AQC 2019 – Just a Sip

Oh honey bees. I had the absolute pleasure of checking out the Australasian Quilt Show in Melbourne last week! Mmm how do you say: Delicious, delovely, delectable, devine? How do you say: Degorgeous? Dewith it?
Degroovy? Define? I don’t know either, but damn, the quilts were good. They had me feeling emotions.

I got to see some of my favourite people, including the one-and-only FiFi of FiFi’s Fabricology. This Gold Coast adjacent shop has just about everything a quilt enthusiast could ask for. Don’t forget there’s an upstairs with even more fabric! I popped by her booth at the end of the day, and we had a bit of a riot. Check out the last photo in this post for that action!

One of my favourite parts of the AQC quilt exhibition were these quilts modelled after travel posters. It seems the category was pretty open in terms of technique, so there was a wide range of styles. However, they were connected by theme and size. The Shiprock quilt by Cat Larrea above makes me want to learn about appliqué more than ever! Should I just start glueing things down with Elmers? Hive mind: Point me in the right direction!

Then there was this Mammals of Oklahoma quilt by Shannon Conley that brought me right back to my hometown! I grew up out in the country, surrounded by farmland in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I was used to seeing many of these mammals on the daily; it was a nice reminder of my youth. (Especially the times when I wanted nothing more than to get away from it all). This quilt was created by first having a digital print on suede(!) made, and then the quilting added to that. Not the style of work I would typically gravitate to, but much respect!

Okay, then there was this saucy diva, Neroli Henderson! We bumped into each other so many times, she must have thought I was stalking her. :::sideways side eye::: Anywhoo, she had a quilt in the thematic “Magic” category, which sparkled the night away. It was intense y’all. It drags you in with its beauty, and then smacks you down with the words that are illuminated only when you shine a light on them. This photo was taken with a flash so all of you could see it. It reads: “I wish for a world where darkness brings no evil.” How brilliant [and heartbreaking] of a concept! Well-played, Neroli. Well-played!

This section of the quilt show displayed a group of artists that had been creating art together for years. They came together to make a series of A4 textile studies. Some of those featured stretched the boundaries of quilts, but Carolyn Sullivan’s work really brings the objects of nature to the modern quilt movement. It’s made me rethink how I look at quilts, the size of quilts, and how inspiration can manifest (even loosely) into your work. If those were in frames, they’d be right at home in an actual gallery!

Then another special exhibit of the show involved creators exploring the public versus private aspects of a handbag (and the metaphor that would obviously suggest to the human persona). Wow! What does the inside of your bag, say about you? I’m gonna have to re-examine my life choices after seeing some of these!

And this quilt! I need to reexamine my quilty life choices too! How spectacular is this ombré and piecing? Light and Darkness Are Not Severed by Eun Young Choi takes the concept of light and dark being part of the same spectrum. It doesn’t see them as opposites, but as a continuous force that we fall through inside and out. I basically need to add this quilt to my repertoire. I am sliced, diced and slayed.

Heaven’s to Betsi! Look at FiFi trying to pretend she doesn’t like me! This was me, blindly trying to draw the raffle winner out of a box, and meanwhile almost groping FiFi. I promise, I’m just not that into you! This picture will forever be the winner of that show!

Congratulations to all of the winners and those quilts hanging at the Australasian Quilt Show 2019! The bar of excellence was at pole-vaulting level! Also, a sloppy wet kiss to all of those people I missed seeing while I was there! You know who you are!