Quilt Symposium 2024

This time next week I'll be at Quilt Symposium 2024 in Cambridge, New Zealand (near Hamilton in the Waikato). Our Symposiums happen every two or three years and are big five day events for quilters.  It includes five days of classes, exhibitions, giant vendors mall, gala dinners, prizes, entertainment...everything!

My decision to go was a bit of a last minute one once my annual work conference was over and I actually felt that I could think about the rest of 2024.  The programme came out and I could see that there were still spaces in a class with an American tutor, Veruschka Zarate of Pride and Joy Quilting. She had designed a unique New Zealand piece and would be teaching it at the Symposium.  So I thought why not! 

I have a quilty friend who lives in Cambridge so I'm going to stay with her.   I won't be there for the full five days, just Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  

The start of Spring always reminds me of the previous Symposiums I've been to:

2017 in Christchurch.

I had a quilt in the exhibition there and attended classes with Jen Kingwell, Chris Jurd and Deborah Louie. 

Vibrant Curiosities in Christchurch 2017

The start of my Glitter in Green quilt 

Glitter in Green - designed by Jen Kingwell

2019 in Auckland. 

I attended classes with Margaret Sampson-George and Wendy Whellum. 

The class with Margaret Sampson-George was so much fun, but I haven't finished my piece from that class. 

Dodecagon class with Margaret Sampson-George

So much inspiration in Margaret Sampson-George's class

Hand piecing with Wendy Whellum

2022 in Lower Hutt

I entered the quilt that I had started with Wendy Whellum at the last symposium into the exhibition, taught some classes myself and attended a class with Lorena Uriate. 

Neptune and the Mermaid - designed by Wendy Whellum

Me teaching Millefiori Quilts

Kawandi taught by Lorena Uriate

So you can see that Symposium is pretty full on.  But it's going to be great and I'm looking forward to it. Will I see you there? 

Baby Quilts x 3

A few weeks ago my niece had a baby girl.  So of course I just had to make a quilt for the new baby.  

 

I decided to cut into a special piece of fabric I'd bought two years ago at our Symposium in Lower Hutt.  It was 

Homeward by Monika Forsberg for Anna Maria Horner Conservatory by Freespirit Fabrics.

But I didn't really do the maths first and I ended up with left over squares.  So I decided to make a little dolly quilt for the baby's almost two year old big sister. 

But then I still had more feature blocks left over, so I made a whole new quilt for the big sister.  

So what started out as one quilt for a new baby, ended up as three quilts for both girls and a dolly.

They have received them now and are thrilled with them.  The dolly quilt has had a lot of use already.  

Kokomo (Stars Upon Satrs) Planning the colours

This is Part B of a series of posts explaining how I make my version of Stars Upon Stars.  

B. Planning the colours

 1. External stars in the blocks. 

A key design feature of the original Stars Upon Stars quilt is that each block is unique.  I decided replicate that idea by using different fabrics and colours for the external stars of each block. I opted for tone on tone fabrics in most cases, and tried to use every colour within my limited colour range - blue, aqua, green, pink, orange and yellow.  If I repeated a colour I used a different fabric which was always slightly darker or lighter than the previous block.

Sometimes I made the external stars before I had even selected the fabrics for the main stars. 

2. Sashing strips.

I decided to limit my sashing strips to blues and aquas.  I wanted variety in my sashings, but I didn't want them to be the first thing people saw when they looked at my quilt.  They needed to blend into the background and quietly emphasise the tropical lagoon look of my quilt.

3. Sashing stars.

I knew that I wanted my sashing stars to all to be the same colour, but I couldn't decide whether to make them green or navy.  I made up some green stars before I settled on navy. I like the navy because it makes the sashing stars the darkest element in the quilt, and they are very crisp against the white background. 

4. Background.

You'll be able to see from these close up photos that I didn't just use white for the background.  I used a wide range of low volume fabrics.  The background fabric is consistent throughout each block or sashing strip, and each of the sashing stars have the same background too. 

5.  Main stars

Each main star requires nine different fabrics.  I decided the overall colour of the star before I started pulling fabrics.  If I wanted a green star I would ask myself, "Green and what?".  I didn't think there would be enough variety within a star if I just used nine shade of green.  So, green and yellow? green and pink? green and orange? 

I tended to start my planning by deciding rows 4, 5 and 6 first.  These are the rows with the most diamonds and therefore the rows we see the most of.  I didn't want the 5th row to be the most dominant in all blocks so sometimes I moved the stronger fabrics to rows 3, 4 or 6.  

Sometimes I put similar colours next to each other to show a progression within the block. 

I deliberately avoided using the fabric of the external stars in the main star because that would have instantly made it the most dominant fabric in the block.  The external stars are designed to elevate the main star.  

Once I'd chosen my fabrics for a block I would leave them on my table for a day or two until I was really happy with them and ready to cut. 

  

The lime green in row 3 is the most dominant here, closely followed by the hot pink in row 4.

The dusky pink in row 4 is the most dominant here.

The lime green in row 3 and green stripe in row 6 are dominant in this block.

6. Block assembly

Once I had finished sewing each of the 8 diamond shaped star points, I tested out both layout options for the external stars before I sewed the star together. (with row 1 in the centre of with row 9 in the centre). It's amazing how different fabrics become dominant depending on what else is surrounding them.  

The diamonds are reversable and can change the whole look of a block.

7. Binding

My final fabric decision was the binding.  I knew I wanted it to just merge into the quilt and not stand out.  I considered using one of the aqua prints already in the quilt, but I had to be sure that none of the blocks touching the binding and that fabric in them.  

