Rotary Art Show 2008

In 2008 the Rotary Club of Drummoyne (more info here) invited Stitching Hearts to participate in their annual art show.  We were invited to display as many quilts as we wished with a percentage of the proceeds from their sale to be returned to the group to purchase much needed supplies. 

The Rotary Club of Drummoyne's 31st Art & Quilt Exhibition was held at the City of Canada Bay Civic Centre, Drummoyne, on 1-3 August 2008, with the opening night event held on Friday, 1 August 2008, with drinks & refreshments.

We prepared about 30 quilts for display, with about half of these cot sized children's quilts, the rest being lap or single sized.  We had to name each of them for inclusion in the show brochure, sew on the Rotary Club badge as well as our usual Stitching Hearts badge and fix rod pockets on each quilt to allow them to be hung.

The Rotary Club badge is a cloth badge with a royal blue edge which looks like this:

The highlight of the quilt was this double bed sized quilt, which was a striking red & white schoolhouse block quilt.  It was hung on the wall in a very advantageous position, and sold within half an hour of the opening of the exhibition. 

Jill, Shirley, Dasha & Darleen enjoying a glass of bubbly on the Opening Night of the show

 

Red Heritage House

Here are a couple of the other quilts we exhibited:

Buttterfly Daze

This was a large cot sized quilt, with the cutest panels of butterflys a beetle & a dragonfly, set 3 x 3 with a striped sashing.

Lavender Maze

A variety of mauves, purples and greens were used in this quilt, which was 12 Greek Cross blocks set 3 x 4, with sashing, cornerstones and a couple of borders. 

There's a Bear in There

A child's bed quilt with stars appliqued onto squares, and a band of bear's heads peeking out at the top of the quilt.  As usual, photography does not do the quilt justice.

The cot & children's quilts sold extremely well, and there were also several of the larger quilts sold.  Much to our surprise and delight!  The local paper, Inner West Weekly ran an article advertising the show on Thursday, 31 July 2008 p.29, which featured a photo of Jill & Darleen holding the Red Heritage House quilt with the president of Rotary, Dale Larsen.

Inner West Weekly, Thursday, 31 July 2008 p.29 

It reads:

"Drummoyne Rotary Club's popular Art and Quilt Exhibition opens its doors next weekend for the 31st year.

This year's exhibition features more than 230 pieces of art, as well as stunning quilts made by the Stitching Hearts charity group from Cabarita.

The group has completed 200 quilts since its inception in 2004.

Peter Messer, from Showcase of Australian Art, who has a long association with the Drummoyne Rotary Club, will present 140 paintings, including works of Suzanne Sommer, one of Australia's top-selling artists.

Working in acrylic, oil and pastel she is best known as a contemporary artist and a romantic impressionist painter.

Art dealer Murray Rodgers will also showcase 60 paintings.

'This annual exhibition had been one of the highlights of the local calendar, and over the years we have raised thousands of dollars for local community projects.' Drummoyne Rotary Clup president Dale Larsen said. ' This year we are supporting the Heamatology Clinic Trials Unit at Concord Hospital as well as other Rotary community projects.'

There will be a raffle for a Sommer painting valued at $1495 and other prizes."

In 2008 the proceeds from the show went to The Haematology Clinical Trials Unit, Concord Hospital and other Rotary community projects. 

The generous cheque, representing our percentage of the sales, which the Rotary Club presented to us, we used for the purchase of batting to enable us to make more quilts.  Although most of the fabric we use in quilts is donated to us by members of the community, the single, most expensive item we use is batting, or wadding as it is sometimes called, the soft centre layer of the quilt, which gives it its warmth.