Amanda Stewart, Julia Arden, Helen Beaven and Julie Van der Putten on the NZ Quilt Show Podcast

It's that mad time of year again!  Here in New Zealand, Christmas and New Year's coincide with our Summer holiday period, so it's six weeks off school for the kids and lots of families travel and holiday around this time.  It's hot and busy and then there is the end of year stress with businesses and 'can you have it done by Christmas' requests.  But in amongst the chaos, there is time for me to squeeze in one last podcast!

This episode features another set of short interviews from the National Quilt Symposium 2017.  In the round-up we have:

Amanda Stewart from Provenance Textiles, supporting traditional individual craftspeople and groups in India and Cambodia.

Julia Arden, an Aotearoa Quilters member who entered three quilts into the 'Fragile' challenge.  She used metallic car paint for the background of the 'Save the Arctic' quilt, which you can see to the left in the picture above.

Helen Beaven, with her solo exhibition called 'Paint Modern' that began with a quilt that interpreted the knitting stitch form, but with paint on fabric instead of wool on needles.

(Apologies for the background noise.  Helen's was a popular exhibit in a small and noisy area!)

And last, but definitely not least, Julie van der Putten aka Puddle, from Quiltbooks - who I missed getting a photo of, much to my chagrin!  Julie is a delight to chat to and a regular at many of the quilt shows around NZ.  So if you ever see her, stop by for a peruse at her books and haberdashery and then a good yarn with the lady herself.

Now it's time I said a huge thank you to all my lovely listeners and sponsors who have given me so much support over this past year.  I really enjoy bringing the stories of our quiltmakers and professionals to you and I look forward to doing more of the same next year.  I couldn't do it without you, so THANK YOU!!  Have a wonderful, safe and peaceful holiday season, in whatever way you choose to celebrate and whatever season you are celebrating it in.



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Rachel Maw, Kathleen Burford and Bobby Duncan on The NZ Quilt Show

The NZ Quilt Show took a little break over the last few weeks because of this little guy, my newest nephew!

I downed tools and flew to Australia to spend a week with my sister, her husband and the new addition.  It's such a special time with a newborn, but hard work!  I felt really lucky that I could help out a bit (and cuddle the baby, of course!)

This episode of The NZ Quilt Show podcast continues the National Quilt Symposium round up and includes interviews with Rachel Maw from Annie's Country Quilt Store, a lovely little quilt store in Ashburton, NZ;

Kathleen Burford from the Migrant Women's Quilt Project;

and Bobby Duncan of Fabric by Three, a family owned fabric dyeing company.  That's Bobbi on the left, her husband John in the centre and John's sister, Liz on the right.

A note about the Migrant Women's Quilt Group - Kathleen and her group of volunteers teach migrant women, whether they be refugees or recent immigrants, to make quilts.  This group fosters friendships, makes connections, helps with learning English, all while teaching sewing skills.  They use donations to help keep the group going.  If you have GOOD quality fabric, sewing threads, notions etc to donate, you can contact Kathleen via email seniorburfords at gmail dot com

Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps me tell the stories of our quiltmakers, artists and professionals.  If you would like to support me, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review, pop over to my podbean hosting site and leave a donation, or consider advertising your business by sponsoring an episode.  Email me at theslightlymadquiltlady@gmail.com  Cheers!

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Charlotte Yde, Sharon Bradley and Lynda Brocklehurst on The NZ Quilt Show Podcast

This podcast episode continues my National Quilt Symposium theme with several shorter interviews conducted amongst the hustle and bustle of symposium itself.  Enjoy!

Charlotte Yde is a talented textile artist from Denmark who made the long trip to New Zealand to teach at the National Quilt Symposium 2017.  Charlotte is a delightful woman who generously shared with me the process of making her quilt, 'Life Cycle - Albatross', that was hanging in the tutor's exhibition.

'Life Cycle - Albatross' by Charlotte Yde

Charlotte's quilt reflects the life cycle of the albatross and also comments on the environmental situation of this endangered species.

'Life Cycle - Albatross' detail of the reflective thread (can you see the wing of the flying albatross)

The photo above shows the reflective thread that you hear me ohhh and ahhh over in the podcast.  One of the processes Charlotte uses is deconstructed screen printing, you can learn more about deconstructed screen printing here.

