Wellington Quilters Guild Exhibition

We travelled into the big city by train yesterday – we had to really, as there was another quilt exhibition to see!  The Wellington Quilters Guild Exhibition was hung at the Academy Galleries on Wellington waterfront, just a short walk up from the Wellington Railway Station. 

This looks like the right place

I purchased raffle tickets for the raffle quilt and two big collections of fabric and other bits and pieces.  Can you see the huge bra container on the right of the table?  That’s the booby prize, I was told.  Goodness, I wouldn't mind winning that!

Buy your raffle tickets here

To me, quilts should be big – big enough to cover a bed.,  And this exhibition didn’t disappoint as most of the quilts on display were big bed quilts.  It’s not that I’ve got anything against wall-hangings, I’ve got plenty of those myself here at home.  It’s just that I personally like the big ones, and can appreciate all the time and effort which goes into making them.  There were so many lovely quilts on display that it will take more than one blog post to show you.  Luckily, photography was allowed, (it said so in the catalogue) so I snapped merrily away to my heart’s content.

This intricate quilt is “De Dutch Delinquent”, by Jenny Hall and won a prize for Best Traditional.  Jenny has Dutch heritage herself, and was drawn to make this quilt by it’s interesting title.  Jenny Hall is also a member of Pinestream Quilters and has an entry hanging in that exhibition as well, so she must have been extremely busy getting her entries completed in time.

“De Dutch Delinquent”, by Jenny Hall

I loved this quilt for the good use of colour and the challenge of piecing all those half square triangles together, and went back to admire it  several times.  Sharon Perry made “Stardust” using 2940 pieces of fabric, she said.  This quilt took an award for Merit in Long Arm Quilting.

“Stardust”, by Sharon Perry

“Midnight Garden”, by Anne Read was started in a 10 month class taught by Chris Kenna.  Just look at that beautiful appliquéd leaf border.  Anne’s quilt won an award for Excellence in Use of Colour.

“Midnight Garden”, by Anne Read

This quilt was inspired by Kaffe Fassett and Mary Cleveland, and was made by Frances Velvin as a 21st birthday quilt for her son Richard.  He had asked for mostly blue, a hint of green and a touch of poppy orange.  The beautiful border fabric works so well with the pieced centre.  I loved this quilt and could have happily taken it home with me.

“Richard’s Quilt”, by Frances Velvin

Now for a couple of smaller quilts which caught my eye.  This pretty quilt by E Dawn Kendall features many Japanese inspired prints.  She calls it “Old Songs with New Needles”, and told of making this quilt in the company of her daughter and sister, while reflecting on memories of her Mother and Gran.

“Old Songs with New Needles”, by E Dawn Kendall

This wall hanging just says “New Zealand”, doesn’t it?  It was inspired by the view of Wellington’s green covered hills out of Helen Beven’s window.  This is a whole cloth quilt, painted and stencilled, then adding texture with free-motion quilting and hand stitching with a variety of threads.  I just love the shape of those fern fronds.

“Out my Window 11”, by Helen Beaven

And just to finish this showing, I’ll stay with the New Zealand theme.  The Bag Challenge on display had many wonderful entries.  MaryAnn Georgiou made this bag with an ANZAC theme as her son Robert was in Gallipoli on ANZAC day.

Bag - “Lest we Forget”, by MaryAnn Georgiou

So this is just a little taste of the Wellington Quilters Guild Exhibition – I’ll show some more photos from the show over the next few days.   The exhibition is on until 7th October, do get there if you can, you won’t be disappointed.

We lunched at the iconic upstairs Tea Rooms at Kircaldie and Stains department store.  Did you know that the Tea Rooms has a dark secret?  Check out our other blog here to read the full story.