The Colourful Cascade Story

The QuiltNSW Show committee approached Sydney Modern Quilt Guild several years ago, to see if we would like to contribute a different kind of quilt for the guild’s Annual Raffle. 

Of course we would! 

Covid turfed our original deadline out the window, but in 2022 our group voted on some inspiration samples and submitted a shortlist to the NSW Quilt Show committee for selection.

They chose an improv cross-cut style block in bright rainbow colours on a grey background. An immediate – if simple – read as ‘modern’.

It also worked well as a study block, with the majority of our members piecing at least one block for the quilt. Many contributed several, pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. True improv block making can be a challenge even for those of us who’ve been following a more modern direction for a while. But a tutorial and demonstration at one of our Sewing Sundays set us off on a properly wonky path. Our group supplied the background fabric (Moda’s Ash Grunge), and members used their own colourful scraps and stash fabric that matched a prescribed rainbow palette.

Almost 200 hundred blocks later, and with a loose idea for an overall design that included a little bit of asymmetry and a bit more negative space (other typically “modern” characteristics…), a core group sat down at our annual retreat and came up with a plan to sling up the blocks on a design wall and invite anyone with itchy fingers to play around with positioning. We had so much fun!

Every block made by a member ended up either on the front, back, or in the bag we’ve made to protect it.

With the help of some of the most precise seamsters in Australia, we trimmed and stitched and pulled our quilt top together, ready for quilting. 

Our group has had great success machine quilting previous group projects in the round-robin style. A little bit of forward planning helps, as does working within design structures that lend themselves to the technique; and so seven members contributed their time and significant skill to the finishing of this gorgeous quilt.

And its name? Usually, we have a membership vote to decide on the title of our group projects. But this time one of our retreat attendees exclaimed – as they were pondering in front of the design wall – “what a gloriously colourful cascade!” And the name just stuck.

Sydney MQG is delighted to have designed and constructed this truly group-wide project: the first “Modern” quilt for the QuiltNSW Raffle prize. We had a great time making it. 

During the QuiltNSW Show at Rosehill Racecourse in September 2024 the raffle draw was won by Julie Wood. A handful of our members happened to be in the QuiltNSW office on the day she collected her prize. 

Kate Shea 

(Convenor of SydMQG’s 2023 group raffle quilt project)

Kincumber Retreat May 2023.

The last weekend in May 2023 saw 18 SydMQG members head north out of Sydney towards the Central Coast.

Rumour has it some retreaters might have stopped off en route at the very well stocked West Gosford Spotlight, and to see the lovely folk at the Sewing Basket in Kincumber (it’s part of the Achieve network of charity shops, and is located just 1 handy km from our retreat location – and near the really good coffee shop. I think they did very well with both donations & purchases that weekend!)

Some of us are pretty familiar with the facilities up at St Joseph’s in Kincumber, and it was great to be back there for a couple of full days dedicated to all things sewing & quilting, a lot of chatting, a modicum of wine slurping, and lots of scones. (And one of the best collections of Lucky Door prizes we’ve ever had.) For those members who struggle to get much dedicated quilt-making time in day-to-day life it is a real treat!

It was also lovely to catch up with some members who don’t often get to travel to Ashfield for Sunday Sewing, but managed to make it for the weekend. We had a handful of retreat newbies too, and it was great to see their delight at the facilities. That big hall where we sew works so well for a group our size – plenty of room to spread out and get creative! (Also, Sister Ellen has high hopes for her new chef, and she got the thumbs up from us too!)

The retreaters had an opportunity to get involved in the laying out of the QuiltNSW 2024 Raffle Quilt; and there was plenty of discussion and tweaking. Then the Dream Assembly Team of Helen Hill and Catherine Butterworth helped Kate Shea (this year’s group project coordinator), and they cracked on with pulling the top together – so by the end of the weekend we had a Colourful Cascade* pulled together from all the gorgeous improv cross-cut blocks (made by so many our generous members earlier this year) all ready for basting. And another multi-coloured block to go home with Anita Brown who volunteered to piece the backing. Hooray!