Sharon Bradley from Waitomo SewWorms spoke to me about her merchant stand at Symposium and about her new fusible appliqué product developed by herself called Fusamat.

I love her Kiwi can-do attitude where she saw a product her husband was using in his work as an electrician, thought that it would be awesome for quilting, and then went ahead turned it into a new and exciting tool for us to use.

'France 1917' by Lynda Brocklehurst 

Lynda Brocklehurst was the winner of the postcard challenge.  We discuss what the postcard challenge was all about, what the story behind Lynda's postcard was and we also have a thoughtful discussion about some of the other postcards that were on display.

You can learn more about the embroidered postcards from World War II here.

Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps me tell the stories of our quiltmakers, artists and professionals.  If you would like to support me, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review, pop over to my podbean hosting site and leave a donation, or consider advertising your business by sponsoring an episode.  Email me at theslightlymadquiltlady@gmail.com  Cheers!

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How to make plant prints on fabric

I've been doing some more flora printing - the term I use for making plant prints on fabric.

The last photo I shared (above) generated quite a bit of interest and a few questions, so I thought I'd make a little video to share my process.  Not that it's complicated, but sometimes it's nice to see how someone else does it to give you the confidence and motivation to try it yourself.



So, have a watch, tell me what you think and whether it's something you've had a go at.  In the video I show a book cover that I've made with the plant printed fabric.  You can find the tutorial on how to make the cover here.

Above is the finished book cover that I started in the video and below is another (sorry about the distracting fabric it's lying on) plus some cards I made with the same technique.

Enjoy!

Donna Ward Best in Show Winner on The NZ Quilt Show Podcast

After the last podcast episode with Brenda Gael Smith, the chief judge of The NZ National Quilt Symposium 2017, and listening to her discuss the exhibition judging and the Best in Show winner, I thought the next interview to post should be with the lucky winner herself so we could get her take on her prize-winning work.

Donna Ward (R) and her daughter, Ashleigh.

Donna Ward was the Best in Show winner at symposium with her quilt 'Fly'.  Donna owns Donna's Quilt Studio in Hamilton with her daughter Ashleigh (who you will hear mentioned in the podcast), and she is a delight to talk to.  Her excitement at winning was infectious and you can hear the huge smiles we were wearing as we talked!

To see a better image, head over to the Symposium website by clicking here.

Donna also won the Best Piecing award with her english paper pieced quilt 'Chasing Rabbits' and 'Fly' won the merit award in this category.

To see a better image, head over to the Symposium website by clicking here.

Donna has some exciting news that I didn't get to share on the podcast.  Ashleigh and Donna are running a Quilting Spectacular Tour next year - a month long trip to the UK to visit the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, including a class at the Royal School of Needlework, a visit to the V and A Museum, a week long cruise on the Danube, and so many other visits and delights you'll just have to head over to the website to read them for yourself!

It sounds like an amazing trip and if the kids were older and not eating me out of house and home, I'd have already signed up!

This is just a short episode.  I am planning to combine some of my other short symposium interviews but I thought this one should stand on it's own.  Congratulations to Donna!


Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps me tell the stories of our quiltmakers, artists and professionals.  If you would like to support me, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review, pop over to my podbean hosting site and leave a donation, or consider advertising your business by sponsoring an episode.  Email me at theslightlymadquiltlady@gmail.com  Cheers!



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Putting Down Roots Series II

Examples from my 100 days project

In my last post I showed a couple of quilts that were inspired by my paper cutting 100 days project.  They are showing at Kings Theatre Creative for the next few weeks, along with the quilt I'm showing today called 'Belonging'.

Belonging by Charlotte Scott 43cm x 55cm $195 

This quilt is a nod to landforms that have dominated the areas where I've spent much of my life.  Kapiti Island is the first.  It dominated the horizon in the area I grew up and whenever I see images of it something twangs inside me.

Kapiti Island.  The original uploader was Grutness at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0

The other peak that fills my horizon these days is up the far end of the Waikare Inlet.  It's constantly changing colour, sometimes wreathed in mist, occasionally covered in cloud.  I don't even know what it's called and can't find it on a map, but it forms one of the backdrops in my daily life.

These are the two areas in New Zealand where I've spent the longest time, where I've put down roots by growing up in the area or by moving there and consciously deciding to make my life there.

