Looking forward to something different

I've been on a hand quilting mission since I returned from our holiday on 11 January, but I'm really looking forward to taking a break from it next week.  I love doing hand quilting, but not every single day.  

This is what I'm going to work on next.  My Cross Country quilt by Anna Maria Horner.

I've known for months that the Great New Zealand Quilt Show would be in Rotorua in May 2021, and I had planned to enter some quilts.  But I didn't realise I would have to submit photos of my finished quilts in mid February!  I only became aware of that requirement in December (although there was a link to the full conditions of entry in the November newsletter).  

The QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show allows members to submit photos of partially completed quilts when they open entries for their June shows in February each year, so I was more used to those rules.  

But the Great New Zealand Quilt Show is a juried show, so they need photos of the finished quilts to determine which quilts they will accept.  So, I've "gone hard and early", and finished my Ballet with Kaffe quilt.  I'll be entering it into the Great New Zealand Quilt Show, and the Sydney Quilt Show too if it goes ahead.  The Sydney show may be in doubt because they haven't opened entries yet which is unusual.  I can fully understand QuiltNSW's hesitancy, especially with another lock down in Victoria, Australia just being announced right now.  

Even if the Sydney Quilt Show does go ahead in June 2021, I won't be going this year for a variety of COVID related reasons.  

I'm really pleased that my Ballet with Kaffe quilt is finished, but I'm not going to show any photos of it just yet. I'll certainly let you know if it gets accepted for the Great New Zealand Quilt Show.  

Three versions of the same Cross Country quilt by Anna Maria Horner

I'm really looking forward to pulling out my Cross Country quilt next week.  I've got plaid fabric to fill in the large triangles now, but I need to decide if I'm going to add applique or not.  I might even get this one machine quilted because I've got plenty of other WIPs I want to work on in 2021.  

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

La Passacaglia - a trip down memory lane

 This week I've been reminded about the fun I had making my la Passacaglia quilt.  

Tula Pink did a little video earlier this week about her la Passacaglia quilt, and it got me thinking about mine again.  You can watch Tula's video about her quilt here: 

https://www.facebook.com/tulapink/videos/309154120366478/

  

I still love my quilt, and I use it on our bed sometimes.  I also take it to show other quilters when I get invited to speak at other guilds.  

It wasn't Tula Pink that inspired me to start my quilt, but rather two other quilters that I stumbled across online.  One of them was Sharon of Lilabelle Lane Creations in Australia.  Sharon is a big Tula fan, and she was inspired to make her own la Passacaglia after seeing photos of Tula's la Passacaglia.    

I got to meet Sharon and Willyne Hammerstein in Melbourne, Australia back in 2018.  It was lovely to all meet up at AQC. 

I started planning my la Passacaglia quilt back in late 2014.  I got the Millefiori Quilts book by Willyne Hammerstien for Christmas in 2014, and I immediately launched into it. 

I chose Kaffe Fasset's Millefiori fabric in blue as my inspiration fabric, and from that I chose these fabrics as my starting point.  

As you can see from my finished quilt, I didn't use all of these fabrics, and I introduced plenty of other fabrics.  I just let the colour scheme evolve as I went along.  The most important thing was balance, so if it needed more green or yellow, I added more green or yellow.  

It took just on one year for me to finish English Paper Piecing my quilt top.  I was thrilled when it was all joined up and I could finally hold it up. 

I wanted borders, and fortunately I had seen some wonderful border fabric, so I tracked it down and very carefully applied my borders.  You can read about how I added my borders, and all other aspects of my quilt, on the la Passacaglia tab at the top of my blog.  

While I was making my quilt my mum got interested too, so she made her very own version of la passacaglia.  

It was fun comparing progress when we met up.

Mum's quilt was one of the ones selected to go to Houston for the QuiltMania exhibition.  It hung with 19 other quilts, including Tula Pink's enlarged version.  And then mum's quilt was selected to go on to another exhibition in Nantes, France too!

My quilt wasn't selected to go to Houston, but I was super thrilled when it won the top amateur award at the QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show in 2017. I think that award was even better than it going to Houston, because the quilts weren't judged in Houston - they were for exhibition only.  In Sydney I was surrounded by friends, both from NZ and Australia, and I had the most wonderful time with so many people congratulating me and telling me they loved my quilt. 

Thanks to Tula Pink finding Willyne's book and making her la Passacaglia quilt, Millefiori Quilts has become very popular and Willyne has now written four books.  I own them all and have lots of plans for more quilts yet.  

Although Willyne hand pieces all her quilts, you can hand piece or English Paper Piece these designs.  They're all wonderful.  I encourage you to find a book and take a look. 

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

Entering Quilt Shows

Today I entered two quilts in to the Sydney Quilt Show.

