Each year QuiltNSW holds a challenge. The quilts are premiered at the Annual General Meeting and then form part of a travelling suitcase exhibition. Please contact the Challenge Coordinator if you would like to reserve the 2020 challenge From these Curtains or the 2020 challenge Our Environment.
2021 Challenge: Ruby
The theme for 2021 Suitcase Challenge is Ruby – as confirmed at the 2020/2021 QuiltNSW AGM.
Conditions of Entry available here
Entry Form is available here
The 2020 Suitcase Challenge theme was Our Environment. The finished size of each quilt is 40cm x 40cm.
Congratulations to the prize winners. First prize is a BERNINA sewing machine supported by BERNINA Australia.
- FIRST PRIZE: Me and Murphy by Sheila Beer
- SECOND PRIZE + VIEWERS CHOICE (tied): Mulga Burning by Linden Lancaster
- THIRD PRIZE + VIEWERS CHOICE (tied): Landlines by Jill Rumble
- JUDGES’ COMMENDATION: Renewal by Brenda Gael Smith
Sheila Beer 
Linden Lancaster 
Jill Rumble 
Brenda Gael Smith 
Jane Gibson 
Tracey Grisold 
Catherine Porter 
Andrea Beattie 
Wendy Nutt 
Jessica Wheelahan 
Catherine Babidge 
Jennifer Kirkby 
Jill Rumble 
Beryl Colley 
Tonia Barton 
Dorothy Masterton 
Glenys Wallbridge 
Lynn Hewitt 
Roslyn Moules 
Stephanie Knudsen 
Bernice Krige 
Sue Dennis 
Evelyn Gray 
Jennifer Ramsay 
Linda Butcher 
Kay Haerland 
Catherine Woodward 
Jennifer Stringer 
Jennifer Stringer 
Penelope Erikson 
Isabella Klompe
ME AND MURPHY
Sheila Beer
FIRST PRIZE: a BERNINA sewing machine supported by BERNINA Australia.
Statement: The awareness of one's environment is easy to a five year old child. It is close, immediate and simple.
MULGA BURNING
Linden Lancaster
SECOND PRIZE +
VIEWERS' CHOICE (tied)
Statement: Fire in the Australian environment is a most significant force. At the same time it can be both a destructive and a regenerative agent. Whilst the Mulga communities thrive after a fire, indiscriminate burning of the immature trees can eliminate whole forests of this species.
LANDLINES I
Jill Rumble
SECOND PRIZE +
VIEWERS' CHOICE (tied)
Statement: During and after drought the lines left on the land are different from better times. Trees with no leaves, little or no grasses, trails left by live stock are more apparent.
RENEWAL
Brenda Gael Smith
JUDGES COMMENDATION
Statement: Bushfires are both a destructive and regenerative force in our Australian environment. Such dualities are intriguing and inspiring. This work celebrates the cycle of renewal.
CLUSTERS & BUBBLES
Jane Gibson
Statement: For the last nine months our urban environment has been defined by clusters and bubbles. Staying in the latter to avoid the former. Hopefully, 2021 will allow us to pursue more of our activities with fewer restrictions. Thank goodness our craft gave us so much during difficult times.
CATASTROPHIC TUESDAY
Tracey Grisold
Statement: One year ago the environment of our valley was under siege. Devasting bush fires had burnt 150 homes in the Manning Valley where I live. I took a photo of my brown drought-affected farm and used that to create my quilt. The smoke was so thick that you couldn't see a neighbours house, one paddock away. The only green in the horizon was our garden.
MY KITCHEN ENVIRONMENT
Isabella Klompe
Statement: The quilt tells a picture of my kitchen in full swing when I am cooking, everything goes out of kilter, a very busy environment, but still a quiet place where things get done.
THE YEAR OF 2020
Penelope Erikson
Statement: Our physical year 2020. A year of drought, devastating bushfires, obliterating smoke, flood, a pandemic and physical isolation. Then a gradual greening and regeneration of the land.
AFTER HILLVILLE #2
Jennifer Stringer
Statement: During the fires of 2019/2020, I watched the Hillville fire race east across the ridge. Our valley was devastated by bushfires and everywhere was blackened bush. A few weeks later, small leaves appeared at the base of the trees, giving me hope.
KIWARRAK SUNSET
Jennifer Stringer
Statement: After the bushfires of last summer, the sunsets were magnificent with bright orange and pink skies. My eucalyptus Corymbia was in flower, with matching spectacular pink blossoms. This is my home environment.
TILLEY ON THE REEF
Catherine Woodward
Statement: What is her environmental future?
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Kay Haerland
Statement: 35 years ago I started this naive piece from concern with the deterioration of our environment. So when this challenge was about that very topic, I decided that I had to finish it (at long last!)
