There be dragons and sea creatures this way

We had a few days away last week over the hill from Wellington, in the Wairarapa. Our timing could not have been better. Even through the weather was less than spring like, the Greytown Arts festival was in full swing giving us plenty to look at and to stow away for inspiration.

The highlight for us was the Great Tape Art project which Erica Duthie and Straun Ashby worked on steadily over the weekend. The created a fabulous mural on the side of the supermarket, all from blue builders tape. Do have a look at their website to see some of the other wonderful murals they have created.

We paid it several visits over the weekend so we could see it developing. They did life size portraits of a number of the local residents, telling their stories.

 
It was magical.

And then, with some sadness, we helped take it down at the end of the weekend. Of course our lads found this to be a particular highlight.

Over at the church fair we came across this wonderful creation - the Cinema for the Poor. Wonderful pictures were wound through telling tall tales of adventurous lives on the high seas.

All overseen by an angel - "On the last day the trumpet shall sound and forgotten souls shall rise up from their graves and tell their never heard before stories"

It was magical.

Unsurprisingly I was also rather impressed by these rusted feathers on a very large moa in the main street of Greytown

and by the paint on the front door of the house we stayed at in Martinbourgh. I'm sure the owners plan to paint it but I loved it just as it was.

There's nothing like a few days away to bring a spring to the step!

Fun with Frida Khalo

It's driving me to distraction waiting for the border fabric to arrive, especially as I can't track its movements. So in order to give myself something else to focus on, I've started on my Frida Khalo project. For once this is something purely for me - it's going to adorn the fold out bed in my sewing room when I need to transform it for guests. The best part of this is that I really don't need to be thinking about what someone else would like - I can just please myself!

The quilt really began with a book that my daughter gave me for my birthday this year - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. It's about a young man who lives in the household of Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera when Lev Trotsky arrives to live with them. No sooner was I into it than I kept coming across fabric with Frida on it - one thing led to another, as it does.

The fabric, called 'Frida's Garden' by Alexander Henry fabrics, is quite something, although it doesn't quite capture the famous mono-brow. It has a wild and verdant feel about it and has monkeys and parrots which featured in Khalo's self portraits. It's a large scale print so I decided it would well suit this very simple block, Venetian Dreams which was designed by Janet Houts. The unfinished block is 15 1/2 inches square so it certainly comes together quickly.

To compliment Frida I've been cutting into a couple of rather treasured bundles of fabrics - one of Guatemalan fabric that I bought from Priscilla Bianchi when she taught at the Symposium in Palmerston North in 2007, and the other a group of Indonesian ikat fabrics that I bought in 2009 when we held Symposium in Wellington. It's a marvellous thing how fabric matures while waiting to be used in just the right project! As I am sure you will know Frida Khalo usually dressed in tradition Mexican textiles and clothes, so I felt she would enjoy sharing space with other traditional fabrics.

There are also little amulets sprinkled across the fabric - depictions of traditional Mexican metal amulets in the shape of hands, burning hearts, eyes and arms. Sacred charms to ward off evil, these were also often incorporated into her paintings. I'm making sure these little amulets are shining through the quilt. It's led me to reading up more on Frida's art and life - such a fascinating, feisty woman.

I've made 12 blocks so far - another 8 and that will probably be enough. I'll keep you posted.

Remembering Kate Sheppard with Gratitude

Today is voting day for the 2011 General Election here in New Zealand. We are voting on who we want to represent us in Parliament for the next 3 years and on whether we want to keep the voting system we currently have (MMP - Mixed Member Proportional representation) or change it to another system.


I walked dawn to our local school in beautiful sunshine, voted without having to wait in a line, smiled and said hello to others from my community who were doing likewise and walked home again, reflecting how easy it was and how lucky we are. How lucky that it is so simple and that it is such a peaceful experience to be able to have your say - unlike the experience for people in many countries around the world who expose themselves to violence and danger by expressing their opinion on who should run their country.

