Final photos from Inspire Quilt Exhibition

Here are a few more photos from my club’s exhibition.  It’s always interesting to go and view the quilts several times, as you always see something previously missed.  Like this gorgeous little fish, stitched by first time exhibitor, Pam Ritchie.

“Fish”, by Pam Ritchie

Just look what proud grandmother Clare Grant has made for Erin and Adam.  The idea behind these two bed sized quilts are the paper dolls with their wardrobe of paper clothing that were part of her childhood.  What a couple of lucky youngsters Erin and Adam are to have such a creative grandmother.

  

Paper Doll quilts, by Clare  Grant.

Linda Johnson made her beautiful quilt “Effervescence” as a 21st birthday gift for daughter Hope.  Linda is well known for her love of intricate paper piecing, and she has made a wonderful job of this quilt.  The pattern is “An unusual Lone Star”, by designer Karen Stone. 

“Effervescence”, by Linda Johnson

The inspiration behind this quilt was a visit to L’Orangie Museum in Paris to view some of Claude Monet’s  paintings.  The background blocks were paper pieced over old telephone book pages, and I can remember seeing Petronella busily stitching away on these blocks at several “Stitching Monday” workdays.

“Memories of L’Orangie” by Petronella Lazet Polman

We’ll finish our little showing with “Spinning Kaleidoscope”, by Shirley Mooney, another first time exhibitor.  This original design was inspired by the lush New Zealand forests, and the opening fern frond (koru) represents new growth.

“Spinning Kaleidoscope”, by Shirley Mooney

So that is all from my own particular quilt club’ Pinestream Quilters exhibition.  However, tomorrow I am off to the big city to view a just opened exhibition, this one put on by the Wellington Quilters Guild.  I just hope they allow photos to be taken!  Check back tomorrow and I’ll let you know.

Martinborough Treasure Trove

We were enjoying the Spring sunshine today and joined a group of friends over  the Rimutaka Hill at Martinborough.  Everyone remembered to put their clocks forward one hour for the start of “Daylight Saving” so all of us arrived at our meeting point at the correct time.  I’m a real fan of daylight saving, and just love the long summer evenings that it brings.  Our hostess Anne took us around a corner or two from the Martinborough Square to check out this establishment.  Billed as “The Shop that looks like a House”, it certainly was.  Chock full of collectables, and vintage treasures, it was like stepping back in time.  

Step this way to view the treasures inside

There were jars of interesting old buttons sitting on tables on the shady vine covered veranda.  Lots of crafters like to collect old buttons, I know, and some have huge collections.  I walked on by into the house to see what else was on offer.  I love old linen, and spent some time looking through the pretty embroidered table clothes.  As well as the linen, there were baskets of knitting wool and haberdashery.  Such things as cards of domes, of hooks and eyes, and we even found a couple of darning mushrooms .  You know the sort, all good housewives used to darn their husband's holey socks in days gone by.  “You don’t need to buy anything”, one of our friends commented, “you are moving house and you’re trying to de-clutter, aren’t you?” That’s true, we have our house on the market and have been very busy over the last few weeks sorting out what we don’t need and taking all sorts of things to the op shop. 

 

Lots of old linen on display

There was a huge variety of lovely items on display, pretty dishes, tea pots, and vintage clothing and hand bags.  But I was very good, just looked, and didn’t buy a thing.

  

China and tea spoons

Martinborough was humming with people, all out enjoying the lovely weather.  This town has quite a connection to the maternal side of my family.  My mother was born here, and her mother and other early family members are buried in the oldest of the town’s two graveyards.  I had hoped to re-acquaint myself with an old family photo hanging in the bar of the historic Martinborough Hotel.  But the interior of hotel was being repainted and the photo of my great-grandfather standing outside his boot and shoe shop in the early days of Martinborough was not to be seen.  All the old photos were safely stored away, I was told.  I hope so, it would be a shame if they were disposed of.

Martinborough Hotel – where’s my great-granddad gone?

Pinestream Quilters September Club night

Ladies from the “New Settlers Group” came along to our club night on Thursday.  This church based group was set up for new settlers including immigrants and refugees, to get together for company and support.  They asked to learn cooking and sewing skills.  Several ladies from our quilt club help teach sewing, members often donate fabric and notions, and the club has helped out with purchasing sewing machines.  Ladies from the New Settlers came along to our meeting to show what they had been making during the year, and to thank the club for it’s ongoing support.