It was a glorious autumn weekend. Bright sunshine, with a crisp bite in the air – perfect for mooching around the beautiful riverside grounds for those of us who need an intermittent leg stretch and break away from the machines, irons and design boards.

But gossiping (sorry: information sharing), walking, shopping and eating aside; it was a very productive weekend for so many. Just have a look at the photos to see what was achieved.

Roll on August 2024. We’re booked in again for the first weekend. Can’t wait.
(We’ll probably be very glad of those electric blankets then!)

Cheers Kate Shea


* Thank you Helen Tait for the excellent name suggestion.

Looking for fresh inspiration in 2020

The Modern Quilt Guild has curated a collection of patterns, webinars and articles called The Modern Monthly and is available every quarter so you have an great aray of information and inspiration at your finger tips. The patterns are interesting and creative yet simple enough for beginners.

Issue 03 features the Block Study called Staggered Steps which was designed by Yolanda Whitehead of the Cincinnati MQG.  There are two modern quilt patterns using this block called Ladders and Waves available to download so you can use them as they are or create somthing different using the block itself.

Ladders Quilt

Included in the issue, Maritza Soto gives a brilliant webinar on Impov Quilting. There are as many ideas about improv and many of us struggle to know where to start to improv our way to a pleasing design.There are however some basic threads of commonality that run through these improv quilts. In this webinar, Maritza talks about her various approaches to working in a manner where the process is everything and the maker bends the rules to watch the final design unfold.

Click here to go to this issue, use your membership details to log in. use the tab that says ”For MQG Members” to access Modern Monthly and more.

International MQG Mini Quilt Swap

International MQG Mini Quilt Swap

The International MQG Mini Quilt Swap will be open for registration next week. To join in this amazing swap you only have to be a member of the MQG. Membership of the MQG is all part of your SydneyMQG membership. 

You can participate nationally or internationally and you have until February 2020 to complete your mini. Find a link in our profile to the FAQ’S on their website and look out for their email next week.

MQG Mini Swap

Head on over to the how to log into your MQG account if you need to know how to sign in!

Riley Blake Modern Quilt Guild Challenge

One of the wonderful benefits of joining our guild is that we are affiliated with The Modern Quilt Guild, and by joining, you also gain membership to the modern Quilt Guild in the states, which connects us to other guilds and provides discounts on MQG shows (including discounts and special offers from MQG sponsors). Last year, MQG an Riley Blake teamed up to create a wonderful competition open to all MQG members called the Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge. Our guild decided to both participate in the competition, and make it interesting within our guild by creating a mini challenge. The rules were:

  • Produce a a 24” mini quilt, using all of the RB fabrics provided, and any solid of your choosing.

The due date for our challenge quilts is Sunday the 16th of February, which happens to coincide with our Sunday Sit n Sew day! The categories are as follows:

 

The finished quilts must be uploaded onto the MQG Riley Blake forum, via the MQG community site by the 17th of February this year. I’m aware that not everyone is up to speed with technology, so I have a little tutorial on how to upload your finished quilt!

First of all, you must make an account with the MQG. Link is here. Once you’re logged in, you can click through to the community stuff. The community area is located at the top of the MQG page, or just click on this link, which will take you straight through to the Riley Blake forum. To go in the running to win with the MQG, you must enter a picture of your finished quilt into the forum titled FINISHED Riley Blake challenge photos. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, until you see the comment box. In the comment box at the far right, you’ll see a tiny icon of a mountain. Click on it to upload your photo, then follow the instructions.

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Once you’ve submitted the photo into the comment box, you can simply click the Post button, but I think it might be nice to mention that you’re a member of GWSMQG, how big the quilt is, and what solids you used. I hope this mini tutorial was helpful!

So who is Kathleen Riggins Modern Quilter?

During September this year the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild had the pleasure of hosting  two quilting workshops by Kathleen Riggins.

Sydney Modern Quilt Guild, Modern Quilt Guild, MQG, Australia, Kathleen Riggins, Workshop, Modern Quilting
SMQG Kathleen Riggins Workshop

Kathleen comes to us directly from a teaching gig at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival held in September 2018 in Adelaide. It is not her first visit here as she and her husband have holidayed here before and both enjoy Australia. They live in Camrose,  a relatively small city in central Alberta, Canada, amid some of the richest farmland in the prairies.