And I reflected on the remarkable achievement of Kate Sheppard, our most prominent suffragette who fought hard to gain the vote for women here in New Zealand - the first country in the world to extend the vote to women. A couple of weeks ago when Barak Obama was in Australia he mistakenly commented that Australia was the first country. Let's make no mistake about this - it was New Zealand and it happened in 1893. South Australia followed soon after in 1894 but it wasn't extended across Australia as a whole until 1902. These things are important when you are from the smaller country!


Kate Sheppard is on our $10 note and is thereby part of our daily lives.

Kate rests in Addington Cemetery in Christchurch, her headstone flanked by two Camellia trees, the flower of which was used as the symbol of the suffragettes. This photo was taken when I was in Christchurch over the New Year. Even at that time there were many damaged gravestones from the earlier earthquake in September last year. I know that there has been much more damage to headstones from the February quake - I hope that Kate's headstone is still standing proud. She was a remarkable woman. 

Others have written more eloquently than me on the importance of voting - Dana Fisher, The Quilted Librarian, wrote a great post last year urging us all to remember the sacrifices that many women have made in the past so that we can vote with such ease today. She also gave a link to a fascinating piece on the American suffragettes and their struggles, which I had no idea about until I read her blog.

If you are in New Zealand make sure you take this three yearly opportunity to get out and vote - and remember with gratitude Kate Sheppard and the other women who fought so hard to give us this right and to help make us world leaders.

The First Big Reveal

Time to reveal my dyeing results - it was all a big experiment and one we all enjoyed. Even my boys were fascinated by just what I was doing and what the results were going to be. The wool I used to tie the bunble truned from a bright blue to a olive green - very effective. I'm sure I should have used significantly less that I did - next time...

I thought the silk looked wonderful up against the back wall - the peeling paint looking just as distressed as the variable colours across the silk.

Now that the silk has dried I'm chain stitching around the ghostly figures of the gum leaves. It's a very relaxing thing to do, outlining the odd partial shapes. The ghost leaves intrigue me, particularly as they came from the local cemetry - like whispers of the past.

Not quite sure where it is taking me yet - time will tell but I have a few ideas bubbling away. In the meantime I'm planning the next boil up to see what else I can conjure up out of next to nothing. Lots of fun - many thanks to India Flint for the ideas, inspiration and information in her two beautiful books. They are a feast to the eyes and imagination.

So what do you think?

I cast hesitation to the winds last night and had a go at pinning up the gate form I had in mind for this quilt as a trial. I think I like it.... but then started thinking today that it was maybe a bit too obvious (in a bad way).... What do you think?

Back Behind the Machine

We had a horrid cold and wet day over the weekend (it was like winter had arrived 4 months early) so I did what quilters do in these circumstances and took to my sewing room and the growing pile of kimono that I have been steadily unpicking.

I decided I wanted this next quilt to be similar but different to the kimono quilt I made before Christmas - siblings rather than twins. So this one has some purple in it and some different fabrics and may well end up with a different structural shape. This was the first try at pining it out but my daughter's verdict was that it was too busy and needed less variation.

I tended to agree - she has a good eye. Must be hanging around looking at so many quilts over the yearsSo this is the revised version. I have put together the central panels and still have the side pieces to do.I'm also tempted to put a red border at the top to give the impression of a Japanese Shinto shrine gate - Daughter thought it should just have a red border all around it. But who knows I may rebel and just do what I want.... talk about daring!

Inspiration Abounds

I have been ruined in the last week - I have spent it tripping around the South Island, catching up with old friends, eating too much, laughing loudly and seeming to find inspiration at every turn. It's been wonderful - have a look...

Fantastic rock shapes in Kaikoura waiting to be materialise in a quilt

I know this man looks real but he is actually a sculpture by Ron Merck currently at the Christchurch Art Gallery - there to remind me to always wonder just what will be coming next in life

A fabulously memorable meal was had in this restaurant and as well as laughing so much I cried I couldn't help marveling at this wall - another quilt in the waiting

Clearly I have a "thing" about these colours and forms as there is clear repetition in my photos even though they were taken in vastly different locations

So just for a change here is the view I enjoyed on New Years Day - vibrant blue with the best of NZ summer - pohutukawa red

I have textile treasures to share too - but they will have to wait for the next post....

