Hello!
Thank you for visiting. I’m now blogging in French (oui oui) at: http://www.blossomquiltetcraft.fr
New-Zealand quilt festival
Last week, I was telling you about my foundation paper piecing class. I was lucky enough to stay at the New-Zeeland Symposium quilt event the following day to enjoy the merchant hall and the main quilt exhibition. I would like to show you some of the quilts that I particularly liked:
Lehuna by Nobuko Windecker
I think, we were all impressed by this Hawaiian inspired quilt and the use of “chicken foot” stitches.
Blanket Ripples by Bridget McFarlane
I specially liked the echo quilting on this quilt. Bridget used recycled wool blankets for her piecing and it looks so soft and subtle. It’s a really nice work. She received the Amateur Award for this piece! You can check her IG account here.
The French Connection by Nancy Woodney
I was so impressed by the miniature size of the HST. I would love to have my ruler to know how small they were but clearly smaller than 1/2 inch. This quilt was featured in the Quiltmania magazine.
Circle the Wagons by Gael O’Donnell
I loved the off-centre shapes and colours of that one. The dense quilting gave nice dimension. I thought it was very pleasing to look at it.
Towards Great Barrier reef by Juliet Taylor
This one was also very pleasing to look at. I loved the use of calming but vibrant colours. There is a very nice balance on this quilt. to me, she totally managed to express the Barrier reef feeling.
Starry Starry Night by Claire Davis
I also love traditional quilts. I’m very impressed by the technique on that one. I have a thing for stars at the moment, so I could imagine myself replicating this one with modern colours.
Rainbow lorikeet by Helen Golden
I was so impressed by the background quilting one that one. The use of colours and different designs is spectacular. It is very inspiring.
Hope you enjoyed these quilts as much as I do, if you want to see more pictures from the exhibition, check those three ladies:
New goodies
I couldn’t miss the merchant’s hall at the New-Zealand quilt Symposium. It’s always a treat to see what everyone from the country has to offer. I even met the French lady behind the magazine “Quilt Mania”. It’s quite rare to speak in French about quilts, so it was a nice chat.
Here is the new goodies I purchased from the hall, appropriately called “Quilter’s Heaven”:
One of my local fabric shop had a fat quarter special (6 for 5), so I indulged myself into some Kaffe Fasset fabric. I also bought a ruler from a lady that designs and manufactures them. It was $16 which is relatively cheap for the NZ market.
Lately, I’ve been inclined to test some quilting stencil (or stencil quilting?). I found one with a square filler and a border. It made me think of my Happy Corners quilt and I thought I could replicate this quilt with other fabric scraps and quilt it myself this time (the first one was made by a long arm quilter).
I can’t wait to use them all!
Linking up with:
Learning foundation paper piecing
This week-end, I went to “Symposium”. It is the national quilt event here in New-Zealand. It is held once every two years and moves from city to city. The entire local quilt community was so excited about the event that it got me excited too. The event is over four days and it was at Palmerston North this time, which is 2 hours drive from my city (so not that far). I decided to take part and check the class program. Luckily, there was one class to learn how to create a Mariner’s compass with the foundation paper piecing technique. I’ve wanted to learn this technique for a while but it was quite daunting so far. The prospect of having a teacher and fellow students was enticing. So, I picked my colours and dived into my first ever quilt class.
I was right to make that class as foundation paper piecing is a hard concept to grasp (well, to me anyway). Perforating layers of papers with your machine? What? Sewing on to paper? What? Sewing in reverse? What?
It slowly made sense and my first point was created:
The class ran for an entire day but, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough time (for us students) to finish a block. I was slightly disappointed by that but now I know the technique and I can replicate it at home. I need to work on it soon though, before I forget all the different steps.
When linking one piece of paper to the other, you can’t imagine the pride and fulfilment you get when your two corners meet so perfectly.Ha!
I can’t wait to finish this block and share it with you.
Linking up with:
Acorn Trail WIP
I felt I needed to start the year with an easy project. As I love all the prints from the Acorn Trail fabric line, I thought big squares would be appropriate. I cut all my fat quarter into 8′ squares.
The hardest part really is to decide on a layout. I was playing with it an entire evening and loosing my mind. Balance of light versus dark, not one print to close to each other… It’s really a game of “spot the difference” as I was making minor adjustments.
I finally went for one layout and sewed all the squares together the next evening. I love those type of projects as you can work on it during work day evenings. It’s so easy to pick up the work where you left it. It came out so quickly and I love it!
I’m still indecisive regarding the quilting to do on this quilt top. I was planing on using my walking foot and do a cross-hatch but all I can see now is leaves. Decision, decisions!
Don’t you love those cute prints? I’m also spotting some “Marsala”, the Pantone colour of the year. It could be a starting point for the “Pantone Colour of the Year Quilt Challenge”.
Linking up with:
Blossom Quilts & Crafts 
