Sydney quilt show.

On Thursday I went to the Sydney Quilt and Craft Show. It is on annually in Darling Harbour, in the heart of the city.

I attended quite a few talks about different aspects of quilting.

The first talk was bright and early at 9:30am by lady named Sue Daley from Busy Thimbles. She gave some insight into improving needleturn applique techniques. I know how to do this type of applique, and I can do it, but I find it frustrating. I much prefer the english paper piecing method. However, Sue was very passionate about the topic and gave some good tips. Their website has a lot of things on it, it is worth taking a look.

I attended a talk called "One Fabric Magic", where Margaret Kirkby from Logan's Fabricsdemonstrated how it is possible to make an entire quilt from just one fabric. I was sceptical about this, but believe me here results were amazing! This talk was based on Kay Nickols book 1 Fabric Quilts - you can find the link here. It is seriously worth a look!

Judy Gray, from Rose Patchwork Cottage, gave a talk on quilting in the recession. She showed many quilts she had made using out-dates rose print fabric which she had tea-dyed, along with traditional quilts made with mostly homespun fabrics. Again, I was sceptical about the tea-dyed quilts. I thought the tea would give a splotchy effect for some reason. However, Judy's quilts did not looked second rate at all. They were very classy and timeless. I really enjoyed this talk.

But, more importantly, "what did you buy Sam?" I hear you asking!

Well, firstly I was very good! My dear hubby gave me a budget to work with, and I stuck to it!

The show has 10 long rows of double-sided stalls to walk through. It can be visual overload at times when you are surrounded by all different crafts. I made a bee-line for the Material Obsession stall and hung out there for almost half and hour! Kathy (the lady who runs it and is the author of both books) was there as well! I was able to ask her questions I had, and also compliment her on the quilts she had on display and her book. In the first book, there is a pattern for a Nosegay quilt. I couldn't quite understand how the block came together, so I asked Kathy for some advice. She strongly suggested I invest in the Matilda's Own brand of acrylic Nosegay templates, because unless we use quality templates, then we will eventually end up wasting fabric. This is so true. If you have ever traced patterns onto template plastic, and then cut the templates out with scissors, then cut fabric out with them using a rotory cutter, you know that each cut always shaves a little bit of fabric off the template. By the time you reach your last block, the template has changed shape!

Lucky for me Kathy explained how to construct the block as well. I have been sewing all evening and this is what I have to show you all. I am really happy with it!

So I purchased the templates, and a bundle of ten 25cm strips to begin my Material Obsession-stlye stash!

Sam xox