Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I drove to Perth yesterday to take a look at the WA Craft, Quilt, and Stitch Show, and to attend my nephew’s 5th birthday party. I had a few things I wanted to do at the Show:

• View the quilt exhibitions—there were the quilts made by locals, and then there was the Eyeline Exhibition, a stunning collection of art quilts from the ACT (see the pictures below for some examples).
• Check out the booths to see what’s new, what goodies were on sale (I only bought a couple—honest!), and to say hi to the lovely Michelle from Raggedy Stitches and to my good friend Bobbie from The Quilt Mouse, both of whom had booths and were running workshops over the three days. Bobbie had her brand new CDs for sale—these are of her Foundation Paper Piecing blocks, in various patterns and sizes. You can purchase a CD (or the complete set) and can print as many of the blocks as you want, either on your paper, or the thin, easily-tearable paper she can supply. Those CDs were selling like hotcakes! She doesn’t have them up on her website yet, but if you email her, she can send you the details.
• See if I could get a demonstration of, and a chance to play with, the only sewing machine I’ve yet to investigate—a Bernina 440 Quilters Edition. I did, and I was disappointed. In my opinion and based on the features that I want, this machine was a poor second to the Husqvarna Sapphire 870, while being some hundreds of dollars more expensive! The guy at the booth said they’d give me a $500-600 trade-in on my existing Bernina, but while the price after trade-in is now comparable with the Husqvarna, it still doesn’t have the features I’m looking for, like auto thread cutters etc. My heart has always been with Berninas as they are incredibly reliable machines (my Mum had one when I was a kid and it was the first electric sewing machine I ever used, then I purchased one for myself as a 21st birthday present, then Mum got another one about 10 years after that which I now have [she swapped me hers for mine a few months back]), but Bernina really missed the boat with the 440. The Husqvarna’s 10″ throat and the auto thread cutters, in particular, have swung my decision towards Husqvarna. I eliminated Janome, Pfaff, and Brother some time ago, and getting access to a Bernina was a problem—the closest store (in Bunbury) hasn’t had one on display each time I’ve been in there, which didn’t augur well. The other reason for choosing the Husqvarna is that I can get it locally, so if there are issues with servicing, repair, etc. I only have to take it in to the local shop.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of two of the Eyeline art quilts:

Small section of one quilt in a triptych from the Eyeline exhibition. Thread 'painting' was used to create the grass and trees, as well as the contours.

Small section of a panel of about 6 art quilts. This is the right edge of one and the left edge of the next.

Close-up showing stitching and construction techniques