Aurum Quilt, tucked away in Lawrence

What a pleasant surprise to come upon a quilt unexpectedly on our holiday.  I saw this quilt hanging proudly on the wall of the Lawrence Information Centre.  Called “Aurum Quilt”, it was made and donated by Joanne Mitchell.  This quilt won the “Southern Women Southern Quilts” exhibition held in the Otago Museum, as well as winning Viewers Choice.  Aurum is Latin for metallic gold, and just up the road in Lawrence is Gabriel’s Gully, the site of the gold find which sparked off the Otago gold rush. 

Aurum Quilt, by Joanne Mitchell

This quilt really needs close scrutiny to take in all the details.  It shows a prospector looking for gold in a river, and the dark framing is beautifully quilted, showing many gold mining motifs.

Quilted background showing gold miner’s  pick and shovel

This lovely quilt seems quite familiar and I am sure that it has been featured in the New Zealand Quilter magazine some time ago.  How generous of Joanne to donate her prize winning quilt to the town of Lawrence which has such an association to the history of gold mining.    

Wool On – Creative Fashion

Tucked away in a corner of the Central Stories Museum in Alexandra was a colourful display of fashion showcasing the previous winners of the  “Wool On Creative Fashion Event”.  There were quite a variety of outfits, from evening wear, dresses, jackets and coats, all fashioned from merino wool.

Wool in Fashion

“Metallica”, by Laurel Judd, is the 2009 Supreme Award Winner.  The slim fitting black and silver evening gown features a single strap, layered fish tail, sequins and diamantes.

Metallica, by Laurel Judd

“Tribute to Christchurch Cathedral”, by Daphne Randal, is the 2011 Supreme Award Winner.  The knitted dress was inspired by stained glass windows.  The cape pays tribute to the beautifully patterned roof, brickwork and windows of the Christchurch Cathedral.

Tribute to Christchurch Cathedral, by Daphne Randal

“I C Red”, by Laurel Judd, 2010 Supreme Award Winner.  This is a cream and black spotted merino knit dress, topped with a red, black and cream merino boucle overcoat featuring flares and ruffles.  Next to this is “Merino Queen”, by Kensa Randall, 2011 Young Designer Winner.  Her creation was a sleeveless hand woven coat worn with a merino bra and short skirt.

  I C Red by Laurel Judd, and Merino Queen, by Kensa Randall

It all started here, with the introduction of Merino sheep into New Zealand.  This breed, which produces fine wool used in the garment industry, thrive in the farms on the high country in New Zealand.  And what a fine looking animal it is too.

  Merino sheep, prized for it’s fine wool

These lovely woollen clothes really brightened up the corner of the museum, and brightened up my visit too.  The creativity of young designers is amazing, and working with wool certainly gives their clothes a distinctly Kiwi flavour.

The Old Drapery of Ophir

Tiny Ophir is considered one of the most authentic and significant settlements still surviving from gold mining days.  The town sprang up almost overnight back in the 1860s, but sank into near obscurity when the gold dwindled and the railway bypassed the town.  This probably helped to save many of the historic buildings.  The ladies of the area would have spent many an hour in this shop, The Old Drapery, buying their fabric, needles and threads.

  The Old Drapery

This early building was owned by Mrs Ellen Craig and rented out to tenants over the years.

A peek through the windows

The Old Drapery, together with many other buildings in the village, is currently being restored.  What a lovely little place Ophir is, well worth a stop and a leisurely look around.

Large stones holding the roof in place – a work in progress

The Hayes of Otureua

While our men-folk were immersed in the tools, machinery and fittings of Hayes Engineering Works, us girls looked around the lovely old homestead.  All the buildings on the property are administered by the Historic Places Trust.

  The Hayes Homestead

The family produced bricks for their new house, but work stopped on this project during WW1 and the bricks were hidden away.  Brick making recommenced again and the homestead was completed in 1920, taking two years to build.  The home is in original condition, right down to the wallpaper. 

The kitchen, with airing rods over the wood stove

The Dining Room

Ernest Hayes, a millwright, engineer and inventor, made sure that his new home was “up to the minute”.   It had the first indoor flush toilet in the area, and piped music in all the rooms.

   Child’s bed with hand made coverlet

Master bedroom with bassinet

It is always such a treat to look through an old home such as this, and I love to see the old linens and clothing. 

Cabinet of lace and embroidery

Hannah Hayes was a force to be reckoned with.  While her husband was busy in his workshop making a name for himself with his inventions, she helped out with marketing.  In the early 1900s she set off on her bicycle and travelled throughout Central Otago, Lindis and the Mackenzie Country seeking orders for her husband’s products.  You can imagine the state of the roads in these early times.  All this while raising a family too.

  Ernest and Hannah Hayes of Hayes Engineering Works

High Fashion at Glenshee Park

A trip from Naseby and on to the unsealed Danseys Pass Road brought us to Glenshee Park Fashion Museum and Gallery, another “must see” places on my South Island list of things to do.  The late Eden Hore, a sheep farmer, also had a love of fashion, and collected over 200 gowns during the 70s and 80s, with many of the garments being finalists in the Benson and Hedges Awards.  Mr Hore used to hold fashion shows on his front lawn, and converted his tractor shed into a display room for his collection.  It cost a very reasonable charge of $5 to enter the museum, which also houses a huge collection of Jim Beam decanters, much to Robin’s delight.  The gowns are housed in glass fabric cabinets, with most of them hanging up on hangers not unlike a wardrobe, so it is not always possible to view each gown in detail.

