Hand Quilting Extraordinaire

I was thrilled to see, and photograph, Julie Adamson’s quilt, “Jessie” recently.

I had missed the Victorian Quilters Inc Showcase earlier this year, where Julie won the Runner Up to Best of Show prize for her work on “Jessie”.

So I was pleased to catch up with Julie, at a workshop where she was teaching her hand quilting technique, and see more of her quilts.

It was pleasing to hear her explain to the students what a difference good thread makes to the ease of hand quilting.

Try choosing a shade up & down of the one colour to add depth & variety to hand quilting

Julie also showed us another quilt, a wholecloth that had a vine design quilted with Aurifil Cotton Mako’ 28 in one colour and the background fill quilted with a different thread.

She said that she had planned the design, and was working on the quilt over a weekend.  She enjoyed stitching the vine so much that she just wanted to keep quilting the background filler to see if the effect looked as good as she had imagined when she drew up the design.

However, she hadn’t expected to progress this quickly, and didn’t have the second Aurifil thread colour in her collection. So she picked up a different brand of thread from her basket and started stitching the background fill.

What a mistake! She said the second thread was not nearly as easy to use, as it twisted “with a mind of it’s own” and did not make as nice a stitch as her favorite Aurifil.

This example reminds me that it is easy to forget just how nice it is to stitch with Aurifil when it is the thread that you use everyday.

Aurifil really is the benchmark to which to compare other thread brands.

If you want to take a workshop with Julie Adamson check out the program for the 2016 Australian Quilt Convention

PS: Julie recently won 1st place in the Open Small Quilt “Predominately Applique” category in the SA Quilters Guild Festival of Quilts.

Australian Quilt Market 2015

It doesn’t feel like 12 months since the last Australian Quilt Market in Melbourne but here we are once again ready for the two day Fair to exhibit Aurifil to patchwork shops, professional quilters, teachers and textile designers.

Yesterday was “set up” day  so we started with a blank space.

After some heavy lifting to move the display from the van into the exhibition hall we started putting things up on the wall.

And then three hours later  we were done!

 

The hoopla theme this year meant we were working with smaller pieces and everything went together so much faster on the day.

Hope to see lots of retailers today & tomorrow at the Exhibition Centre in Melbourne.

If you can’t be there watch our instagram stream in the next two days for close up views  of the hoops.

Find out more about Aurifil

 

 

Miniature Versions.

Quilters are always making quilts for others, sometimes for loved family members and dear friends, sometimes for charitable causes, and sometimes as commissions. A couple of years ago I made a quilt for a young family member who was facing some traumatic experiences.

To read the full story go to Made with Love (Nov 2013)

Much love went into the quilt’s construction and after the quilt was with its new owner I decided to make a miniature version for myself. Not only does the mini quilt help to decorate a spot in my quilting studio, but it also serves to remind me of the person who received the full-size version.