Halfmoon Bay

This is a completion from a project started during my class with Brenda Gael Smith at the National Quilting Symposium in Christchurch earlier this month, for her 'Serendipity Circles' quilting class.

Brian had asked me for a quilt for the auction at the Southland Charity Bowls event (which is next weekend) so when I was in the class I knew I would use the blocks for a lap quilt.

All the fabrics have come from my stash (I LOVE blue) and I am so pleased with how it looks with the mix of light and dark blues/mints/aquas. 

I wanted a square lap quilt so added the side strips to make it about 48" square.

I used a variety of free motion quilting designs for different parts of the blocks, using same-colour threads on the top and an aqua thread in the bobbin, to do a loose side to side zigzag 

for the sashing, a flower petal design across the curved blocks, and stippling for the rest of the block.

The backing is whole-cloth, wide yardage that was in my stash and is the perfect shade 

of deep aqua blue.

For the name, I wasn't inspired so I posted some in-progress photos on Facebook and some of my friends suggested names. I nearly went with Susan's suggestion of Every Which Way Is Blue, but Lenae shot in a last second suggestion of Halfmoon Bay.

That name immediately really appealed to me as all the blues remind me of the different moods of the ocean and waters found around that gorgeous piece of NZ as well as the fact that the kids and I are currently reading a Des Hunt novel that is set on Stewart Island - that seems serendipitous to me!

Linking up to share my project with Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday! Kia ora!

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

Arrows for Angus

Just another little something I've been whipping up in the past few weeks - was keen to get it delivered to handsome young Angus Hyde on my way to Christchurch this week...and stopped to snap my photos at the intersection of the road that the Hydes live on.

I based the quilt on this design that I had seen online and chose to use a variety of blues, 

with a light beige contrast solid. 

It measures 47" x 55" so is a good-sized lap quilt/small single bed quilt.

I quilted a 1/4" border around the triangles (technically 'flying geese' made with half 

square triangles) using a navy thread, then did a half inch border in beige thread around 

the outlines of the negative spaces for the large solid areas.

The backing is made from the binary code navy print that you can see at the top of the photo above.

And here's Angus with his quilt - he probably won't get much use out of it now 

until next winter (it was about 24 degrees C yesterday), 

but at least he's got it!

Linking up this week with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday - and my other favourite linky,
Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish It Up Friday - Hi everyone!