Although I live in New Zealand, I am a member of the QuiltNSW guild in Australia.  I joined that guild when I realised that I couldn't enter my la passacaglia quilt into any exhibitions in New Zealand.  Our national show (Symposium) says that all quilts have to be original design, although they appeared to be relenting on that at the Auckland Symposium.

Although I've know for weeks which quilts I'm going to enter, neither of them are finished yet, and neither of them had names yet! 

QuiltNSW are very generous and let people enter quilts that aren't finished yet.  The guild can do that because it's not a juried show - every member has the right to enter at least one quilt.  If there are too many quilts, they run a ballot and some people's second choices are declined entry.

Last year I ended up in a rush and was still hand quilting my Carnival quilt in May, and I vowed I wouldn't do that again this year.  But entries close in the first week of March, and it's too hot to hand quilt in February.  The good news is that this year's entries are much further along that last year's, and I could finish them both within the next two weeks if I had to. 

You can read more about Carnival here

As for the names - well that was difficult.  I like to give my quilts personalised names, rather than just calling them the name of the pattern.  That's not always easy - especially when I called last year's quilt Carnival and it would have been perfect for this year's quilt. 

But the good news is that I've settled on names for both of my entries and completed them now. 

This will be my fourth year entering the QuiltNSW show.  I love meeting all my online friends, and shopping at all the stalls at the show.  Making an annual pilgrimage to Kathy Doughty's shop, Material Obsession, is also a must.

What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

It's Carnival time at QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show

I'm very pleased to finally share some photos of my prize winning Carnival quilt on my blog. I just love how it's turned out.

This was my primary entry in the 2019 QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show - and it won two prizes!!!  Firstly I won a Judge's Commendation in the Pieced Quilt (Amateur) section, and then the Best Traditional Quilt Award (Amateur), which was judged across all of the amateur quilts in the show!

I was thrilled to win these awards, and very grateful to the sponsors and organisers.  My prize was sponsored by Lloyd Curzon Textiles who are wholesalers in the Australian market.  I won this wonderful bundle of Woolies Flannel from Maywood Studio.  These fabrics look like wool, but they are actually cotton flannel. I'm going to have fun making something special with these fabrics.  They remind me of the lovely quilts Sue Spargo creates, so I might just do something along those lines. 
 

I also won $100 from QuiltNSW and I confess to spending it five times over at all the retailers at the show! 

You can view all the winning quilt on the QuiltNSW website here.  I still can't believe my quilt is fourth on the list!

It was lovely to meet so many blog / Instagram / Facebook followers at the show.  Even though there wasn't time for indepth chats with everyone, it was still nice to say "Hello", and admire each others' quilts. 

My second entry in the show was my Tropical Hexagons which you can read all about here.

It didn't win any prizes, but it was lovely to see it hanging in the show.  Big, bold quilts like this do look great in big venues. 

Carnival quilt details:
I started this quilt in a Cobweb Quilt class in New Zealand with Chris Kenna - a New Zealand quilter.  This is her Cobweb pattern and I've noted further down how you can get a copy if you want to make one too.

Since the class in March 2017 I've spent an enjoyable two years working on this quilt.   The foundation paper piecing took many months, and then I spent a few more months hand quilting it myself. But I've enjoyed every minute of it.

the long orange threads are the basting threads applied by a long armer

The two colours of Aurifil I used to hand quilt Carnival.

I hand quilted Carnival with Aurifil 28wt and it was perfect for this quilt.  The 28wt is a very strong thread, and it worked well on a quilt like this with lots of seams.  I chose to quilt in the centre of each strip rather than in the ditch, however I did quilt in the ditch around the edge of each octagon.

If you'd like to read my earlier posts about this quilt you can click here:
How to joing the sections - March 2018
The top is together - August 2018

If you would like to make a quilt like this, the best way to get this exact pattern is to email Minerva Book Shop in Wellington, New Zealand. orders@minerva.co.nz  They can post you a copy (anywhere in the world), and will be sure to include the correction to the template published in the magazine. If you've got an old copy of the magazine at home, be sure to email or phone the shop and ask for the corrected template before you start sewing.  Otherwise your star points won't meet nicely. 

However, there are a number of similar patterns available - just google "cobweb quilt pattern". Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke have good ones in their book Material Obsession Two.  (Pop Stars and Maple Leaf Rag - page 116.)

Stats - Finished size 70" x 70" (177cm x 177cm)
Pattern - Cobweb Quilt by Chris Kenna in NZ Quilter magazine
Techniques - foundation paper pieced and hand quilted
Batting - wool
Thread used - Aurifil 28wt

Awards - QuiltNSW 2019 Sydney Quilt Show - Judge's Commendation in the Pieced Quilt - Large (Amateur) section and Best Traditional Quilt (Amateur).

