2016 Exhibition at Tocal College

Our Biennial Exhibition, "It's a Pearler", celebrating 30 years of Maitland Patchwork Quilters, will be held at Tocal College in The Great Hall from Friday 14th October until Sunday 16th October. Opening each day at 10am and closing at 4pm, entry is just $5. There will be over 200 quilts on exhibition, demonstrations and wonderful morning tea and lunch available from our Cafe. There will be a table of handmade gifts for sale as well as stands from some of our local quilt shops. We also have a special exhibition showcasing the work of one of our very talented quilters, Linda Price.

Our raffle quilt this year has been hand pieced and appliqued by Denyse Gormley and hand quilted by some of our members. Proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets are donated to Breast Cancer Research at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

End of Year Arrangements

Christmas Dinner:

If you are coming to our dinner you must have booked in and paid in full. Dinner starts at 6pm so please arrive at Tocal with plenty of time to be seated by then.

Following dinner we make our way to Glendarra to continue with our festivities.

If you have completed the Mystery Quilt this year please bring it along for show and tell. Christmas challenge fabric is available from Louise for $2 - (just call to arrange a suitable time to collect one - $2) and bring your completed challenge along as well.

Every year we have a gift exchange where (if you would like to participate) you bring along a hand made object - something you would like to receive. This year it would be great if you could include a little card so your recipient can thank you!

If you are staying on for the 4-day 'To-Di-For" weekend, you may check in anytime after 4pm Wednesday December 2nd. On UFO weekends we have lunch and dinner in the dining room and breakfast at Glendarra. Please bring morning/afternoon tea to share.

We have some of our more experienced members teaching techniques required for Di Ford's Morell Quilt, over this weekend as follows:

Thursday: Jenny Rofe - Broderie Perse
Friday: Denyse Gormley - Appliqué and Hexagons
Saturday: Jill Alcorn - Broderie Perse with blanket stitch
Sunday: Linda Price - American Piecing

These classes will run from 9.30 to 12 noon each day. You will not need to book in - just be there.

We finish the weekend at 4pm Sunday.

2016 - briefy:

January 20th is our next Business meeeting. You will be able to pay your deposit for the May Seminar weekend at this meeting.

February 6th is the next Sarah day at Tocal (bring morning tea and lunch to share)

Also:

November 28th there will be a Christmas stall on at the Bolwarra Church starting at 8am. There will be books, baking, plants and bargains to collect - the early bird gets the worm (or the Christmas pudding!)

September News

Firstly, a big welcome home to our travellers, Maria, Dorelle and Cheryl. You have been missed and we're glad to see you home safe and sound!

A reminder our AGM is coming up on October 21st at the Largs School of Arts Hall. If you have ever considered coming onto committee, I encourage you to have a go! It doesn't take up that much of your time and it can be very rewarding. If you would like to take up a position please talk to one of the existing committee members to help you. We do have a couple of positions which need filling.

Also in October is our UFO weekend. If you would like to come along, please ensure you have booked in as we need numbers for catering purposes.

We have a finished 2015 Mystery quilt from Carole -

Great job, Carole! Looks sensational!

Finally, the dates for next year have been updated so please make sure you update your diary.

Shave for a Cure

Linda Price's daughter, Jenna Price, has today participated in the World's Greatest Shave at Viva Hair in Burke St, Maitland. Jenna HAD waist length hair and today her head was shaved and she has donated her beautiful hair to make wigs.

It's not too late to donate to Jenna. Go to http://tinyurl.com/mnjr3k4

Help Jenna to reach her target amount - she's nearly there!!

Colourstreams comes to Maitland

Robyn Alexander from Colourstreams will be in Maitland this weekend, conducting a workshop for Maitland Embroiderers. For anyone who is interested, she will be bringing a "shop" of her goodies with her and will open her "shop" around 4pm (after the class finishes) on Saturday afternoon (28th Feb). Robyn sells all sorts of amazing goodies, a wide range of hand dyed silk ribbons and threads, smaller pieces of hand dyed wool felts, silk velvets and other silk fabric bits and pieces and a wonderful selection of tiny sequins in all shapes and sizes. This is a rare opportunity to check out this very unique range of products.

After 4pm at the Largs School of Arts Hall, Largs.

Christmas Dinner

Just a reminder our Christmas Dinner is on tomorrow night at Tocal, commencing 6pm.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Social Night

Just a reminder of our next Social night on Wednesday 5th November at 7.15pm. Cherry Pie Designs is coming along with her shop and a few specials.

