A Quilty Weekend

Foyer window at Caccia Birch House

Last weekend was the Aotearoa Quilters (AQ) International Quilt Expo at Caccia Birch House in Palmerston North.  Caccia Birch is a beautiful old historic homestead with amazing wood panelling inside.  I could imagine taking tea in the parlour (said with a very posh accent) or taking my morning constitutional stroll around the grounds - my parasol up to protect my complexion of course... Although no need for that over the weekend!

AQ is the national association of quilters in New Zealand and we were having our AGM, so the hard-working committee organised an event around it.  There were great quilt exhibitions including the PINK colour challenge and the Art Deco challenge - both of which were exhibited for the first time and had the winners revealed.  The International Wonders of the World challenge was being shown for the last time in NZ before it heads to Europe, and the Hoffman challenge and the AQ travelling exhibition from Symposium were also there.

One wall of the Art Deco Challenge

This was my favourite of the Art Deco challenge entry.  Melanie Martin used blue velvet and metallic vinyl like fabric to create this art deco pattern.  Her mastery of such difficult materials was astonishing!

The winners - Sonya Prchal took out first prize.

There were three wonderful merchants:  Brother was the main sponsor and Fox Cottage were demoing their machines.  Plume was there and Jenny sold me the most wonderful inspiration book called 'Art Quilts International. Abstract & Geometric' by Martha Sielman.  Lastly, Fabric by Three were doing a good trade in their hand-dyed, colourful fabric.

Pink Challenge winners.  Sonya Prchal took out first prize in this one also - congrats!

This was my viewers choice, which I believe was by Lois Parish Evans.

Here's my pink entry, titled 'Flamingo Four Ways'

And the wall of pink!

I had the honour of being invited to be the guest speaker after dinner at the AGM and I'm really thrilled and relieved that it went down well!  I steered away from a more traditional trunk show or talk about my subject matter and chose to delve into a deeper conversation by discussing the future of in person quilt groups, including presenting the research findings from the little survey I posted a wee while back.  

It was Cook Island week, so there were Tivaevae classes running through the weekend.  I had a go and I think I got the hang of it after a bit of an ugly start!

Sunday saw more excited people coming through to view the exhibitions.  There was a cafe on site too, offering a cup of tea or bowl of soup and a piece of cake for those needing sustenance.  Then in the afternoon, the Golden Threads Quiltathon began!

Five teams were competing to make a cot quilt in 60 minutes.  We chose a mystery pack of fabrics donated by Tiffanies Fabrics and then off we went!

The Triple T Team - because we came from Top to Toe locations around the country.  From left to right: Fliss, Marie, myself and Bev.

Our winning cot quilt.

And our Triple T Team won!  It was a lot of fun with the lovely Robyn MCing, lots of jokes, a bit of sweat, thankfully no blood and five quilt tops that will be finished into quilts and then donated to Cozy Kiwi Kids to keep kids warm around NZ.

The next big AQ show will be The Great NZ Quilt Show, to be held in Rotorua March 8-10, 2019.  Hope to see you there!

Natural Wonders of the World Quilt Challenge

In April last year, Aotearoa Quilters were invited to take part in an international quilt challenge organised by a group in Japan and including quilters from France.  The idea was to have an overarching theme and 30 sub themes.  There would be 30 quilters from each country participating, each making a 50cm x 50cm quilt interpreting the sub theme they had been given.  The challenge theme was 'Wonders of the World' and the sub themes were places like Aoraki Mount Cook, Great Barrier Reef and the Northern Lights.  In the end there would be 90 quilts, with one from each country for each sub theme.

I was able to take part, and although my first pick (Moeraki Boulders) had already been snapped up, I got to choose Fjords.  Although this was meant to be Norwegian fjords, I felt a resonance with that theme because of the fiords (spelt without a j) we have in NZ.

The quilts travelled to Japan first and have toured several different venues there.  Now they are in New Zealand before they head to France, and I hear they will be in the UK as well.  I got a chance to see them in Wellington and was super impressed by the impact they made all together and now I hear they'll be coming to Whangarei - just down the road!

I thought I'd show you some of the process that I went through to get from theme to quilt.

Before I began I did a lot of research, looking at different types of fiords, u shaped valleys, images from fiordland and learning about how fiords are made (glacial activity).

I started by making some thumbnail sketches, you can see them to the left in the photo above.  The most important concepts that I wanted to convey were the impressiveness of the landforms and the sense of awe I had when I visited fiordland and Milford Sound a few years ago.  So I knew the fantastic shapes of the land had to be the focus and I wanted a quiet quality to the quilt too, which I thought I might be able to get through the colours.

Once I had the sketch I wanted, I drew an accurate sized pattern and then I auditioned fabrics from my hand-dyed stash.

When I had the colours I wanted, I pinned them up in an approximation of the final layout on my design wall so I could stand back and get a proper look.  I cut out a freezer paper copy of the pattern and used the pieces as templates.  The hills have a turned under edge, but the little shining edges are raw edge.

I auditioned quite a few fabrics for the sky.  I wanted a sense of light to be coming from behind the hills, so it took me a while to find the right sky and to get a feeling of light and shadow on the water.  I achieved the shadows and the water with layers of silk organza.

Bird life is important to me and a constant feature of my quilts, but I also wanted a bird in this quilt because fiords are a rich habitat, both here and in Norway, with many diverse species making them their home.  I chose a heron in the end, because it's a bird that can be found in both countries.

I also quilted in a couple of 'ghost' herons when I was doing the quilting.  I was thinking about indicating the loss of habitat and decline of species that we face all around the world.  I also like to put something subtle into my quilts that the viewer has to be paying attention to find!

Fiord by Charlotte Scott

So if you are anywhere near Reyburn House in Whangarei between 19 June and the 1st July, I urge you to go and see the show.  It's fascinating to see the different styles of quilting from the different countries and to see the three different interpretations of each theme.  I'm including a photo of the fjord quilt from Japan so you can see what I mean.

Fjord by Kazuko Funabasama