Thursday, October 12, 2017

National Quilting Symposium - Christchurch 5-10 October 2017

I feel very lucky to have been able to attend five days of wonderful tutorials during these school holidays, at the National Symposium in Christchurch.

I loved every one of the five one-day classes I had. I got to spend time with five talented NZ and international quilt artists, learning some of their awesome techniques.  Each lady generously shared her knowledge and skills and was so supportive and encouraging of us as we learnt from them.

Below are some pictures of the projects I worked on - these Prayer Flags will be hung up in my sewing room once I get my machine back from its service tomorrow and put a running stitch along the tape.

Finished! Prayer Flags - tutor Judy Coates-Perez
Judy has posted a video of the photos she took on the day (my flags are the cover shot!!)


We hand dyed, stamped and printed our fabrics.




I had a class with head judge, Brenda Gael Smith, for her Serendipity Circles class.
We all tried the fused block and then the pieced block, before carrying on with whichever technique
we preferred to use to make our own set of blocks.

I chose to do the pieced circles using some of my blue and turquoise scraps
 - this will become a large lap quilt in a couple of weeks' time hopefully!

One of my classes was with Pat Archibald to create a version of her Auspicious Symbols wallhanging,
based on the Hong Kong skyline and elements of Chinese art.
We used a stencil and paint sticks to put a good luck symbol under our sun or moon
before stitching around it with metallic thread.
I still have to do some quilting of the skyscrapers and then couch the edges of them with
some metallic thread before adding some 'windows' with foil, then I will finish the edges to make a wallhanging.

(Half of our group - photo via Pat Archibald on Facebook)

I had picked a class for Pasifica-themed free-motion quilting with Donna Ward -
a great choice as it turned out as she won three major awards including Best in Show, Best Piecing and Best .


We worked on a large piece of silk to practice our motifs.
I will finish this off to hang it on our bedroom wall.

My fifth class was with Lyric Kinard for her 'Abstract-a-Licious' class.
She took us through some exercises about the visual language of art and we
created our own 'postcard' of abstract art - watch this space (aka my blog) to see how this
looks once I have added the black handstitching that I have got planned for it!


#patarchibald #brendagaelsmith #judycoatesperez #donnaward #lyrickinard

6 comments:

  1. What interesting classes you did Jen. Two of the women I was with did the Prayer Flags class. Symposium sure was an amazing time. I did classes with Jacquie Gering, Luke Haynes and Sonya Prchal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh wow! You picked some top-notch talent to work with too! How very exciting; I think Sonya's work is just amazing - some of her work looks like photos, amazing. And I loved Jacquie's lecture - went right home and ordered her book. I bet the class was fun.

      Delete
  2. What a great range of classes. My head would be swimming after all that amazing inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was absolutely buzzing! Am now trying to work out how to make a career out of it all (though I would miss working with the kids if I gave up teaching...) - might just work on a few personal projects first to see if I'm any good at it LOL!

      Delete
  3. Looks like you certainly had fun, such a great variety of techniques!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was a very contented crafter, yes; and keen to try my new techniques over the next few months. Thanks for visiting!

      Delete