Aussie Hero Quilts & Laundry Bags

July 8, 2016 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
Jan-Maree Hall is the founder & co-ordinator of Aussie Hero Quilts and laundry bags – an organisation set up to make quilts and laundry bags to send to Aussie service men and women currently serving overseas and to express gratitude for their service.
Some members of Canberra Quilters have made quilts and bags for this organisation.
Jan-Maree recently lost her house and contents to a fire. As well as the loss of her family home, it was also the headquarters for the Aussie Hero organisation – so quilts and bags that were ready for delivery were also lost.
On the Aussie Hero Quilts blog Jan-Maree has posted how you can help out. Here is a link.
Tentmakers of Cairo documentary showing April 1

March 28, 2016 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
The documentary about the Tentmakers of Cairo is showing this Friday, 1 April, at the ARC Cinema ( National Film and Sound Archive) in Acton. Session times are 11am and 7pm. Further details and bookings here. Tickets are $10/ $18. Filmmaker Kim Beamish will introduce the 7pm session.
New items for November 2014

November 13, 2014 | Posted in Library, Uncategorized | By librarian
TITLE: Quilting… just a little bit crazy : a marriage of traditional & crazy quilting
AUTHOR: Aller, Allie & Bothell, Valerie
DESCRIPTION: Fun new ways to make any quilt a little bit crazy. Lots of tips on hand and machine embroidery, and how to combine crazy quilting with machine piecing – plus new ways to layer, quilt, and bind crazy quilts.
LOCATION: Crazy quilting
TITLE: Playful little paper-pieced projects : 37 graphic designs & tips from top modern quilters
AUTHOR: Bruecher, Tacha, compiler
DESCRIPTION: Top designers share their valuable tips and fail-proof paper-piecing techniques. It includes a calendar quilt with paper-pieced designs for each month. Also includes small projects for around the house.
LOCATION: Paper piecing
TITLE: Quilt color workshop
AUTHOR: Bruecher, Tacha; Greenberg, Brioni; Goldsworthy, Lynne and Adams, John
DESCRIPTION: Color theory is explored in this reference book for modern quilters. Discover creative color combinations to make your quilts ‘pop’. Learn how to combine print and solid fabrics using quilt color theory.
Information about the NSW Guild Quilt Show 9 to 13 July 2014

June 6, 2014 | Posted in Uncategorized | By admin
The NSW Guild has provided information about their upcoming show, which is being held on 9 to 13 July.
You can download the information by clicking this link: Transport info and Site Map for State Guilds and VIPs
Modern Quilts meeting – 10 April

April 8, 2014 | Posted in Modern Quilt Group, Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
The Modern Quilts group meets this Thursday, 10 April, at 7.30pm.
Michelle and Jenny are unable to make the meeting so the stand-in leaders are Gemma Jackson and Jan Kates.
Gemma has something special to show everyone:
Binding quilts is my least favourite part of quilting. At one point I realised that I was accumulating unbound quilts as I just couldn’t face all that hand stitching. (Yes, I know some people claim it’s relaxing, I claim that of quilting 😉 ) Since I discovering machine binding I haven’t looked back! This week I’m going to share a couple of different machine binding techniques. I will do a demonstration, but you are more than welcome to bring your own quilt to try it out yourself 🙂
You will need:
- Trimmed quilt (of any size).
- Binding prepared (I cut mine at 2.25″, join on the bias and press in half lengthways with right side out).
- Sewing machine with walking foot. If you have a walking foot with a guide (like a blind hem foot), please bring it too.
- Small bulldog clips or hair clips or clover clips or similar
- Usual sewing supplies
- I find a quilting glove helps
You may wish to apply your binding to your quilt to save time, but please note that I will be showing you one technique which requires you to apply your binding to the back and one which requires you to apply your binding to the front.
TIP: to work out how much binding you need add together the length of the four sides of your quilt and then add an extra 15″. Divide the total by 40″. This will give you how many strips of WOF (width of fabric) you need for your binding.
For example. My quilt is 40″ x 65″ = 210 +15 = 225 225 / 40 = 5.6 so I need 6 WOF strips for my binding. I cut my strips at 2.25″
I look forward to seeing you Thursday!
Quilts and the Sochi Winter Olympic Games

February 10, 2014 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
Has anyone noticed that all the signage, volunteers’ and officials’ uniforms, athlete bibs, even the medals, are based on a diamond patchwork quilt? It is supposed to unite all the regions of Russia and it includes 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts: Uftyuzhskaya painting, Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns, Pavlov Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting, Yakutsk patterns and Ivanovo chintz.
Search “Sochi Olympic Motif” and you will get an idea – or pay close attention to the television footage.
Merry Christmas from Canberra Quilters

December 25, 2013 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
Merry Christmas everyone – did you get some quilting goodies in your gifts today?
Enjoy the day with family and friends.

This quilt is one made and donated or QFO this year- it hung for a period of time in the hallway outside our meeting room.
CQ Bulletin is Live!
November 4, 2013 | Posted in Uncategorized | By admin

A snapshot of the first Canberra Quilters Bulletin
The Canberra Quilters Bulletin was delivered to in boxes all over the country today! If you’d like to see this month’s bulletin you can find it by clicking here.
If you’d like to receive the monthly bulletin via email you can sign up to it by clicking here.
If you have any questions about the monthly bulletin or you’d like to contribute to it, please email Angie Wilson – click to email.
Tentmakers Workshops

October 1, 2013 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Workshop Coordinator

Outing the pattern with talc and cinnamon.
Over sixty Canberra Quilters were privileged to learn from master craftsmen Hany and Ekramy from Cairo’s Chareh El- Khiamiah: The Tentmaker’s street. Sponsor, Jenny Bowker suggested that quilters learn the basics of this style of applique as the Egyptians practise the art, so we marked patterns with needles and awls, transferred patterns with cinnamon and talc and tried our hardest to sew faster on the canvas backed cotton backgrounds with long threads.

Crowding around to see the magic happen.
Jenny provided an inciteful commentry, and storytelling so that we could more fully understand the traditions and background of this traditional quilt form.
The room was awash with gorgeous multicoloured and truly amazing quilt works which were available for sale on Thursday night.

Examples of the Tent Makers work.
Correction: Tentmakers of Cairo
September 28, 2013 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Liz Rose
Canberra Quilters would like to advise that there will be NO EFTPOS facilities at the Egyptian Tentmaker appearances at the Friendly Friday meeting on 27 September, between 10 am and 12 noon, or at the evening meeting on 3 October.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
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Egyptian tent maker Ekramy Hanafy in action. Photo: Graham Tidy |
You can read more about the Egyptian Tentmaker’s visit to Canberra here at the Canberra Times article.