I hope the start to the new year has been as inspiring and vibrant for you as it has been for me!

Answers, Experiments and New Ideas

I had a bit of an adventure away from home last week - a quick trip to Christchurch to see Leonard Cohen (most wonderful concert ever!) and to stay with friends from school. We laughed and laughed, sometimes until we cried, and it was great. A real treat for the soul.


It also provided me with an answer to my recent textile question on the origins of a hanging, for in my friend's home, hanging over the banister, was the exact same stitched hanging. It was in a different colourway and this one was made in silk, rather than wool, but it was definitely the same. They had been gifted it but told me it was from India. I think its done in a densely stitched chain stitch - can you imaginehow long that must take? Still more research required.... I will report in due course.... I had some real fun creatively while I was there. My friend's daughter showed me the materials she had purchased to make herself a fascinator to wear to Canterbury Cup Day yesterday and said she was planning to glue gun it all together somehow. Those words (glue gun) are enough to make me shudder!

Perhaps unsurprisingly the words were out of my mouth offering to help and stitch it before I had even thought about whether I could do it... nothing new here! We experimented with pinning it to get the right shape

and then I stitched it all together for her. It was such fun that had another of her friends turned up with a bag full of materials I suspect I would have started straight onto another version. Infact I find I have ideas for more of them already... Kara was delighted with how it turned out.

And around the fascinator construction I even managed to start a wee piece of stitching for myself. I have the beginnings of an idea for a new quilt - at the moment its really just akin to doodling in thread, but we will see where it goes. I have an idea of a piece with 6 different views of my favourite snake river formation put into one piece so that it will look like aerial snapshots taken on different days. I've been inspired by a painting of Colin McCahon, Six Days in Nelson and Canterbury, which is a great favourite of mine.

We'll see where my stitch doodling leads, although with a new nephew born last week and a very overdue birthday quilt for my sister-in-law still to be completed, I'm anticipating it will be a slow flowing development.

Failure and Success

I'm simultaneously feeling like I'm failing and succeeding - rather an odd combination. On the one hand regular blogging just seems to be completely beyond me at the moment, or maybe it always has been looking at the frequency I've added to this over time. The reason I do keep going is that I rather like having the record of what I've been making. It's a really easy way of keeping track of it all, especially as much of my output seems to leave my house relatively rapidly on completion. It's also nice hearing from those few people who do look in on the blog - so I figure that I'll keep at it, even if it is sporadic and rather 'failure feeling' inducing.

On the upside I have another completed quilt to show off, which definitely makes me feel successful. Tomorrow I'll be jumping on a plane to head for Brisbane for an Easter with far flung family members and this quilt is a birthday gift made especially for the gathering.Late last night I finished off hand stitching down the binding and now have only the label to go - nothing like cutting it fine! I'm very pleased with the mix of Dutch and Japanese fabrics. I think they work well together and I hope will please the unknowing recipient. I've held onto the Dutch fabrics with this person in mind for almost 15 years, so its certainly been a long time coming!

There's really nothing like a binding to make you feel a success.

Have a marvellous Easter - I'm hoping to pay a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition of hats that has just opened at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. Who knows what I'll come back inspired to make next! Rest assured, I'll keep you informed, in due course....

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

or in my case, books it would seem. I have not so much as held a needle in my hand this month. Instead I seem to have been constantly clutching the latest book that I have not been able to put down.

First there was A S Byatt - The Children's Book (fabulous if you are interested in textiles, ceramics, history of the V&A Museum and creativity at the turn of the 20th Century) closely followed by my third reading of Possession. It still sweeps me away.

Then there was Wally Lamb - The Hour I First Believe (centered around two characters impacted on by the Columbine killings and so much more).

For variety I fled fiction and opted for Chris Booth's wonderful sculptures in Woven Stone - this has me feeling a growing and urgent need to tour the country to see these sculptures in person. Just wonderful.

And now I'm in the grip of Steig Larsson - I fear this won't be over until the third book in the trilogy is finished.

Meanwhile the quilting schedule is taking a hammering. Such is life - such is the joy of books.

