Welcome to Wednesday

... with a quick howdy to autumn as well, which officially dawned this morning, sultry and golden.

Last weekend's Sew-a-thon was another huge success. Thirty-nine attendees all shared the dream on Saturday 26 February, collectively satiating their ravenous hunger for sewing. As usual, the event stretched over a marathon 12 hours, from midday to midnight and the camaraderie was switched to full volume. The next Blueberries Sew-a-thon is scheduled for Saturday 28 May, so get in early, as this popular quarterly event is always a sell-out, click here to book your place. If you have some photos from the day add them to our facebook page or email to jackie@blueberries.net.au and we will add to our blog.

Meanwhile we have been flat-out (literally) at Blueberries lately ... see photo here of Linden!

Tutor Profile

Getting to know a bit about the teacher

Name:  Kay Haerland

How long have you been quilting and what got you started?

I started quilting while living is Pennsylvania in the US in the early 1980s. We lived near the Amish area and I took a class there with a friend and got hooked.

How long have you been teaching and what do you specialise in?

I’ve been teaching for about six years, and most of what I teach is related to realistic landscape quilts, particularly how to make nature come alive in fabric with different kinds of appliqué and surface embellishment.

What inspires your creative ideas and/or projects?

I get most of my inspiration from nature. I love looking around and taking pictures, then incorporating the things I see into quilts, sometimes real places, sometimes imagined ones.

Do you have a favourite colour palette and/or design style?

Not really, unless you count nature colours as a palette, - but there is every colour imaginable in nature so it is certainly not a limitation.

What have you learnt from your students as a tutor?

I have learned to appreciate how different we all are, and yet we share this passion for creativity and each person’s personality comes out in their quilting. It is so rewarding when I can help them achieve what they want to do.

Kay's next class, ‘Magic Mushroom’ is on 5 April. Click here for more info.

Visit Kay’s site at http://kayhaerland.com.

Pattern Princess

What’s hot in the House of Blueberries

Well my loyal subjects, just for a bit of a change I’m bringing you a book this week, instead of a pattern. I suppose they still have things in common though, as they’re both things you can read.

And what a read! Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts by Elly Sienkiewicz is a fabulous collection of blocks and quilts from the American quilting guru herself. The elegant volume features 20 full-sized 8” block patterns and 12 quilt designs along with appliqué basics and a special feature on embellishment techniques.

The book also features quilts from the 2010 Houston Special Exhibit Baltimore’s Daughters – Friendship Albums for the Future.

A must-have for all those Baltimore lovers and anyone game for the challenge.

Click here to order Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts.

Big 'n' Bizarre

A road trip of Australia's roadside monuments

The Big Guitar

Yee-hah! Grab your RM Williams and get ready for some toe-tappin’, foot-slappin’, cow-pokin’, bootscootin’ excitement. This week we’re in Australia’s Country Music Capital – Tamworth – paying homage to its most famous resident, the stunning Big Guitar.

Actually, make that the Big Golden Guitar, thank you very much. Standing a stately 12 metres high, the famous structure marks Tamworth’s Golden Guitar Tourist Centre, located on the New England Highway on the town’s southern approach. Like New York City, the Golden Guitar Tourist Centre never sleeps and is open seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Last week’s impressive Big Banana was a particularly hard act to follow, but the Big Guitar is probably the only other Big Thing in Australia capable of such a feat. And although the Big Banana started its life as a humble roadside fruit stand, the Big Guitar’s origins are quite a few more rungs up the socio-economic ladder. It already had a C&W souvenir shop, gem and mineral display and even the Gallery of Stars Wax Museum when it was officially unveiled in 1988 by country music icon Slim Dusty.

But all that glitters is not gold. Although the Big Guitar enjoys immense proportions and international fame, it lacks that which it probably most desires – strings. Yes that’s right, folks, this otherwise impressive instrument can’t make a single note of music, perhaps proving that size really doesn’t matter after all.

The Guitar’s stringlessness is because it’s an exact replica of the famous Golden Guitar trophies. These highly-coveted awards are presented annually at Tamworth’s famous Country Music Festival, and have a long list of notable Australian recipients including Steve Irwin, Pauline Hanson, Ozzie Ostrich…. hang on, wrong list… …Lee Kernaghan, Melinda Schneider and Troy Cassar-Daley. While the trophies are made of solid bronze with a polished Tasmanian Blackwood base, their famous oversized counterpart has had to settle for reinforced fiberglass over a steel frame.

The Big Guitar is one of Australia’s most iconic Big Things, featured in every single documentary that's ever been made about Tamworth or its famous Country Music Festival. And while there’s no such thing as too much publicity, the Guitar has lately becoming increasingly concerned about being typecast and yearns for a cameo in an ABC bonnet drama.

And the last word...

"In the crazy quilt of life, I’m glad you’re in my block of friends."