 10th October 2009. Fourteen members of the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc. visited Old Government House for the last event of the year organised by the Quilt Study Group of NSW. The building, which is home to one of the finest collections of early colonial furniture in Australia, has curtains, braids, bed hangings, mats and othersoft furnishings that were made by hand for the rooms on the ground floor of the house. Because of the expense of sourcing the soft furnishings from commercial sources, the National Trust of NSW decided to call for volunteers to make them instead. Thus was the five year long Soft Furnishings Project created. There are 20 or so volunteers who form the main team of the Project. They worked under the guidance of Dr James Broadbent, who sourced the fabrics, and Elizabeth Wright who worked on the designs. Some had existing skills but many developed new skills for the tasks at hand. These included painting on velvet, spinning cords for bell pulls, and the painstaking work of binding silk thread over vellum strips to form tassels. Rug making and upholstery skills were also required. The tassels and fringes, which would have cost thousands of dollars if purchased from European workshops, were all made by hand by the volunteers. After a very informative guided tour of the house four of the Soft Furnishings Project volunteers kindly took us back to the rooms where their work was exhibited and explained exactly how they had created the items. Back in the Soft Furnishings Project work room we were allowed to touch the items, and the ladies demonstrated how they had created these amazing braids, curtains, mats etc. Thelma, Sue, Nerida and Fran were all veryhelpful and informative in sharing their knowledge and experience with us. If you want to see the house and visit the Soft Furnishings Project room to look at their exhibits and source references, the volunteers for the Soft Furnishing Project are at Old Government House on Wednesdays between 10 - 2 pm.
Phone 02 96358149 to confirm the project volunteers will be there before visiting.