Exhibition shopping

After promising you I'd always do my blog posts on Friday nights NZ time, I slipped one in on Sunday, so if you missed seeing my Purple Zone quilt you can click back and read about it here. 

I've got more quilts from the exhibition to blog about, but first on to my shopping from Capital Quilters' exhibition last weekend. 

We had five retailers at the exhibition and I think I bought something from nearly every one of them.  

my haul from the exhibition

First up was this very interesting fabric from e bond for Free Spirit Fabrics.  It's unlike anything I've purchased before, but I want my quilting to continue growing so I'm going to challenge myself to use it.  

I also bought a bundle of Peppered Cottons from Studio E which will work well with another project I've been collecting fabrics for. 

These purchases were both from Jenny Hunter at Plume Art + Stitch

Catherine McDonald from Mallee Textiles brought a great range of her hand treated fabrics and there was a tempting discount if you purchased five.  Here's my five fabrics. 

I feel like I haven't been to a quilt shop in ages, and my lovely friend Lyndy from Stitchbird at Kilbirne had lots of pre cuts on her stall, so I bought a layer cake of Backyard by Ruby Star Society and I will enjoy thinking about what to do with that.  I do like the Ruby Star Society fabrics.  

I haven't unwrapped it yet because I know that when I do I'll want to start making something with it immediately and I have lots of other things I need to do first - including housework!

And finally, I bought some Sue Spargo wools from Fox's Cottage from Foxton. I've mainly used wool felt to date, but I'm participating in some Sue Spargo BOM programmes and I'm really enjoying seeing the different results felted wool produces.  Wool felt vs felted wool.  They are different - trust me. 

So, in between looking at all the wonderful quilts and talking to friends from around New Zealand, I managed to do a fair bit of shopping too. 

Capital Quilters Exhibition 11-12 May 2024

It's only one week until our exhibition!!!

It's going to be great because we have some very talented members at Capital Quilters.  I've entered seven quilts.  Yes, SEVEN. 

One is a 12" x 16" challenge, so that hardly counts.

Two you've possibly seen finished here on my blog or in person.

Two others you would have seen progress photos of, but not seen them finished.

And the final two are total surprises!! These are quilts that I've completed without showing them on social media at all.  Not even my friends know about them.  And I'm not going to give any clues now.

Centre - My Vibrant Curiosities. Best in Show at our 2018 Exhibition.

Right - my La Passacaglia 

I love walking around our exhibition and trying to guess who made the quilts before I read the tags.  People do have individual styles and I enjoy matching people to their quilts.  

If you live close to Wellington, please do consider coming.  Bring your mum for Mother's Day.  Or ask your kids to take you as a treat.  

The Lower Hutt Events Centre is a lovely modern facility with an on site cafe and we're going to have five merchants too.  

I can't wait!

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)

Glitter in Green

My Glitter quilt is finished! And it won a prize in our guild's exhibition. 

Yes, I won Best Hand Pieced and I was thrilled. Glitter is designed by Jen Kingwell from Australia.  I started my Glitter quilt in a hand piecing class with Jen Kingwell at the Christchurch Symposium in October 2017.  I did promise Jen that it would be finished by October 2019, and the top was finished by then, but I didn't start hand quilting it until January 2020.

Now it's finished, and it will look just right on our bed. I chose the greens and grey colours to match the gorgeous wallpaper in our bedroom. 

Here's photo taken outside in natural daylight. 

I used the acrylic templates from Amitie Textiles to hand piece my quilt.  If you haven't tried hand piecing yet, you might like to watch my videos on the Hand Piecing tab at the top of my blog.  I love the relaxing nature of hand piecing, and the accuracy that can be achieved with it.

I used Aurifil 50wt shade 2605 for all the hand piecing because it blends well with everything.

Turning the seams is easy with hand piecing.

The back view

I chose wool batting and quilted my Glitter quilt with Aurifil 12wt and 28wt shade 2615. I use 12wt for the visible stitches, and 28wt in the ditch.

So my Glitter quilt is finished! And I love it.   I'm so pleased it finally got to hang in an exhibition.  

Finished size:

167cm x 182 cm

66" x 72"

We Built This City

What a thrill it was to see my quilt hanging in our guild's exhibition last weekend.  It really glowed in the dark exhibition space. And the rosette on it matched the colours in my quilt perfectly!

Some months ago I mentioned that I was going to repurpose my blocks from Jen Kingwell's Marshall Mystery Quilt - published in Quiltmania during 2019.  I didn't really like the layout in the magazine when the quilt was finally revealed.  I came to the conclusion that I would prefer to make two quilts with my blocks, rather than to try and use them all in one quilt.  

