Quilting

MMQG Charity Quilt

The Modern Quilt Guild’s flagship event, QuiltCon, is fast approaching, and Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild are proud to have participated by taking part in the MQG’s Member Charity Challenge.   The Challenge is open to all members of the MQG and for Guilds like ours, takes a group approach.

The theme for this year was “Improv with Intent”, a form of quilt-making which is inspired by quilters such as Cheryl Arkison.  As Cheryl states, “Improv is more than sewing together random bits of fabric. You can take an idea, an image, or an object and translate it into a block or quilt via improvisational piecing.”

Our challenge was to work within a pre-determined palette, and create a quilt using improv with intent as a technique.

colour scheme

 

 

 

 

For this project, the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild design team was gathered together from a handful of volunteer members.  We started by thinking about the landscape of our State, and soon turned closer to home.  Federation Square is a major landmark in the centre of Melbourne, and is the heart of community and cultural life in the city of Melbourne. Built to celebrate the centenary of Australia’s Federation in 2001, its modern design both delights and shocks locals and tourists.

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Federation Square, Melbourne

With Federation Square as a ‘backdrop’, our inspiration was then drawn from a significant event held there in 2015.   This was the 5,000 Poppies Project commemorating the ANZAC campaign centenary 1915-2015, which marked a significant nation-building time for the new federation of Australia and the sacrifice of young men in the trenches of Europe and the Middle East during WWI.  During the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium. In soldiers’ folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground.

As a crafting community contribution to the Anzac Commemoration, the 5,000 Poppies project “planted” a field of over 100,000 crocheted and knitted poppies in Fed Square Melbourne as a stunning visual tribute to Australian servicemen and women for more than a century of service in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

Fed Square ANZAC Day
Federation Square on ANZAC Day, 25 April 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many a quilter has looked at Federation Square and wondered how they could recreate its angular features in fabric.  We quickly realised that the images from the 5,000 Poppies Project presented a unique inspiration: The background of Fed Square (as locals fondly call it) places us wholly in the present; the sea of poppies represents remembrance for heritage, respect for history and a nod to our traditional quilting roots.  In addition, the actual sea of crafted poppies was created by a global creative volunteer collaboration.

This translated beautifully to the colour palette chosen for the MQG challenge this year. The grey, cream and black showed the glass, frames and unique shapes of Fed Square, and the yellow and blue represent the reflected sky and neighbouring Flinders Street Station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
We asked members to contribute shades of red to allow great variety in the petals of the poppies.

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Swirls of poppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were inspired by the challenge to improvise with intent, and ran collaborative construction sessions so that we could explore our framework and try to develop the design as a group. At first many of us felt daunted at the task, but once we started to get some shapes on our floor-based ”design wall” we felt excitement at seeing the concept develop. We had “check ins” periodically during each session, to gather round the blocks and see where it was heading, and to discuss what we liked and didn’t like. The discussion and exchange were what moved the quilt forward, and these moments of re-examining and evolving were wonderful! It was exciting to hear everyone’s observations and be open to changing what we had done as we made new discoveries.

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Initial piecing
Working on the transition between Fed Square and the poppies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our final quilt reflects input from everyone who worked on it and problem solved when everyone became very aware of the extra time needed to improvise and fit irregular pieces together, rather than following a repeating pattern. We’ve enjoyed the process of developing this quilt together – working outside our comfort zone at times but discovering new ways of working and improvising. We’re very proud of our finished quilt, which will ultimately benefit a local charity in the coming months.

Mother's Shrine Surrey Park
At Mother’s Shrine (war memorial), Surrey Park