The Raffle Quilt Tour

 Our 2017 raffle quilt Cherry Time is now hanging at the Home Patch in Bathurst. 

What a great excuse to visit the shop, say hello to Anni and her team, pick up some lovely fabrics,

and buy some raffle tickets.

You never know, the winning raffle ticket just might be one of the ones sold from this beautiful shop.

It's not just Cherry Time that you might win but for second prize we have an We have an AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter valued at $399.00!

And our fabulous third prize is an Oliso Smart Iron valued at $169.00.

What a great selection of prizes!!

So visit the HomePatch, Check out their website here , follow their facebook page here, or Phone (02)6331 5002

Visit Sew Can I to see the raffle quilt

The raffle quilt has been on the move again and you can now find it hanging at Sew Can I in Werrington County.

I asked Karen Stewart a few questions about the shop and her reply sums them up all up perfectly:

"Sew Can I, is a full service craft shop, we pride ourselves in our friendly and helpful service.

We sell quality fabric, if you are looking for something a little different through to traditional we have it. We stock Tula Pink, Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe Fasset, Tilda, Cotton + Steel and Moda just to name a few. We also stock wool, scrapbooking supplies, gift ware, handmade candles and melts.
Sew Can I are authorised Bernina Dealers with a great range of machines in store.

We offer a range of classes from beginner to guided workshops, dressmaking, machine embroidery, knitting and crochet. We have Anne Sommerlad and Chris Jurd teaching in our shop on a monthly basis also.

The shop has recently expanded and is located at Shop 3, 21 Lavin Crescent, Werrington County.

If you would like more information in regards to classes please call us on 02 9623 4570.
Keep up to date with the latest news at Sew Can I please like our Facebook Page "

Now it's time to sit back and enjoy the photo tour of the shop.

So pop on over to Sew Can I and see our Cherry Time raffle quilt. You'll be able to buy raffle tickets and stock up on crafting goodies. Karen is one of the traders at the Springwood Community Quilt Show so you'll be able say hello to her there too. 

Our wonderful Raffle Prizes

With our raffle quilt touring we thought it would be a good time to focus on all the great raffle prizes we have this year.

Of course our beautiful Cherry Time quilt is the grand prize!!

We recently had it valued by QuiltNSW and with all the hand applique, foundation pieced sashing and beautiful custom quilting the value came in at $2200.00.

Moving onto our Second Prize - We have an AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter valued at $399.00!

The new GO! Fabric Cutter Starter Set saves you time cutting so you have more time to quilt!

• 90% faster than rotary cutters or scissors
• Accurately cut up to 6 layers of fabric at a time
• Safe, easy-to-use design helps reduce hand and arm strain
• Unlimited design options with wide range of quilting shapes

The new GO! Fabric Cutter Starter Set includes the GO! Fabric Cutter, the GO! Value Die (AQ55018), a 6" x 12" cutting mat, a die pick, PLUS a FREE 20-page pattern booklet which includes 12 block patterns and a sampler quilt pattern, so you can start creating right away.

With one of these cutters at your side the possibilities are endless. Just imagazine the hexagon quilts you could make, clamshells, half square triangles, it even does strips for binding. The AccuQuilt website has lots of great ideas and tips for using these handy cutters.

Our fabulous third prize is an Oliso Smart Iron valued at $169.00.

The Oliso® Smart Iron® features Oliso's patented iTouch® technology. What’s that? Just the easiest ironing experience ever.

Simply touch the handle and the iron lowers, ready to work. Iron those wrinkle away! Take your hand off and the patented scorchguards® lift the iron off the board preventing scorches, burns, and tipping.

The easiest, safest, and dare we say it... most fun way to iron.

I'm sure you'll agree these are all great prizes!!!

So where can you buy our raffle tickets?
You'll be able to buy them at quilt shops that host the raffle quilt. Follow the blog, IG ( @springwoodquiltshow)  or our facebook page to keep up with the tour.
Our friendly committee members have raffle tickets to sell.
Of course you can buy raffle tickets when you come to our quilt show on the last weekend of April, 28th - 30 April.

