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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hoffman Exhibition

With no work for the last few days, I took the opportunity to travel into Wellington to Minerva, the home of the New Zealand Quilter magazine. The shop was hosting the annual Hoffman Challenge, organised by Needles and Threads of Geraldine. The rules state that the quilts must be no larger than one square metre, not to be square or rectangular, and must use a recognisable amount of the challenge fabric.

DSCF4039 Minerva, Cuba Street, Wellington

Close up photography of the challenge pieces were not permitted, but I was allowed to take an overall photo of several of the quilts. Fifty-five entries were received, and twenty-two were chosen to travel around the country. My choice was “Tree Top Snack”, by Debbie Benton (not related) of Turakina. This showed the head of giraffe snacking on leaves set against a bright blue background depicting the African sky. My second choice was “Forest Floor Daisy Chain”, by Lois Templeton of Waiukau, consisting of three large interlocking circles, strung with daisy chains. This is on the right of the photo.

DSCF4038 A view of some of the entries

The postcard shows the winning entry “Gossip”, by Margaret O’Çain of Dunedin, and shows two native ladies gossiping before heading home with their supply of water. The challenge fabric obviously suggested “Africa” to the maker.

DSCF4057 Postcard of the winning entry

I didn’t leave the shop empty handed and came away with two books. The first was “Glimpses of New Zealand”, by Gail Lawther. Gail and her husband have enjoyed a couple of trips to New Zealand and the book is full of her wonderful photos, facts and figures, and thirty long narrow quilts inspired by her experiences. I’m sure I will get lots of ideas from this book.

DSCF4051

My second purchase was “More Retro Aprons”, by Cindy Taylor Oates. Have to admit that I am a bit of a messy cook so I always wear an apron, and these looked so much prettier than those I already have. The patterns are multi-sized (so much more sensible than one size fits all) so I should be able to get the right sizing.

. DSCF4052

1 comment:

Lis Harwood said...

You will enjoy Gail's book, full of great quilty interpretations of NZ and she really enjoyed herself and promotes the country beautifully! My copy is very well thumbed and I'm hoping to get on a workshop with her next year (the ones at the Festival of Quilts next week were sold out before I was awake).