Rhonda Bracey: At Random

My friend Bobbie has decided that we need a challenge — a quilting/crafting challenge that is. She’s decided to invite 5 friends for a weekend retreat in September at her wonderful rammed earth house, and I’m honoured to be chosen.

The challenge started off mysteriously — Bobbie asked to bring along an issue of any magazine that our husbands, sons etc. get. Four of us met at the Craft Fair on the weekend and we exchanged magazines. The challenge is to make something from the inspiration you get from page 35 of the magazine you received!

Flora got a computer magazine from me — and page 35 was an ad, but at least it had some bright colours; Michelle won’t get her magazine for a few days as Glenys wasn’t able to come to the Fair; Bobbie got a dog magazine from Flora and her page 35 had all sorts of dogs in coats, as well as lots of bright pink and purple; Glenys will get her magazine in the mail from Bobbie; and I got  a reptiles magazine from Michelle! I love reptiles so I was pretty chuffed — and even more excited when I opened page 35 to see a whole swag of bright green chameleons!!

The other part of the challenge is that we have to use a technique we’ve never tried before somewhere in the piece we make. And we have to have our creation completed by the end of September when we all get together for a ‘show and tell’. I have NO idea what I’ll make, but I know that I’m going to enjoy the process.

Challenge rules for Year 1 (2009), as set by Bobbie:

Parameters:

1. Select a magazine that has nothing to do with quilting/patchwork/sewing.
2. Swap magazines with the person nominated on the list.
3. Open to page 35 and use that page for your inspiration to begin.

Other conditions:

• Can be any project, any size
• Must be finished by retreat date
• Must not be revealed beforehand to any other participant
• Must include a technique you have never tried before

On Sunday, my friend Bobbie and I drove to Perth and back, just to attend the Perth Craft and Quilt Fair at the Convention Centre. It was a long day — nearly 7 hours of driving, and 7 hours on our feet at the Fair. But it was absolutely worth it!

In addition to lots of booths selling all sorts of goodies, there were several quilt exhibitions with the most fabulous pieces of art (it was hard to call most of them ‘quilts’ — at least in the traditional sense of the word). The West Australian Quilting Association (WAQA) had their annual exhibition with many prize-winning quilts displayed in all sorts of categories; it was the last chance to see the “Under Flynn’s Wings” exhibition of quilts made to celebrate 80 years of the Royal Flying Doctor Service; and the 30 winning finalists from the Australian Patchwork and Quilting competition I entered my dragonfly quilt into were on display. There were other exhibitions too, but as they were all in the one large hall, it was hard to tell them apart.

We were allowed to take photos for non-commercial purposes, so I did! My pics are here, but there was no way my photos could do justice to the incredible techniques or amazing artistic detail from some very creative women (I don’t think any of the quilts were made by men, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong). It was hard to pick a favourite, but for sheer gob-smacking, jaw-dropping awesomeness, I couldn’t go past the farm scene.

Bobbie and I had lunch with our friend Michelle, from Raggedy Stitches. Michelle had a booth, but she has some great staff so she was able to get away for 30 minutes or so.

I also spent some time catching up with Susan, my work colleague — we last saw each other in February, though we talk on the phone almost every day.

(I just realised that I hadn’t mentioned that late last year I entered my dragonfly quilt into a national competition! 30 finalists were selected — I wasn’t one of them, but I got a letter from the magazine asking me to send them my quilt to be professionally photographed as they want to include it in an issue later this year. How cool is that? Of course, now that I’ve seen the finalists, my quilt looks like a very poor relation in comparison…)