Blue Mountains Quilt Show

We had a busy time on the last weekend of April.  Having travelled down to Portland for Ironfest on the Saturday, we headed east again on the Sunday to visit the Blue Mountains Quilt Show.  We have visited several times before, but there has been a couple of changes since our last visit.  It is now held biannually and has moved from the Springwood High School to the Wycliffe Christian School at Warimoo.

This is such a well run event, with an amazing display of quilts.  The standard of the work is wonderful.

The feature artist this year was Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched.  She had a lovely display of her quilts, some old, some new, and her usual stall, full of delightful items.

I noticed the project that Anni created especially for Scrub Stitchin’ is now one of her patterns and kits for sale.  See it sitting on the shelf.

It was also nice to see the quilt she designed for the Homespun Magazine Block of the Month program in real life.

Now, let’s have a look at the gorgeous quilts on display.

This is for you Maria.

We tried to win the raffle quilt, designed by Anni Downs, but still have not received a phone call. Sigh….

I loved this version of the Caswell Quilt, made by Susan Caswell, because of the name of the quilt. 

What I particularly liked was the fact that it was machine appliquéd.  I know, not the traditional method, but something I see as being much more achievable for the likes of me.  It wa beautifully executed.

Susan Reinhard had two entries.  Firstly, her beautiful “Stash Garden”.

Then her intricate “Hexagon Love”.

The quilting is tiny invisible anchor stitches.

A white glove lady kindly showed me the back.  Yes, they are pretty much invisible.

This fish wall hanging was striking.  

I loved how some of the quilting was in feather stitch.

This quilt had been voted viewer’s choice on a previous day.  

The title is aptly “Bin Chicken”.  The wonderful label says it all.

There were several quilts made using Chris Jurd patterns.  Chris is a local to the area and had a pop stall at the Show.

There were two impressive quilts featuring Sashiko.

I loved this version of Buttons and Bows.  So colourful and fresh.

There weren’t many traditional style quilts, generally being more of a modern style.  This version of Dear Jane was a case in point.  You didn’t really appreciate the colour wash of the borders when standing up close.  It shows so much better in the photo.  I love it.  Such good use of colour.

Having said all that, there was a beautiful version of Nearly Insane.  All worked in EPP. I would be more than nearly insane, I’d be over the edge.

English Paper Piecing is certainly undergoing a revival, with a modern twist.  There were many quilts using that technique.  Are we starting to make quilts more slowly, to enjoy the process, rather than just churning them out?  I don’t know.

Another of my favourites was one that was hung high on the wall.  I was intrigued by the technique to get the curves, using a similar method to cathedral window.  It really came up well in the limited colour palette.

By then it was time to have lunch.  The club members had a very nice coffee shop going, with good coffee, soup, sandwiches and cake.  There was no reason to go hungry and we had a nice spot to sit in the sun to enjoy our lunch.

After lunch it was time to browse the pop up shops around the auditorium and in the gallery level above.  I believe there were fourteen, which is fantastic.  There was a wide variety of stalls and content.  I was very strong and only bought a fabric panel featuring blue wrens, as they are Mum’s favourites.  I’ve no idea what I will do with them, but I’ll eventually think of something.

It was also nice to run into a couple of ladies I knew that used to blog, who I haven’t seen for a while.

As always, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting this show.  The quality of their work rivals that of the Sydney Quilt Show and it is all run so well.  Now to wait for the next one in 2026.

We had to call into Lithgow on the way home to see a new mural that was only unveiled the week before.  It is located on the side of the Lithgow Workman’s Club and depicts the original Club building, some coal miners, the old Steel Blast Furnace and a Steam Train on the Zig Zag Railway.  Until I read the blurb, I never realised that “The Workies”, as it is known, is the oldest registered club in New South Wales.  I must say, we’ve never been inside, having had no cause to.  The mural certainly brightens up the streetscape.

And so ended another wonderful day out.  It was a big weekend, but we are so pleased we went to both events.

Ironfest

Ironfest has been an event held in Lithgow for many years, initially commenced as an arts event to celebrate the fact that Lithgow was the birthplace of steelmaking in Australia.  It grew to a huge event, celebrating many arts, crafts, jousting, Napoleonic wars reenactments, military displays and the most fun part being people attending in costume, ranging from medieval, military, steam punk to Star Wars. Overall it is just a good fun event.  It was last held in 2019.

This year, the event has recommenced, on the weekend after Anzac Day, on a slightly smaller scale, having no jousting or war reenactment.  It has also moved to a new home at “Foundations”  at the small town of Portland, near Lithgow.    This is a wonderful venue, being the former cement works, so has spectacular old industrial buildings.  This year there was one other major change.  Entry was free, whereas it had previously been rather expensive to visit.

We had a great day out, taking in all the sights and sounds.  It was a perfect autumn day, weather wise.  Let’s take a walk around.

Of course I am always drawn to anything textile related and there was a lady with some woollen items.

She asked me if I thought they were knitted or crocheted?  

It turns out it is neither.  The craft is, in fact, “Nalbinding”, which predates both knitting and crochet, with the earliest fragments found dating back to 6500BC.   It was interesting watching how it is done, using a needle and length of yarn and worked in the round.  The ends have to spliced as you go.  The resulting fabric will not unravel, as do the other crafts. 

After we finally decided we had seen enough, we visited the adjoining small museum.

 It is well set out with a nice collection.

Portland also features a large collection of reproduced advertising paintings on their buildings.

The town has been transformed over the past few years from a grimey industrial town into a vibrant place to visit.

We thought we would spend a couple of hours down there, but in the end spent all day.