Minerva – home of New Zealand Quilter

Tucked away in Cuba Street, Wellington, is Minerva, textile bookshop and gallery, and the home of the New Zealand Quilter magazine. Minerva was a virgin Roman Goddess of, amongst other things, weaving and crafts – the decorative arts. I am proud to be one of the foundation subscribers to our very own New Zealand Quilter magazine, and have kept every single copy. (Not so some of the other mags I buy, but this one is very special to me). Over the years I have watched it grow and go from strength to strength.

New Zealand Quilter magazine is produced quarterly. Editor Anne Scott produced the first issue in October 1992 and it had 21 pages. These days the magazine runs to 70 pages. It is chock full of articles, reviews and patterns by New Zealand designers. I even like to take a copy when we go on our caravan trips, the advertisements for out of town quilt shops are invaluable. Who knows when I might need to do a bit of fabric shopping!

Minerva bookshop

Inside Minerva there are books galore for quilters, embroiders, crafters and knitters. Plus a small selection of cards, threads and giftware. The small gallery showcases exhibitions of different crafts. The quilters of New Zealand are so lucky that Anne decided to take that gamble way back in 1992 to produce our own magazine. Check it out on www.nzquilter.com

Cuba Street in Wellington is one of the quirkier parts of the city with many interesting shops and ethnic restaurants. In the middle of Cuba Mall is the colourful Bucket Fountain, made by Burren and Keen in 1969. It was designed so that water entering the top buckets suspended in a frame is tipped into those below which, in turn, would tip. Much of the water splashes over the sides of the lower buckets and thus their tipping is unpredictable as it takes time for them to fill up. Visiting children laugh when the water splashes over unwary passers-by. The Bucket Fountain is a much loved Cuba Street icon.

The Bucket Fountain in Cuba Street

Muffy goes caravanning

Muffy, our beautiful Birman is getting to be a well travelled cat. We took her to Koputaroa, in rural Levin, last weekend, when we joined 70 motor homes and caravans at a Guy Fawkes Rally. I had to pack her little drawstring bag, which I had made especially for her. It has a cat stitchery on the front, and I used cat printed fabric, of course . In it is her comb, her little pink harness, and a very light lead. There is no way we would let her out on her own in a strange place in case she took fright and ran away.

Muffy’s special little bag

Not that she goes outside a great deal, she really does consider herself an “indoors” kind of cat. Lying about on top of the quilt covering our caravan bed is really more her style. She eats her breakfast, goes outside for a brief look around to see what is what, then curls up and sleeps for the day.

On the caravan bed

Always inquisitive, Muffy finds any sort of open cupboard irresistible. What’s in this one under the sink? And what about the outside locker? Perhaps she can squeeze in if she tries hard.

These look interesting, let’s see if I can squeeze in

When we returned home, Muffy had a sniff around the garden, walked down the hall, jumped up on our bed, and promptly went to sleep. What a life these cats have!!

Looking for Dollies

On our recent trip to the Wairarapa my friend Kathryn and I went to check out a new doll shop. Kathryn loves dolls was given a really nice (and expensive) one for her major birthday last year. I just went along for the ride as there just happened to be a craft shop in the vicinity, they are always worth checking out as well.

Chestnut Gallery in Greytown, Wairarapa

As it turned out the doll shop wasn’t really a doll shop after all. It was a doll house shop. As well as having the imported kit set houses on offer, there were many designs of doll house sized sheets of wall paper for interior decoration. And of course the shop sold all sorts of miniature furniture and fittings. The owner told us that there were over 30 clubs in New Zealand dedicated to dolls houses and miniature furniture.

One of the many cabinets full of furniture

We enjoyed checking out all the delightful little treasures. The large American dolls houses were wonderful to see. Three stories high,with gables and plenty of large windows, we could see how interesting they could be to start decorating. These beauties are obviously not the kind of thing for clumsy little kiddie fingers to touch.

One of the American kitset doll houses

But sadly for Kathryn…. there was not a dolly to be seen. Never mind, we had an interesting morning browsing. If dolls houses are your interest, check out the website at www.chestnutgallery.co.nz

Hawkes Bay Patchworkers & Quilters Exhibition

We travelled up to Hastings for the weekend to visit my sister and her family. “Did you know there was a quilt show in town?” she asked. No I didn’t, but we soon found out where it was and went to check it out. The Hawkes Bay Patchworkers & Quilters Biennial Quilt Show was held in the Hastings Community Art Centre. The show had free entry and a steady stream of quilt lovers arrived to admire what was on offer. The juried quilts hung in the centre of the exhibition, and were surrounded by many more non judged quilts. Christmas quilts, wall hangings, banners and toys made a nice display in the front window.

