QLD QUILT SHOW 2010 - BEST OF SHOW

A very busy week this has been as we are exhibiting at the CRAFT & QUILT FAIR in BRISBANE and the stand is packed with enthusiastic sewers all bubbling with excitement attending their favourite Quilt Show for the year. If you live nearby do come and visit as the QLD QUILT SHOW is a brilliant show and I quickly flipped around to take some photos to show you.  There's lots of entertainment too with  excellent features, displays, classes, demonstrations, new categories and this year is showing so many new products.  Don't miss it; open until Sunday from 9.00am to 5.00pm daily at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre.  Quilters and Craftspeople are certainly coming in their droves with visitors and exhibitor numbers up.  We are on Stand A09.  Full details here.
Lorraine Carthew is one of my very favourite quilters and I was delighted when she won our sponsored prize in the Qld. Quilt Show.  You may remember Lorraine's previous winning quilts of watercolour portraits of R. M. Williams and Sir Donald Bradman, just to name two.  This year she has again excelled herself with her "Memorable Women" quilt by winning 2nd Prize for Professional Picture PLUS Best Use of Colour. 
"Portraits of Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and Jacqueline Onassis executed in needleturn applique using hand dyed fabrics, machine quilted".  Don't you agree that her work is amazing?  Congratulations.

Here is a close-up of her work showing that each piece is needleturned onto black fabric and it is so hard to detect the stitches.  Imagine the planning that went into this!

Robyn Ginn won the "Best of Show" award sponsored by Bernina Sewing Machines for her "Silk Purses Crazy Bags" Quilt.  Robyn said "The Traditional Fan concept adapted as crazy bags and purses gave a great outlet to use my favourite silks and embroidery stitches.  My bag lady and her silk purse friend, shopping for buttons made the designing fun". 

Congratulations Robyn, we all admired the fine detail of each and every segment - the little strawberries, the bullion roses, the crazy stitches - ever so much detail to see.

More tomorrow!

Last week the little town The Rock, where we live, with its 800 residents, made the National TV News as it was flooded with very unusual (for us) heavy rain in a short period.  We live on a hill so we were fine, only losing a fence on the boundary of Burke's Creek and suffering several leaks in the roof etc, but some of my staff were unable to get home due to the Highway being blocked with bridges impassable.  The township was flooded and there were SES people everywhere trying to help and "mop up".  People whose houses were right on the creek borders were flooded completely and all evacuated; such a mess as never seen in our township before.
Streets were all closed as their were no roads to be seen, let alone footpaths or guttering, as you will see here.

 Photo shows the front garden and "road" outside one of my staff's homes.

Thank goodness John only has minor damages to repair when we arrive home next week.