IT WAS a challenge worthy of testing the creative skills of MacGyver – but the ladies of the Nambucca Valley were up to the test.
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Each given an identical 30cm piece of fabric, featuring a floral pattern, entrants were tasked to incorporate at least 50 per cent of the cloth into their exhibit at the annual Veranda Post Patchworkers’ exhibition at Macksville.
Club president Roslyn Cook said the special challenge at the exhibition – which opened on Easter Saturday and finishes today – saw some remarkable ingenuity.
So much so that the organisers took the rare step of awarding a second prize in the section.
Judged by Bobby Small of Nambucca Heads, the Best of Show prize was taken out by fellow local, Lorraine Squire.
But the judge was so impressed by the entry of Macksville’s Meg Davis, that she was awarded a runner-up recognition.
“Meg is one of my students so that makes me very, very proud,” Roslyn beamed.
Roslyn Cook on the top two works in the ‘Challenge’ section:
The annual exhibition of quilts, embroideries, vintage sewing machines and hand-made crafts has been running for 30-plus years, and while Roslyn said “interest is not as great as it was in the old days”, healthy crowd numbers had filed through over the long weekend to view the pieces.
“These pieces have taken hours and hours and hours of work. How much time depends what the quilt has got on it – if there’s embroidery it takes a lot longer,” Roslyn told the Guardian.
A charitable offshoot of the exhibition sees one quilt raffled, with proceeds this year going to palliative care.
“We are just delighted by the support, and just want to say ‘thank you’,” said Irene Rowsell, president of Nambucca Valley Cancer Support and Palliative Care Group.