SAQA's 2016 Oceania Collection

Each year Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) holds a benefit auction where members can donate a 12x12" quilt. The auction starts 2pm EDT, 16th September, details on how the auction works are available on SAQA's website. 

This year 36 members of SAQA's Oceania region donated quilts. Click on the graphic above to view the online gallery showcasing The Oceania Collection and to view each of the quilts. Mine is second on the left on the third row.

Leading up to the auction 16 Oceania members will show how their quilts were made and what inspired them to make them in the SAQA Oceania Blog Hop 2016.  Click here to see the blog hop schedule.

Here are the first four:

• 15 August Linda Robertus lindarobertus.blogspot.com 
• 17 August Dale Rollerson downunderdale.blogspot.com 
• 19 August Catherine McDonald www.addicted2fabric.com 
• 21 August Mathea Daunheimer www.espartafiberarts.com

Showing in October

October is a busy month for some of my quilts, two small pieces are on display this weekend and other pieces have been shown during October.

Aotearoa Quilters Green 12x12 challenge is on show this weekend at Whangamata Patch and Quilt exhibition.

photo from Aotearoa Quilters FB page,
mine is middle solid green one (here it is below)

Also on this weekend is a display of postcards created by Oceania SAQA members at the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne.  The postcards were shown earlier this year at SAQA's (Studio Art Quilt Associates) annual conference in Portland.

mine second to bottom row, third on the left

My quilt 'Knit One, Paint One' is part of SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' exhibition and has been showing in Europe.  It has just shown at Abilmente Mostra-Atelier Internazionale della Manualita Creativa, Fiera di Vincenza, Italy.  

During September it was at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork, Alsace, France.

'Knit One, Paint One' third from the left
'Redirecting the Ordinary' at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork
photo from SAQA's Europe/Middle East blog

My quilt 'Caveman txts' is in SAQA's exhibition 'Text Messages' and showed at 'Original Sewing & Quilt Expo' in Fredericksburg, VA, in early October. 

Just Green

The current Aotearoa Quilters' colour challenge is Green.  This time I've only created one 12x12" mini quilt.  The previous colour challenges were Red, Blue and Purple.

It is a wholecloth quilt with matchstick quilting in a variegated thread.  

I did stitch around the letters in a clear thread, each letter has an extra layer of batting.

 




The green quilts are on display at the Christchurch Quilters show 1-4 October. At the Whangamata Patchwork exhibition during Labour weekend and then at the Auckland Festival of Quilts 6-8 November.

All are for sale at $125 each.

SAQA Benefit Auction

SAQA's annual online Benefit Auction starts 2pm Friday 18th September EDT (early Saturday morning NZ time) and runs until 10th October.  

SAQA members donate 12" quilts to be auctioned.  The funds raised are used to support SAQA’s exhibitions, publications and education outreach.  The full details of how the auction works are here.

My quilt 'Just Tapa' appears in Section 3 where the bidding for that section opens 5th October and runs until 10th October EDT.

To view all entries have a look at this video:

 

The Kiwi Collection

SAQA's annual Benefit Auction starts 18th September.  Members have been invited to create their Dream Collections of six art works.

I've called mine 'The Kiwi Collection'.  Five are by New Zealanders with the sixth by Betty Busby.  Betty's 'Takahe' is a great representation of one of NZ's native birds.  Betty also taught here earlier in the year (see here). 

I blogged about my quilt 'Like Tapa' here. 

For other Dream Collections see here or for the full collection of auction pieces see here.

The Kiwi Collection:

SAQA Benefit Auction 2015

Every year SAQA holds a benefit auction where members can donate a 12x12" quilt.
While the auction starts in September, the quilts can be viewed on SAQA's website.  My 12x12" quilt 'Like Tapa' appears on page 5.

Like Tapa

For this years quilt I wanted to create the look of a tapa cloth using non-traditional materials.  

The first stage was to transfer my hand drawn design onto an Ezy carve printing block using Saral transfer paper. I've been using these blocks as I find them easier to carve into than the usual lino.  I haven't found them in NZ so whenever I go to Australia I buy a few more.  They come in a range of sizes, using the 12x12" size is perfect for this project.

design drawn on a piece of paper

 









 

initial cuts (red marks from transfer paper)

cutting more detail

cutting complete

adding another layer of colour

Creating the pattern by rubbing with Paintsicks.  






Pinning the fabric to the base helps prevent unwanted movement and ghosting of the image.

selecting thread for the handstitching

The flowers and the darker strip had an extra layer of batting to give a trapunto effect. The machine quilting was mostly done with co-ordinating thread around the shapes to emphasise the trapunto.







Videos have been made detailing the creating of some of the quilts, have a look here.

Purples, Living Colour and more

As well as the Symposium exhibitions there were a number of other exhibitions at various Palmerston North venues.

Aotearoa Quilters had their silent auction at the Symposium venue. My quilt 'Out My Window II' was purchased by one of my quilting friends.

'Out my Window II

'

'Increasingly Modern'

Aotearoa Quilters also had their Purple 12x12 challenge at the Square Edge Gallery, as well as the 'Growth' Challenge.  Nice to see my quilt 'Increasingly Modern' again - its been touring New Zealand. 

selection of Purple 12x12s,
my three are on the bottom 2nd - 4th from the left

At Te Manawa was the 'Living Colour' Exhibition.  My two favourites, mainly because I enjoy the Monarch butterfly and Irises:

'Consider the Flowers of the Field',
Christine Dowell

'Yum Yum', Kay D Haerland

Also at Te Manawa was an exhibition of Canadian quilts by Fibre Art Network. 

