Not long now!

Show entries close tomorrow - hope we've got enough for an impressive display of local quilters' work!

As soon as we have all entries in we can start planning the layout - a massive task capably handled by Marilyn with all her draughting skills. Then it's Chris' task to produce the paperwork for the building of the frames and the actual hanging of the quilts - row by row.

Once the frames are ordered it's just a countdown to the Tuesday before the show opens when it all starts to happen in the hall. Willing helpers are everywhere marking the rows and building the frames for the quilts to hang on.

Thursday we actually hang the quilts and tweak the display for the opening on Friday at 10am. Can hardly wait!

On a different matter.....

We've been given a blogger's award - tho I don't know why because our posts have been few and far between lately! Jenni from Tapestry Moon has given our blog the Liebster Award

Here are all the details about the Liebster Blog award:

Liebster is a German word, meaning favorite, dearest or beloved, and the Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help the new(er)bies gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.

4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

The Springwood Quilt Show blog is passing the award on to:

Mandy from http://mand-a-lin.blogspot.com.au/

Bjorg from http://bjobrablogg.blogspot.com.au/ (a follower from Norway)

Dee from http://pxpdeeozpq.blogspot.com.au/

Janelle from http://www.janellenoack.blogspot.com.au/

Lorna from http://ozquilter.blogspot.com.au/

On the road

the raffle quilt that is. Beautifully quilted and bound by Suzie Anderson from Leura Quilting.

It has started it's journey around our favourite local quilt shops to finish up at the show in April.

First stop was Karen Cunningham's Summer School in Blackheath then off to the Home Patch in Bathurst.

These pictures don't really do justice to the quilt - it is so much better in the flesh with lots of feathers surrounding the seven sisters blocks.

Doesn't the quilting look great from the back.

This little beauty is 2nd prize in the raffle. Pieced and quilted by our meeting co-ordinator Suzanne.

Lyn Alchin has agreed to be our guest quilter at the show. Can't wait to see all her beautiful work on display. She'll have patterns and bits and pieces for sale as well.

Our bookmark/flyers have arrived and will be going out to shops even as we speak. Keep your eye out for them - they have all the information you need to find your way to Springwood High School Hall on the last weekend in April.

Applications have been lodged with the RTA and all our bridge banners are being dusted off ready for hanging.

Entry forms are also being finalised and will be down-loadable (is that even a word!) from the sidebar of this blog early in February.

It's all hotting up and looking to be bigger and better than last year so stay tuned!

Nearly there

We had a big day last week and put the 20 blocks for the quilt together.

Ann, Vicki and myself put the pedal to the metal and it went like clockwork.

All the blocks were trimmed and sewn in rows with the cream triangles and unbelievably it all fitted perfectly.

With so many people sewing the block we were a bit apprehensive about the final steps.

Our inspiration (thanks Jane) is on the table in front of Vicki and Ann and our WIP progress is on the wall behind. They could both be the same quilt.

Ours has been passed on to Susie Anderson to work her magic with the quilting. Can't wait to see it finished.

Careful cutting makes all the difference!

In other exciting news we have arranged for Lyn Alchin from Leura to be our featured quilter at next year's show. Lyn was the designer of our Alice's Tea Party raffle quilt for 2008 which won it's category at the Sydney Quilt Show in the same year. She teaches beautiful antique-inspired quilts at a host of shops in Sydney and surrounding areas. Keep an eye out for a profile on Lyn in the near future.

Our chosen charity for the next show is the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service who do a fantastic job looking after all  Mountains residents not only over the long hot summer but all year round.

Winners are grinners!

Here's a good news story associated with the winner of last year's magnificent raffle quilt designed by Petal Davies.

We've had an email from Kathy and Greg and I'll let them tell you the story....

"We were very excited to win the quilt as it will be a perfect show piece item for our newly acquired holiday letting premises. We opened just last week and it is one of my first jobs to mount the 3 sisters in a way that highlights its Australiana suitably. We hope to have lots of overseas tourist coming through the place and I feel sure they will be drawn to this representation of one of the main things they come to the mountains to see, I hope to mount it using old corrugated iron and timber to frame it and use big screws holding it onto the wall so it cannot be removed.
Kathy is keen to see the place used by quilting groups and from what she tells me about these weekends it would be a perfect venue. There are plenty of spots to sit and sew it has a large games room that could be easily converted into a work room
If you would like to see photos of the place all fitted out then look here.

I will have to add a photo of the wall hanging when I get it up.

Greg and Kathy"

If you are a quilting group looking for a weekend away check it out. It sleeps 10-12 and the photos of the house and surrounds are amazing. Lovely to hear feedback on the winner and that the quilt has gone to a great home in the Mountains.
Now to the 2nd prize of the Bernina sewing machine generously donated by The Stitching Post in Katoomba. In my class at Cottage Quiltworks at Warriewood a new student arrived with a brand new sewing machine. I asked her if she was happy with her new Bernina and she said
"Yes I love it and I won it at the Springwood Quilt Show".

How freaky is that! What are the chances that Judy would end up in my class at all? Here is her email....

"My girlfriend Terri asked me to go with her to the Springwood quilt show. She wanted to support Susie (Anderson) who had done some quilting for her.
We had promised ourselves that we were going to do some "Quilt Excursions" during the year and this seemed like a fun excursion to get us started.
On arrival at the show we both bought some raffle tickets and made our way into the hall thinking nothing more about the tickets. We spent quite a while
at the show and then ventured further on to Leura for a late lunch. Later the following week I received a phone call enquiring if I had been at the quilt show the previous weekend.
(all I could think was that I had left something there, but then I couldn't figure out how they had known it was mine, and how did they get my phone number.) You can image my surprise when I learned that I had won second prize in the raffle, and I was even more surprised to find out that I had won a sewing machine. I was absolutely thrilled, I had been contemplating buying a new machine for some time, but had not gotten around to it. My current machine I have had since I was 21. I am absolutely amazed at the generosity of such a wonderful donation for the raffle.(thank you so much to Karen Kirk from the Stitching Post) The first project on my new machine is New York Beauty Quilt by Chris Jurd and I am really enjoying the class with Chris at Cottage Quiltworks in Warriewood. I must also thank Karen Cunningham for delivering the machine to me from "the Mountains".

Kind regards, Judy"

How good is that! Now for some pics of this year's raffle quilt which is Seven Sisters in blue and cream. (See the previous post for pics of the start of our gorgeous quilt).

This version belongs to the lovely Jane who has loaned us her quilt to guide us through the process - thanks Jane. This one was quilted by Susie as well so you can see how good ours will look in the not-too-distant future. All blocks will be ready by the end of October and we hope to have it quilted and bound before Xmas.

Thanks Lyn and Vicki for the beautiful pics.

Work has begun...

... on the 2012 Raffle Quilt!! In celebration of the 7th show we decided to use the Seven Sisters Block. You can see an example of a Seven Sisters quilt hanging on the design wall as our inspiration.

Committee members brought shades of blues from their stashes.
They soon turned into blue mountains of fabrics as we rummaged through to mix and match our selections.
The variety of fabrics will make this such a fun and beautiful quilt.
These may be diamonds in the rough but using the English paper piecing method they'll soon be beautiful blocks.

So stay tuned to see it's progress.