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. 

Another Outing

My quilt 'Knit One, Paint One'  gets another outing next week.  See here and here for previous posts about this quilt.

It is part of SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' Exhibition that will be showing at 'Quilt! Knit! Stitch!' in Portland, OR, during August 13-15. 

I was sent a jpg to use ...

The next appearance will be in France at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork, Alsace, during September 16-19.  Now that would be a nice place to visit ...
 

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.

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.  

Through our Hands issue 4

The fourth issue of the free online magazine 'Through our Hands' is now available.  The magazine is put together by Laura Kemshall, Annabel Rainbow and Linda Kemshall and as with the earlier issues features interesting articles and heaps of eye candy.

http://issuu.com/laurakemshall/docs/throughourhandsmagazinefeb2015?e=3297033/11588949 

One of the articles is by Wellington local Clare Smith on her 'vertical performance dyeing'.  I went to her exhibition in 2012 and spent quite awhile watching the changes to the 'quilt' as the dye flowed down.

One of my favourites, from her exhibition, featured Zealandia's lower lake and valve tower.

Click here to read the previous issues.

Mini success

Each February Sawmillers Quiltery, in Te Marua (~40 minutes north of Wellington), host the Stonestead Outdoor Quilt show.  Which I have yet to get to!  

For the show last year I started an entry for their challenge, a table runner.  I got as far as piecing the top that needed to feature a sawtooth block - the block that appears in all their logos.  

 
The challenge for this year was a neonates quilt for Hutt hospital.  The dimensions were 17" by 29" and again had to feature the sawtooth block.  Before Christmas I made one block, had my plan drawn up ... and not a lot happened.  A week or so before the due date put a bit of effort in to complete the quilt. 

A week before the show I delivered the quilt and my daughter's hockey quilt for the youth section.

Neonates quilt

'Hockey Rules'

 






The show was on Sunday 8th February and due to the kids various activities we weren't able to make it - so maybe next year.

It was worth the effort we both won prizes!

 







What I also discovered is that Sawmillers are stocking Aurifil 50wt and hopefully soon will have 40wt and even better they will post it out.

Aurifil in Wellington!

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 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

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.