I pulled out all the courthouse steps and appliqued circles and laid them on a piece of pre printed hexagon fabric.  Yes - the hexagons are pre printed!!! It's a print by Michael Millar, and probably out of print now, but it did the trick for me in this quilt.  

I liked the simple design, and I knew I could make a bright quilt that would make someone smile.  

Once I'd finished piecing the quilt, I decided to hand quilt around the hexagons with variegated Aurifil 12wt. It was fun to see the hexagons popping up due to the hand quilting and the soft wool batting.  

I also hand quilted the Marshal blocks, and in the ditch down the long columns.  I like to use Aurifil 28wt when I quilt in the ditch. 

As part of the Joanne Johnson Colour Award I won a little trophy.  It's the first time I've ever won a trophy for a quilt, so that was exciting.  

Finished size: 62" x 64"

Thank you for all the kind comments so many of you have sent already on social media already.  It was a great weekend with so many beautiful quilts on display.  I'll talk about my Glitter in Green quilt in another post tomorrow.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been working on lately? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I won prizes!

I'm just writing this very brief blog post to let you know that won some awards at the Capital Quilters show this weekend.

First up is my "Glitter in Green" quilt - it won Best Hand Pieced quilt.  I was thrilled because I do love this quilt.  I'll do a proper blog post soon with ALL the details, but suffice to say it's a wonderful pattern by Jen Kingwell.

Next is my "We Built This City" quilt and it won a Merit in the Build It Up challenge, and also the Joanne Johnson Colour Award.  This quilt was made with some of the blocks from the Marshal Mystery Quilt designed by Jen Kingwell. 

I met so many lovely quilters in both Taupo and Wellington this weekend.  Thank you for supporting our quilt shows.  And for those in countries who still have restrictions - we certainly do appreciate how lucky we are.  

Strangely that reminds me of this famous NZ song 

How many famous faces can you spot in the video?  

I'll be back with more photos soon, but I'm off to Auckland tomorrow morning, so I have to go and pack again now.  

Thanks everyone. 

Capital Quilters' Exhibition is on next weekend 3-4 October

Good news - we're back at COVID Level 1 (our lowest level) and our quilt show is going ahead next weekend.  

I'm really looking forward to seeing my Glitter quilt hanging, and then getting to take it home again.  Although I finished Glitter back in April 2020, I haven't used it on our bed yet, or shared it on social media.  It was to be my main entry in the QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show, but that got pushed back twice, and is now cancelled for 2020.  Our own shown in Wellington has been pushed back once, but we're really hopeful it can go ahead next weekend.  

Strangely enough when I accepted the 3-4 October dates for our postponement, I totally forgot that I had booked another little holiday.  So I won't be there for the setup day on Friday (how convenient!) or Saturday.  Instead I'll be visiting the Taupo Quiltmakers' and Aotearoa Quilters' exhibitions in Taupo on Friday.

It will be nice to see how other guilds run their exhibitions, and to meet other quilters from around New Zealand.  

Here's our new poster for our Capital Quilters exhibition.  If you live in NZ I hope to see you there on Sunday.  I expect to be there most of the day.  We have four great merchants lined up:

Stitchbird Fabrics

Quilters' Lane

Made Marion Crafts

Yarn Therapy. 

I think we're all looking forward to visiting the merchants.  I've certainly had lots of questions about them.  As for the quilts, you can follow Capital Quilters on Instagram or Facebook.  There will be plenty of photos shared there during the weekend.  

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

Capital Quilters' Exhibition is postponed until Sat & Sun 3-4 October 2020

 

Due to the return to COVID Level 2, we have made the very difficult decision to postpone our Quilted Exhibition planned for next weekend 22 - 23 August 2020.

The Lower Hutt Events Centre has worked closely with us in the last 24 hours, and we are happy to say that we have a new date of 3-4 October 2020. 

We were all really looking forward to this event, and while this is disappointing we know it is the right decision.

We do apologise to anyone who has made plans to travel to our exhibition from outside of the Wellington region.  We do hope that you will be able to join us on 3-4 October.  

My entries for Capital Quilters' Exhibition

It's only two weeks until Capital Quilters' Exhibition opens at the Lower Hutt Events Centre.  We're in a bit of a quiet lull at the moment, because we've finished our quilt, and hand the frantic activity of hand in day, and now we're just making final arrangements with the venue.  

I've entered 4 quilts this year.  Here's a sneak peek at my entries.

