The Great NZ Quilt Show

(Warning - photo heavy.)

As I noted in my last post, I've just had a 4 night weekend away.....Aotearoa Quilters put on their biennial show and exhibition at Rotorua in the lovely Bay Of Plenty. Luckily for me I have a lot of extended family in the BOP so it was an ideal excuse to visit Mum and stay for a few days.

I haven't attended an Aotearoa Quilters show before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't enroll in any classes and spent just a day there. 

There were about 126 quilts there, as well as the several challenge exhibitions, and displays from various other groups. So plenty to see!

(I've just come back and added this photo from the Aotearoa Quilters FB page. It shows a bit of the setup which I didn't photograph.)

But first of all, the Best of Show - which was Improv Trio by Helen Beaven. The photo doesn't do it justice but it was a worthy winner.

Helen took inspiration from Tapa cloth for this quilt.

The categories featured were Art, Contemporary, Modern, Pictorial and Traditional - quite different (in my experience) to what one often sees at quilt shows, where they are grouped by size, technique, number of makers and so on. So it felt different (and a little exciting) as soon as I entered the building!

First of all I will share the photos of New Zealand flavoured quilts; I thought it would be nice to focus on them here, as it's always interesting to see how a particular country represents itself.

The photos are in no particular order, and not grouped in their categories either. Just how they came off my phone. However, I hope you enjoy looking through them.

Our Local Backdrop by Kat Martin. Mt Pirongia in the background. This quilt was awarded a Merit in the Pictorial Section.

The President's Quilt made by a group of Christchurch quilters for their retiring guild president-

Autumn in the Manawatu by Lynette Murray. The 'frame' on this one was a nice touch-

Layers of History Under Our Feet by Charlotte Scott-

In the clearing by Maria Rohs-

Coast by Alison Laurence-

Ferns in Waiting by Barbara Wilson-

Ocean Beach by Lynne O'Donnell. (This is one of our local Northland beaches.)-

Storm Erosion by Shirley Sparks. Inspired by the collapse of the Kopu Hikuia highway on the Coromandel Peninsula. This won a merit in the Modern Quilts category-

The following were from some of the challenges and other exhibitions.

Pohutakawa Paradise by Mary Transom-

In Perpetuity by Simone Michaux. I'll be interested to see this one when it's completed. There will be a section for each month, showcasing our flora and fauna and the NZ birds- 

Piwakawaka korero by Sandie Sixtus. (fantails chattering)-

Mt Cook at Sunset by Linda Anderson-

Here are some of the other quilts.

Liberty Jane by Mary Daborn-

Wallflower Jane, also by Mary Daborn. These are all Dear Jane blocks, arranged a litle differently than usual!

Florabunda by Sheryl Anicich. On a second look, I realised the dahlia flowers were appliqued on top of New York Beauty blocks!

Strawberry Daiquiri by Judith Schon. Best contemporary quilt-

Wa ya ni by Annie White-

Southern Skies by Nancy Williams -

Cross Stitch Churndash by Anne Adams. The cross stitch tablecloth came from an op shop. The churn dash and the quilting was added to give it a new life-

My Caswell Quilt by Susan Wade-

Whew, so those are some of the quilts I saw. Of course there were plenty more...... It was a good day.

My sister drove over to Rotorua with me and went shopping for most of the day. But she came in to the exhibition for the last hour and was blown away by it. Not a quilter, nor a crafter, she hadn't known what to expect but wasn't expecting an actual art exhibition!

The rest of the weekend at Mum's passed pleasantly. We had a family dinner on Sunday night, with my sister and four of Mum's siblings - 

One of my aunties worked out the other day that mum and her siblings (7 in all) are responsible for nearly 100 descendants!!

Some more flying-

Back home with my farm and my animals-

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Auckland Festival of Quilts

Last weekend I left my calves in the trustworthy hands of my son-in-law and went down to Auckland for this year's Festival of Quilts.(Golly, it was nearly 2 weeks ago now!)
The Country Yard had a stand there again this year.....I worked at the shop on Thursday and by the time I got down to Auckland (with more supplies) Kerryn and Bernice had done a marvellous job of setting up our stand.

Friday morning - time for a quick team photo before I went off to play....

I met up with Linda and Julie and spent a lovely few hours in their company. Quilts and shopping. Fun :-)

On Saturday I worked on our stand and that was a good day too. Home that night, tired but full of quilty inspiration:-)

The photos are in no particular order and I apologise in advance if there are too many and that they're not all square, etc etc —
I actually thought this quilt was Best of Show, but discovered a day later it was Amateur Best of Show, rather than the penultimate.

Whilst the Hand Heals by Jenni Scott.
Using Yoko Saito's Traditional Pattern Lessons.
A lot of this quilt was completed while the maker had her wrist in plaster.

Who Am I to argue with the judges, but I didn't actually take a photo of the Best of Show.

I follow Esther Aliu's blog; she designs beautiful quilts which are always works of art. I started one years ago and didn't get very far but would love to finish it someday before starting another of her's.
Her designs often win awards, all around the world. Here are two by Jenny Henry —

Secret Garden

Red Delicious

It seemed that this year there were quite a few quilts in surprise fabrics (to me, at least). For example, below is a Dear Jane quilt in Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Quite a different look and quite pretty.

Dear Jane, by Margaret Reid.

Wendy Williams seems to be a popular Australlian designer here in New Zealand; there were a few of her quilts. 

Around the Garden by Rebecca Bishop

Sonya Prchal makes beautiful painted and then thread painted quilts. Her Cats is no exception.

Cats by Sonya Prchal

I was pleased to see a Foxley Village, designed by Natalie Bird. This was a BOM in last year's Australian Homespun magazine. The original was in Tilda fabrics, not sure what was used here. I've collected the patterns and fabrics for this and is another on my to-do list.

Foxley Village by Mary Metcalf.
There was no hand stitching in this version.

It was fun to see the Birds of a Feather quilt by Tish Brindle. I've often looked at these birds and thought I'd like to make some. They'd make a good swap or scrap challenge block.

Here are a few with a New Zealand flavour.

A truly unique Eye-spy by Ku Bailey

Neighbours by Dianne Dowd. NZ and Australian birds.
Helen Godden class using Lumiere paints and free motion quilting

Year of the Kiwi by Kathy Ronson.
Southern Hemisphere activities!

One of the more traditional looking quilts.

Little pieces of Yesteryear by Colleen Burr.

This hasn't photographed very well so I've shown a close-up photo too.

Bluebirds by Tracey Roberts

As usual, plenty of lovely quilting to look at —

Churn and Dash again by Judi Schon

Sue Flego's Just for Fun.
Her interpretation of a Sarah Fielke design

High Rise City.
Anne Joule makes beautiful EPP quilts from tie off-cuts. Most years she has
another one to exhibit.

This has got quite long!! But if you want to see even more quilts, pop over to Julie's post about the show.

Charlotte has also written about it in three interesting posts.

If you want to see what Linda bought - oh la la - head over *here* and *here*- it was exciting to be with her when she found this treasure :-)

Well done if you've got to the end! I hope you've enjoyed seeing the quilts.

Till next time, 

happy stitches