The Christmas window display

I was interested to see that many of the quilts incorporated stitchery blocks, and several had a New Zealand theme. One of my favourites was a candlewicked quilt which featured NZ birds and flowers. I also noticed that several of the quilts on show had pin tucks stitched on the lattices and borders, not something I had come across before.

A view from the top of the stairs

There was something for everyone to delight in. Quilts in 30s fabrics, hexagons, raggy edged quilts, quietly refined bed quilts and vibrant kiddies quilts. There were several striking red and black quilts. Even one lovely satin offering made out of discarded ball gowns, now that is certainly a memory quilt, isn’t it?

Selvedge quilt

I had been reading about quilting with selvedge strips recently, and sure enough, there were a couple of selvedge quilts on display. All the quilts were well hung and there were interesting touches in the items used such as furniture and old suitcases to give added interest to the display.

Japanese wall hanging

The Hawkes Bay group put on a wonderful exhibition and are to be congratulated on their wonderful work.

A woman’s work……

We visited the Mount Bruce Pioneer Museum, north of Masterton, in the weekend and that certainly made us appreciate the labour saving machines that we have these days. Doing the laundry in these early washing machines was an all day chore. The soap and flour bags hanging up on the clothesline were certainly from a bygone era. The owner was amazed when I told him that some crafters pay big money for bags like these.

Old time washing machines

The old cook books on display brought back some memories, especially the Aunt Daisy cookbook. Born Maud Ruby Basham, Aunt Daisy was an institution here in New Zealand. Her first radio broadcast was made in 1922 and by 1933 her week-day, 9am half-hour programme for women, was a huge success. Made an MBE in 1956, Aunt Daisy broadcast her daily programme about household management until just a few days before her death in Wellington in 1963.

Shelves of old cook books

There were plenty of old sewing machines on display, including an early Bernina. (I love my current Bernina , Aurora 440), and a cabinet full of very interesting sewing bits and pieces. Embroidery cottons, pins, scissors, even a darning mushroom. How many of us can remember darning socks, I wonder?

I loved the display of old clothing. There were several lace adorned undergarments and even a corset. We certainly don’t miss wearing those horrible things, do we! We spent a very interesting afternoon checking out all these bit and pieces from years gone by.

Lace trimmed undies

Who’s a lucky girl, then?

Who doesn’t love getting “real” letters? I have several overseas quilting pen friends who I have been corresponding with over the years. I have been lucky enough to meet up with several of them, but that is another story. The postman has been busy delivering birthday parcels from overseas to me over the last couple of weeks.

Christmas wall-hanging from Diane

First to arrive was this lovely Christmas wall-hanging from Diane in Oregon. It features an assortment of Christmas balls surrounded by a red ribbon. Diane had bordered this with a Christmas fabric of hanging balls, poinsettias and Christmas foliage, and machine quilted it in gold thread.

Machine embroidery from Janet

Next to arrive were some machine embroidered gifts from Janet in Australia. Janet is a real whizz on her embroidery machine and made me lovely pink handkerchief personalised with my initial, and two embroidered lace medallions. These two would look great hanging from a Christmas tree, I think.

Quilting themed fabric from Carol

A quilter can never have too much fabric, and Carol from South Dakota sent me this fat quarter of fabric featuring all sorts of sewing notions. Now, what shall I make out of this? Something that shows the fabric off to the best advantage, I think. Also in the parcel were two cute quilt pins (brooches).

Pin cushion from Janet

Then today, I came home from work to find another parcel waiting for me, from Janet in UK. It was a pin cushion, beautifully made from “old English” design tapestry fabric and finished with burgundy braid. I certainly have been a lucky birthday girl and thank my pen friends for their wonderful gifts. But most of all, I thank them for the gift of friendship, and all the pleasure I get from their letters and emails.

It’s my Birthday

It’s “Happy Birthday” to me today and I’m 64 years young!! My lovely husband Robin found this birthday card for me and the words and illustrations are so nice as well as quite funny I thought I would share it with everyone.

For my wonderful wife

I lose my socks,I lose my head

Sometimes I lose my way

I’d like to lose a kilo or two

But they seem here to stay

I lose my drive to get things done

Sometimes my temper too

But there’s one thing I’ll never lose

And that’s my love for you!