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.

Symposium Tutors

At the recent Symposium (previous posts here, here and here) the tutors had their own exhibition.  A few pieces ...

Sue Benner (US) 'Cellular Structure V'

Melissa Burdon (NZ) 'The Black Smith'

 

Mary Pal (CA) 'Horse of a Different Colour'

Betty Busby (US) 'Coral Sea'

 

Rosalie Dace (SA) 'Grounded II'

Gloria Loughman (AU) 'Butterfly House'

Symposium Exhibition part 2

This is a second post (see here for the first) showing some of my favourite quilts from  Symposium's 'Growing the Passion' Exhibition.  

'Touch the Stars', Griet Lombard
winner in 'Inspired Fibres' and selected
for New Zealand Quilter Suitcase Exhibition
97cm x 97cm

"Touch the Stars', closeup

'Persian Dream', Ansa Breytenbach
Professional First Prize
in 'Yesterday, Today Tomorrow'
229 cm x 229 cm

closeup, beads in the
cross hatching intersections

I enjoy viewing Anna William's quilts, especially her use of the bias strips.

'Mandala', Anna Williams
in Professional 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow '
132cm x 132cm

closeup

 

'Lest We Forget', Fay McGregor
in Amateur 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow'
180cm x 225cm

This quilt used a whole woolen blanket - the type that has been (and still is) in many NZ homes.  

side view showing backing fabric

The poppies were knitted.  The blanket is a darker grey than the photo shows.










 I spent a morning doing a white glove duty - so got to peek at the backs of quilts.  Also doing a duty first thing I got to take photos easily - with few people.

This quilt is quite transparent, it would be interesting to see it hang from the top and not against a wall.  I tried in the closeup photo to show the light from behind.  

closeup

'Cray's Anatomy, Alison Laurence
in Amateur 'Inspired Fibres'
56cm x 120cm

untitled, Ruth Corbet
First in '3D Flora and Foliage'

These flowers were felted and beautiful.  They were also very soft (with a white glove on!) yet held their shape.














 The raffle quilt was stunning, unfortunately it didn't come home with me.   

Raffle quilt

closeup

I'm not sure who pieced it, it was quilted by Paula Shailer one of the exhibition organisers.









   Finally the Best in Show. 

'Is it Art?', Melanie Martin
Best of Show
Amateur 'Alive with Colour' category
149cm x 235cm

To listen to an interview with Melanie by Charlotte Scott, click here. 

My rather eclectic taste in quilts - an interesting excercise in seeing what quilts have caught my attention and others that haven't! There may be another post - there are still photos of quilts that I liked!

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Category descriptions: 
* 3D Flora and Foliage - let your imagination grow wild and create up to 5 three dimensional flowers or foliage
 
* Inspired Fibres - without freedom, there is no creation in thread and fibre play.  Innovative use of fibres and threads but must bear some resemblance to a quilt.


* Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow - has yesterday influenced you today or how do you see it being tomorrow? What comes to mind when you think of the past, present and future? What traditions from yesterday do you carry on today?

* Alive with Colour - what better way to feel alive than with colour.

Symposium Exhibition part 1

Symposium's 'Growing the Passion' Exhibition was held at the Palmerston North Convention Centre and featured about 300 quilts.  

The rules specified that the quilts could not have been shown before, although an extra category was added called 'Out and About' for those quilts that have previously been seen.

These are some of my favourite quilts, there are a few so there will be at least one more post.

'Lime and Mango', Sarah Ward
Amateur Merit in 'Out and About'
63cm x 105cm

'Opulent and Elegant' Valda Sutton
First in 'It's a Small World'
60cm x 60cm

'Korowai', Mary Culver
'Out and About' category 
70cm x 50cm

'My New Pillow', Sonya Prchal
award in 'Out and About in a Small World'  
76cm x 58cm

 





Overall Winner 'Best of Both Worlds' and 'Best of Show Excellence'
 

'Kisses for my Daughter', Donna Cumming

closeup showing the dupion silk

 




I first saw a picture of this quilt at the Symposium opening night.  The photo was very dark and it was hard to tell why it had won several awards.  Seeing the quilt for real, it was easy to see why!  Even this photo is a bit on the dark side, the dupion silk just glows.

No Sew HSTs
Amateur merit, 'Inspired Fibres'
55cm x 89cm

My quilt 'No Sew HSTs' won a merit in the Amateur section of  'Inspired Fibres' catagory.  This was a fun quilt to make, felted then quilted.  Definitely fits the title of no sew half square triangles.

One day I'll learn not to make black or white quilts - they mostly get hung on the same colour backgrounds!  








 

Bee Sunny, Mathea Daunheimer

Mathea is also a SAQA member and I'd seen progress photos of this quilt online, what I hadn't realised is how small this quilt is - 25cm x 29.5cm!  It was in the 'Out and About - Professional' category and selected for the 'New Zealand Quilter Suitcase Exhibition'








Category descriptions: 
* Best of Both Worlds - Combined effort.  Minimum of two people with no maximum of participants.

* Out and About - quilts that have previously been exhibited out and about or published.

* Inspired Fibres - without freedom, there is no creation in thread and fibre play.  Innovative use of fibres and threads but must bear some resemblance to a quilt.

