Podcast - Interview with Sonya Prchal, Textile Artist

2017 sees the biennial New Zealand National Symposium happening October 5 - 10th in Christchurch.  I'm using that as a theme for my quilting podcast and inviting as many of the tutors onto my show as possible.

This week my guest in Sonya Prchal, a talented textile artist from Whangarei.  Sonya works with paint, photographs, thread painting and sometimes appliqué to achieve fantastic realism in her work.

Sonya's website:  http://sonyaprchal-quiltartist.blogspot.co.nz
Sonya's facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sonyaprchaltextiles/

Sonya is offering three classes at Symposium: Manuka Flowers, Thread Painted Moth and Thread Painted Wildlife.

In the interview you'll hear about how her father's love of nature inspires Sonya to find beauty in the details.  Get more information about how she works, her favourite, can't-live-without sewing tool and hear about her upcoming solo exhibition.

Above is Sonya's Green Gecko quilt, a stunning example of her attention to detail and beautiful quilting.

Thanks for chatting to me Sonya, it was lovely to get to know you better!

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Donna Ward from Donna's Quilt Studio - Podcast Interview

Donna Ward is one of those 'world-famous in New Zealand' quilters.  Ask any quilter in New Zealand and they are sure to have heard of her or seen one of her quilts.

But it turns out she's a normal down-to-earth person just like you and me, and we had a great conversation about her journey into quilting, then teaching and then owning a quilt shop and teaching studio that she manages with her daughter, Ashleigh Ward.

These are the kinds of quilts that first made me aware of who Donna was.  Big, bold, Pacifica inspired quilts with exquisite machine quilting:

'Pacific Garden' (pattern available here)

Donna's award winning quilt 'Pacific Spice'

Lately, I've come across Donna on Instagram.  Her handle is @donna8b and she is surprisingly doing a lot of handwork with English paper piecing using modern fabrics.  This may have something to do with being laid up after major leg surgery!  There is also a lot of mini-swaps going on, some foundation piecing and plenty of yummy colours and patterns to look at.

Donna's Instagram feed.  She has since blinged her cast up by modpodging Tula Pink fabric all over it!

Donna and I discuss whether this is a sea-change in style for her or whether there are still some batik, pacific inspired quilts yet to come.  We talk about how quilt shop owners need to stay relevant and up to date and how video tutorials and social media are helping Donna and Ashleigh make connections with their customers. 

Watch Donna's tutorials here.

There is lots more good stuff in the interview so have a listen, then drop by Donna's Quilt Studio and say hi.

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Natalie Murdoch from Wholly Quilts - Podcast Interview

Natalie Murdoch from Wholly Quilts graciously took time to speak to me when we were both visiting The Great NZ Quilt Show.

Natalie is a quilter, teacher, gardener, cook and many other things besides.  She runs quilt retreats from her home, teaches quilting, writes fun and informative newsletters and is also an Aotearoa Quilters committee member.

Natalie and I talk about the therapeutic value of quilting, about teaching and running retreats, a wonderful fabric camp Natalie attended in the US, Natalie's own quilts, entering quilt shows and much, much more.

Natalie's quilt at The Great NZ Quilt Show 'Scare de Crows'. 

Natalie's other quilt in the show, a completely different style, 'Kaka Beak Revival' (sorry about the funny lighting, the background is actually one colour).

Natalie runs wonderful retreats and if you are after a relaxing, fun weekend, with wonderful cooking and great company, consider booking a retreat with Wholly Quilt Retreats. 

The fabric camp Natalie and I talk about was run by Common Threads Quilting and the facilitator was Terry Clothier Thompson.

I had fun talking to Natalie - she let it slip after our interview that she was a journalist at one point - so glad she didn't make me nervous by telling me that before!  I hope you enjoy our chat too.  And if you do, please share the podcast with a friend, or log onto iTunes and leave me a review.  Thanks heaps!

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The Great NZ Quilt Show 2016

What a weekend!

I arrived in Rotorua at the Great NZ Quilt Show just as it was opening and there was a queue to get in.  That's a really good sign that all the hard work of the organisers is going to pay off.

During the two days I was there, I managed to record interviews with several interesting people.  This first podcast is a mash together of the small soundbites I got with:

Marion Manson - quilter, artist and natural dyer, Marion was one of the exhibition judges.  Unfortunately I didn't get to speak with Norma Slabbert, the other judge, as she wasn't feeling great and was busy organising her presentation later that day.

Catherine MacDonald - Aotearoa Quilters president and owner of Mallee Textiles (Catherine makes drool worthy fabrics, some of which may have found their way home with me).

