12 x 12

Kiwi Quilters is running a 12 x 12 challenge after the success of the 12 x 12 quilt exhibition at the Hamilton Quilt Show. The original 12 x 12 quilters are publishing a book next year and their work - here - is fantastic.

The November theme was "home". I wanted to use an old embroidered piece to convey happy images of cottage living - reflecting the fact that we are now past the horrors of the major renovation work on our cottage. I do have to say that our house, and more particularly our garden look nothing like this pretty stitched scene!!

I did intend to stitch it in a grid, like Philippa Doyle my inspiration for incorporating embroideries into quilts... but I whimped out. I might still do it if only I can get brave enough.

Isn't this pretty?

This makes me feel like Christmas is coming.



I know Christmas is on the way because today I packed up my parcel for the bloggers Christmas swap. It's a secret swap so I can't say who it is going to, except that it is going to the cutest address that a quilter ever had!

How do we mourn?

New Zealand is in mourning for the 29 miners who lost their lives at the Pike River Mine this week. At times I have wondered if we know how to mourn.

This is in several places on the internet. It moved me.

The church bells rang 29 times
so we knew it was final and the end of the line.
Now 29 miners are at Heavens gate
with coal silt dirty faces asking is it too late?
When God replies with half a grin
"no my children, come on in"
They place their mining lights gently down on Heavens floor,
when God said
"job well done- leave your boots at the door"

Repost in memory of the 29 miners that died at Pike River Mine

At the U2 concert in Auckland Bono says "People deal with grief in all kinds of ways... anger, sorrow, silence, in Ireland we sing".

Flags fly at half mast... on Government buildings, at the occassional private home, and at McDonalds. Some of the flags are ratty tatty old things - we're not big flag flyers and some of the flags come out of the cupboard just to fly at half mast.

Councils around the country have Condolence Books for people to sign. These will be consolidated in January and sent the Mayor of Grey District.

Shirley Goodwin is organising quilts for the victims families.

Wednesday, Prime Minister John Key says that national memorial services are usually held at the nearest large centre and so in this case that will probably be Christchurch. I cringed. On Thursday he announces that after discussions with the Grey District Council the service will be held in Greymouth and I feel hugely proud of and relieved for the people of the Coast.

I hope all of this helps people.

Many colours

These lovely coloured fabrics are the result of a fabric dying class at Village Books and Crafts last weekend, and the pink-orange-yellow lot I did at home yesterday.

I learned several things. Firstly, when combining two colours of dye I need to mix them together more before adding the fabric so that I get more even colour. Secondly, I dont have a lot of confidence in zip-lock plastic bags. I was very apprehensive about squishing the fabric, dye, water/soda ash solution in the bag, having nightmarish images of bright orange solution woushing all over the room, and all over me. I think I might try another batch using some kind of plastic container instead. Thirdly, I learned that if you are going to re-use your zip-lock plastic bags it is important that after you wash and try them you must turn them back in the right way before filling with another batch of dye solution - ask me how I discovered this.

I also learned that I love scarlet. Scarlet is the fabric on the far right in the middle photo. I think I will need to do more with scarlet.

I'm in the mood for a little Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice...

Such a dazzling coat of colours
How I love my coat of many colours

It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And red and yellow and green and brown and
Scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And blue

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting her Fourth Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival.

The quilt I've chosen for the festival is one I made as part of an online class with Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting. This is the first quilt I've designed from scratch, I had so much fun doing it and it brings me great joy each Christmas when I hung it up.
Tonya had us choose a Christmas carol and extract elements about the holidays that we liked and turning them into a design, and then we used her tutorials to piece the various elements. I love the two colour combinations of purple and orange, and raspberry and lime, so it was a double the fun to put them together. Because it was my world I got to put New Zealand at the centre, and then I used a little old scrap to make Australia and put it off to left - VBG!! Making this quilt has given me a lot more confidence

Do check out the link above to Tonya's website, she's very talented and has lot's of tips and tricks to teach. I'm off to check out all the other quilts in the festival.

Pinehaven Quilt Show

The Pinehaven Quilters Show was at the Expressions Gallery and the quilts just looked stunning in this setting.

Postcards and more show pics

I took part in a spring postcard swap this month which was a lot of fun. I made friends with the man at the local stamp shop because I wanted to have my postcards hand franked, rather than subjecting them to the rigours of NZ Post's machines. Well the stamp man was not only very helpful, but he took a liking to my postcards and paid me to make him two, so I'm grinning from ear to ear.


More pictures from the Wellington Quilters Show at the weekend... these from the "less colourful section" as you can see.




You can see that these two quilts both have ribbons so the judges were more won over by their creaminess than I was. Though I was impressed with the judging for quilting. The awards for excellence in machine quilting (above) and professional longarm (which I didn't photograph) both went to quilts with simple quilting which connected well with the quilt. That didn't seem to be the case with some quilts where the quilting didn't seem to tie into the quilt.

One of the most exciting part of the show was seeing a Phillippa Doyle quilt with old doillies in, and another quilt inspired by her work. My photos didn't turn out very well unfortunately. I will have to change the settings on the camera before the next show.