She grew up amongst some talented quiltmakers including Mom, Dad and Grandma. “My first quilt was a Kindygarden quilt with plus signs” Kathleen says. “I made it on my own after watching Alex Anderson’s TV show, Simply Quilts at the age of 8. It had some strawberry, blue and peach fabric and I wanted more blue, but Mom wouldn’t let me. I still resent it!”  She finally finished the quilt  after almost 14 yrs, as part of a Guild Challenge .

At Twenty-nine now she started free motion quilting when only 14 and long arming quilting at 24. “I was sponsored by APQS Canada & Sparrow Studioz in 2014 and was given APQS Lucey to use in my living room! We sell Pfaff Creative Performance and a Janome 1600P in our store so I have these two machines as well.”

Kathleen does all her quilting hand guided. She loves pretty much anything to do with a sewing machine. Free motion quilting is by far her favorite technique. She will do almost anything to avoid hand sewing and prefers to do her quilt binding by machine.

“I choose machine quilting as a career as my parents have a quilt store “Quilting From The Heart” and they wanted to expand. They asked if I would join the Company and I said okay. My husband joined too. He is our machine technician. He really likes machine embroidery and does it for fun even entering competitions!” Kathleen smiles.

Kathleen replied,  “I love bright cheerful fabric ranges. Australian born Jan Mullens  is my favourite fabric designer.  Rachel Dorr  is my favorite quilter, I love the way she combines geometric quilting with feathers for magic!”

Sydney Modern Quilt Guild, Modern Quilt Guild, MQG, Australia, Kathleen Riggins, Workshop, Modern Quilting
SMQG Kathleen Riggins Workshop

While Kathleen’s work is incredibly inspiring, she tells us she is inspired by the free motion quilting of Angela Walters and Margaret Solomon Gunn and the design work of Judy Niemeyer, Jaybird and Elizabeth Hartmann. “I love so many modern quilts I simply can’t pick just one. My favourite work so far is was ‘Ice Bubbles’ a collaboration quilt completed by Kat Jones, Rachel Frost and myself. It has just won viewers choice in Adelaide. I would love to win ‘Best Longarm Machine Quilting’ at Quiltcon, but it won’t happen, because they like straight lines and I do better than that!”

Those that attended Kathleen’s workshops were extremely happy with what they learned and their individual results. Kathleen’s website is full of inspiration, online learning and her wonderful books.

 

Kathleen Riggins Workshop presented by the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild

We are delighted to announce that legendary Canadian free motion quilter, Kathleen Riggins, is coming to Sydney to teach for the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild!

You might know Kathleen’s work through her Instagram moniker Kathleen Quilts. Kathleen is coming to Australia to teach at AMQF and after finishing in Adelaide, she is heading to Sydney to teach for us.

The dates are Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 September, 2018 and the venue is Dooley’s Waterview at Silverwater Rd & Clyde St, Silverwater NSW 2128.

Saturday 29/9 :: Easy Quilting, Stunning Quilts
Use a straight ruler and easy fills to create stunning modern quilting designs. Use the piecing in the quilt to find hidden shapes and lines, then simply fill them in for fantastic quilting! In this class you will use a cheater panel to practice the techniques we learn.
Full day. 10 am – 4 pm
Cost of cheater panel is an extra cost of approximately A$26 payable on the day.
Trybooking

Sunday 30/9 :: Quilting For The Crazy/Combining Designs In Modern Ways
Sometimes spending that little bit of extra time on a quilt can really make it special. Mark lines & shapes to create stunning negative spaces may be time consuming, but it’s not particularly difficult. Knowing some basic designs is one thing, but knowing how to combine them in interesting ways can open a whole new world of quilting – without having to learn new designs! Join Kathleen as she walks you through some of her favourite ways to combine designs, helping you create stunning quilts.
Full day. 10am – 4pm
Trybooking

You may enrol for both days, if you wish. The material covered will not overlap.

