Wellington Quilters Exhibition and an interview with Fyvie Murray

While I was in Wellington judging the Wellington Quilt Exhibition, I recorded a podcast.  Part of it is an interview with the president, Fyvie Murray and part of it is 'a day in the life of' snippets of my day as a quilt judge.

Fyvie actually won Best in Show, which neither of us knew at the time of the interview.  Her silk quilt, Wellington Sampler, was a lovely work depicting iconic Wellington landmarks.  Fyvie displayed skilled stitching and quilting on the difficult silk fabrics, and an unusual colour palette that contributed to an eye-catching quilt.

Photo by Wellington Quilters Facebook

I haven't interviewed or recorded in a little while, I feel rusty!  But it feels good to get back on the podcast horse.  I love sharing our quilt stories.  Enjoy!

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Jenny Bacon Quilt Judge on The NZ Quilt Show

I was lucky enough to attend the recent Aotearoa Quilters education seminar in Wellington, New Zealand, to attend a three day intensive workshop titled ‘Judging at Quilt Shows’.  The tutor was well-known quilter, teacher and quilt judge, Jenny Bacon, who graciously made time during the weekend for an interview with me.

AQ Seminar attendees with Jenny in the middle in blue.

Jenny Bacon has been making quilts since the 1970’s when she took a class with the Embroidery Guild and learned to make a silk pincushion.  

Jenny makes traditional quilts, describing needle-turn applique and hand quilting as favourite techniques, but she also makes art quilts, where she uses traditional techniques in non-traditional ways.  She has won many awards and accolades for both styles of quilts.  

Jenny is also a certified judge with the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and has travelled widely to judge quilt shows, including in the UK and the US, as well as New Zealand and her homeland Australia. Jenny is also an accomplished exhibition curator, being heavily involved in the biennial Golden Textures quilt exhibition.  Jenny lives in Maryborough on the East Coast of Australia.  

Fyvie and Paula practicing their jurying skills on the Wonders of the World International Challenge quilts.

Thanks Jenny!  I learnt so much during the weekend and during the interview, and had a great time to boot!

Maree and I feeling proud with our certificates!

You can find more of Jenny on her website here, on Facebook here, and on Instagram here.

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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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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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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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