Wordless Wednesday

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.   

Wordless Wednesday

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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The top is complete

The top is complete, the corner triangles and border have been stitched.  

The backing is together - only one seam required and the pattern mostly matches.

Now just need some batting, and to baste the whole thing ...

Wordless Wednesday

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 ...

Wordless Wednesday

Other Entries

Lucy Carroll is another Oceania SAQA member with a quilt accepted into SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' exhibition.  Here is her entry 'Work Ready'

Work Ready

The size of the quilts needed to be between 44"-48" high x 28"-32" wide.  

This is a stunning quilt and it would be amazing to see it.










Thanks to Lucy for this list of other exhibitors:

Bobbi Baugh – bobbibaughart.com/artwork/3468191_Dance_of_the_Survivors.html
 
Sharon Buck – sharonbuckart.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/sewing-machines-and-redirecting-the-ordinary.html
 
Gillian Cooper – gilliancooper.blogspot.com/2014/03/good-news-and-even-more-completed-work.html
 
Denise Oyama Miller – deniseoyamamiller.com/2014/03/redirecting-the-ordinary/
 
Donna Deaver – donnadeaver.com/gallery/reflection-series/reflection-9/
 
Terry Grant – andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2014/03/acceptance.html

Some more blogs to read and follow.

a bit of background

Here I posted about my quilt 'Knit one, Paint one' that is part of SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' Exhibition. 

"Redirecting the Ordinary" is about turning things around, upside down, inside out, backwards, or how even just a minuscule course correction can charge up the humdrum, turn the common into the uncommon, and make the expected unexpected.  

Some background to how the quilt has been created.

After drawing the pattern and cutting (a lot) of bits of freezer paper, the whole quilt was coloured with mostly one oil pastel and a tiny amount of the darker pastel.

freezer paper stencils on white fabric

oil pastels, stencil brush, freezer paper stencils

I no longer bother attempting to wash my stencil brushes - while some residual paint or pastel can be removed the colour mostly stays.  I now have quite a collection of brushes and tend to just match the colours.  

For some reason my local art shops have stopped selling the smaller stencil brushes so whenever I see them at quilt shows or elsewhere I stock up on a few. 

When I start a new project I usually (!) create a sample (or two).  This is where I try out colours, techniques, patterns, then later thread colour, quilting patterns.  This has helped reduce the number of abandoned efforts - unlike patchwork painting doesn't have an unpick function! 

sample

The first stage of quilting is stitching around each shape then cutting away the batting.  I use the same or similar coloured thread to the final quilting thread.  Then another layer of batting and quilt again around the shapes.  This extra layer of batting (Trapunto) gives more definition to the shapes.

I don't use washable thread, as some do for Trapunto, as I don't want water near the quilt.  Even though I've heat set the pastel I don't need any surprises such as the pastel fading.

Wordless Wednesday