A cabinet of gowns

Wedding gowns

What I really loved was that most of the gowns were very feminine, featuring lace, beads, embroidery, and several with boa feather details.  Not like the entrants in the “Wearable Art Awards” these days which don’t, to my mind anyway, look like dresses at all.

  Pretty in peach

And another in blue

She looks like she means business!

Now about those Jim Beam decanters -  Eden Hore had collected over 450 of these, in all shapes and sizes.  For a touch of culture - how about this Opera series.

Jim Beam Opera series

There is also quite a large display of taxidermy.  All the animals lived on the farm, we were told, including the large woolly yak.  You don’t see many of these in NZ paddocks, do you?

They’ve been stuffed!

I’m so pleased that I can put a “big tick” beside Glenshee Park on my list of things to do and places to go.  Margaret Steele very graciously opened up the gallery for me and which I really appreciate.  So any one who loves fashion, next time you are in this neck of the woods, it is certainly worth stopping and taking a look.  The men will enjoy checking out the Jim Beam decanters while the ladies drool over the beautiful gowns.

Remember that you can keep up with our South Island Odyssey Trip on our Travel Blog on www.romanyrambler.blogspot.com

My Special Stitching Friend

It’s been so nice to meet up with my old school friend Merilyn, during our stay in Dunedin on our South Island Odyssey trip.  You know what it’s like with these special friends in your life, when we meet up after a period of months, or even a couple of years, it’s just like we have never been apart.  Merilyn hasn’t been bitten by the quilting bug (yet), but rather enjoys stitching candlewick projects.  She has made several little cot quilts over the years, and has a whole collection of pretty white candlewick cushions.

One of the pretty cushions

Merilyn proudly showed me the duvet cover she has finished recently – showcasing more of her skill with needle and thread.

Duvet cover

Close up of one of the designs

Must admit that I haven’t done a great deal of stitching  during this holiday, too much to see and do, and not enough relaxing time.  I’m making a herb inspired cushion for my daughter for a gift (luckily she doesn’t read the blog) and so far I’ve only stitched a few herb names.  But I’m slowly getting there, so that’s the main thing.

I’m stitching a herb cushion

Merilyn has done spinning for many years (not one of my skills) and loves to knit as well.  So it’s good that we share a love of candlewick and stitcheries together.  Wonder if she will ever take up quilting?

Two old friends, Merilyn and me

Oh goody – a Quilt Show

“There’s a quilt show on in the city”, our caravan companions told me, knowing of my interest in P&Q.  No, I hadn’t known, but made sure that our “city tour” the next day included a visit to the quilt show.  And there it was, right next door to the Information Centre in Dunedin.

This way to the quilt show.

The show had free entry, and there were several raffles on offer – a quilt, a gift basket, and a whole basket full of fabric squares.  Maybe I’ll get lucky, and I have put my friend Merilyn’s (local) phone number down just in case the organisers have to call me.  She came with me as we wandered around looking at all the wonderful quilts on display.  I’ll show just a selection of what caught our fancy. 

   Overview of the quilt show

I’m rather keen on what one can do with the humble (previously discarded) selvedge, so spent some time checking out “Selvedges Galore” by Debbie Pettinger.  I have a whole heap of selvedges at home and I am always looking for ways to use them.

Selvedges Galore – by Debbie Pettinger

“Celtic Poppies” was a beautifully stitched wall-hanging, hand appliquéd and hand quilted by Pam Larson.  What a lot of work involved in stitching all those curves in place.

Celtic Poppies – by Pam Larson

Black, white and a touch of red is always such a striking colour combination.   Lots of nine patches with vibrant poppies hand appliquéd over top.  This was made by Gaye Tetzlaff.

Poppy Dazzler – by Gaye Tetzlaff

There’s something about Baltimores, isn’t there, which draw people in to closely study all the lovely hand appliquéd blocks.  This beauty is called “Family want it”, and was lovingly stitched by Marion McLean and quilted by Alison Bufton.

Family want it – by Marion McLean

I really loved this Dunedin inspired Row by Row, look, there’s Larnach Castle, a pair of albatross, so you can’t get more local than that.  The quilt features a variety of native NZ birds and flowers, and is owned by Dianne Clarke.  Several others are credited with making this lovely quilt so I wondered if the group were all taking part ion a row by row, or perhaps it was a birthday quilt.  Whatever the story is, it is certainly a work of art, and my own personal “viewers choice”.   

New Zealand Row by Row – Dianne Clarke

And this optical illusion was my (non quilting) friend’s viewers choice, called “Faberge”, and stitched by Joy Fitzpatrick, a Jinny Beyer design. 

Faberge – by Joy Fitzpatrick

The Otago P&Q group are to be congratulated on their lovely show, it was well set out and there was so much to see.  Hope they pull my name out of the hat for one of those raffles!  While Merilyn and I were inside admiring all the quilts, our men folk were waiting patiently for us outside.

Study of a couple of patient husbands