The AQC 2015

I went to the opening day of the Australasian Quilt Convention yesterday. I mainly went because I wanted to have a look at a new sewing machine and there are many of the suppliers with stands there. I don't need a lot of the things that the really big, fancy machines do so I targeted my looking.

I spent quite a lot of time at the Husqvarna stand, getting good one-on-one attention. I really like the machine I was shown. I decided not to go to all the other stands as I would just get overwhelmed with the differences that will be fairly minimal. My old machine is a Husqvarna (bought in 1982, we think) and I have been very happy with it. So I am hoping that the company still has the same good quality workmanship (workwomanship?).

After that I had lunch and wandered around the stalls, wending my way to the exhibition. There was a lot of beautiful stuff on sale! But I had decided that I do not need anything new at this stage except, possibly, a new sewing machine so I didn't look very closely at the stalls.

There were several exhibitions on display. I started looking really closely at the works, taking photos and trying to be a good textile student. But there were so many that I then decided to just enjoy the quilts and take the occasional photo.

Here are some images that I got.
Of course, I had to take a photo of the beautiful building. Apparently it is the only building created for international exhibitions in the 19th century that is still used for exhibition.

The True Blue Challenge (you can see all of them here).

Denise Griffiths

I took this of the group, mainly because the face was not at all obvious from close-up. 

A selection of Jan Irvine-Nealie quilts.
I remember going to a talk by her at the Victorian Embroiderers Guild and was awestruck by her work, as I was this time too.

Then there was the Gallipoli Quilt, a 12 metre installation of quilts, also amazing.  All done by the one person, Lucy Carroll.

Of course, there were many other quilts there, this is just a small sample.

I found some of the quilts inspiring and can't wait to start playing around with ideas - which enthusiasm may well dry up once I have a working machine again.