Steamy Dreams is off to the USA!

In the wee hours of the night a short little email pinged into my inbox. Quiet and unassuming, little did it know it was to set off a SQUUUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

*bounce* *bounce* *bounce*

My humble little SteamPunk quilt (ok ok, my pride and joy cloth-child), will be displayed as part of the Bad Ass Quilter's Society exhibition as part of the larger AQS quilt week exhibition in Tennessee!

Travel safe little quilt

This is HUGE for me. My quilt will make it to the USA far before I will. I won't get to see it in the show myself. If any readers are in the Chatanooga area mid-September, could you pretty please go and get me photos? {bats eyelashes}

Time to go try and get my toes to touch the ground again!

Cheerio!

End of the school holidays

It was a loooong, cold, wet couple of weeks for the school holidays. It is the middle of winter here in Wellington and by the time we get some genuine sun and warmth it will have been over 4 weeks. 

Usually I love getting to hang out with my big boy. Not this time. Butting heads, attitude, stress, cabin fever. 

Between being rather ill, then busy with the kids, I've barely sewn a stitch since it was last sunny! So I was well over-due for some time in the troll cave and now have both of my mug-rugs for my swap partner together. Just have to quilt and bind them now and they will be ready to send to New York state.

 

I can't show too much in case B finds her way over here but I really enjoyed this challenge. The theme for the swap is "Summertime Memories". There is no pattern, we can interpret however we like. I have gone for two very different styles - one is old-school foundation pieced, and the other is fused machine applique. They look fantastic together though as I've used the same colour/fabric palette for both. I hope she likes them!

Sneak Peak

We have a relaxed and calm Kelly again.

Cheerio.

Capital Quilter's Exhibition Part 2

The Quilting, A modern Tradition exhibition was held in the lovely Sacred Heart College auditorium in Lower Hutt.  It was a lovely venue but I did giggle at the the very "Hutt Valley" look of the entrance to the beautiful college (High School to my American readers) with the lovely manicured grounds welcoming people into the show...And an abandoned shopping trolley parked in a garden!

I found it really interesting going through this show as a member of the Wellington Guild. The Capital guild considers itself a "modern" guild. And it is. Through and through. They do have some exceptionally good "traditional" quilters but they are definitely in the minority if you go by the quilts shown. By contrast, the Wellington guild is predominately traditional quilters that often make modern quilts with a handful of purely modern quilters thrown in the mix. It is going to make an interesting contrast when we have our exhibition later this year.

I must apologise for the quality of most of these photos. I was trying to take snaps with a 2yo on my shoulders who loves quilts. She absolutely loves running her sticky little hands across the textures of quilts, so I was doing an interesting dance trying to stand back far enough to take a photo, while not too far because someone would try and throw themselves backwards off me to grab the quilts behind us!

On that note... lots of pictures time!

The first quilt that caught my eye when I walked in was a lovely quilt I had seen online several times on the lovely miss Adrianne's blog The Windy Side and was really pleased to see in person

Purple S-block Quilt by Adrianne Reid

Closely followed by some lovely and "calm" modern and low-volume quilts

I Heart Tula Pink by Anne Read

In the Quietest Moments by Jeanie O'Sullivan

There were a few lovely traditional quilts that really stood out not just because they were gorgeous, but also because they were surrounded by such a fantastic riot of fresh modern quilts

The Seasons Come and Go by Patricia O'Grady

This one stuck out for me not just because of the wonderful execution of all those triangles

Barbed Wire for Barb Dwyer by Ronnie Rutter

But also because all of those black zig-zags have the most glorious perfectly executed feathers winding their way up!

"Keeping with tradition" ribbon - and you don't get much more traditional than those feathers!

This perfectly pieced New York Beauty quilt drew you in from across the room

5 Days and 5 Nights in New York by Tracey Carew

And see those little green starbursts scattered around the borders? Yeah, they were smaller than the palm of my hand and check out those points:

Another couple of quilts that used quite traditional techniques (foundation piecing and applique respectively) but had such a lovely fresh modern feel. I could see them on the bed of an uber swanky teenager's room

My Fairytale Garden by Lyn Bell

Rebecca's Beauty by Teresa Keown

And last but certainly not least, my personal favourite. This is the one that got my vote for viewers choice. It is no secret that I LOVE butterflies. This one was around a corner and hit me in the face. Then I got closer and realised that all the colours in the butterfly wings were hundreds of tiny little individually fused pieces.

Exotic Butterflies by Lyn White

The polka dots were just perfect

And see those teeeny little mosaic bricks? Bliss.

I took so many more photos than I posted here. But so many of them were blurry and it was impossible to do the quilts justice.

That got the creative juices flowing!

Cheerio.

Capital Quilter's Exhibition Part 1

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of enjoying the Capital Quilter's exhibition - Quilting, A Modern Tradition in Lower Hutt.

Unfortunately, a LOT of my photos are blurry as it is tricky to take photos with a 2yo on your shoulders! But I did get some photos of some lovely quilts (after all, there were well over 200 to admire).

First up today, I am going to post up the quilts that were my family's favourites with their commentary of why they liked each quilt.

First is Short Critic #1. As he is a budding quilter himself, I asked for his top 3.

Third favourite:

Guardians of the Night by Patricia O'Grady

"I like the owls and the branches. the stripey edge is cool too"

Second favourite:

Towrags on Target by Debra Delorenzo

"I like all the hexagons, I also really like that the diamonds go in all directions"

Favourite:

Star Wars for Lockie by Beverley Featherstone

"It's Star Wars! It has my fave C-3PO on it!"

My Enabler:

A Piece of Time by Judith Baxter

"This was awesome and intricate, I can definitely see why it took 7 years!"



Short Critic #2:

Gigi by Ngaira Sewell

"Miow cat" (while pointing)

I'll post some photos of ones that caught my eye and some thoughts in my next post

Cheerio.

Fan-girl moments

My lovely dragon quilt is finished! After humming and ahhhing over her name for a while, I stopped mucking around and named her for the dragon that inspired her colouring and attitude - Fente from Robin Hobb's Rainwild Chronicles.

Fente Hunts in all her glory:

Rawrrrr!!

 I really enjoyed working on her face and the flames

This shot doesn't show off the thread-painting in the flames very well

But my favourite bits are her purple wings (yes I know Fente doesn't have purple wings, but artistic license and all that)

But the absolute best bit?

Literally within weeks of Fente Hunts being completed I found out that Robin Hobb herself was visiting Wellington for a book signing! Unfortunately due to some health issues I was unable to go, but my wonderful Enabler went for me (it helps that he is a fan too) and he took my quilt with him. This is one of the photos that Arty Bees Bookshop posted on their Facebook page.

Fan-girl Squeee!

Look look look:

She autographed it!!!!

And now for something completely different.  I've been playing with my Dresden plate ruler and some yummy sunshiney yellow fabrics

Just screams summer

Looks like a cross between a sunflower and a cog wheel doesn't it?

Cheerio.