Cost includes workshop only. Lunch, coffees and snacks may be purchased in the club dining room.

Cost per day for members: $175
Cost per day for SMQG non-members: $250

Join the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild today and save big! Send us an email we will send you a membership form.

Places are limited, so book quickly.

Monday meetup – Favourite quilting tools or gadgets

Sydney Modern Quilt Guild has two meetings per month.

A full day of sewing happens on our Sewing Sundays from 10am-4pm, but what goes on at Monday MeetUp you ask?

We meet at the same club, Dooleys Waterview Club and have a table booked from 7pm. There is the opportunity to have dinner, or just cake and coffee or tea, as people make their way in for a 7.30 start. There is always plenty of conversation, laughter and handsewing.

Generally there is a topic for discussion. You can sit and listen, or jump in with your own tidbits. The March Monday MeetUp topic was your “Favourite quilting tools or gadgets”.

There were many ideas that were shared including some novel uses for objects unrelated to the usual quilting notions.

This ingenious little device was shown to us by Jodi – a first time visitor. It’s a “snippit” a gadget from Canada for opening plastic milk pouches. The cleverly concealed blade is perfect for snipping threads and can safely be taken on flights. It’s also magnetic…which means it’s a needle holder too!

Our next Monday MeetUp is on 24 April from 7pm at Dooley Waterview Club Silverwater Road Silverwater.

Contact details are on our Facebook page, instagram or by email from our blog.

We look forward to seeing our regulars and new comers in the coming months.

Save

Sydney MQG members raffle quilt at Modern Quilt Show Australia

charityquiltcon

A quilt made by members of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild will be raffled during the Modern Quilt Show Australia 2016, at Glebe Town Hall on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November. Proceeds from the raffle will go to a Sydney charity, which supports migrants newly arrived in Australia: Promoting Healthy Outcomes for Refugees

2016 QuiltCon Charity Quilt: NYE at the House

Improv quilting isn’t new, I reckon it is possibly the oldest form of quilting as fabric scraps and woollen off cuts were patched together to make the earliest form of quilts. And then there’s the fabulous improv quilts of Gees Bend, Nancy Crow and Gwen Marston. But improv with intent, is that a fairly modern concept in quilting? It relates to abstract art and music where the intent to convey an idea, image or concept drives the design process.

This year’s QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge was “to work collaboratively to create completed quilts using a predetermined color palette and improv with intent”. With that in mind we set about choosing fabrics and coming up with a design for this group project.

quiltcon charity challenge colours
2016 QuiltCon Charity Quilt Colour Palette as set by The Modern Quilt Guild

We then brainstormed some ideas and finally settled on the iconic image of the Sydney Opera House sails and then decided that by adding the black as a sky colour and the brights as fireworks we could capture the magic of New Year’s Eve fireworks at The House. We looked at several images of the Opera House and tried to pick a minimalist composition that could be pieced.

We had several sewing days where members contributed improv blocks for the night sky with sparks of fireworks and the long improv braids from the neutral tones.

And then the real hard work of turning piles of blocks into a quilt top began! It wasn’t easy, group work often isn’t when there are many different approaches and ideas.

SydneyMQG charity quilt progress

At one stage it didn’t look like it would be done in time, but as is also usual in collaborative group work, a few people drive the project and get it done. Just in time!

Congratulations to all the members who contributed blocks, fabric, thread and time towards this project. Extra special thanks to Kathy Thorncraft who took on the mammoth job of quilting and Catherine Butterworth for her super human effort to bind and prepare the quilt for display.

SydneyMQGCharityQuilt2016

We are very proud of our efforts and look forward to seeing NYE at The House hanging at QuiltConWest, Pasadena from the 18th – 21st February along with all the other amazing MQG charity quilts!

Check out the stunning quilts made by some other Aussie Modern Quilt Guilds:

Brisbane MQG 2016 QuiltCon Charity Challenge Quilt

Melbourne MQG 2016 QuiltCon Charity Challenge Quilt

Tasmanian MQG 2016 QuiltCon Charity Challenge Quilt

And the #quiltconcharityquilt hashtag on Instagram for further inspiring work, well done everyone!