BUDERIM PATCHWORK: Lyn Ballinger Story and Challenge links.

Lyn Ballinger Story and Challenge links.

Back in 2001, Lyn was talking to members of our patchwork group about a quilt she was entering into a competition and suggested that a few of the others also enter an item. The general comment was "my quilt is not good enough", Lyn believed that everyone's quilt was good enough to put on show, and as such, she suggested a group Challenge.

The challenge title was 'Rainforest' and each member was given a piece of dapple green fabric and a piece of sweet pea fabric. That sweet pea fabric was to prove to be a real challenge to incorporate into a rainforest theme.

There were no rules in that first challenge about how much of each of two fabrics you had to use, resulting in some participants using as litte as possible, some using so little and in such a disguised way, that Judge Rose was convinced that it just wasn't used at all!

Marguerite was the winner of the Rainforest Challenge with her 3-D depiction of forest vines and life, she used the reddish pink of the sweet peas to create her butterflies.

When Lyn asked Marguerite what her plans were for her winning wallhanging, and got the answer of 'oh, probably pop it into the back of a cupboard', Lyn promptly organised a swap of her challenge piece for Marguerite's, believing that this winning treasure should be displayed and it was eventually donated to the cottage to grace our walls.
Lyn's 'Forest Green Frog' hung on the wall in Marguerite's home for many years, until recently Marguerite decided to donate 'Forest Frog' to the cottage, to be hung with the challenge winners.

Lyn was one of those rare people who love to share, she was unstinting in her support of other crafters in the many groups that she belonged to, firstly in her home town of Toowoomba and here on the Sunshine Coast where she and her husband Phil settled after purchasing a local franchise in 1996.
Lyn was a talented embroider, entering and winning prizes for first, second and highly commended in the Sydney Easter Show in 2001 she also entered and won prizes at the Brisbane Exhibition and winning a highly commended award in a New Hampshire,U.S. show.

In 2003, after Lyn so sadly lost her battle with Cancer, the Lyn Ballinger Challenge was created to honour Lyn and the wonderful work that she had done for our Patchwork Group, the unstinting help, tutoring and encouragement of other members to be proud of their work and for being a driving force behind establishing our ever so successful Biennial Quilt Show.

We have since added a perpetual trophy for the yearly winner of the Lyn Ballinger viewers choice award, a quilt display stand, and let me tell you, it is fiercely contested, everyone wants their name on one of those little plaques on the stand.

These are some of the other entries in the 'Forest' challenge, to read more of their stories, go to the post "Lyn Ballinger, and how our Challenge came into being".

Maureen's Snakes on a vertical collage.