QuiltNSW Quilt Show

Today I'm flying to Sydney for the QuiltNSW Quilt Show.  Exciting!!!! I love seeing all the quilts in the exhibition, meeting my online friends in real life, and shopping at the stalls at the show (and in the bricks and mortar shops in Sydney).

I've got 2 quilts in the show, and I'm looking forward to seeing them hanging in the huge exhibition space. I'm not going to say which quilts I've entered until after the exhibition opens - I like to keep these things a secret.

You can follow along with all the fun and excitement by following QuiltNSW on Instagram or Facebook, or on their website. Photographs of all the winning quilts will be posted on their website.

Or you can follow me on Instagram @wendysquiltsandmore or Facebook (Wendy Welsh) if you don't already.  I'll be posting lots of photos while I'm in Sydney, but unfortunately I can't blog again until I get back home on Sunday.  Blogger doesn't work well on my iPad.

I have very happy memories of this show.  Here I am in 2017 with my la passacaglia quilt which won the top prize for an amateur quilter.  I was completely stunned - both to win the awards and to win a Bernina sewing machine!

And here I am last year in 2018 when I won second prize for a Pieced Quilt Large (Amateur) with Vibrant Curiosities.

And a Judges' Commendation for my Matariki entry in the Southern Stars challenge.

The standard of work at this show is very high, so I don't expect to win another award this year, but of course it would be nice if I did.  All will be revealed on Wednesday afternoon in Sydney, Australia.  Photos of the winning quilts will be posted on the QuiltNSW website.

If you see me at the show be sure to say "Hi".  I'm going to be using my Bowl Me Over bag so if you see it - that will be me. I'll be at the QuiltNSW Activity Centre on Thursday afternoon from 1.00pm - 3.00pm, and then doing white glove duty from 3.00pm - 4.30pm on Thursday.  I hope to see lots of you there.
I'll be sure to report back on all the excitement when I get home.

Vibrant Curiosities in QuiltNSW Exhibition 2018

My second entry in the QuiltNSW show also won a prize!  It was my Vibrant Curiosities quilt - English Paper Pieced and hand quilted - and it won second prize in the Pieced Quilt Large (Amateur) category.

This quilt is my own original design, made completely from 1"octagons and 1" squares.  I used Tula Pink fabrics for the blocks, and Kaffe Fassett on the border.

If you've been following my blog for a while, and think it looks familiar, that will be because I entered it in the New Zealand Quilt Symposium last year.  You can read all the details about it here. 

My prizes were:
$300 worth of fabric from Lloyd Curzon Textiles
$250 voucher for AccuQuilt Australia

Thank you very much to all the very generous sponsors of the show. I flew back to New Zealand with a fat quarter bundle, two jelly rolls and three AccuQuilt dies in my suitcase! It was just under the luggage allowance. 

I love how this close up photo shows the hand quilting sinking into the wool batting.  I used Aurifil 12wt on this quilt and am very pleased with the result.

I'm all enthused for next year's show now, and was thinking about what I will enter before I'd even left Sydney. Both of my winning quilts have been English Paper Pieced and hand quilted.  I think I should stick with what I know best.

Last year I won the Amateur Encouragement Award for my la passacaglia quilt:

2017

 

and this year I won second place in my category.

2018

 
I think it's time to finish my Ballet with Kaffe quilt designed by Willyne Hammerstein. 

QuiltNSW Quilt Show

The QuiltNSW show is almost here again. I was thrilled to receive an email this morning telling me that I've won a prize!! QuiltNSW sent us this fancy graphic so we could let all our friends know too.  I don't know which quilt, or which prize, but all will be revealed at the prize giving on Wednesday afternoon.

I'm heading to Sydney tomorrow and looking forward to seeing the exhibition on Wednesday.  I'll be volunteering on Thursday morning and late afternoon, and back again on Friday because it seems that's when most of my Instagram friends will be visiting.

There were so many amazing quilts on display last year, and such great shopping at the show too! And then there were all the welcoming people.  I met so many people who read my blog and follow me on Instagram.  My friends joked that we couldn't go anywhere in the show without people stopping me to say "hello".

I was blown away at the prize giving last year when I won Amateur Encouragement Award for my la passacaglia. As well as all these rosettes I won a Bernina sewing machine.  Bernina were very kind and said I could pick it up in Wellington rather than try to take it on the plane back to NZ.

I've got two quilts entered this year.  I don't want to show them yet, but rest assured I will post them on my blog after the show.  One is in the Southern Stars challenge, and the other is hand pieced and hand quilted.

If you see me at the show please do say "hello".  It's always nice to meet new people.