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.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday afternoon visitors

How to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon?  ... photographing a Kereru couple in our garden. 

They spent their time moving from Kowhai tree to tree with a few stops on overhead wires and fences. Photographing them wasn't too hard although there were a couple of shots of Kowhai minus any sign of Kereru.


 



Whenever I tried to video them they sat quietly with hardly any movement, as soon as I stopped videoing they did their crazy position swapping routine with a lot of wing flapping.   Being quite large birds it always amazes me how they don't manage to crash into each other or fall out of the tree!


I could get quite close maybe a couple of metres away and while they knew I was there they didn't seem to mind.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Accessorising

My favourite accessory for my Bernina (440) is the multi-thread holder.  It is just the best for the bigger reels of thread and especially metallics and the silky threads such as the Madeira Polyneons. 

 
Before I had the holder I'd put the larger reels in a small container out the back of the machine so the thread would thread through ok.  This mostly worked although there were times when the reel would bounce out of the container or the container (and thread) would end up on the floor.

While there are single thread holders available to have the ability to store several reels is great.  If I'm working on a project with multiple thread colours I can have them all in the one place.  What is a little annoying is needing to unthread when the bobbin needs to be wound. 


The unit comes with one main holder and two smaller holders that can be attached to the back (see photo above) or sides (see box photo).

The best time to purchase one of these multiple thread holders is when the Bernina dealers have their accessory sale.   

Wordless Wednesday