There was not quite so much Show and Tell at this meeting, probably because all the members had been busy with their entries for our current quilt show.  Our President Karen proudly told how her Mum (a visitor at our meeting) had been busy knitting and had completed several little baby blankets to be donated to the Neo Natal  hospital ward.

These lovely bright fabrics were purchased by Jan while on holiday in USA.  They have been cut and stitched to form the blocks and then Jan appliquéd those rather exotic looking flowers on top.  There will be lots of happy holiday memories in this quilt.

Jan’s lovely floral quilt

This cute quilt had quite a “country” feel to it, and Janet told us that she really enjoyed stitching the blocks of this quilt.

Janet’s country style quilt

I’m a real fan of New Zealand quilts, and this one made by Pauline is full of lots of different New Zealand design fabrics. 

Pauline’s New Zealand inspired quilt

Last but not least is Joyce’s pretty pastel Love Ring design quilt.   The girls from our Friday Stitchers group all had a hand in this, and each made Joyce several of these little curved blocks.  She then had to sit down and make hundreds more, she told us

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Love Ring quilt

I was scheduled for supper duty at the end of the meeting, so did my bit with taking something along for supper, pouring drinks and helping with the dishes.  It was not too onerous at all, especially with four of us helping.  It was another good club night, and it is always nice to catch up with the other members.

A good day for washing a quilt

Yesterday was one of those good “laundry” days, fine and sunny, with a nice warm breeze.  So after I’d done the normal wash and hung it outside, I decided to launder my “Memories of Misty” quilt.  Although I have several large bed quilts which I rotate, this is my favourite winter season quilt.  Made with wool batting, it is lovely and cosy.  It was due for a gentle wash, so it would be all ready to keep us warm next winter.

Memories of Misty

Completed back in 2001, this quilt has been well used and loved.  Some of the fabrics have faded a little over the years, but it is still going strong.  I made the quilt to remember our former cat Misty, who lived a full and happy long life of 19 years.  Misty was an attractive large silvery grey cat, rather feisty, knew her own mind, and was very much Robin’s cat.  (There was no way she would lie still and allow us to groom her, as our present cat Muffy does.)  I invited my overseas pen-friends and local quilting friends to make me a block or two and sign their name, so it is also a memory quilt.  Then of course I made all the other blocks needed.

 

The backing is a cat fabric

As it happens,  I have been selling some unwanted quilting things on Trade Me, and have just sold some leftover cat blocks from this quilt.   These have been tucked away in a box all this time, and the colours are so much brighter than my quilt.  Luckily I had a fat quarter of the pink background fabric, plus directions to make extra blocks, if required.  Gail bought them for her 10 year old daughter who loves cats and is just starting to sew.  She is going to sash the blocks in purple, I was told.  Isn’t it great that this young girl is all set to make her first quilt? 

  Extra cat blocks have found a new home

It’s just as well I washed the quilt yesterday, as today would be no good at all for hanging laundry outside on the clothesline.  It’s wet, and damp, and rather miserable today, not quilt washing weather at all.

Quilting through the Ages

Upper Hutt City is celebrating “Seniors Week, with activities for seniors to celebrate the golden years”.  I went along to Expressions Gallery today to watch a visual presentation from well known textile artist Katherine Morrison,  who is also a member of my quilt club.  The audience was made up of a sprinkling of club members, together with many interested locals. 

Katherine started her talk with commenting that quilted clothing was being made as early as 5000 BC, and knights heading off to the Crusades wore quilted garments under their armour.  She slowed slides of very early quilts from the 16th century, some of them tattered after all this time, up to modern times.  A photo from 1863 showed an intricate woollen quilt stitched by a soldier as therapy as he recovered from his war wounds.  After being out of favour for many years, the quilt revival in the 1930s brought quilting to the fore again.  The slide show covered quilts from the Gees Bend quilters, who were geographically isolated from the influences modern quilting ideas for many years, and developed their own distinctive style, finishing with slides of contemporary quilt makers. 

Slides of Katherine’s work showing her quilts made from recycled woollen blankets followed.  While working as “Artist in Residence” in Perth, Australia, she then fashioned a series  of beautiful tailored coats from recycled blankets.  Katherine’s creativity flows down from early family members who included potters and artists, she says.

A mini quilt show followed with several early quilts from the collection of Ann Scott, editor of New Zealand Quilter magazine.  First shown was a 19th century green and white Irish Chain quilt, pieced by hand and hand quilted.

  Irish Chain quilt

Next we were shown a woollen quilt from 1910.  The coloured pieces have been stitched onto the dark background with a variety of herringbone and other similar stitches.