Payments are now due for Christmas Dinner, the Di Ford weekend in December and your annual membership fees.

Next Sarah Day is Saturday 8th November - the last one for this year!

AGM results

Our AGM was held last Wednesday October 15th and the results are as follows:

President: Barbara McLean
Secretary: Marie Ryan
Tresaurer: Carol Gehrig
Vice President: Donna Booth
Assistant Secretary: Sharon Lawler
Assistant Tresasurer: Louise Brown-Thomas
Workshop Co-ordinator: Robyn Woodhouse
Librarian: Linda Martin
Committee Member: Maria Warwick
Committee Member: Chris Jenkin

It was a great meeting, chaired by our Patron, Margaret Sivyer.

Many thanks to our out-going committee members, Shirley and Ben.

The Australasian Quilt Convention program has been released. There are currently 7 girls interested in attending and eagerly sifting through all the classes being offered and working out what to do! If you are interested, you need to go on-line to www.AQC.com.au/Melbourne.

Work out what you would like to do and be ready to book when the bookings go live on October 28th at 10am.

Also, if you would like to receive these Blog posts directly to your email inbox, simply enter your email address in the box at the top of the right-hand column. You will be sent an email firstly to confirm your subscription.


Happy Quilting.

ps. I had a bit of trouble with this post and the link - I had to edit it a few times to get it right! My apologies if it has been email to you 17 times!

AGM Wednesday 15th October

Just a reminder to come along to our AGM on Wednesday 15th October at 7.15pm at the Largs School of Arts Hall. Stay tuned for the outcome!

Update!

Hi all,

There's a few updates to the blog and to our calendar to let you know about.  Firstly, as reminders, coming up this week is a social night (Wednesday 4th), Sarah Day (Saturday 7th @ Northcourt, Tocal), Gallery Girls (Friday 13th) and the next business meeting is Wednesday 18th June.

The main update I wanted to let you know about is our weekend with Di Ford in December. We are so lucky to have Di come and teach us and know we won't have any trouble filling the class, so we have been able to have 2 classes with Di. The first class will be Thursday and Friday 4th & 5th December and the second class will be the Saturday and Sunday 6th & 7th. We are also running another 4-day UFO during this long weekend.

We have put a few guidelines in place for this extra weekend.  The 2 classes will be the same and you can put your name down for either one - not both. You may choose to do UFO for any or all or the 4 days and you can also put your name down for that too!

Our Christmas dinner is Wednesday 3rd December. If you want to go rom the dinner straight to Tocal and stay Wednesday night, you can. Please include this option on the form when you complete it.

More details and photos soon! Feel free to post questions and I can answer them here!

Happy Quilting!

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas and a very happy New Year!

The Calendar has now been updated for your reference - please let me know if there are any changes to be made.

Our first Social night will be around very soon - January 15th - just one week away!

See you all there!

March UFO

Yes Maitland is a-buzz with quilters, chomping at the bit to get to Tocal and start the first UFO weekend for this year. Hope you're all packed and ready to go!

Classes are filling quickly for our May weekend, so if you want to book into a class, please let Robyn or Louise know as soon as possible. However, the Deb Louie free motion quilting class is now full but there is a waiting list, if you would like to put your name on that - just in case!

We are also taking deposits now for the Karen Cunningham workshop in June.

Happy UFO weekend everyone!

Merry Christmas

Maitland Patchwork Quilters wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our first meeting for 2013 is on Wednesday 16th January at 7pm at the Largs School of Arts Hall. New members and visitors are welcome - bring along a project to work on and have a cuppa with us!

If you are wanting to attend the May weekend and have not received your paperwork, please contact Louise as soon as possible. If you are hoping to attend and have not yet paid a deposit or put your form in, please don't wait too long as the classes are filling up!

Look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Exhibition Opening night

Friday night was the official opening of our exhibition and it was well attended. Our Mayor, Peter Blackmore and his wife, Robyn; our local member Robyn Parker and Margaret Sivyer OAM were all in attendance as well as many members, their family and friends.

Our guest speaker was Margaret Rowe who traveled from Melbourne to open our exhibition and talk about her journey as an author of some historically based novels she has written about a group of quilters. Her books have inspired challenges within our group and it was great to be able to show them off to her! This is Margaret with her Maria quilt next to our display of our members' Maria and Elizabeth challenge quilts.

