Welcome to Wednesday

Here’s a story that shows that quilting can be lucrative as well as fun. A Melbourne quilter, Robyne Melia, recently sold a 2m square quilt to an art collector for… wait for it… $70,000!

Ms Melia said the quilt took her 3,000 hours to make and was put together using old pieces of fabric cut from her grandmother’s vintage clothes (we’ll assume Grandma had either already passed away or, if not, gave permission for the pillaging of her wardrobe).

It’s heartening that the price tag actually reflected the true effort and hours that had gone into the quilt, something that’s usually overlooked by non-quilters. Sure, not every quilt for sale will end up fetching $70,000, but it’s nice to see that quilting is now being recognized as a valid form of art in its own right. At least by art dealers.

Now read your Midweek Moments then get back to work on your own quilts. There's money to be made out there.

Show and Tell

Show us the item and tell us the story

Avis Slater’s short-cut flowers

What was your inspiration for this quilt?
It was the design that attracted me. I was making it for my second granddaughter and it was an altogether different style from the one that I’d already given to my eldest granddaughter.

Did you stick to the pattern or did you customise?
The overall pattern is the same, but I adapted it by using different materials. I picked my own fabrics. It started off being one of Monica Poole’s patterns but I did the flowers differently. In the pattern, they’re supposed to be done with appliqué (not my strongest skill) but Susan Carr helped me find material that already had flowers on it.

How long did it take you to complete?
Probably about six months I think. I was mostly just working on it at Susan’s Monday classes so it became a part time project.

How long have you been a sewer?
I’ve always sewed. I made clothes for the kids when they were younger. I started doing patchwork about 18 years ago in Canberra and I’ve been going to Blueberries for about two years now.

What’s the next project?
I suppose I’m in-between projects at the moment. I’ve got some material to make a queen-sized quilt for myself with material I picked up about a year ago.

A Quilter's Journey

Fourteen day tour to the USA.

Would you like to go on A Quitler's Journey of the USA?

Yes! Then come along to the Information Session this Saturday 7th May at 1pm at the Blueberries Shop 4C Amy Close Wyong.

The tour includes visiting New York, Lancaster, Houston and Las Vegas as well as attending the Houston International Quilt Festival. The tour will depart late October and return in November.

Find out more information this Saturday at our information session.

Big 'n' Bizarre

A road trip of Australia’s fiberglass monuments

The Big Potato

Chip lovers everywhere, rejoice! This tasty looking giant spud is modeled on the North American Sebago, and with impressive 10m x 4m dimensions, could probably supply every McDonald’s outlet in the country with enough French fries to last until the middle of the century. Bit of a shame, really, that it has the nutritional value of, well, of the concrete it’s made of. Then again, perfectly appropriate for McDonald’s.

Located on the main drag of the town of Robertson in the NSW Southern Highlands, the Big Potato was constructed in 1977 by local potato grower Jim Mauger with the grand vision of housing Australia’s first (and only) Potato Information Centre. Unfortunately, due to rising costs, this heroic vision was never realized. Maybe it was the expensive and complex industrial spraying process to make the structure’s interior look like mashed potato that tipped the project over budget? Who knows?

Whatever the reason, the Big Potato languished for many years, hollow and neglected, gathering mould, graffiti and unkind local nicknames like “the Big Turd” and “the Dud Spud”. Don’t people know even potatoes have feelings?

But Australians just can’t resist an underdog (or even an “underspud”). In 2008 the Mauger family, the local Chamber of Commerce and dozens of enthusiastic volunteers got together to give the Big Potato a much-needed and long overdue makeover. Its exterior was pressure cleaned and painted a rich, earthy shade of brown. Its two doors were cemented over to prevent the local rough trade using it for their injecting meetings. A flower bed was lovingly planted outside to give it a splash of colour. It was the world’s largest ever “potato bee”.

Then in March 2010, locals awoke one morning to find their beloved Big Potato adorned with a huge face made entirely out of paper-mache. The oversized eyeballs, nose, moustache and lips were the work of a group of artists who had secretly constructed the parts at a cost of $200 and then affixed them to the Big Potato in the middle of the night. The resemblance to the iconic children’s toy Mr Potatohead was not accidental, and a majority of townsfolk agreed that this unauthorized addition to the Big Potato was a fun and quirky idea. Unfortunately this fun, quirky idea was short-lived. The paper mache face was cruelly torn down by vandals on its very first night.

But such was Robertson’s idolatry of their very own reclaimed Big Thing that the Chamber of Commerce approached the original group of artists with the request of repeating their labours for a more permanent display, a process that’s still in the negotiating stage as we speak.

The moral of the story? In the world of Big Things, fortunes can wax and wane in entirely unpredictable cycles. The story of the Big Potato can be summed up thus;

In Robertson, there sat a big spud
Which quickly became known as a dud
But with forces most fickle
Got out of its pickle
And was loved again… (just like Kevin Rudd)

Now, do you want fries with that?

And the last word...

"Is a Nine Patch part of a Twelve Step Program?"