* It's a Small World - miniature quilts upto 60cm x 60cm

Symposium Classes

Quilt Symposium Manawatu finished last Wednesday, it was a week of learning, exhibitions, shopping, lectures and fun with friends.

I took two classes - the first was a 2 day class with Betty Busby painting silk.  Fortunately there were only 7 of us in the class which meant we had plenty of space.  I'd never tried painting silk before, the silk was easy to paint and we had a lot of fun. Everyone in the class produced amazing pieces.  Now to find where to buy it.  Betty is a great teacher and is also a fellow 'Redirecting the Ordinary' artist. 

painted silk

The second 2 day class 'Earth, Wind and Fire' with Rosalie Dace. I picked 'Wind' to create a peice based on wind blown trees.  I'd taken along pictures of sunsets, trees, etc but on the day decided to tackle 'wind'.  
 
There are some windblown trees near Foxton that seem to be going towards horizontal. The idea was not recreate an actual picture.  I started on the left with piecing rectangles then sort of moved to piecing small pieces, including curves, a la Gwen Marston.  It even has some silk from the previous class.  Now to add more stitching, then quilt it.

These tutors were fantastic, thanks to Helen and her team for all their amazing work  organising a great week of classes. 

Quilts on show

Quilt Symposium Manawatu is currently on in Palmerston North.  I can now show my four entries - the rules stated that quilts couldn't be shown before the event.

Aqua Panels

Now Sew HSTs

Harakeke

Market Fresh

As well as the Symposium exhibitions, Aotearoa Quilters' (AQ) also has exhibitions.  The 'Growth' Challenge makes an appearance as it tours the country, so I'll see 'Increasingly Modern' again.

Increasingly Modern

Out my Window II

AQ also have a Silent Auction, I've donated 'Out My Window II'.  This is a bigger version of 'Out My Window' that was part of the 'Beneath the Southern Sky' travelling exhibition.

The purpose of the silent auction is to raise funds for AQ, while showcasing quilts from well known (!) NZ quilters.  Not sure how I managed that, maybe because I know one of the organisers!!

 




and finally AQ's Purple 12x12 challenge.  The triangles are painted iwth textile paint and the ric rac is coloured with oil pastels using freezer paper stencils.  The scooters piece is commercial fabric, quilted and trapunto-ed.

my three entries

Off they go

My entries for Quilt Symposium Manawatu 2015 are all done, posted and been received.  After checking the tracking details it looks like NZ Post delivered them at 6.30am!! and they were signed for - wonder how happy they were?

It seems to take ages to sew on the hanging sleeve, the velcro, the label and the bag.  

I have finally learnt to sew the velcro onto a slightly wider piece of fabric by machine and then hand stitch that on to the back of the quilt.  Certainly saves the fingers!

Now to wait until mid January to (hopefully) see them hanging in Palmerston North at the Symposium exhibition.  So no pictures until then.

Count Down

The Manawatu Quilt Symposium is in January.  The deadline for quilt entries is the beginning of November.  My entry forms are finished and posted.  

The deadline is actually before the 1st as the entries need to be posted via snail mail with the images of the quilts printed and on CD - entering online is so much easier!   I don't envy those who have to enter in the details from all those handwritten forms - I did try to write neatly!

I struggled with one of the artist statements. I was sort of playing with a technique and the quilt just evolved, there were times when I almost stopped as I didn't think it was working.  Once I'd trimmed it to size and cut away the binding it looked OK, so I kept going.  

A week or so ago the letters detailing our class choices arrived.  I'm attending Betty Busby's class 'Artistic Yardage' which is painting on silk  - something I'm keen to try. The other class is Rosalie Dace's 'Earth, Wind and Fire'. Rosalie was here in Wellington a few years ago and I missed her talk, which apparently was amazing and a friend has never let me forget that I didn't go!

Better get on and look at the class requirements - usually involves a google search for things that we can't get in NZ easily or items that have completely different names.

SAQA Trunk Show

Earlier in the year I sent off my entry 'Orange Blocks' to SAQA's 25th Anniversary Trunk Show.

Orange Blocks

The quilts are only 7" by 10" and have been mounted onto a black backing board. There are about 400 quilts divided into 8 trunks, my entry appears in Trunk D.

Each trunk then travels to various regions worldwide for a couple of years. 


 



 
An earlier trunk show was shown last year at the Taupo Symposium and also at Aotearoa Quilter's 2013 exhibition.  The quilts were still small but different dimension.


The trunk shows provide an opportunity to see art work by well known international artists (and unknowns!)  that you probably wouldn't see unless you travelled to major shows in the US.

ANZAC Day

The Places of ANZAC

Today is ANZAC day - a very significant day in our history - see here for an explanation. 

This is my ANZAC quilt, it was made for the ANZAC challenge at the Quilt Symposium in Queenstown in 2011.  The names are all places on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.

I used Judy Coates Perez technique of using gel medium to stick down paper images/words on to the fabric then painting.   The blue lettering is painted Evolon that has been stitched/appliqued, the 'crosses' have been coloured with paintsticks.  

The quilt is rolled up in its bag and is on my shelf and hasn't been out since its trip to Queenstown.  Looking at the photo I might revisit this quilt and outline the blue letters in black - not sure how I think I have some samples filed away and so can practice on them first.