Hi everyone, I do hope this newsletter finds you all well and keeping busy. I've been kept very busy over the past week with the State Quilt Show. It ran for five days and I attended for the full five days. Very exhausting, but invigorating at the same time. The quilt show was a great success and I'm very pleased to see the standard yet again, being raised by our wonderful quilters. There was a pretty good cross section of quilts from various genres - traditional, art, memory, collaborative and of course the miniatures, including postcards. We had various displays happening with the Linus Project, Teacher Accreditation and a fantastic display of Best of Show quilts throughout Australia over the past 12 months.

The winners were outstanding I must say, with an incredible array of skills and abilities. It sure is heartening to see that quilting is as strong as ever, while other crafts wax and wane, quilting keeps on keeping on.

If you'd like to see the winning quilts, here's the link for you: http://www.qldquilters.com/show2008.html

You know, as VP, I spoke to a lot of people and I mean A LOT, mostly quilters from all stages of the quilt journey. A number of quilters (especially beginners) laughed at me when I suggested that they enter their quilts next year. They truly believe that their quilts "aren't good enough" to be shown. Well, I have to say that I believe that the very best thing you can do to improve your quilting is to show your work. Even if the judging is not critiqued, seeing your quilts hanging amongst all the other quilts will give you an idea of how you are going. It will also give you and your family an enormous sense of pride that a quilt that has been made by you with loving hands and heart is on show for all to see. It's not whether it's the best in the show; it's about being the best you can do at the time. Please consider entering in your next quilt show. It's a win/win situation; you win praise from your peers and gain confidence from within.

I posted the Texas State Quilt Block last week. It took me a while to work out the easiest way to present the instructions and I found by producing a PDF of the templates, it was easier to place everything else on the webpage. I hope you find it an easy block to create. Here's the link for you.
Quilt Blocks of the States - Texas. A 12" pieced quilt block pattern from the "Quilt Blocks of the States" series.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art24993.asp

The forum has been pretty quiet over the past few weeks, I haven't posted anything for a little while either. But the Bellaquilters have been having some interesting chats - the latest on sewing machines. I do love to read the postings from the contributors to the quilting forum and we're starting to get a few regulars that are driving the forum very well. Here's the link to pop over to the forum and see what's happening there.http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=43

My gift for you this week is a very useful little object that was made for me by one of quilting friends. It's a little "thread caddy" that holds my waste threads, but is made out of fabric so is easily folded into my sewing tote and I've always got somewhere to put my scraps. This particular pattern and tutorial is from a blog titled "The Stitching Room" and it's written by Leanne who lives in Adelaide, South Australia.
Here's the link: http://thestitchingroom.blogspot.com/2007/10/thread-holder-pattern.html

I do hope you enjoy making this useful little gadget, it would make a nice secret Santa gift, don't you think?

Well, Bella quilters, that's all for now, I'm busy catching up with the household duties I neglected all last week. As soon as I get through all of that, the sooner I can get into my stitching. I've been so inspired by what I saw at the Quilt Show I'm just BUSTING to get started on yet another project.

Cheerio till next week, enjoy your stitching!!

Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

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