Australasian Quilt Convention and stitching.

Last week I visited AQC here in Melbourne.
Once again the quilts didn't disappoint, with quilts to see from Korea, South Africa, USA as well as Australia and New Zealand.
I don't know the makers, so I couldn't ask  permission to show photos of their quilts on my blog, but following are links to "official" photos of 2 of my favourite quilts.
The first quilt is by Rachelle Denneny and was the winner of the National Quilt Award. (Photo From Quilters Guild of NSW showing the winners of their 2012 Sydney quilt show) This quilt was quilted on a home domestic sewing machine!!! Amazing!!!
Another favourite was by Jenny Bowker, who won the Rajah Award for 2013. (photo from AQC website)

AQC was held at the Royal Exhibition Building. As well as looking at all the quilts and vendors at ground level I looked up and took some photos of the glorious architecture and decoration around the ceiling of the building.

One of the best parts of AQC is catching up with other bloggers. I had a lovely cuppa and chat with Deb and Maree.

I was lucky enough to run into (almost literally! Lol) some other bloggers too, including Sharon.

I did make some purchases.

I have been looking online at Quiltworx paper piecing patterns for some time, and I found one vendor selling their patterns at the show. It was a difficult decision as to which one to buy, but I finally settled on Dragon Star. It looks very intricate and I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew! Lol I do love a challenge, but this one won't happen till I get some other WIPs done.
I found some lovely Liberty fat eighths and a piece of fabric to back a quilt I will make with some Japanese fabric I bought last year.
I also bought this....

More than once I have had my ruler slip while using a rotary cutter and this product is put on the under side of your ruler to stop it slipping on the fabric. Has anyone had any experience with Clear Grip?

L'uccello was one of the first-time vendors this year. They had a tiny, but very cute stand. I made a (compulsory for me! :) Lol) visit to their shop on the way home and came out with some goodies.

Three beautiful fabrics! Even their bags are stunning!

On the stitching front I have been working on Oso. Lots and lots of practice FMQ on a scrap of fabric and batting first, before I started this...

I have a long way to go yet!

And Jacob's Coat...

Don't get too excited, the blocks are only pinned so far!! Lol



After my recent epiphany* I have been pinning all the completed blocks to a large piece of backgound fabric. Everything fitted together quite well, but there were a couple of blocks where I unpicked a melon or 2 and made "better" fabric choices. There is only one block I will remake completely. I am still working on some of the blocks at the paler end  of the quilt.
Overall, I am happy with how it is coming along.

* As you will know, Kaffe Fassett type fabrics are all very brightly coloured and there are very few paler fabrics. My idea in making this quilt is to grade my colours from deep, bright blues and greens, down to much lighter shades from one end to the other. I got to the point of having plenty of brighter fabrics, not many light ones and no idea how to continue until I waited until some more lighter fabrics came out in future ranges. I collected one or 2  and put them away with the blocks.
When I spread the completed blocks out again after having them in the cupboard for about 2 years it suddenly dawned on me that I could use the palest blocks I already had by shifting them to the end of the quilt and fill the gap with new blocks using mostly the next lightest fabrics which I already had! Why did it take me that long to realise it was all there already????

Lastly, an early morning rainbow out the back door earlier this week.

Thank you everyone for your kind and comforting words after my friend's passing.