'Tallheo Cannery', Terry Phillips

'Greens Point Lighthouse', Leslie Forbes

'Canadian Hats', Janet Bednarczyk

Taylor Jenson Fine Arts had a very vibrant and fun exhibition of 40 quilts by Caohagan Islanders.  To read about Caohagan quilts click here.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos.  A small selection of the quilts will be shown at Minerva Gallery, in Wellington, from Thursday 19th February.

Finally, I missed out on seeing Merrilyn George's exhibition 'Set Apart' on Suzanne Aubert - I just ran out of time.

I Can Do Purple

Back here I went on a bit about how I didn't really like the colour purple.  And, as I mentioned then Aotearoa Quilters have a purple 12x12 challenge, with the deadline 21 November.  The entries will be displayed in Palmerston North during the Manawatu Quilt Symposium early next year.

In between other stuff I've been working on a couple of purple pieces (maybe more!) and I also got a little side-tracked ...

I had a bit of a clean up and came across a newsletter from Nancy's, which included a picture of a cute little sewing machine from a blog (suchitysuch.blogspot.com).  Well I just had to have a go ... this did mean ferretting through the kids lego and finding most pieces, however, a few substitutes were required.

Back to the purples, playing with different techniques ...
 

It isn't too late to create your own wee purple master piece, the challenge is also open to non-Aotearoa Quilters members.

The full instructions for the lego sewing machine appear here.

Purple is appearing

What is it about purple? back here I posted about my slight dislike of the colour purple, well maybe that is changing a little.

One of my latest quilts features purple ...

snippet of 'Increasingly Modern'

and I'm working on two entries for Aotearoa Quilters Purple 12x12 challenge, a couple of sneak peeks ...

However, the other two quilts I'm currently working on - definitely do not include any purple!!

Dream Collection

SAQA's annual Benefit Auction starts on online on 15 September, the auction is a major fundraiser for SAQA.  All the 12" x 12" auction quilts appear here.   

This year my entry is 'Kikorangi Kowhaiwhai', I posted here about how I created it.

SAQA are also displaying Dream Collections, these are groups of six quilts that people have chosen. This is my collection that I've called 'Colours of the Pacific'. 

  

SAQA 2014 auction

Every year SAQA holds a benefit auction where members can donate a 12x12" quilt.  
While this year's auction doesn't start until September, the quilts can be viewed on SAQA's website (see here).  My 12x12" quilt 'Kikorangi Kowhaiwhai' appears on page 2a.

Kikorangi Kowhaiwhai

Back here I posted about how it was made and at that stage it didn't have a name.  So thanks to Ms Lottie for suggesting the name, Kikorangi is Maori for blue and Kowhaiwhai are the Maori curved patterns.









When I've completed a project I usually keep the stencils.  One advantage with using freezer paper stencils is that they can be reused.  Cutting them with a craft knife means that both images can remain intact. 

I've been able to use the opposite image to create two blocks for a friendship quilt that some friends are putting together. 

I didn't have any of the sunprinted fabric left so needed to whip some up - starting late in the afternoon wasn't the cleverest of ideas - now that we're in Autumn/Winter the sun is not so warm.  The effect of the salt was more subtle as I'd needed to let the fabric dry inside.

It'll be interesting to see how my painted blocks fit with more traditional pieced blocks.  It should be a great quilt as the quilter putting the blocks together is going to hand quilt it.  

sunprinting with salt

freezer paper stencilling with paintsticks

stencils removed

Purple

OK so purple isn't one of my favourite colours.  At my guild's show and tell I usually look the other away when purple quilts are shown especially those with green.  

Although I am starting to change my mind a little bit - there are some quilt nice modern quilts on various blogs that feature purple.

The reason why I'm mentioning purple is that Aotearoa Quilters latest 12x12 colour challenge is purple.  The entries are due 21 November 2014, so plenty of time for me to get more enthusiastic about purple (or not!).  Entry is open to members and non-members more details on their website.

Update (October 2014): If you're interested in my progress with purple click here.
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SAQA 2014 Benefit Auction

I've completed my SAQA 2014 Benefit Auction 12x12 quilt, except for a name.  Until I have a name I can't do the label ...  

untitled

I keep thinking of names but they all have 'kiwi' in them.  The US (and elsewhere) call kiwifruit 'kiwi' - this quilt is nothing like kiwifruit!

The auction starts in mid September and quilts need to be in the US by 1 June - so a little while for a name!





 
I started with a piece of sun printed fabric that had been sprinkled with rock salt.

The designs came from a couple of NZ Quilter magazines with some modification to fit in the square shape.  Again I used my current favourite technique paint sticks with a freezer paper stencil.

freezer paper stencil

Once the design was painted I used some boofy batting and stitched along the outline of the shapes.  The batting was then cut away and a layer of cotton batting added along with the backing.  

back view

The design was outlined with a Madeira metallic thread and the rest densely quilted.

front in progress

The piece was then faced.  Now back to a name ...