More Quilty Goodness

The Auckland Quilt Guild held their annual Festival Of Quilts recently (I'm losing track of the weekends!). 

The Country Yard (where I work one-day-a-week (usually)) was a vendor so we packed up the shop and off we went!

What to take, how many to take and can we squeeze in one more project to sew, kit and sell are all BIG questions in the lead up to the event. Keeping in mind that we had our big birthday weekend very recently (*last post*), I think we did well just getting there!!

By Thursday afternoon we were mostly set up —

(just some labels and a few more last minute bits and pieces to go).

(You can see my recently completed Cross and Crown quilt hanging there, in the reds/pinks.)

The festival committee used a different layout this year. The vendors were all around the outside walls of the Auckland Netball Centre, and the quilts and displays were set up in the centre. I really liked this layout - previously the vendors were all bunched together in one area. This flowed lots better.

We were busy on our stand (yaay) but of course that means I didn't get to see as much of the exhibition as I would have liked. 

Lucky for us, this was our view from our stand. I loved the heart quilt!

This quilt was by Susan Boucher. She used Jen Kingwell's Boho Heart pattern and used her own heart and flower designs in the interior to suit the fabrics she had chosen.

I popped over for a closer look in a quiet time, and I've since realised that I barely took many photos of all the other quilts. Permission was given to take photos, as long as the maker was acknowledged on social media. The odd photo I took didn't have the correct details!

A couple of other views of the Stadium —

Best of Show. The Colour of War by Norma Slabbert. 

Best Amateur Quilt. A Walk in the Woods by Isobel McFall. Particularly effective when you stood back a little.

I'm not quite sure why it was decided to drape the winners' sashes over the quilts like that - they were quite distracting!

Aotearoa Quilters had a few exhibitions. This is their Red challenge; every year it's a different colour.

There were plenty of clever pieces. Here are just two of them. Was it because Dame Whina Cooper was such a respected lady that images of her strike a chord? This was a  well executed piece by Catherine Parkinson—

The Monarch, by Sandie Sixtus.

Another of the special exhibitions at the show was this one, showcasing Tivaevae. These are gloriously coloured applique quilts made in the Cook Islands.

(The second photo is borrowed from the Auckland Quilt Guild FB page.)

I did a little bit of sewing before we headed south to the quilt show, and made these wee pincushions. They are all based on Gail Pan designs —

The green/churn dash one was filled with fibre fill and the other two were filled with walnut shell.

Before I made those, though, I finished a Christmas quilt. The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me was a top that had been sitting around for a while. It was a sample for a BOM at the shop. We decided to run it again as it was very popular. But better to have it displayed as a finished quilt!!

I needed to change the foot on my machine. This big plastic one curves up which means it doesn't get caught on the three dimensional wool felt pieces.

And back to the standard foot for the outer border. I mostly just outlined the applique and stitchery and did this ribbon thing around the outside edge. 

Hanging at the show (the light was wrong for a decent shot) —

And now hanging at the shop —

While the show ran over three days, I was at the show for just two of them. It was a busy old time, but I enjoyed it. 

So there we have it - a bit of a peek at the show, and a bit of  peek at what I've been sewing.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn.