the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild

Yesterday, I popped up to the north side of Sydney for the second meeting of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. It's a bit of a long drive to the Blue Gum in Waitara, so I was fortunate to carpool with Lorena and Leslie. Though Modern Quilt Guilds have been meeting worldwide for a while, Sydney got off to a slow start. Once the ball was rolling though, it seems everyone was clambering to join. We had nearly 20 gals yesterday.

The day was a big mix of show and tell and chat. We talked about our current projects. We showed off things we'd been doing. We talked about our favourite fabric marking tools and software. We ate great food and swapped some fabric. I tried to snap photos, but I was too buy chatting to remember to pull out the camera.

For my part in show and tell, I finished my Farmdale lonestar started fourteen months ago! I didn't take a photo, but I think Suzanne might have. What was fun about show and tell is that we saw lots of modern patterns made with older fabric. Then we saw older patterns made with modern fabric.

Here's some of the gems! I apologize in advance that I missed a few names, so I can't give proper credit along the way. If they are yours, shout and I'll fix the credit and blog links!

Selena's black&cherry take on the this year's Summer Sampler Series. Part goth, part rockabilly. I recognized the shapes straight away, but it was great to see her take on colour.

This wonky stacked coins drew a lot of chatter talking about the technique. A mum and daughter collaboration - surely the best kind of quilt. Made together by family.

Selena is having a prolific year of quilting, so she had a few patchwork tops to show off including this kaleidoscope.

This is Leslie's first quilt. A quirky sampler just right for a young boy. Her fabrics were a mix of vintage Americana styles a la American Jane.

Lucky for me, a few gals in the area area also working on the Camelot quilt. They've been doing test blocks before diving into their final versions. She's thinking of using Lotta Jansdotter Echo for her complete version. Wouldn't that be yummy? I've got the Camelot pattern at home waiting for me to start in earnest. It's nice to know I'll have locals to turn to when I need advice.

Both Heather and Lorena have been using the Marti Michell templates to make hexagons. Heather's feature vivid Kaffe in tumbling rows. I should have take some closeups of this, each block was a treat for the eyes.

Suzanne, who helped organize us, put me to shame by showing off her finished Tokyo Subway Quilt as my own Tokyo Subway project lingers half-finished.

And Lorena gave us a quick demo of those Marti Michell templates and mirror sets that I mentioned earlier. She's also doing some posts about them on her blog which feature her Little Apples blocks. Pop on over to learn more.

Lots of eye candy. Lots of laughter. It was quite a fun day for all. I met so many great gals and look forward to the next one. If you like modern quilting (blocks, patterns, techniques) pop over the the blog and register for email to learn about the next meetup. It should be fun!