In the end I used something similar, but not already in my quilt - Tula Pink's True Colors Tiny Dot in Peacock.  How appropriate for me!!

Crazy Cutting Corners

I'm back! 

I haven't been away, but I've been super busy with work, cricket admin and quilt guild admin.  I've hardly had any time for sewing lately, but I decided to fix that this week and I finally made time to pick up my rotary cutter.  

I'd been thinking about using some of my Kaffe Fassett stripes so I browsed through some of my older Kaffe books and came upon this pattern from Kaffe Quilts Again (2012):

I only had the Marquee fabric in the lighter shades so mine looked like this:

random

some diamonds forming

Diamonds!

and even more diamonds

I'm going to add a pieced border, but I don't have much of the Marquee stripe left so I'll have to use something else.  I'll be sure to post another photo when I've got the top together.  

 

Kokomo (Stars Upon Stars) Fabric Selection

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Kokomo quilt.  As promised I'm going to explain more about how I made it - both for anyone thinking about making one themselves, and for my personal record, because after all, that's what blogs are for.

A. Fabric selection

I loved Tula Pink's Zuma range as soon as I saw it and I knew I wanted to use it for something special so I decided to use it for my version of Stars Upon Stars - Kokomo.  As soon as the block started coming together I knew I had made the right decision for me.

Most people who make Stars Upon Stars quilts use traditional colourways.  The pattern is inspired by an antique quilt from the collection at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in USA so it's not surprising many people recreate that look with traditional fabrics.

But traditional colours have never appealed to me, and I could picture Stars Upon Stars in modern colours.  So I decided to go with blues and greens with accents of pink, orange and yellow.  

When I work on long term quilts like this I select a range of fabrics that match my vision for the quilt and move them into a different storage container. Then I just pull from that curated range as I select the fabrics for each block.  I find that this method stops me straying too far from my original vision. 

When I'm working from a limited range of fabrics I become very aware of the subtle colour differences between the fabrics.  My greens merged into teals and then into blues.  But that's fine because I love them all.  

If I needed more of a particular colour I would take some of my fabrics to the shop with me to ensure I didn't drift too far away from my colour scheme. 

In the end it's all worked out well and there's not a single block that I would change.  

Kokomo (Stars Upon Stars)

Where do I even begin to describe my happiness with how this quilt has turned out?

I'm thrilled with it and I'm not going to let it out of my sight.  I've even considered sewing an Apple AirTag into it so if it goes missing I can track it down! I've spent so many hours making this quilt but I've enjoyed them all. 

I started this quilt back in January 2020.  I've spent four years working on it in the background.  I haven't once put it on social media or even shown my friends.  I knew it was going to take a long time and I just wanted to enjoy the process and take my time with it. 

There's so much to say about my Kokomo that I am going to break it down into a series of blog posts and then link to them all from a new tab at the top of the page. I will cover:

- my fabric selections (Tula Pink Zuma range mainly)

- planning the colours

- assembly - I hand pieced it all

- hand quilting - and then I hand quilted it all. 

But firstly, the name. 

I've called my quilt Kokomo because it reminds me of that fictional place in the song by the Beach Boys (made famous in the movie "Cocktail", starring Tom Cruise).  

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya
Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama
Key Largo, Montego
Baby, why don't we go?
Jamaica
Off the Florida Keys
There's a place called Kokomo
That's where you wanna go
To get away from it all

Back in 1988 when the movie "Cocktail" was released, and "Kokomo" was racing up the charts in New Zealand, I went on a four week work trip to the Cook Islands.  The cruisy songs from "Cocktail" were on the radio everywhere we went in Rarotonga.  We even thought that "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a Cook Island song and were surprised to hear it on the radio in New Zealand when we got back.  That movie soundtrack was always playing in the background as we swam in the pool and Muri lagoon each day after work.

The sea glass colours in my quilt remind me of the sparkling waters of tropical lagoons and beaches.

I'll be back in coming weeks to explain more about how I made my quilt and all the thinking that went in to achieving my super special quilt. 

I'm so happy to finally be able to talk about it and share it with everyone. 

Sunshine Coast

I'm just back from a lovely holiday on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.  The Gold Coast is an hour south of Brisbane, and the Sunshine Coast is an hour north of Brisbane.

As soon as friends knew I was in Noosa they all told me to go to Sand Salt Sew so of course I had to! I love a quilt shop that knows their target market.  My husband and son and agreed to allow me 30 mins max to visit the quilt shop and a dress shop while they waited in the car.  There was no time to buy yardage and ponder about what I could make with it, so I chose a kit for a bag that had everything included - pattern, papers, zip, batting and even thread for embellishment. Just perfect for a quilter in a hurry because there's so much to see and do in Noosa.

The bush and the beaches around Noosa are all lovely, and the surf clubs are all very welcoming with their big restaurants and views over the beaches.  We visited Noosa, Sunshine Beach, Coolum, and Alexandra Headland surf clubs and they were all great. 

Noosa from Laguna Lookout

Noosa Beach

Alexandria Bay - only visible after walking to Hell's Gate

We spent the first four nights at Noosa.  One morning we walked out to Hell's Gate and got a great view of the vast Pacific Ocean and the spectacular surf beaches.

Maroochydore River sunrise

same view at sunset

Then we moved down to Maroochydore and spent a few days with family. That was fun too and they took us up into the hills and we got great views back to the coast.  We had an icecream at Maleny because the days were lovely and warm while we were there - about 22c each day and no rain.  

Now I'm back home in New Zealand and it's winter, but I guess that means that Spring is next and that will be nice.