Friday 16 February 2024

Capital Quilters' Exhibition

I've got exciting news to share.  Capital Quilters are having an exhibition in May 2024 in Lower Hutt. 


It's going to be on Saturday 11 May and Sunday 12 May which is also Mothers' Day.  Wouldn't be lovely to take your mum to a quilt show on Mothers' Day? You can look at the quilts together and then stop in at the on-site cafe for a bite to eat. 

Of course we're going to have merchants too so you'll have to allow time for shopping too.  

The Lower Hutt Events Centre is the lovely modern facility where we've held our exhibition twice before, and where the Symposium exhibition was held in October 2022.


I'm busy planning my entries now.  Each guild member is allowed to enter as many quilts as they wish, but entries will be scaled back if too many entries are received.  All quilts must have been completed since our last show in October 2020.  

I've got 3 quilts that are still WIPs.  Will I be able to get them finished in time? I'm not sure. 

We've also got two challenges running so I'm thinking about what I'm going to do for them.  I always like seeing mini quilts hung together and especially when they've got a common theme.    


So, there's a lot happening.  I encourage to visit the show if you possibly can.  The Capital Quilters exhibition back in July 2014 is what got me enthused about quilting.  I wasn't a member of the guild then but I walked around the freezing school hall and was amazed at the quilts on display.  Now I look back at those photos and I know all the makers and I am a member of Capital Quilters myself, 

(PS - our venue won't be cold - it will be warm and welcoming)

Friday 9 February 2024

Stone Flower

Hello!!  I'm back and I've got a finished top to show you.  


I'm calling it Stone Flower because the fabric in the centre is the Stone Flower wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective. Here's how it evolved over a short period of time back in April 2023.



Another wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective



mixed in with Cactus Flower in blue




I took elements of the Blue Square Dance pattern from Kaffe's Quilts in the Cotswolds book and used them to expand on my fussy cut Stone Flower centre piece.  But I stopped when I got to the final border because I didn't fancy the labour intensive border shown in the book.  So it sat on the shelf for nine months.  





Then January 2024 rolled around and I decided to finish some more WIPs. So I browsed through the book and spotted the triangle border on the Flowery Jar pattern and decided to use that border instead.  I wanted to bring out the green again so I found an Alison Glass print that was just the right shade of green and I used that. 



I couldn't decide if I liked the green triangles pointing in or out, but I went with my original plan and have pointed them out.  It feels like there's more green showing when I point them out and that's what I wanted.  

Now it's finished and ready for long arm quilting.  I've already got 4 quilts in my hand quilting pile so this one is going straight to the long arm quilter.  I intend to use it as an everyday quilt.  It will replace my very thin Kaffe jelly roll quilt that I made about 10 years ago.