The Towrags, SewEzi, Kathy Anso, Linda Rae, Bernina and Catherine MacDonald on The NZ Quilt Show

Welcome to the final Christchurch Symposium 2017 podcast.  You can listen to the others in this series over on my podcast site here.  It's been a busy few months for me, with a month's holiday, then selling the boat, and moving house, so I apologise to all my wonderful guests who have waited patiently for me to publish their interviews.

In this final roundup, you will hear:

The TOWRAGS (Totally Organised Women Religious Attending Group Sex Stitching) Sheryl Anicich, Irene, Debra DeLorenzo, Jeanie O’Sullivan (kneeling) and Gaynor.  Missing is Ngaire and Pat.  This group of talented women won four awards between them at Christchurch Quilt Symposium 2017.

Their 'People of Colour' quilt won the merit award in the Power of Two category.

You'll hear me mention the Great Hall in the Christchurch Arts Centre in the podcast, and here is the beautiful ceiling that I was craning my neck to look at.

I get to talk to New Zealand's very own Catherine Davis-Colley, the designer of the SewEzi table.  2017 saw SewEzi celebrate 15 very successful years of production.

Kathy Anso, in front of her quilt "Keeping the Mojo #2", talks to me about the Students of Nancy Crow exhibition that she curated.  

Linda Rae, also part of the Students of Nancy Crow exhibition, in front of her quilt "Split".

Glynn Singleton (Managing Director) and Rebecca Owen (Long Armer Extraordinaire) on the Bernina stand.  Bernina were the major sponsor of Christchurch Quilt Symposium 2017, providing 286 hire machines, 1.2 kilometres of duct tape, 120 extension leads and 130 multi boxes!! Plus multiple prizes, technical support and all those other wonderful things sponsors do.

2018 is Bernina's 125th anniversary, so some of the things Glynn talks about as coming up, are now rolling out.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Catherine MacDonald and her husband in front of her hand-treated fabric booth, Mallee Textiles.

And here's an accurate picture of how Catherine (the convener of the symposium) was feeling by the end of the week!  She and her trusty committee were ready for a much-needed nap!

Thank you to all my faithful listeners and wonderful guests.  I'm organising a new line up for the rest of 2018, so stay tuned!



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And we have a winner(s)....

First up, a massive thank you to everyone who took part and left a name suggestion for my latest quilt.  I had a lot of fun reading them and thinking about them.  I love having an online community of quilters and artists who can have a bit of fun together, or solve a problem together, or provide a bit of support  for each other.

Moon Flight by Charlotte Scott

I've decided to call it 'Moon Flight', which I think sums it up perfectly.

So, on to the winners!

My random number generator picked 12, so the twelth commentor is Maree, congratulations!

I also put the competition on to Kiwiquilters, a Facebook group for New Zealand quilters.  And lots of people left me suggestions there.  I decided to be generous and do a drawing for them too.  The random number generator picked 3, and the third commenter was Biddy, congratulations!

I'm also going to send a bundle to Gretchen, because her suggestion, Moonlight Flight, was so very close to the name I eventually picked.  Congratulations!

Thankyou everyone, I hope you had fun coming up with names.  I know I enjoyed reading them all.  I'll be in touch with the winners shortly.

Goodbye Cerego!

You may have noticed that I've changed my blog header.  And my Instagram bio.  I wouldn't be telling the truth anymore if I'd kept it the way it was.  You see, we've moved off the boat, but not only that, we SOLD her!

My old blog header (in case you couldn't remember!)

Many people didn't see it coming.  To be truthful, I didn't see it coming either.  But when my husband and I decide to do something, we do it.  We discussed selling the boat, it made sense, so we listed it that evening.  And several weeks later, she no longer belongs to us.

Cerego is a big boat, and she is an old boat, and she is a wooden boat.  All things that add up to a fair amount of ongoing work and maintenance that we realised we were not going to keep up with if we weren't living on her.  Plus we really didn't need such a big boat if we were only going to go out on her for weekends and holidays.