Valda Sutton - committee member of Aotearoa Quilters and exhibition coordinator extraordinaire.

Here are a few of the quilts we talk about on the podcast:

'Fabulous Feathers' by Carol Newsham, which Marion Manson talks about as her judges choice award (this photo was actually taken at the Auckland Festival of Quilts as I missed getting a photo of it at Rotorua).

'Gone' by Jeanette Gillies, winner of the Flight Challenge, which is also discussed by Marion.

'Petone Hospital Blanket' by Katherine Morrison, winner of Best in Show at the Wellington Symposium 2009.  Valda and I talk about this as a controversial winner.

'My Turkish Plate' by Valda Sutton, winner of Best in Show at the Palmerston North Symposium 2013.  This quilt is also mentioned in Valda's interview.

'Starnet' by Marge Hurst, winner of the very first Best in Show at Symposium Upper Hutt 1993.  Discussed in Valda's interview.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and stay tuned as I have another couple that I'm editing at the moment.

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A Love Letter to Quilters

Dear Quilters,

You rock.

I spent last weekend immersed in quilts, fabric and sewing machines; surrounded by quilters, fabricholics, merchants and quilt admirers and every interaction I had was a pleasant one.

Everyone smiled at me, everyone had nice things to say, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were no elbows at the merchant stalls, there were no overheard nasty comments about the quilts.

I had such a great time and it was all due to you amazing quilters.  What awesome people you are!

To the committee of Aotearoa Quilters who organised the show - thank you.  To the volunteers who put in hundreds of hours of their own time - thank you.  To the quilters who made the quilts for me to admire - thank you.  To the merchants who sponsored the prizes and supported the show - thank you.  To the people who visited the show - thank you.

Having such an awesome time brings home to me how influential personal interactions are on my experience.  A smile and a nod can really make someones day.  An invitation to share lunch or dinner is a wonderful friendly overture.  Even a quick conversation over the fat quarter selection may make someone feel warm inside.

Quilters, never forget what power you have!

I'm so glad I'm part of this community of passionate artists and craftspeople.  You quilters make beautiful things, warm things, lovely and loving things and you also share that passion with others.  You are generous of spirit; sharing your knowledge, your time and occasionally your precious fabric with others.

Thank you for being the cool people that you are.

With love,

Charlotte

I like herons, but...

I'm not sure I like them on my boat!

Anyone who knows me, knows that herons are one of my things.  Graceful yet slightly awkward.  This is one of my favourite quotes about them:

"The queen was settling on the edge of the bed, ungainly with hesitation and at the same time exquisite in her grace, like a heron landing in a treetop" - Megan Whalen Turner

So it was neat to see a white-faced heron taking his ease on the back bulwark of my boat when I came home the other day.  He let me get pretty close too.  Then I started to think about where the remains of his last meal was sure to end up and I regretfully scared him away.  There are plenty of wharf posts he can rest on.

Here are some of the quilts I've made with herons as my muse.

'With Little Sound'   30cm x 46cm   SOLD

'Memories of Flight'   62.5cm x 120.5cm    $850

*Edited: This quilt is now SOLD.  Thank you for your interest.

'Morning Waters at Opua'    52cm x 89cm    SOLD

'One Grey Heron'    30cm x 46cm    $125

I don't think my quilting love affair with herons is over yet.

Podcast - Interview with Wendy Welsh from Wendy's Quilts and More

I first found Wendy, a New Zealand quilter, through the wonderful pictorial world of Instagram.  Wendy loves colour, loves handwork of all kinds and loves sharing her work with the rest of the world.

I was intrigued with Wendy's millefiori la passacaglia quilt and I contacted her to ask for an interview.  She graciously obliged and we had a good old chat about quilting, colour, hand-piecing and social media.

There is lots of good listening in this interview and I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did talking to Wendy.

Links:
Wendy's blog
Wendy's Instagram feed
The Millefiori Facebook group

All pictures are courtesy of Wendy Welsh, please don't use without her permission.

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Stich and Bitch

One of the most worthwhile things that I feel I've done with the studio and gallery (have a look at my Facebook page here if you want to know more about Opua Arts) is to host a weekly stitch and bitch session.

I just got a tweet from a participant that said, "It's a very special thing you do there on a Tuesday night."  Which made me all warm and fuzzy inside.  Because that's exactly how I feel about it too.

