Re-Assemble Challenge for NZQS19

Earlier this year I joined in with the Re-Assemble Challenge for this year's NZ Quilt Symposium.

Each entrant was sent a photo of one portion of an art work and our challenge was to represent our portion in any 'quilty' way we wished as long as we matched the (roughly) A4 size and our edge lines matched. 

Here is the original photo I received:

And here are the two side-by-side; I am really pleased with how it turned out:

Each portion will then be joined together to recreate the original artwork in quilt form.

I chose to do an applique/thread painting method, with some painted areas in the green background.

I actually used bubble wrap to apply the green paint (which was a mix of light/med/dark greens, on a forest green marble fabric), quilted with an all over mini stipple.

The thread painting gives some texture and tone to the greys of the roof and poles.

I am really looking forward to seeing what the whole picture looks like! 

(I will add the finished result once I have been to Auckland in October).

Summer Day - Lake Te Anau

So excited to share this wall-hanging - it has been selected by Aotearoa Quilters 

to be exhibited at the Ailsa Craig Quilt and Fiber Arts Festival in Ontario, Canada!

The sky is a blue poly-satin with a baby blue mesh overlay and
a couple of scraps of white netting.
I did not quilt it as wanted it to stay smooth like a clear summer sky.

I entered the wall-hanging in the 'New Zealand Through Our Eyes' challenge for Aotearoa Quilters. We had options of sizes/layout and I chose the 18" x 8' long option as I wanted to share a slice of the colours of my favourite part of NZ - Fiordland.

The forest on the mountain-side is made of roughly cut rectangles of various shades of muted greens to
represent the native beech forest that completely covers the hill-sides down to the western shore of the lake.
I free-motion quilted curves over the shapes with a thick quilting cotton to soften up the edges.

I had been pondering the theme of the challenge for a few months, but was pretty sure I wanted to showcase our landscape - this was confirmed for me while camping at Te Anau between Christmas and New Year...

The water is reverse-appliqued, using three layers of blue poly-satins or dress lining.
I quilted the ripples and then cut away some sections to reveal the darker colours.
This is really close to how the lake water looked as it moved on the day that we were crossing in the boat,
so I am super pleased with how it turned out!

...while in the boat as we crossed the lake one day, to go water-skiing at Brod Bay, 

I sat looking at the scene directly in front of me: lake, mountain, sky. 

I knew that was the scene I wanted to create in my wall-hanging.

Pre-trimming - all layers complete.

The wall-hanging was sent away at the end of January and exhibited at the Great NZ Quilt Show in Rotorua, before then heading to Canada. I look forward to seeing it again on 

show at the NZ Quilting Symposium in Auckland in October.

'Kia ora' to all my visitors via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!
Have a lovely Easter!

Roadtrip SH8: Lindis Pass

The second mini quilt in my roadtrip series, inspired by our trip down State Highway 8 back in October last year.

This one represents the Lindis Pass, which has a unique grassy, tussocky, hilly landscape filled with power pylons from the hydro dams in the Mackenzie Basin.

I appliqued the landscape, using machine stitching to add textures to represent the different plants and fencelines etc; I hand stitched the long stitches of the pylon - it just needed to be a bit more to the centre seam (but at the time I thought I would be overlocking the edges, however in the end I decided to try a faced backing, which meant I lost a bit more of the side seam than I had planned for).

It's 9"x8" in size.

Linking up to share with Crazy Mom's Friday Night Finish Up! Have a good weekend everyone!

Roadtrip SH8: Lake Tekapo

Inspired by scenes on our October 2017 road trip from Christchurch to Edendale, mostly travelling along State Highway 8 (after first travelling through Geraldine), I drew up some sketches with a plan to create a series of little art quilts.

I had just attended the 2017 NZ Quilt Symposium and was very motivated by the various classes I took; I could see potential art-quilt or abstract quilts in every landscape.

Lake Tekapo is a beautiful sight in October - gorgeous deep blue water, reflecting the Spring sky, surrounded by mid-Canterbury-brown hills with snow still covering the tops. I can't find the photo I took when I made my husband stop by the side of the road but this photo is similar to  what we saw...

Image source

A bit closer up: I used three blue shades of machine embroidery threads to
stitch in the water, and white thread for the snow.

The motivation to actually make the quilts came in January, from one of my Symposium tutors, Brenda Gael Smith, who is running a Monthly Art Project challenge via Facebook - so I signed up.

My plan: to create small quilts, about 8-9' square in size, using a mixture of piecing, applique, quilting and embellishments.

I really didn't know just what I wanted to do for finishing it off...I considered facing it, and then saw a tutorial for a perle cord thread finish, but have no perle cord to do it with. So I decided to try a serged/overcast edging. Not sure I like it really. I think I might make sure to get some perle cord and then I can try it out, as I do think it looks smart when done like that.

Sharing with my quilting friends at Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday linky parties. Hi everyone!!

100% NZ for Ben

Returning to my most recent finish - this 100% NZ single bed quilt - sharing on the Blogger's Quilt Festival this week.

Time to make a quilt for the second of my cousin Kaylee's children...Ben didn't mind what colours it was; I had found the silver fern fabric last year and wanted to use it so I thought I'd do an NZ black/white/grey theme (and then found out he has just recently redecorated his room in grey, so it has all worked out well!) 

Measures 57" x 76" - nicely covers a queen bed (with no overhang).

Took me a while to gather together the right tones of black, grey/silver, and white; and then took just as long to work out the pattern - that took quite a bit of math I can tell you!

For the backing I used a world map panel, and some Kiwiana-themed fabric for colour, along with top and bottom panels of the silver fern fabric again.

Home is where the heart is (and NZ is where it will always be for me!)

I stuck to simple in-the-ditch quilting through the NZ/squares section,
and straight horizontal lines in the top and bottom panels. 

We are about to shift to a new place in the Edendale township (downsizing from the property we are on) so I wanted to get this finished this week as my last quilt here at 111 George Street and also so I can give it to Ben (who lives up in the Ida Valley) when Kaylee brings the kids down for the Kidzone Festival in Invercargill.

 I have loved having such a big living area that my sewing gear could sit easily in one end of the room - at the new house I will have a lovely north-facing spare room to act as my sewing space (and have already filled the double wardrobe with craft supplies...and that's before I even think about moving the tubs of fabric that are under the two spare beds at the moment!! Yikes, where will I fit it all?!)

And here is the young man himself, stoked with his new blanket:

Linking up with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday - and also Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday - hi everyone "kia ora!"