The raffle will be drawn on Sunday at the Springwood Community Quilt Show at 3pm , so buy lots of tickets and keep your fingers crossed for one of these great prizes!! Proceeds raised go to the Blue Mountains RFS and the textile department of the Springwood High School. 

Mountain Magic

Let's have a flash back to our 2011 Raffle Quilt.

Mountain Magic is a pictorial quilt depicting the Three Sisters Rock formation, the Blue Mountains' most well known and popular tourist attraction at Echo Point, Katoomba.

Here's a photo of its namesake.

The quilt was designed by Petal Davies, a local quilt and wearable art teacher, although assembly was a group effort by members of the show committee. 

The quilt includes a variety of materials and fabrics.

Furnishing fabrics were made into tree trunks. Those tree fern branches have wires in the spines so they can be manipulated into shape.

Layers of different shades of fine blue organza became the misty haze created by Eucalyptus trees that inspired the name for the Blue Mountains

Sunlight reflecting off the rocks was created with a gold ice cream wrappers.

Hospital grade plastic bags were used to construct the forest undergrowth.

And I'm sure you'll agree the result is wonderful!! 

Just a friendly reminder that quilt and volunteer entries are open for the 2017 show. You'll find the forms on the right hand side of this page. 

The raffle quilt has borders!

The raffle quilt top is finished, borders and all! 

I'm sure you'll agree that the indigo fabric frames the quilt perfectly and makes the blocks shine!

Here are some of the committee members who helped sew the quilt. Others couldn't make the meeting and there are some hiding behind the quilt.

We've decided on the name 'Cherry Time' for our lovely quilt. Anne Sommerlad who designed the quilt is calling her pattern Cheritaimu which is Japanese for Cherry Time.  Anne, our featured quilter for the 2017 show will be making the same pattern in very different colours. Won't that be wonderful to see!!

Cherry Time suits our quilt perfectly because if you look closely you'll see cherry blossoms in the blocks.

 

For the backing fabric we have a flight of dragonflies.

The top is now with Susie Anderson for her to add her quilting magic. It wont be long now until we start selling raffle tickets. 

In the meantime, the quilt show bookmarks and flyers are being printed, articles for magazines have been sent off, banners organised, starting to plan the stall holders and organise the hall. There's always things to be done. 

I hope you're us helping out by sewing lots of wonderful quilts to enter in the show when entries open at the beginning of February.

Raffle Quilts - Why do we start working on them so early?

Sometimes people are surprised to hear that work is well underway on next year's raffle quilt. After all the show isn't until next April. It's true that as soon as one show finishes we start on the raffle quilt for the following year's show but we do have some good reasons for starting so early.

I'm sure most quilters will understand that sometimes quilts take longer than planned so it's good to have extra time up your sleeve, just in case it's needed. Even though the quilt show committee all pitch in to make the raffle quilt we tend to choose designs that take a lot of work.  

The quilt needs to be finished for publicity and promotional reasons. Magazines are planning their editions often 6 months ahead and so we need the quilt ready for photos for their publications. We also need photos for our promotional material, posters, bookmarks and fliers. 

The sooner the quilt is finished the sooner it can start it's tour of quilt shops. The raffle quilt does a tour of different quilt shops. It's a wonderful ambassador for the show as it entices people to buy raffle tickets and is a good reminder for people to put the 4th weekend in April in their diaries as the weekend of the quilt show.

It's great to have a task crossed off the list. With the raffle quilt finished the committee can concentrate on the other jobs and decisions that arise in the months leading up to the show. And it does get very busy! Organising a quilt show takes a years worth of work, but it's all so worth it. I"m sure you'll agree that seeing a big hall full of amazing quilts is a wonderful thing!!

So how about you, have you started your show quilts for next year? Or are you planning to show a couple of old favourites?