Here's Margaret with our President, Janelle:

Our hard working kitchen staff who have been cooking up a storm of delicious home made goodies for morning and afternoon tea (scones to die for) and lunch of freshly made sandwiches!

Robin and Jill selling raffle tickets for our amazing raffle quilt, Midnight Stars:

AND look at all the amazing hand made goodies for sale!

Final day tomorrow, Sunday October 7th. Don't miss it as the next exhibition is 2 years away!

Exhibitions

Our exhibition is right around the corner now and I hope you are all ready - both to exhibit and to come and see all the wonderful quilts our members have made over the last few years - well, let's just say the ones which have been finished in the last two years!

We have another mini exhibition also coming up on Saturday 20th October at the Largs School of Arts Hall in Largs where we are displaying a travelling suitcase exhibition from The Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association (ATASDA). This exhibition is titled Marrakesh and is inspired by the city of the same name - an exotic place of richness and brilliant colour where cultures meet.

The works range in size from 15cm square to 60cm x 40cm. Each work has a matching techniques sheet explaining the artist's inspiration and design process with details of one technique used.

A Blue Unlike Any Other by Jenni Kirkham. 40cm x 35cm. Hanging machine and hand embroidery,couched threads, lace applique.

The exhibition will be open from 10am to 12 noon and there will be a gold coin donation at the door.

SPRING INTO QUILTING

Our 2012 exhibition is coming up quickly! Here are the details:

Friday 5th until Sunday 7th October, 2012

Latter Hall
Hunter Valley Grammar School
Norfolk Street
Ashtonfield

10am - 4pm daily

$5.00 entry

Morning and afternoon tea and a light lunch will be served - all delicious, home-made tasty morsels!

There will also be trading tables from local quilt shops and a table of items for sale made by the members of Maitland Patchwork Quilters.

Tickets for this year's raffle quilt, Midnight Stars, will be available at the door for just $1.00 each. The raffle will be drawn on Sunday afternoon at 4pm. Here is a photo of our beautiful quilt - the Batik and hand dyed fabrics were donated by Lotus Fabrics and the quilting was donated by Shirley McLennan.

Click on this link to see a map where Hunter Valley Grammar School is!

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Norfolk+Street,+Ashtonfield,+New+South+Wales&hl=en&ll=-32.765968,151.599183&spn=0.010231,0.021136&sll=-32.830735,147.451465&sspn=10.461906,21.643066&oq=norfolk+st+ashtonfield&hnear=Norfolk+St,+Ashtonfield+New+South+Wales+2323&t=m&z=16

We're Moving!

Maitland Patchwork Quilters are moving over the Christmas break to Largs School of Art Hall in Largs. All social and business meetings will be held there now, commencing at 7pm.

Hope to see you all there in the New Year!

Exhibition photos

Elaine Rose in front of our Bi-centennial quilt which was presented to the City of Maitland

Maree Gebhardt, President of the NSW Quilters Guild opened our show with a most informative talk

Our foundation members!

Retrospective Exhibition

Our Retrospective Exhibition will be held 22nd & 23rd October, 2011 at the St James Anglican Church Hall in Morpeth - where it all began for our group 25 years ago.

We are looking for quilts from members and past-members to exhibit quilts which have been previously shown. Please let Bronwyn McKinnon know what you would like to exhibit as soon as possible. The committee is going to arrange the quilts in chronological order, so this exhibition will have most of the organising done before set-up day.

We also hope to produce a booklet showing each quilter photographed beside their quilt/s together with a story about the quilt/s. This will become an important part of our history in years to come. Copies of this publication will also be made available and we'll have more details closer to the exhibition.

Any questions? Post a comment here!

Sensational Event

We're all back home now after a terrific 5 days in Melbourne. At the Gala Dinner on Saturday night, The National Quilt Award went to Kay Haerland for her "Under the Canopy" which also won Best of Show in Sydney in 2010. Here's a link to see this quilt on her website - http://www.kayhaerland.com/Canopy.htm

This became a familiar pathway to the Exhibition Building. Such beautiful gardens and some very tame possums around at night!

This is a view from upstairs and shows part of the building, which is very impressive!

Here we all are - except for Robyn who is taking the photo - about to go to dinner together in Chinatown.

Here we are at the Gala Dinner on Saturday night - as you can see we had a bit of fun!