Belonging (detail) by Charlotte Scott 

I don't think I'm done with this series yet.  There are more variations with the branch and root imagery that I'd like to try.  Different ways of saying what I'm thinking or feeling.  And I like that it's the sort of symbol that has rich meaning for others too.

E noho rå!

Putting Down Roots

Kings Theatre Creative, in the main street of Kawakawa, is my local gallery.  They close down over Winter for the most part, only running some workshops and programs, and this Winter they did some renovations, but then they open up in Spring and it's always exciting to see what new work and what new artists are showing!

They opened last weekend after a last push to get the floor painted (I rolled up my trousers and lent a bit of a hand) and it looks fabulous.  I have three works hanging on the wall and I'm pretty pleased with how they look.  There are a couple of smaller works in the cabinets from the same series too.

Roots by Charlotte Scott 14cm x 57

Above is the first work in the series.  Do you remember my 100 days project - 100 days of scissors and paper cutting?  The branch shape emerged again and again for me during that project so I wanted to explore it further, but in my favourite medium - fabric.

Some of my 100 Days of Scissors project

And of course I got to thinking about what these branch shapes mean, and how they are also root shapes, which lead to thoughts about how I'm always wondering who I am and whether I actually belong anywhere in particular, whether I have strong roots in this area I've been transplanted to.

Establish and Spread by Charlotte Scott 24cm x 85cm

Unfortunately these wide shaped quilts don't fit blogger very well, but they look pretty cool on the wall!

The second quilt in the series continues my pondering of putting down roots and then using these as a foundation to shoot away and 'bloom where you are planted'.  I was still working with the branch shape.  It's such a fascinating shape and the patterns are reminiscent of rivers, tributaries, neuron pathways - all sorts of meaningful things.

This one has some hand stitching on it too.  The cross stitching joins two pieces of the grey silk together and it was a bit of a metaphor for stitching together disparate parts of my history into the person I am today.

Establish and Spread - detail by Charlotte Scott

I'll show you another of the quilts in the series in my next post, but in the meantime, if you are visiting Northland, then call in at Kawakawa, use the famous Hundertwasser public toilets and visit Kings Theatre Creative and tell me what you think.

Interview with Brenda Gael Smith on The New Zealand Quilt Show

Brenda Gael Smith is an award winning artist who designs and creates contemporary textile art in her home studio in Copacabana, NSW Australia.  Born in New Zealand, she made her first traditional quilt in 1984, but it took until the turn of the century before Brenda returned to quiltmaking, which has since developed into a compelling and rewarding avocation.

Brenda is also an experienced curator, having curated and managed several themed textile art exhibitions that have travelled internationally to great acclaim.  Brenda also teaches, judges, writes and exhibits her own work widely.

I got to speak to Brenda in person at the Christchurch Quilt Symposium where Brenda was teaching, lecturing, accompanying the exhibition ‘A Matter of Time’ (one of her curated travelling textile art exhibitions) and last, but definitely not least, was the chief judge for the symposium exhibition.

Brenda and I have a wide ranging discussion covering topics such as her journey into becoming an artist, how she became an exhibition judge and curator and her upcoming solo exhibition (Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia, January 13th till February 14th 2018). 

We also discuss what influence her role as one of the 'twelves' - the international 12 x 12 textile art challenge - has had in developing her voice and her series work.  We also learn how Brenda has recently completed another regular creative practice project, completing 52 weekly textile sketches , abstracting the natural world she sees on her daily walks around her home town.

Week 49 Cochrone Lagoon

Brenda and I talk about her role as head judge of the National Quilt Symposium, including how the process worked for her and the other two judges, Philip Trusttum and Marianne Hargreaves and what made the best in show winner, Fly by Donna Ward, stand out from the crowd.

The final exhibition of A Matter of Time will be at The International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, from 28th October till 5th November 2018 with floor talks with Brenda at 11am and 2pm Thursday 2nd till Sunday 5th with one at 5.30pm on Saturday 4th.

Thanks for chatting with me Brenda!

Where to find out more about Brenda or to get in touch with her:

http://www.brendagaelsmith.com

http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/

https://www.instagram.com/brendagaelsmith/

https://www.facebook.com/SerendipityPatchworkQuilting/

Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps me tell the stories of our quiltmakers, artists and professionals.  If you would like to support me, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review, pop over to my podbean hosting site and leave a donation, or consider advertising your business by sponsoring an episode.  Email me at theslightlymadquiltlady@gmail.com  Cheers!

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