Every Tuesday from 7pm till 9pm we gather in the upstairs space of my studio and gallery and sit and stitch and sketch and knit and embroider and sew and quilt and laugh and talk and pick each other's brains.  There is a regular bunch of women who attend and then there are less regulars and then there are the once-off visitors.  And I advertise it for any creative work, not just stitching.  It makes for wonderful, varied and interesting evenings.

A lot of the women I had never met prior to these sessions but we share a love of hand work and being creative.  That forms a common bond before we even start talking.  And then the socialising effects of tea and biscuits kick in...

There is a little community forming and connections being made and I take a secret pride that they are happening in part because of me.  Yay!  I wanted to give something back to the community, and whilst that outwardly doesn't seem to be a huge thing (no big free children's education programs or public art donations here) I feel that friendships and support networks are being formed and that is no small thing either.  It really warms my heart and makes me smile to see these women who didn't know each other a couple of months ago greet each other with broad smiles and sit down for a good old chat.

Our last Tuesday night was a funny one, with lots of jokes and laughs.  The one before that got a bit deep and meaningful.  Some have been quieter, some smaller, some bigger, some with visitors who could barely speak English, and some with just a couple of us so we could have real heart to heart conversations.

I'm also loving the inspiration I get.  It's like my brain creativity sparks up a couple of notches just by being in proximity to other creatives.  I love my quiet, isolated working times, but I think a group of creatives watching each other work fires creative synapsis is a way isolated working doesn’t.

So if you are local and reading this, come along and join in.  If you aren't so local, are you in some form of group like this, or have you tried forming a social creative group of your own?

Tuesday Tip - using up bobbins

What's wrong with this picture?  

I needed a bobbin in a particular colour for my quilting, and I have none spare to wind.  Ug.  I don't like winding a different colour over the top of a half-full bobbin because inevitably I'll need the colour underneath, and that's just a straight path to frustration-ville. 

So what I usually try to do is keep plenty of empty bobbins.  But how do I do that without wasting thread?  Well, I use my bobbins as thread spools when I'm piecing or sewing something that doesn't need a particular colour. 

You just pop your bobbin onto your thread spool holder and use as usual.  Easy!  

I try and kind of match my colours to my piecing, like darks for darks and lights for lights, because you will see bright yellow piecing thread if you use it for midnight blue fabric.  But I seem to use an awful lot of beige, grey, taupe and cream threads in my bobbins.  And sage green, lavender and medium blue are pretty neutral too.

And have you ever made 'frankenbatting'?  That's a term coined by (I'm pretty sure, correct me if I'm wrong) Pam from Hip to be a Square.  It's where you piece together lots of random batting leftovers to make one bigger bit.  And ain't nobody going to know if you did that with leftover lavender thread from your bobbin!

I don't use my bobbins when I'm quilting, because a) I'm going to run out of thread too quick and b) I don't know if having unwound from a spool and re-wound onto a bobbin would mess with my tension.  But I've never had any problems using it for piecing, so give it a try.

And while we are on the topic of bobbins.  I wanted to tell you about the best bobbin cases I've found.  One of mine is a Sew Mate Bobbin Box, the other is exactly the same but unbranded.  The inner is closed cell foam and the bobbins kind of squash in.  They never fall out, they never unravel, the lid has a good catch and the hinge has never broken on me.  The plastic is the same as plastic food storage containers, which means it doesn't smash if you drop it (ask me how I know).  

Whenever I see them, which is infrequently in New Zealand for some reason, I buy them because people always want them when they see mine!

Podcast - Sew Crazy Quilters Exhibition - Queensland Australia

I spent the last two weeks of September and into October in Australia.  We had a couple of family birthdays and had managed to organise gatherings around the celebrations.  It was a full on couple of weeks and most of it was spent with family, but I did sneak in a couple of quilt related outings.

I got to meet up with some lovely SAQA members (Studio Art Quilt Associates).  From left to right is myself, Rebecca Staunton, Ali George and Kate Oszko.  A yummy lunch and some great conversation.

My stepmother and I visited Lynette Anderson's shop, called Little Quilt Store.  It's only little, as the name suggests, but it is crammed full of Lynette's fabrics, plus some others, and if you like Lynette's style, you'll love this shop.  I came away with a little something in the form of some half-metre cuts. My stepmum bought a some Christmas charm squares and I showed her how to make coasters - she was a whizz at it!

I also got to a local quilt group's exhibition, the Sew Crazy Quilters from Helensvale, Queensland.  In a delightful coincidence, Lynette Anderson had donated the fabrics for their raffle quilt and a prize for their viewer's choice.

