Aotearoa Quilters Lime Challenge

I loved seeing all the lime challenge quilts at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua. I was really pleased that I had two entries in the mix. 

The winning quilt was made by Camilla Watson and it was amazing.

There were three or four Merit prizes, and I liked this one by Fyvie Murray.

Here's some of my other favourites:

by Brenda Gael Smith

by Lynne Rowe

by Helen Beaven

by Anne Adams 

by Shirley Sparks

by me - Wendy Welsh

(You can read more about my entries in my previous post here.)

So you can see that there are many different ways to interpret a theme.  

These 12" x 16" minis quilts will travel around New Zealand for a year now.  If they come to a town near you, do try and see them.  I expect that they will be in Auckland at the Auckland Quilt Guild Festival of Quilts on 5 - 7 November 2021.  

I'll tell you more about the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in my next post, but right now I'm off to Christchurch for a cross stitch retreat.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Not Your Grandmother's Garden

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show opened today in Rotorua, and I can finally show you my entries in the Aotearoa Quilters Lime Challenge.  

First up is "Not Your Grandmother's Garden".  

12" wide x 16" high

At first glance you might think these are hexagons, but they're not! Hence the name, and the fact I'd just bought some new jeans from Not Your Daughter's Jeans. 

I love experimenting with geometric shapes, and I wanted to try the Fiesta Gitana pattern in Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein. 

I hand pieced this mini quilt, and then I machine quilted it because the joins are quite bulky, even with 1/4" seam allowances.  And of course, time was running out!

I love lime, and I'm happy with my mini quilt.  I did learn that it's hard to draw the stitching lines for pieces with long, sharp points like the stars at the centre of these blocks.  My pencil wouldn't go right to the tip, so I fudged it a bit when I did the hand piecing.  

My second Lime quilt is "The Tea is Delicious". 

This quilt was an after thought because I'd bought this quirky Japanese fabric for the Lime challenge, and I didn't end up using it in my first entry above.  

So, I just cut a piece to the required size, and added a combination of hand and machine quilting.  The name was already there in the fabric - The tea is delicious. 

So that's my two entries in the Lime challenge.  I always love seeing all the colour challenge quilts together, and this time I can say that I've got two in the display.  I'll take lots of photos and report back soon.  

I've also got 3 quilts in the main display, and I'll talk about them in future blog posts.  

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of friends at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua. If you see me around, do say hello.  It is lovely to meet quilters who read my blog and like my posts on Facebook or Instagram.  I'm off to pack some warm clothes!

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, May 2021

Yes, I'm back from our lovely holiday, and I'm enjoying some lazy summer days at home. 

I'm working on my entries for Aotearoa Quilters' Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, 14-16 May 2021.  

All entries have to be 100% finished by 15 February.  (Conditions of entry are here.)

Of course I've decided to finish a couple of quilts that have been in my WIP pile for months.  Nothing like a deadline to make me quilt faster!

IF my Ballet with Kaffe Quilt is finished by the deadline, I'll be entering it.  If not, I'll enter something else.  There's no restrictions on when the quilt was finished.  

I've already booked my flights and accommodation for The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua, and I'm really forward to it.  I've started my Lime challenge quilt, so at least I'll have one mini quilt hanging even if none of my other entries get accepted.  

The rules mean I can't show you any more than this. 

I don't know if the Quilt NSW Sydney Quilt Show will go ahead in 2021 or not, but I doubt that I'll be able to attend even if it is on.  New Zealand is a long way down the vaccination list, and I'm not paying for 14 days in managed isolation.  We may be free to travel within New Zealand, but our borders have been closed since March 2020.

So I'll make the most of 2021 by supporting our national quilting body and visiting the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua.  Hopefully I'll see some of you Kiwi quilters there!

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Thank you to everyone who continues to link up.  

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Aotearoa Quilters Aqua Challenge

The Aotearoa Quilters Aqua quilts were on display at the Taupo Exhibition. 

I always enjoy studying how different quilters interpret the theme.  I didn't enter this time, but the next colour is Lime, and I'm definitely going to enter that one.  

Here are some photos from the exhibition.  

The winners

First Place went to Fyvie Murray

These quilts will be travelling around New Zealand, so if they come to a venue near you, please do go and look at them.  There's so much detail packed into a very small space - 12" wide x 16" high.

There's a full gallery on the Aotearoa Quilters website here. but they're so much better in real life. 

Thank you for all your kind messages on my previous two posts.  It really was a thrill to have my quilts recognised and to win prizes.  Some of you are no reply bloggers so I couldn't email you back, but I've read all the comments thank you.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Aotearoa Pink challenge

Aotearoa Quilters have been running 12' x 12' colour challenges for a number of years now.  The latest colour was PINK.

The winning quilt by Sonya Prchal

The quilts were on display at Tote and Gloat in Palmerston North, so I got to have a good look at them all.  It's just amazing the ideas that people come up with! Each quilt was different and unique, and there were so many styles of quilting on show.

Here are a few of my favourites:

by Dianne Dowd

by Merrilyn George

by Sandy Briggs

by Wendy O'Neill

by Gloria Scanlen

by Shirley Sparks

by Mary Metcalf

You can see the complete PINK collection on the Aotearoa Quilters website by clicking here.

The next challenge is Silver because it's Aotearoa Quilters' 25th anniversary year.  I've got some silver fabrics set aside, but I need to get a wriggle on and make an entry.  I've only entered once so far, and that was Yellow. The quilts travel around the country and guilds can display them as part of their own exhibitions.  They look so good when they are all hung together.

I've previously blogged about the Green quilts from 2015 here

by Mary Transom

and I've blogged about the Yellow quilts from 2016 here

my little entry is top right in this photo - the English Paper Pieced sun

by Liz McKenzie

and I blogged about the Orange quilts from 2017 here

by  Theresa Vaughan

So, it's time to get ready for Silver in 2019.  And they've changed the shape to a hexagon!!! Gasp!

Auckland Festival of Quilts - Aotearoa Quilters Orange Challenge

Like previous years, the Aotearoa Quilters 12 x 12 colour challenge quilts were on display at the Auckland Festival of Quilts.  This year the colour was orange.

I didn't enter a quilt because I had entered three mini quilts in our Capital Quilters guild 12 x 12 challenge this year.  You can see my entries in that challenge by clicking here.

I did have an orange 12 x 12 quilt in the Capital Quilters challenge, but I couldn't enter it into Aotearoa Quilters challenge because I'd already published photos of it on my blog and Instagram. That policy is currently under review and if you're a member of Aotearoa Quilters I'd encourage you to answer the survey they sent out at the weekend. and let your views be known.

My favourite this year was "3 Baobab Trees" by Theresa Vaughan.

The overall winner was "Is Orange really the New Black" by Liz McKenzie.

You can read about and see photos on my blog from the previous Aotearoa Quilters challenges here:
Green challenge - 2015
Yellow challenge - 2016

Next year it's PINK.  What can I possibly do for that?  Suggestions welcome.