Friday, March 17, 2017

Austrian Quilting Day in Styria

Well, I´m back and believe me, it isn´t/wasn´t easy to get back in but it´s been long overdue. No long explanations or reasons about my long absence, just: happy to be back in the blogging flow!!

Last Saturday we celebrated the Austrian Quilting Day at the Cafe Desperado in St. Michael, Styria. It has been a very exciting day for me, as it was the first AQD for me as the Styrian representative for the Austrian Patchworkgilde. It took a couple of weeks of preparations, mainly for the workshops but also for organizational things. And: the charity quilt STYRIA had to be sewn together, so I could present the top. 

And it´s been a lovely, almost perfect day: beautiful weather, all the ladies from and around Graz, Langenwang, Landl, Leoben and many more places came to be with us, to talk, chat, sew a little, exchange, laugh and marvel about patchwork and quilting. I met some new people and even got some new members for the Austrian Patchworkgilde but what surprised me most was how many quilters there are hidden here in Styria, witout a group, mostly by themselves or with a friend, but continously sewing and quilting and making beautiful things.  

There is a video on YouTube that Johanna´s husband made - see for yourself - I`m loving it!!! 


For all those who had sewn a block for the STYRIA Quilt I prepared a bag (creatively embellished by my mother) with little small thank-you presents like pin-cushions, magazines, books and two of the bags contained fabric-vouchers. Where they came from? Well, I had 3 sponsors who generously donated:


Patchworkstube Gerlinde Fuerstner from Aflenz donated 9 (!) patchwork and quilting books! Gerlinde also presented her fabrics and more at the Cafe Desperado and believe me, she´s been really busy the whole day with all the ladies wanting fabric and more.....



From S.u.C. Stoffe in Leoben I got a voucher for fabrics, thank you so much Susanne and Christoph, the owners of this neat shop where they sell fabrics, sewing accessories and much more - their motto: Sewing with heart and passion! I love their shop because it´s spacey, well sorted and a place to dwell...


And from one of my favourite fabric online shops I also got a fabric-voucher: STOFFKELLER in Vienna, with its owner Sabine Machowitsch - thank you very much for this generous donation! Go check out her fantastique bio-cottons, I just love the color selection and the price of them!

These are some of the goodie bags that were distributed - the STYRIA-block sewers had to draw a fabric-ticket with numbers on them and the bag had orange peel tags with numbers on, too.


















I prepared 3 little sewing workshops, one was to quilt a little lace fabric and close it around a glas, the second was a easter card with a sewn tullip and the fourth was a pin-cushions with fabrics that were donated very generously from AnnaMaria (very retro, very colorful and fantastic). 

Some ladies enjoyed sewing on the spot but most of them took the kits home and preferred watching and chatting!



Everyone loves the "Show and Tell" at the AQD, and the applause for all those beautiful and absolutely creative quilts and handicrafts the ladies were presenting is always encouraging and motivating.



Johanna´s pillows

her brownie bag

I love her grey-blue-green table topper




small and geometric




Baby alphabet

a quilt for a group members´"round" birthday this year

Berta´s table toppers, all in spring colors




Herta´s little bags with cork-like material


Theresa´s bags - perfectly sewn


Theresa´s T-Shirt quilt

 
No, it is not Traudl - it is Christa, her twin sister with her beautiful quilts



Luise´s quilts

fantastique wind wheels

Christine´s wheels in motion

Mum´s first wall quilt

blue baby quilt
and last but not least: the STYRIA quilt top - to be continued with quilting and binding

All in all it has been a wonderful and enjoyable day, meeting with all the lovely ladies and some very patient husbands - thank you all for coming and making it a success - I hope to see you all and more next year!

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