We're really happy for the new owner.  He's just the right guy to take over the love and care of her.  And yes, we are a little sad for ourselves.  We won't be able to watch her steam up and down the harbour without some nostalgic feelings.

However...

We then decided we really needed a house instead of an apartment.  Somewhere with a garage for the man, a studio for me, room to park our 4WD 'The Hippo' and the runabout trailer-boat, not to mention our two cars.  Oh, and room for the children of course!  And the dog!  The apartment is great, I love it here, but I had to acknowledge that if we were going to live on shore, then we really should have the full range of conviniences available to us.

So, as I said earlier, once we decide to do something, we do it.  We looked around for a few days, found the house we wanted and within another few days we had a conditional agreement all signed up.

Unfortunately, this means I'll be moving house.  Again.  Setting up my studio.  Again.  Going slightly mad with the stress of it all.  Again.

Happy memories from our time on Cerego.

On a cheerier note, I'm really enjoying reading everyone's name suggestions for my latest heron quilt.  Some are funny, some are beautiful and Daisy's is particularly moving.  Thank you and keep them coming.  You have a few more days before I draw a winner from everyone who participated!

Name That Quilt!

Every step in making a quilt is a little step closer to a finish.  But there is 'finished' and then there is 'finished, finished'.  Too often in the past I'd breath a satisfied sigh when I'd taken the last stitch in the binding, then I'd put the quilt down and never get the other little finishing tasks done.   I now consider a quilt to be finished when it is named, labelled, has a hanging mechanism, and is documented and photographed.

When I talk to other quilters and artists, each has a least favourite part of the process of making their work.  For some it's the cutting out, others hate binding.  Some claim they don't dislike ANY part - but I'm sure they're telling fibs!  I bet there is one thing they they always put off, even if just for five minutes...

My least favourite bit varies.  Quite often it's the photography.  I'm getting better at it, and I've got lights now, which make the whole process easier.  But it's just so much faffing around!  I'd much rather sew, or dye, or audition fabrics, or anything else really.  I can't say that sewing labels or hanging sleeves has ever made my heart sing, but I actually quite enjoy hand stitching binding on, when I know it makes many people groan!

Anyway, this last week, my least favourite bit has been the naming of quilts.  I'm trying to come up with a name for my lastest finish.

Untitled as yet by Charlotte Scott 36cm x 55cm

This quilt is relatively small and was started with offcuts from the larger quilt that I'm working on.  

(In case you were wondering about my 'restart my making mojo' process that I was going through - well, it was a success!  I've been working away steadily, and now it's just the usual challenges, like time managment etc)

Here's the larger quilt still in progress:

This one will need a name at some point too, but at present its working name is The Heron Maiden quilt (the HM quilt).  Have you ever read any of the classic Japanese folk stories about cranes turning into women to return the favour of being rescued from a trap?   I've been telling myself those stories as I've been making the quilt, but twisting them into tales about a New Zealand white-faced heron turning into a maiden, then turning back into a heron after she loses her love, or perhaps after she tires of him, depending on how I feel on the day.

 

Can you see how the nameless quilt has connections to the HM quilt?  The branch in the nameless quilt is the cut-away background of the branch in the bottom right of the HM quilt, and the heron is a third, brighter, version of the two herons behind the girl.  The overlay of silk organza on nameless is the same piece of fabric that is used in the sky of the HM quilt.  So they are nicely related.

But here is where you come in, dear reader!  I'm at a total loss for a name for the untitled quilt and I'm hoping you'll help.  Hit me with your ideas and help spark my naming mojo!  Just as a little incentive, I'll do a random draw from all the people who leave me a suggestion in the comments section below and I'll send the winner a bundle of my hand-dyed fat quarters (and I'll send it anywhere in the world too).  You'll need to be a reply-enabled commentor or add your email address to your comment so I can get in touch if you're the lucky drawee.  I'll give you a week, so will be drawing on Saturday 21 April 9pm NZ time.

Please help me out, and join in the fun!  Names can be as silly or as deep and meaningful as you like, but I'd love to hear from you.

COMMENTS NOW CLOSED.  Thanks for all your help!!