… but not as you know them.

‘Curves 2’. An exercise in combining plaids, black and white and busy bits to create a zippered look with order surrounding the chaos in the centre. My original design. Machine pieced and quilted. Cotton fabrics, wool/poly and poly double wadding. Belinda Betts NSW

I can see the zippered look and the busy bits. And I can guess that a machine was involved in the construction possibly guided by a computer program. I am not sure I can see the hand, and the mind, behind the creation. However I can admire the product. Fertile, vigorous, punchy. But it didn’t win. It was only the Runner Up in the ‘Pieced or Appliquéd’ section at the 2023 Australian Quilt Show.

This is the ‘Best of Show’ (for which Lyn Crump took home $10,000).

‘Bev 10-08’. The design idea for this quilt came to me on the anniversary of my mum’s passing. Mum was not a ‘purple’ person. My ambition was to use only solids to portray depth of colours changing across the spectrum. The title pays homage to mum and our family of eight. My own original design. Machine piecing, foundation paper piercing, freehand long arm quilting, all cotton fabrics. Lyn Crump QLD

It’s not a great photo — the quilt was definitely rectangular for example — but you can see the textured pattern in the background which might have got her over the line. I’m out of my depth here, well out of my depth, but I think you might do that with a long arm quilter freehand as opposed to pre-programmed and that that might be seen as demonstrating an exceptionally high level of skill and capability.

This, perhaps more conventionally ‘quilty’, was the runner up Best of Show. ($400 and the choice of a Janome machine valued at $3999)

‘Stonefields Honey’. Stonefields Quilt variation — design and construction to make it my own with a happy bee theme. I challenged myself to make the smallest, narrowest, most complex appliquéd and pieced quilt to showcase my skills. Fussy cutting, inset circles, miniature pieces and new techniques were developed just for this quilt. 122 blocks separated by sashing and with contrasting intersection squares. Outer border has 116 hexagon flowers with fussy cut centres. Fabrics are in mix of white, greys and golds. 100% cotton fabric for top and backing, 100% wool wadding. Meredith Budd NSW

Might have been disappointed she didn’t win. Seems to have given it her all and may have looked at ‘Bev 10-08’ and wondered what might have been. ‘Fussy cutting, inset circles, miniature pieces …’ it looked and was amazing. I wonder if all these people know each other and plan something even more special for next year. And, too, whether the world of competitive quilting is a bit bitchy or even, sometimes, cut throat. But that is just an incidental thought and unworthy.

There was so much here that I liked and admired. This one has won a series of things that I can’t remember or read. That flash gold rosette though suggests a major winner, maybe of a different competition (statewide?).

‘Nearly Insane’. A Kilmore Quilters Inc challenge commenced in 2014. I completed the sashing, cornerstones and borders during COVID lockdown. Beautifully custom-quilted by Jenny Gibson of Nansew Quilting Kilmore. Rhonda Irving VIC

You can readily understand the title. Like ‘Stonefields Honey’, every one of those inner blocks is different. Only a crafts peer would understand just how much effort — of all sorts — the fabrication of this wonderful thing had entailed.

But this is what the audience liked.

WINNER: Best Pictorial Quilt; Best Art or Pictorial Quilt; Viewers’ Choice. ($500; $500; glory)

‘Koolpin Gorge, Kakadu’. Jarranbarnmi (Koolpin) is a stunning hidden gorge made up of rugged cliffs, lush greenery and sparkling pools of water. No swimming as crocodiles lurk in these waters. With access by permit only, we camped in this incredibly beautiful and special area. Hand painted fabrics collaged and heavily stitched. This quilt is my own design based on photographs I took when visiting this fabulous area in the Northern Territory. Machine appliquéd, embroidered and quilted, hand painted fabrics, hand dyed fabrics, over-painted commercial fabrics. Gloria Loughman, VIC

Is it a quilt, or something else? A fabric construction say … but can you, would you, put it on your bed? Yeeees. I guess that makes it a quilt. And this is another one, another sort. It looked better in the flesh but, to me, not that much better.

‘Menagerie’ This menagerie quilt was a slow stitching project that kept growing. Without intention I seemed to add a range of animals, large and small, new and old. I have used vintage doilies, fabric, lace, trim and embroideries alongside fabulous new fabrics that all spoke to me. This is my own original design. Vintage embroidery panels, embroidery, appliqué. The entire quilt is hand sewn and hand quilted. Karen Messitt QLD

The one that beat it into second place in the ‘Recycled and Restyled’ Division (winner: Choice of Janome machine valued at $3,999) was mostly recycled jeans.

‘Cave Dwellings’ There is evidence that cave dwellings in Matero, Italy were inhabited as far back as 7000BC. They remained inhabited until 1950 when they were considered too unhealthy to live in but they are now being restored. This story inspired my entry. An original design inspired by images and a story on a TV documentary. A collage of recycled denim salvaged from jeans plus a couple of hand-dyed doilies. Some denim was discharge dyed. Fabric was raw edge appliqué. Prue Wheal SA

The display kept unfolding in unexpected ways: Dianne Firth’s ‘Cell Division’ for example.

Yep. That’s a quilt. There’d be some help and probably quite a lot from technical devices, but you still have to have had the idea. To see something and then think hmm I could turn that into a quilt. I’ll work out how. And you’d have to be ever so careful not to botch the lines or the gradations of shape. I haven’t embarked on my quilting journey yet but even when I do I think it would take me quite some time to knock out work like this. Applause.

If I had been judging (which of course I was but my credentials weren’t immediately recognised) I would have considered rewarding these two.

‘Interconnection’ Using leftover scraps of solid fabrics I randomly pieced blocks over a long period of time. I wasn’t sure how they were going to fit together when I got inspiration from an Instagram post (unknown profile). I wanted the blocks to float but be connected so I created ‘pathways’ between them with with occasional bridges to link them. We are all connected whether directly or indirectly — you just have to follow the path! Improv, machine piecing, domestic machine quilting Sue Clarke VIC

And she is exactly right. There are pathways. The blocks do float. And there are gaps where you don’t expect them to be. Above all it is very visually stimulating. Your eye just will not rest. Hugely satisfying.

If that was a Mondrian (and it could have been), this was a Miro.

‘French Men Can Dance’ Being introduced to Irene Roderick and her Dancing With The Wall class was my quilter’s moment of really throwing all the rules out the door. I was so inspired by Irene and her beautiful work. Through time and shaping this fabulous dancer appeared and brightened up my world. Not getting caught up with perfectionism of the point but rather the engineering of the piecing in a different way really works for me and makes me want to continue dancing. Improv piecing, stationary machine quilting Tania Tanti VIC

It would have been marked down for not having enough in it and not being quite quilty enough I imagine. But The Dancer is there. And dancing. You look again to check just how and there is some peculiar and puzzling gestalt at work. Look at the moustache and the shoes are obvious. Look at the shoes and they are just a couple of sectors in a circle. How fat is his leg? And what is it, or could be they, doing? Are those hands or maybe a glass of wine. He’s wearing a hat till you actually look, and those eyes … oh not there. Is he dressed, and if so in what? How is that motion communicated? It doesn’t matter whether it was fortuitous or the product of a real eye. It has happened. A knockout.

It is the season of Epiphany so it might be appropriate to say that happening on the Quilt Show was an epiphany of sorts. It is always energising to discover another one of the thousands of social clusters drawn together by a shared activity that a modern metropolis contains and, so frequently, to reel back at its sophistication. This was a case in point.

Quilters, hats off to you all …