Festival of Quilts 2022

The Auckland Quilt Guild held it's 'annual' show, Festival of Quilts, last weekend. I say 'annual' but this is the first time it's been held since 2019!

In 2019 they hosted Symposium instead of running the show, and then of course there were two years of cancellations due to Covid.

So it was great to go back!

The Country Yard had a stand there - we set up on Thursday night - and the show ran Fri-Sat-Sun.

Before the doors opened, I popped upstairs to get our team some coffees —

I'm not sure how the figures tally up, but there seemed to be heaps of people in attendance over the three days. For the most part we were kept busy on our stand, and I didn't get as good a look at the quilts as I would have liked.

So I didn't capture all of my favourites but took a range of photos for a variety of reasons.

This whole cloth quilt was Best Of Show —

"Perseverance" by Jocelyn Atkinson
Her artist's statement said she used the cut away batting technique and then coloured batting to create the shadow effect. 

I found the colour within the quilt to be very effective, not to mention the beautiful quilting!

I was pleased to see that Australian and New Zealand designers were well represented at the show. Ngaire Brooks (NZ), Irene Blanck, Jen Kingwell, Rachel Daisy, Wendy Williams - and probably more I haven't noted.

This quilt caught my eye because it's the sort of quilt I thought I'd like to make - one day...... - a NZ themed Baltimore — 

"My Family Baltimore Album Quilt" by Susan Wade

(Designer Ngaire Brooks)

The quilt below tickled my fancy - for reasons explained in the Artist's Statement. Seeing the Candlewick bedspreads she used was a moment of nostalgia for me! —

"Not my Grandmother's Bedspread" by Heather Bassett

Such fun!

A few of the ladies in Chooky's zoom group are making Lucy Boston's quilt, so I had to take this photo for them —

"All the Blues" by Joy Hill

"Folk Flowers" by Tish Brindle

The one below is an original design and I really liked the way the maker used pieced blocks in the black/grey parts of the star. Making 'blended fabric' she called it —

"Starlight Starbright"  by Susan Boucher

This is a pattern I've had on my wishlist for a while; a Jen Kingwell design.

"Green Tea and Sweet Beans Revisited" by Jean Ramsay

(Designer Jen Kingwell)

"Pinball Wizard" by Sue Flego.

"Chambray Flowers" by Rebecca Bishop

(Designer Irene Blanck)

"Pretty Little Pots" by Tish Brindle

(Designer Wendy WIlliams)

This was a BOW I bought a couple of years ago; I wasn't sure where to start with it so maybe I should just make a start!!!

This was a fun concept. There were two of these quilts, after a class by Rachel Daisy. Old jean pockets formed the direction of this quilt —

"Wild Garden" by Rebecca Bishop

(Designer Rachel Daisy)

Every year the Aotearoa Quilters group holds a colour challenge which travels the country. The current one is 'Brown' which was surprisingly colourful! 

I didn't take many photos but here are two of the quilts —

"Whakairo" by Gabriella Haill (top) and

"Faded Glory" by Mary Metcalf 

OK, so I'd better sign off. I hope you've enjoyed this little look at the show. Normally I would link up to other bloggers who visited it but I haven't seen many write ups by the NZ bloggers I follow, yet. 

Linda of Kokaquilts has a write-up *here*. It's always interesting to see what grabs different people's attention.

There were a few more pictures on the Kiwiquilters page on Facebook, if you're a member of that group.

It's been wet and wild overnight. Some of the roads are flooded but I should get to work ok. But now I'll go feed calves and check out the damage on the farm!

'til next time,

happy stitches,