SNAPSHOTS (DEC19-JUN20)
Linda Butcher
Statement: 1. Drought: Scorching sun bakes parched earth
2. Forboding Smoke: Ash/embers start to fall
3. Catastrophic fire brings death/destruction
4. Oppressive Smoke: Fires smoulder; more death
5. Rain!: Vivid green sprouts from the earth; new leaves appear on charred trees
6. "Green" drought: Sun desicates the earth; dams dry up; tank water dwindles
OUR ENVIRONMENT
Jennifer Ramsay
Statement: I contrasted the good and bad influences in our environment using the mountain and sea around my area in the circle and the outer areas to show the bad-bushfires, floods, wild seas and Covid 19.
FIRST THE BUSHFIRES, THEN THE PANDEMIC
Evelyn Gray
Statement: Bushfire, smoke, falling trees.
SUMMER BREEZE #4
Sue Dennis
Statement: The summer breeze of 2020 was hot with the flames of many bushfires throughout Australia. Bushfires have been part of life on our continent with the indigenous people using fire as a land management tool.
BLACK SUMMER
Jessica Wheelahan
Statement: The words 'Watch and Act' reverberated through emergency broadcasts last summer and became synonymous with living through the effects of climate change.
WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Bernice Krige
Statement: We humans live in a rainbow of wonder, from the highest rain-filled clouds & snow-capped mountains to the deepest oceans, the mighty forest canopies & fern covered floors, farmlands & insect pollinated floral magic. From the mighty elephant to the humble snail, a magnificence of animal life has adapted to all climates. We are all in this together!
SAVE THE OCEANS - REUSE PLASTIC
Roslyn Moules
Statement: This is a completely plastic quilt made from shopping bags. It was surprisingly easy to sew. Reusing plastic should be foremost in our minds to avoid excessive dumping of plastic.
THE CHOICE THIS OR THIS?
Lynn Hewitt
Statement: I live in the suburbs of Sydney, and every day, the great Australian dream of owning a house and garden is being replaced by concrete boxes dominating the environment.
WARP AND WEFT
Wendy Nutt
Statement: Literally our environment, or at least part of it. Loose threads, frayed edges, dye runs and whoopy grains are all challenges we face daily in our chosen art medium, and all represented in this woven cloth.
IN THE BEGINNING
Tonia Barton
Statement: In the beginning it was the force of nature that determined our environment.
NEW BEGINNINGS
Glenys Wallbridge
Statement: After the fires last year we travelled through the forest and saw tree ferns just beginning to start their regrowth. This stunning green made me feel there was hope that all the forest could regenerate. This was a new start.
SOUTHERN RIGHTS RULE!
Dorothy Masterton
Statement: Southern Right Whales migrate each year along the Australian coast and can be seen by onlookers performing their highly acrobatic displays close to shore. I am very fortunate to witness this migration each year, and to call this my environment.
SUBURBIA AMONG THE GUMTREES
Beryl Colley
Statement: Our environmental habitat is unique - always changing in form through man and nature.
Rarely do we stop to pay attention to our daily environment with its richness of patterns/designs, colours and shapes and forms. A veritable daily quilt all around us. Stop and look about at the Suburban Environment among the Gumtrees.
AFTER THE RAIN #2
Jill Rumble
Statement: Abstract interpretation of after the rain - leaves on the ground, washed earth, rain drops glistening on leaves and puddles of water
MY VIEW
Jennifer Kirkby
Statement: There was a lot of looking out and in this year. Gazing at my Mum in her aged care home through the window and looking out my window. What a year...... I looked at the news constantly, watching terrible bushfires, trying to understand overseas elections. My saviour was the ocean. Swimming and floating in the sea.
SAVE THE BEES
Stephanie Knudsen
Statement: Bees have such an important part to play in our environment but unfortunately our bees are suffering decline in numbers worldwide
With artist Tia Carrigan’s permission I have recycled a take away coffee cup wrapper and using embroidery expanded on her theme Busy Bees I have also used recycled and painted paper towels
NET ZERO EMISSIONS
Catherine Babidge
Statement: In making this quit I used only what I had at hand...the philosophy behind the race to net zero includes reusing, recycling and limiting waste...
AUTUMN LEAVES
Andrea Beattie
Statement: Walking around our local environment became part of our daily routine when I started working from home. The piles of leaves of all different colours marked the change of season and reminded us how precious our local parks and trees are.
PAUSE
Catherine Porter
Statement: "We are pressing pause" is the catchcry for COVID-19. The background represents our regular busy lives. The centre features a pause button of hibernation, lockdown and closed borders which limits our movement - a new normal. Yet I also view this quilt as a positive reminder to pause long enough to stop and smell the roses.
Challenge Galleries
Click on the links for quilt galleries of the following challenges:
- 2019 From these curtains
- 2018 Running Away with the Amish
- 2017 Remember
- 2016 Repurposed, Recycled, Reloved
- 2015 Colour Collision
- 2014 Mini Modern
- 2013 Hexagon Hype
- 2012 Pearl
- Fertile Imagination
- 2011 Purple & Yellow
- 2010 Spot the Spots
- 2009 What Tickles Your Fancy
- 2008 Coast and Country
- 2007 25th Anniversary Calendar Challenge