The Sew Crazy Quilters were great sports about me whipping out my voice recorder and asking them questions about their quilts for my podcast.  Scroll down to the media player at the bottom of the post and see if you can distinguish between the Aussie and the Kiwi accents ;-)

My first interviewee was Carleen Condon.  Her quilt is called 'Living in Town', from a design by Wendy Sheppard.  Carleen has made this quilt for her son and his fiancee for their new apartment.  It was machine quilted by Manisha Hunt (who appears later in this post).

My next guest was Jodie Nelson, who invited me to the exhibition through Facebook - the power of the internet!  And she is lovely in real life too.  Jodie's quilt is a Piecemakers pattern and is called 'America, America, God Shed His Grace on Thee'.  

Chris Gordon is a past president and made this lovely Rose Window quilt inspired by a book on rose windows from cathedrals.  Chris designed her quilt from the rose window in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Chris also talked about the challenge entries - the theme was Home.

Thadia Lawson kindly answered some questions for me about her quilt 'A Touch of Contemporary'.  This quilt is for her Grandson and it was quilted by Stephen.

Maureen Foote's quilts caught my eye with their innovative techniques and interesting subject matter. 'The River Runs Dry' is on the right hand side and 'Australia Fair' is on the left.

This quilt 'Something Fishy' was also one by Maureen.  

My last guest, just before my batteries on my recorder ran out, was Manisha Hunt.  Manisha Hunt is a professional machine quilter for hire and had some of her beautiful quilts on display.  Her website is here: http://quiltandcraftstudio.com/quilt-gallery/client-quilts/  where you can see some of her lovely work.

Thanks again, you were all lovely to chat to!  

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Opua Arts Studio and Gallery Update

Well, we are open for business!  One week ago exactly, I was pouring glasses of wine, smiling fit to burst and welcoming everyone to Opua Arts.  It was a great little opening; we had a brazier going outside, live music provided by one of the artists, wine, nibbles and lots of enthusiasm.  I couldn't have asked for more.

This is the view from upstairs.  Here I'm hoping to have classes, sit and stitch evenings and other community art gatherings.  When it's sunny it's divine, but even when it's inclement there is always something happening on the wharf to watch.  Can you see my boat on the right hand side of the picture?

I couldn't help admire the sun and shadows falling across this grouping above.  The artwork is graphite on gesso, a chiaroscuro work by Chris Wilkie.  The pottery is by Peter Yeates.

I have some very talented artists exhibiting and hopefully I'll have more soon.  I want some more of the smaller items, some artisan type work as well as the fine art. 

More pottery by Peter Yeates.  I quite like his rustic style - you can see the marks of the creator in it.

This is the only photo I got on opening night!  I just got far too busy talking and introducing and pouring drinks and talking some more!

But now that I'm open, things have settled down a bit more.  I've been over every day, even if it's just for a couple of hours.  I've met lots of people, all very enthusiastic for me.  I have several artists lined up to show me their work and several more who I have portfolios from to organise future exhibitions.  But I want more!  So artists and artisans - get in touch!

And here is one of the absolute best bits about the whole space - my new design wall.  After opening night, I rearranged the space a little to set up my sewing machine, my cutting and pressing table and my batting-covered, polystyrene design wall.  Bliss!  I think I've been more productive in the past week than I have in the last month just from being in a space that is set up purely for creativity.

There is still lots to do.  More signage, more advertising, more paperwork.  But I'm getting there.  And just so, so happy to be be on the journey.

Have a great weekend.

Podcast - Interview with Sharon Keightley of Pine Valley Quilts

Sharon Keightley, of Pine Valley Quilts, is a blogger, quilter and pattern designer.  Sharon adores reproduction and vintage fabrics and she creates beautiful quilt designs that usually incorporate both piecing and appliqué.

Sharon has previously taught classes on her appliqué techniques and she generously shares her knowledge of all things quilty on her blog.  Even though our styles differ greatly, I think Sharon's quilts are just beautiful and I always enjoy reading her process posts.

You can find Sharon on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and her website is comprehensive with a shop offering PDF patterns for download plus Sharon's informative blog.

From July Sharon is also offering something new and exciting for her.  My Home Town Quilt will be running as a free block of the month for six months.  Here's the quilt, an exclusive design by Sharon, so head over to her website to download the first set of instructions.

Sharon and I talked about the business of pattern writing and selling and how she found her niche.  We discussed her evolution into designing and how her creative process works, along with lots of information on the 'how-tos' as well.

I had a great time talking to Sharon and I think you'll enjoy our talk too.  So have a listen and go visit Sharon over at Pine Valley.  You won't be disappointed!



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