First up is my Carnival quilt that I also entered into the Quilt NSW Sydney Quilt Show last year.  You can read more about it here.  

Second is my Glitter quilt.  Yes, it's finally finished.  I had entered my Glitter quilt into the 2020 Quilt NSW Sydney Quilt Show, but it's been cancelled now.  So my quilt will have its first public outing at Capital Quilters show in Wellington. I do a whole blog post about this quilt after the exhibition. 

Third is my entry in the Build it Up challenge.  We had to use log cabin or courthouse steps blocks in our quilts for this challenge.  I recycled the blocks from Jen Kingwell's Marshal Mystery quilt and put them into this quilt that I've called "We Built This City".  You can read more about my process here, but I'll do a full blog post after the exhibition.  

Fourth, and finally, is "You Spin Me Round", that was also destined to hang in Sydney this year but won't be now. You can read more about it here.   This is the one where I changed the binding after I'd hand sewn the first lot down.  I hope it was worth it and it looks good in the exhibition.  

I'm entering the exhibition because I love looking at other people's quilts.  The more people who enter the better!  Of course I'd love to win a ribbon, but I really don't mind if I don't.  I will feel honoured to have my quilts hanging alongside the winners.  

There's still a lot of work to do yet, but we are excited for the exhibition.  If you live in NZ we'd love to see you there.  

Oh! I bought two new books today.  I haven't even opened them yet, but I'll enjoy them over the weekend.  I got them from Minerva in Wellington.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  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

Quilt Stories (also known as Artist's Statements)

Our exhibition is getting closer! This week I'm going to give a short talk to our guild about Quilt Stories.  You know, that blurb the quilt maker writes to go with their quilt.  

Disclaimer - I'm no expert when it comes to grammar and sentence formation, but I do know what I like to read when I go to a quilt show. 

I know many quilters are modest people and struggle to say something positive about their own quilts!

But I urge you to be proud of your own work.  You've chosen to enter it into the exhibition, so make sure your Quilt Story presents it in it's best light.   Don't tell us what's wrong with it, but rather tell us some interesting facts about it.  I've provided some examples below.

Most exhibitions put a limit on how long a Quilt Story can be.  It's usually about 60-100 words, so you have ample room to write three short sentences.  I tend to write:

• what inspired me to make this quilt
• an interesting aspect of the quilt
• anything else of interest

Please don't drop the pronouns from your story.  There's plenty of room to write "I". For example:

I made this quilt from the scraps I had accumulated over the past three years. (15 words)

is much nicer to read than

Had too many brown scraps so had to use them up. (11 words)

Here's some examples for you:

1. What inspired you to make this quilt?

• I've always enjoyed needleturn applique and I fell in love with this pattern when it was released three years ago.
• I've always wanted to make a snowball quilt and I love the fabrics used in this pattern from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy book.
• My mum taught me to English Paper Piece when I was about 10 years old, and she would be delighted to see I'm still doing it now.
• I saw a beautiful blue and white quilt in the Festival of Quilts in the UK, so I came home and created my own version from all the scraps I had saved over the years.
• I decided to start using all the Liberty fabrics that I had collected over the years.  I found this wonderful pattern by xxx and have happily spent the last three years sewing my Liberty pieces together.
• My granddaughter loves Elsa from Frozen, so when I saw this panel I knew I had to make it for her. 

You get the drift? Tell people what drew you to your pattern or fabrics. 

2. An interesting aspect of the quilt

• The quilt was a block of the month and each month I eagerly awaited the next pattern release.
• This is my first attempt at wool felt applique.
• I started this quilt in a foundation paper piecing class with xxx.  
• I've recently started using rulers with my machine quilting and they've enabled to be achieve quite a different look. 
• This colour palette is different to my usual style, but I love the result.
• I hand quilted my quilt with 12wt variegated thread. 
• This quilt was started 10 years ago in a class with xxx.  I found it again when I cleaned out my sewing room during the COVID-19 lockdown.  I took it to retreat and finished it there.
• This quilt has been all around the world.  I've worked on it on planes, trains and ships.  It reminds me of my travels through Europe in 2018.   

Tell people something about your quilt that they might not notice immediately.

3. Anything else of interest

• If you're going to give the quilt away, who is it going to? a grandchild? a wedding gift? charity?
• How long did it take you to make it?
• Are these fabrics a departure from your usual style?

The third sentence isn't essential, but it helps the reader to know a bit more about you and your quilt.

Be proud of your work. You spent many hours making this quilt, and it's hanging in an exhibition for just one weekend.  Stand tall and say "Yes, I made that".  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  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