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:

 

Creating Stencils

For most of my quilts I've used freezer paper stencils with textile paint, paintsticks or oil pastels.  Some designs I've drawn or traced then cut with a blade.  While I've become quite accurate with my cutting it takes time and is difficult to get precise small pieces.

Earlier in the year, after some research, I purchased a Silhouette Cameo.  With the combination of the Silhouette software and the magic little blade my world of cutting freezer paper has become way bigger.

For my current project I wanted to repeat the technique that I used in my quilt 'Out My Window' using freezer paper stencils with paintsticks applied over the painted background (the swirls).

'Out My Window' detail

The Silhouette Cameo uses a 12"x12" carrier mat, whatever is to be cut is 'stuck' to the mat and feeds into the machine and the design is cut.  

trimming freezer paper to fit the mat

smoothing the freezer paper to the sticky mat

  






 
After a bit of use the mat looses its stick.  To 'clean' the mat a quick way is to lay down printers tape then remove the tape - this returns some of the stickiness and removes all the stray pieces of paper or whatever else has been cut previously.



This is my first mat - still working well despite the interesting cut patterns.

Using the Silhouette software the design is created then 'sent' to the machine for cutting. I'll explain a bit more about the Silhouette software in a later post.

completed cutting

 

slightly better view of cut images

 




















The cut pieces easily peel off ready to be used ...

A quilting event

On Saturday the Wellington Quilters Guild hosted the 'Coast to Coast' quilting event.  The five Wellington region quilting guilds usually have a quilting event every two years.  

It was held at Wellington Girls' College and there were merchants, show and tell, jelly roll competition, speaker and three challenges.

My entries for the challenges:

Cat not included

Flag - to redesign our New Zealand flag.

Bloke's block - circle of jandals
All the blocks will be joined into a quilt/s and donated to the Wellington City Mission.

Child's block - noughts and crosses on blackboard fabric
All these blocks will be put together as a quilt/s and donated to the Women's Refuge.



I won first prize and viewers choice for my flag.  Hmm there were only three entries!  My prize included a New Zealand flag and a voucher from Sawmillers Quiltery which I redeemed for some Aurifil thread.  

The flag was created with freezer paper stencils and coloured with paintsticks, textile paint would have been easier and faster.  To get the colour more intense required quite a few applications fortunately we had a few sunny days.  I find the paintsticks a bit messy for using inside. 

paintsticks, freezer paper (white)

Selection of the challenge block entries ...
 

 kids blocks








blokes blocks












Interesting to see the final quilts.

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.

Places of Anzac

Places of Anzac

'Places of Anzac' is my entry for the Lest We Forget Quilt Challenge that will premier at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, Australia from 16-19 April 2015.  

The 100 or so quilts will then travel to the other Craft & Quilt fairs in Australia and also Hamilton and Christchurch in September.

The quilt measures 25cm by 25cm.



 
The fabric is rust dyed and the letters are stencilled with paintsticks.  As the letters are quite small I've only used trapunto on the large letters - the ones that spell 'Anzac'.

The five places are locations on the Gallipoli Peninsula that bear some meaning to the Anzac campaign.  

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 ...

The Bag

Laura Kemshall recently requested photos of work inspired by DMTV videos for her Pinterest board. This prompted me to take a few pics of my accordion bag.

I created this bag after watching one of the DMTV videos.  I carefully followed the instructions and rewatched the episodes several times to make sure I had the process correct for making the accordion part. 
 
The fabric on the outside are hand dyes from Distressed Threads.  I drew the petal/flower design with Paintsticks and then each petal has an extra layer of batting (still one of my favourite techniques!).
 
Two years ago my quilting guild had a bag challenge as part of their exhibition and I entered this bag.  I won viewers choice and a merit award.  The judge (not a quilter) said the bag wasn't very practical as you'd loose things in the bottom - hmm practicality wasn't a criteria we were given and that would rule out most handbags!

Trunk Show - on its way

I've just posted off my quilt for SAQA's 2014 Anniversary Trunk Show.

This mini quilt is only 7in by 10in.  I've used my current favourite technique - freezer paper stencils and paintsticks.  

To add a bit of dimension, an extra layer of batting has been added behind some of the squares, stitching around these squares then cutting away the excess batting (Trapunto).  Then layering cotton batting and a backing, and heavily quilting between all the squares.

I like the vibrant colour and added texture that the paintsticks give, while the quilting adds dimension.  So much in such a small space!

Trunk Show

I've created a small quilt for SAQA's 2104 Anniversary Trunk Show, this will be a travelling exhibition.  The quilts are to be 10" x 7" and will be mounted on a 12 x 9" black backing board.

Here is a glimpse of my, still un-named, entry.  

I've used my favourite freezer paper stencils, paintsticks, some Trapunto padding and dense quilting.  I've been using Sennelier oil sticks, their colours tend to be much more vibrant than Markal/Shiva but can be muckier to use.  Definitely for using outside!

A similar SAQA trunk show even made it to NZ earlier this year and showed in Taupo and Hamilton (picture below).