Sharing with Illawarra Quilters

Many years ago I met a delightful lady by the name of Roslyn, a member of Illawarra Quilters Inc from the south coast of New South Wales. We met at the Sydney Quilt Show 7 years ago (just worked that out tonight!) and it was in 2014 that Roslyn joined us with friends on one of the William Morris Tours in the UK. Over 12 months ago Roslyn asked if I would come to be guest speaker at their quilt group's 30th birthday celebrations and tonight was their special celebratory dinner. I flew to Sydney yesterday and was then taken on the drive to Woollongong where I will be staying with Roslyn for 5 nights. The area has had an incredible amount of rain this past month so it was very humid but despite the sea fog the view was spectacular……

 This is part of the impressive Sea Cliff Bridge and if you go to that link there is a fabulous aerial view of this unique structure……...

Roslyn lives in a stunning villa with courtyard views from every window and the gardens are gorgeous…... 

And with a touch of Morris in her sitting room too……..

 Roslyn had arranged for some of the group to share dinner followed by a wonderful evening of sharing some of their stunning quilts…..and many of these quilts were entirely hand stitched as well…….

These are only a few of what we saw…….. 

 Anne added a touch of Morris in the centre of this stunning quilt…….

 Roslyn's version of Wendy William's Round the Garden quilt is in progress and full of memories from her trips to the UK…….

 So this was the setting for tonight's dinner where I shared a little of my journey with Beatrix Potter and all because of Helen of Whitecroft Tours. It was wonderful sharing a delicious dinner with 66 other quilters in such a lovely setting. So time to get some sleep before three days of teaching….more soon xx

The William Morris Birthday Cake!

And here is the William Morris Birthday cake for 2017 that I mentioned in my last post from the William Morris Society of Canada and thank you to them for making this lovely video........

Elements of the cake reflect another Arts & Crafts designer - Charles Voysey. I have also found his designs to be inspiring and I have used his beautiful birds in one of the fabrics that I designed with Jason Yenter of In the Beginning Fabrics some years ago.....

And Voysey's designs were the inspiration for several blocks in my 'Morris and Friends' quilt (called just 'Friends' in my first William Morris in Appliqué book). Sadly I don't have a good photo of this quilt and forgot to take one before I donated it to the Society of Antiquaries in London some years ago to raise funds for the Kelmscott Manor restoration fund. This is the only half decent photo that I have from an exhibition many years ago.........

 But I do have this lovely photo of where the quilt now lives in this Morris inspired room in a home in the US........

 Thankyou to the wonderful cake makers in Canada for celebrating William Morris' birthday with such style and I bet the lemon curd made it delicious! The Victoria and Albert Museum in London also acknowledged William Morris' birthday and I don't think in the 20 years since I've been making Morris inspired quilts I have ever seen so many celebrations! This time it was on the V&A's Facebook page with these words......

"Today is the Birthday of the father of the Arts and Crafts Movement, William Morris. English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist we have a huge range of examples of his work in our Collection. 

Celebrate his contribution with a visit to the Museum this weekend. Visit our Headley Trust Gallery to see this sumptuous design for bathroom tiles, commissioned by the architect of Membland Hall in Devon and made in 1876. Then stop by the cafe for an afternoon tea in our William Morris designed Morris room." 

And how serendipitous as Helen Bertram of Whitecroft Tours lives on the Membland Hall estate that these tiles were made for and I have my drawings all ready to make Helen a replica quilt....how wonderful for us all.....

Morris, William, (designer) William de Morgan, (maker), Architectural Pottery Co. (maker), England, 1876. 

© Victoria and Albert Museum