Symposium wrap, a survey, and the Peacock Party

What a week that was!

Some blocks I started at Symposium

Yes, I'm back from Symposium and filled with inspiration.  I met so many lovely people and I want to thank all of those people who came up and introduced themselves to me.

There must have been at least 3 people every day who came up to me and quietly said, "You won't know me, but I read your blog / follow you on Instagram".  It's wonderful to know that so many Kiwis read my blog.  I really thought most of my blog readers were American, but it's great to know that there's plenty of Kiwis too. I try to keep things pretty real, and I guess that appeals to Kiwi quilters.

I had a great time at Symposium, and I'm very grateful to all of the organisers.  I run conferences and events for my job, so I know how stressful it can be.

After big events I like to run a survey to check how it went, and what we could do differently next time. I don't think that the symposium people will be running a survey, so I've put together an unofficial survey and invite you to take part if you attended symposium.  All responses are totally anonymous - there's no way for me to find out who said what.  I won't share any direct quotes, only aggregated data such as "60% of people who responded to my survey attended the gala dinner and at least 3 days of classes". I think it's important to capture this information before it's all a distant memory.

Here is a link to the survey.  It will take about 3 minutes to answer the questions, and it will be open for one week, until 18 October NZ time.  Feel free to invite your friends to respond too.  Thank you.


Click here for The Unofficial Quilt Symposium Survey 
by Wendy's Quilts and More.


So, what did I do at symposium?

On Days 1 and 2 I took a Dodecagon class with Margaret Sampson George from Australia.

Mum's on the left, mine on the right.

I convinced my mum to join me in the class, and she loved it too.  Although we can both English Paper Piece, we learnt valuable lessons about colour and pattern from Margaret.  We also made lots of new friends because there's plenty of time to chat to other people in hand sewing classes.  

My mum, Joy Hill, standing on the left, and Irene Anderton seating on the right

trying out hexagon surrounds

Exploring different layouts using everyone's rosettes

a closeup of  Margaret's quilt, showing how she anchors the border by using the animal print sparingly

a wider view

If you're keen to start a Dodecagon quilt you can get templates and paper pieces from www.paperpieces.com or the Ribbon Rose in Auckland had some when I was there on Monday, and they can always order in more. I'll warn you though, getting the points from 12 pieces to meet nicely in the centre is quite tricky.  But practice makes perfect. 



On Days 3 and 4 I took a hand piecing class with Wendy Whellum from Adelaide, Australia.

We started 4 blocks from Wendy's Pieces of the Past quilt.

Wendy Whellum's Pieces of the Past  quilt

I chose to use my Neptune and the Mermaid fabrics by Tokyo Milk.  I actually bought these for something at the previous symposium in 2017, but I was never happy with the one block I made, so I abandoned that idea.  I'm much happier with this idea, and am excited about making these blocks.

I could already hand piece, and have made two entirely hand pieced quilts, but I wanted to refine my skills and learn more.  I was very keen to perfect hand sewing curves, and I do believe I have improved.

There are two main tips I can share for hand sewing curves:
- "always sew with a smile, not a frown" - have the piece shaped like a "U" facing you.  That's the smile side of the curve.
- mark your intervals and pin at those intervals before you start sewing. Fold your pieces to find half way, quarter way etc.

We had a lovely small class so we got lots of hand sewing done.

There's still a lot more to say about Symposium, but I'll cover other things in future blog posts.  Don't forget about the survey please.  I'd love to hear your feedback.

So now it's time for the Peacock Party. What have the rest of you been up to while us Kiwis have been at Symposium?  Feel free to share a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter