Lockdown Day 5

I almost forgot to post today. But here I am again. Day 5. On a Monday that feels like a Sunday. School again for the kids. Beautiful Autumn weather.

I got quite a bit of work done on my Aotearoa Quilters aqua colour challenge quilt today. It's due 1st of June, so plenty of time, but it feels good to work towards checking something off a list. I can't show it in it's entirety because of the rules of entry, so here is just a snippet.

I'm going to call it "May Your Spirit Fly Free" in honour of Anne, the first NZ'er to pass away from Covid-19 infection.

All I have left to do on it now is hand-stitch down my facing and add the hanging sleeve. And label it. Oh, and make the cloth bag to protect it. And photograph it and document it. And do the entry form, payment and postage. Why does it always feel like I'm are almost done when I get to the binding or facing, when clearly I'm not even close?!

The aqua challenge is open to both members and non-members of Aotearoa Quilters. Basically you make a quilt that is any style, technique and theme, it just needs to be predominantly aqua coloured. And 12 inches wide by 16 inches high. If you want more info, click here.

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!

Yellow Challenge Entry Finished!

The Aotearoa Quilters colour challenge this year was Yellow.  I found the colour harder to work with than other colours have been in the past - and when you look at the yellow pile in my fabric stash, it's obvious that it's not my favourite colour!

I had lots of ideas, but none that really grabbed me until I was hanging out this piece of fabric that my daughter (aged 9) dyed.  I saw fire and flames and immediately thought of creating a phoenix.

I drew out a bird, using photographs of falcons as inspiration, and then used freezer paper to cut corresponding pieces of hand dyed silk organza with mistyfuse on the back.

It's easy to see my pattern under white fabric and the white as a base made the colours of the phoenix really glow.  Once all the pieces were in place I could iron them to hold them there before cutting very carefully around the edge.  You can see where I had a little more to cut in the photo below.

I use a brown paper frame to crop my design.  It's brown because that's the colour of the large roll of paper I have - white might be better, but you work with what you have, right?!

I added legs with solid cotton fabric, stitched the phoenix in place onto the background, then layered it and quilted it.  The binding was a bit of an experiment.  One layer of fabric, raw edge and two stitching lines, one of them using a heavy, hand dyed thread in the bobbin.  I think I like it.

'Pray' 12" x 12" by Charlotte Scott

I called my quilt Pray because of the references to resurrection that a phoenix has, and I liked the connotations of being prey of that fierce looking bird.  

The closing date for entries is tomorrow.  I got mine sent off at the beginning of the week so it should get there in time.  The quilts will be initially exhibited at the Orchid Show in Auckland in September and then will be a travelling exhibition after that.  All quilts are for sale at $125NZD.

The green in the GREEN

I promised you I'd show you how I was going to rectify the little problem I had of white and cream quilts for a green colour challenge.

I stitched around the edges of each piece, made up three slightly different dye baths, soaked the pieces in soda ash and then in they went.

And now they are GREEN! 

The silk moth didn't take as much of the black (the dye bath was mostly yellow and black) and is quite yellow.  Interesting, especially as you do get an occasional yellow Puriri Moth as a variation of the species.

This one needed a little tuck in it along the trunk as all the different fabrics shrunk a little bit differently, but that's ok and the beauty of improv.  This moth I expected to be much lighter as the shirt it was made from (my husband's wedding shirt!) was 30% polyester and shouldn't have taken up the dye as well as it did.  The Puriri Moth is also known as the Ghost Moth....

And the furry texture of the moth made of batting delights me!  I've since added another 'ghost' moth to this was some discharge paste.

Now it's time for quilting.  I think a wood grain would suit, seeing as they eat trees.

12 x 12 inch colour challenge - GREEN

I'm making some 12" x 12" quilts to enter in the Aotearoa Quilters colour challenge.  These will all be exhibited together at a couple of different venues and when they are all in the wall together they look fabulous.

This time around the colour is green.  

My chosen subject is the Puriri moth.  A huge native moth, whose catapillar stage burrows into and eats the Puriri tree.

The moth is the most amazing green colour (the catapillar is a bit icky grub-like so we won't dwell on it).

I had fun declaring a ruler-free day and making these backgrounds out of linen, cotton, vintage cloths, white on white prints and anything else interesting I could lay my hands on.

But you may have noticed they aren't GREEN!  And you're right.  That bit comes next.  Stay tuned. And you'll see what I'm going to do about that.