Wool quilt from 1910

Everyone recognized the pattern of this 1950s Grandmother’s Garden hexagon quilt, with several of the ladies murmuring that they have made one of these in their time.  Hexagon’s are very  much in fashion at the moment, as they are a very portable style of stitching, something that can be slipped into a bag and taken anywhere.

1950s hexagon quilt

Was the next quilt the catalyst to make Katherine switch to working with wool, I wondered.  She related that when the family bought a bach (holiday house) some years ago, this quilt and another similar one was left behind in the building.  Made with a mixture of assorted wool fabrics, it is backed with an old tablecloth, now tattered and torn.   It really couldn’t have found a more appreciative owner!

Katherine’s “found” woollen quilt

The last in our mini show was “Memories” a whole cloth quilt made by Heather Harding.  This apricot and cream  beauty was entered in the World Quilt Exhibition in Paducah, USA, and won “Second in the World for Traditional Bed Quilt”.  What an amazing accomplishment!  It then joined a travelling exhibition and travelled to three countries before finally coming back home.  The cream sateen used in this quilt was “rescued fabric”.  The fabric came from the workshop of a tailor who had passed away several years ago, and the family finally decided to clear out his storeroom. 

  

“Memories”, by Heather Harding

The audience all enjoyed the presentation and the quilt show, and several had questions to ask at the end.  Many then took the opportunity to look around the quilt exhibition.  Special thanks to Katherine and Expressions Gallery for arranging this very interesting and informative event.   Light refreshments were provided so I joined a table of ladies to sip my coffee and chat about our interesting morning.

More Exhibition Quilts

Our club is very fortunate to have our exhibition at hanging at our wonderful local gallery  “Expressions” for three weeks.  As promised, here are a few more quilts which I particularly liked.  June Bruce stitched this lovely wall-hanging in honour of the tuis which frequent her garden, and sip nectar from the kowhai blossoms.  The appliquéd tui and kowhai is set off by the intricate paper pieced inner border, and the whole piece is beautifully “freehand” machine quilted. 

“There is a Tui in my Garden”, by June Bruce

It’s easy to see there is a Scottish connection with this quilt, “My Wee Piece of Scotland”, by Fay McGregor.  The quilt was inspired by a piece of tartan Fay’s son Liam purchased in Edinburgh while there on holiday, which brought back memories of the time the family lived in Scotland.  Liam was presented with this quilt on his 21st Birthday, and the quilt won a Merit Award in the show.  No wonder I love it, I’ve got some Scots blood running through my veins too.

“My Wee Piece of Scotland”, by Fay McGregor

This is the second quilt exhibited by June Bruce at the show, “Amazing Grace”, which is a stitched from a McKenna Ryan pattern using Hoffman fabrics.  The soft colours and the inspirational words of Faith, Hope and Love reminds us to make the most of each minute, June says.

 

“Amazing Grace”, by June Bruce

Not one to waste a minute in her busy day, Jeanette Orr stitched the majority of the appliqué while travelling on public transport.  Her aim was to complete four leaves or two circles, depending on the hold-up in the traffic.  Jeannette won an award for “Best First Time Exhibitor”, for her lovely quilt.

“Public Transport”, by Jeannette Orr

Jeannette Lazet stitched “A Budding Legacy” to honour the influence of her (quilter) mother who encouraged her in the quilting arts.  Jeannette’s artist’s statement  says, “this is a gift for my mother, the floral fabric symbolizes the richness of her knowledge, and the purple, her wisdom”.  What a wonderful gift from a daughter to her Mum.  Jeannette won a Merit Award for her quilt.

“A Budding Legacy”, by Jeannette Lazet

I have visited the exhibition twice so far, and I plan to go back again for another good look around.  With so many lovely quilts on display, there is always something new to discover.  More photos to follow.

I is for Insects

Where oh where do these days disappear to? We have had such a busy time lately, it’s been hard fitting everything in.  But here at last is the latest block in my A to Z Challenge, “I is for Insects”.

I is for Insects

It’s probably no surprise that I’m not a great lover of anything creepy-crawly.  And most insects seem to come into this category, don’t they.  Except for ladybirds, bees and butterflies, and others which are deemed “pretty”, most other insects seem to be treated with dislike, or even fear.  As for those wetas, big nasty spiders, and flies – yuk.  But in all seriousness, insects have an important role in the chain of life, and usually they just go about their busy little insect lives and leave me alone.