Matariki +/- 1 - QuiltNSW Southern Stars Challenge 2018

I'm back from Sydney and am delighted to say that I won prizes for both of my quilts!!

First up is my entry in the Quilt NSW Southern Stars Challenge 2018.  

It's called Matariki +/- 1 and here's why:

Matariki (the Pleiades) signals the Maori New Year. It rises in the southern skies in mid-winter and heralds the start of the Maori new year. For many years we were told there were seven stars in Matariki, now some people think there could be nine.

My quilt has eight stars - hence the name - Matariki +/- 1.

This quilt is different to anything I've ever made before.  I started by foundation paper piecing my stars, and then I used a wide variety of dark blues to fill in the sky.  I made half square triangles, flying gees, triangles in squares and diamonds in squares.  

I didn't have a master plan when I started, but I just kept going until I had filled in all the gaps.

I hand quilted with a wide range of threads, including Aurifil 12 wt and Wonderfil Dazzle in blue and yellow. 

I'm very pleased with how this quilt turned out, and was delighted to receive a Judges' Commendation for it.  

My inspiration came from a photo I saw on Facebook of a quilt made by Panni Szabo.  She gave me permission to make a quilt similar to hers.  

You can view the full list of prize winners, and photos of their quilts on the QuiltNSW website.  

The Southern Stars winners are all here.

Size: 47.5" x 52" (121cm x 132cm)

Patchwork Doodle with Sherri Lynn Wood

Yes, another class!!

A few weeks ago I attended a class with Sherri Lynn Wood.  You might have heard of her - she's written a book called:
The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters (shown on the flyer on my cutting mat below).

Sherri was in New Zealand for Symposium, but had agreed to stay on and teach a few classes for one of the local guilds.

The class I attended was called Patchwork Doodle.  Sherri explained lots of techniques for using up scraps, and then left us to each work out what we could do with the fabrics we had bought along.  The big challenge for me was that there were no rulers allowed!!

All the cutting was done freehand, which was a bit scary at first, but I soon got into it.

Sherri was clearly more used to working in solids, and was probably horrified at us putting pattern with pattern, but hey, if we're going to go improv we may as well go all out.

I tested my piece against some different fabrics when I got home, but I don't see this getting finished anytime soon.  I've tried, but I don't really think freehand improv is my thing.

There are just so many other things that I enjoy doing more at the moment.

I chose to attend this class because it was close to my house, and Sherri may never come back to New Zealand to teach again.  My motto is - seize the opportunity while you can.  You don't know what you might learn until you take part.