Bill Stearman, Quilt Maker

Just look at these pictures and tell me that you don't see inspiration for quilts!  The lines.  The patterns. The colour. Queen Victoria Building, Sydney Opera House Outdoor Restaurants  ... above and below National Museum of Australia  ... exterior above ... interior below

Each year, the Canadian Quilters' Association , in conjunction with Quilt Canada , our national quilt show, holds a National Juried Show . I've been a quiltmaker for the last five years and enter the show annually.  In my first year, 2015, I got a quilt juried into the show as a finalist. In 2016 and 2017 I got 'rejection' letters.  Yes that really is what the heading on the email says! In 2018, I had three quilts juried into the show as finalists, and won a third place for one of them. This year, 2019, I again have three quilts juried into the show.  I got word of this while I was in Tasmania and I was so excited!!! This year, they have asked that we not share our finalist quilts on social media and gave us this 'badge' to use instead. So ... here goes! I've pasted it here three times, 'cause I'm pretty happy to have three finalists.  Although I had none in for two years, I'm still averaging seven quilts juried as finalis...

One of reasons for staying in one place for five weeks was so that Larry and I could tap into the amazing energy of the area! It worked! We travelled lots AND I still managed to get five quilt tops pretty much done in five weeks. Larry, I'm sure averaged over 1000 photographs a week. It was a wonderful stay! The first quilt was a test of my own 'For Baby and Me' quilt pattern.  The pattern is dead-on and ready to be published! It is a gift for Oliver.  Oliver is the son of the kid who used to work for me when I had my farm.  Hard for me to fathom how Matt grew old enough to have his second kid ... while I have stayed exactly as I was ... LOL 'For Oliver' ... finished photo to follow. \ The next one was a test of another one of my patterns "It's a Slippery Slope'.   I changed the colourway from the original white background and used a Canadian themed fabric line.   As I worked with Canadian themed fabric, whil...

Tasmania!! This is the third year in a row that we've spent time in Australia.    The first year we stayed five weeks and only spent a week in Tasmania. The second year, we stayed in Australia for six weeks and spent three weeks in Tasmania. This year, we spent February and March 'Down Under' with six of those weeks in Tasmania. There is a pattern ... :-)   We spent five weeks this year staying in a beautiful wee cabin over looking the Huon Valley, near Cygnet. The family who own the cabin have become friends and we feel absolutely at home in this space. The views were stunning.   Above is a view of a sunset from our cabin. Below is a view of the fog burning off of the valley below.   Down the road was what I'd consider to be a dream farm ... a beautiful Jersey cow, who shared her pasture with her calf, her yearling heifer, about six sheep, and a bunch of free range chickens.  All this on a small acreage that slope down t...