Tekapo - Capturing Memories

I'm on a roll with finishes at the moment.

I asked my long arm quilter to do some very simple quilting on my Symposium piece while she was quilting a couple of other quilts for me recently.  

Then I added some facings because the quilt is only 27" x 27" and I didn't want  binding that could appear bulky on such a small piece.  

I love the backing because it looks like deep blue water.  

I've called my quilt "Tekapo" because as soon as I saw the design I thought of Lake Tekapo in the South Island of New Zealand.  I've stayed there twice and I love the special colour of that lake.  I made sure that my lake was the colour I remember and I changed my background from grey to blue as well.    

    

So now I have a finished quilt and very fond memories of a great class with Veruschka Zarate - Pride and Joy Quilting.  If you ever get a chance to take a class with Veruschka then I recommend that you grab it.  She is such a a lovely person and she shared so much of her quilting knowledge with us.  

You can read my earlier post about the class I took at Symposium here. 

Her "Dignity" quilt has been juried in to QuiltCon in February 2025 so I'm sure you're going to hear a lot more about Veruschka then.  You can see it here https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A27Nc8UHP/

Symposium recap - my class with Pride and Joy Quilting

I'm home from Symposium and I'm so glad that I decided to go.  I really would have had FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) if I'd stayed at home.  

Here's what I've made:

I took a 3 day class with Veruschka Zarate of Pride and Joy Quilting and it was great.  We worked on the New Zealand image from her Capturing Memories Landscape Quilt Pattern Series. This is one flat quilt designed to look like two Polaroids laid on top of each other.  You can't see the quilt underneath because it's doesn't exist!

Veruschka developed the idea of creating scenes for the locations she teaches in - so there's a Sydney quilt because she taught at the Bernina Academy in Sydney before she came to New Zealand, and there's a Scotland scene because she's going there next. 

Here's a link to a California scene because the New Zealand one hasn't been uploaded to her website yet - but it will be very soon.  

There were only 9 people in the class so we had 2 tables each and plenty of room to spread out.  There were 18 people in the previous 2 day class so that must have been very cramped. We paid more because it was 3 days, but we had more room and an extra day to really lock in all that Veruschka taught us.  

At Symposium we can hire brand new machines from Bernina NZ and they sell them off at reduced prices after Symposium

This is how far I got after 3 days.

I've worked on my piece on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday since I got home, and the top is now finished.  

I think I'll machine quilt this one myself because it's only 27" x 27".

Veruschka shared so much about her quilting processes - from designing the images, to choosing the fabrics and threads, to quilting it on her long arm and even the backing.  It was great to just work away on our own pieces and listen to all of her useful information at the same time.  

Her amazing "Girl With A Pearl Earring" quilt hung on the wall at the back of our classroom so we all got to examine it close up. I see that the PDF pattern costs NZD 64, but I'm sure it's worth every cent because Veruschka's patterns are written to a very high standard.  

The Girl with the Pearl Earing by Veruschka Zarate

During one of the lunch breaks some of the other overseas tutors came to visit:

Veruschka Zarate (@prideandjoyquilting), Rachelle Denneny (@rachelledennenydesigns)
 Jemima Flint (@talesofcloth), Luke Haynes (@entropies), Nicole Leth (@myaffirmationproject)

Overall, it was a great class and I'm very glad that I went to Symposium.  Thank you Helen for allowing me to stay at your house. 

Puddling around

When I got home from Tekapo I had a sudden desire to sit at my sewing machine and just sew.  

I bought some lovely Tilda fabrics at Fairlie on the way to Tekapo, so I cut into them before they could even make it into my stash. 

Now I'm not sure if I even like where this is heading.  

I thought I could be spontaneous and just put random blocks together like in the book, but I much prefer it when I place them carefully.  I've even considered adding sashing to this to separate the blocks, but I'm not sure how to progress yet.  I guess the answer is to make more blocks and see where it leads me. 

I'm foundation paper piecing these blocks to stop the triangles stretching.  

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

Carnival

I won't be able to attend the QuiltNSW Quilt Show this year, but I have very happy memories of the three years in a row that I did attend - 2017, 2018 and 2019.

My Carnival quilt won Best Traditional Quilt Award (Amateur) in 2019 and I was thrilled.  You can read all about it here. 

It was all foundation paper pieced and then hand quilted.  It took a while, but I tried really hard to balance the colours.

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

Mariner's Compass

On Monday I went to a class with visiting Australian tutor, Chris Jurd.  We spent the day making one big 18" Mariner's Compass block.

I'm really pleased with how my block turned out, especially as I made it all from stash!!  I didn't have enough of my favourite green for the background, so Chris encouraged me to alternate it with another green and it's worked out well. 

The fabrics I used were all left over from my Endless Lockdown quilt made back in 2020. The kit I had purchased was very generous with the fabrics, so I could make more Mariner's Compass blocks with different animal centres if I wish.  The fabric was designed by Monika Fosberg for Anna Maria Horner's Conservatory Craft.

Here's some finished examples Chris showed us at the class.  I'm not sure how I'm going to finish my block yet, or if I'm going to make more to make something bigger.  

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

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

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).