For light relief I travelled up to the Wairarapa for the day yesterday - my husband was taking part in a mountain running race up Mt Holdsworth - so post a delicious breakfast at the French Cafe I wandered through Greytown and spotted this... knitted things hanging from trees
and wonderful ironwork
I think I feel the stirrings of the need to be creative again....

Sneak Peak

There's nothing like some new threads to get you inspired! This month the challenge with my small group of stitching friends was to do three variations of an image. I've stuck to something I love - the Andy Goldsworthy inspired river line that I seem to come back to so many times. This is the first of the triptych of pieces that I'm creating - my first variation on a theme. The background is a piece of old indigo cotton fabric which has a wonderful soft feel to it, while the foreground is a hand dye that I've been using up piece by small piece. Just love it.
But the star, in my mind anyway, are my new Stef Francis threads. Feast your eyes on these - nothing like a bit of fibre temptation.And then, for a bit of a giggle, I thought you might enjoy these. I found these with my friend who I stayed with recently in Auckland -they are baking measures with the top and bottom of each doll being a different measuring cup. We loved them so much we bought each other a set and had an early, impromptu Christmas together. Nothing like a little mutual indulgence! Such fun and having given mine a test run with the weekly biscuit baking I can give them the full stamp of approval - both beautiful and useful. A match made in heaven.

Monthly musings

There has been so little stitching going on in my life of late (apart from sewing scout badges onto vests - and yes, I know the boys are meant to do them themselves) that I've really struggled to post. That coupled with the odd computer glitch has left me absent for a long time.


However having confessed my lack of activity had just the effect required and I did spent a couple of hours behind my beloved machine on Friday and will soon have something to show, once the hand stitching is complete. What really launched me into action was getting my hands on quite a number of hanks of Stef Francis mercerised cotton - my all time favourite thread for stitching with. It is hand dyed, variegated thread in a wide variety of rich colours. When I discovered that Jenny Hunter had imported it there was no option other than to have a spend up. Heaven!

While I haven't been stitching I have been thinking about it and about art - just loved this sign I found on my travels lately. An excellent expression of the importance of art to us all.
And then grazing just down the road were these zebras which are made of corrugated iron.
The biggest excitement for me was when I found this Rosalie Gascoigne painting for sale in Auckland. I stood and gazed at it for an unseemly amount of time. You just know that when that have Price on Application on the catalogue that you shouldn't even go there. It was very cheeky of me but I snuck this photo - and then wandered straight down the road to buy the catalogue of her recent retrospective in Melbourne. It is wonderful reading.

The greatest thing about Gascoigne is the hope she offers us all - an internationally renown artist who was untrained and didn't start making art until she was in her 50s. There is hope for us all (maybe)!

Just to prove there has been some textile related activity I did purchase this fabulous small quilt made by Norma Slabbert from the recent Quilt Show and Sale here in Wellington. It's beautifully framed and is

now hanging above my phone. It brings a smile to my face each time I see it - what more can you ask from art?

Monthly Miscellany

Well it seems such a long time between posts that a monthly round up is most appropriate. I'm pleased to say that I have finally properly finished my stones quilt - that is properly in terms of it now having a hanging sleeve and label, it has had a trip to show and tell at Guild and, today it moved to its new home. I gave this quilt to my friend Carol as it reminded her so strongly of the colours in the landscape from her childhood home in the Ohakune in the volcanic plateau. It's turned out to be the perfect gift for her as in the last week one of her sisters has died and I hope that this will be a reminder of the memories she holds of their childhood.
I find it a little strange that I intended the quilt to be about one thing and it so appropriately was really meant to be about something else altogether. Such is the nature of life sometimes. On the back of the quilt I have written:

Rarangi maunga, tu tonu, tu tonu.

Rarangi tangata, ngaro noa, ngaro noa.

You have gone, but your mountain is everlasting.

Haere ra Jan.

I've been doing a bit of tripping around the North Island over the last couple of weeks, since its been school holidays here. The prize textile find of the holidays was this wonderful tray cloth which has been exquisitely stitched to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Of course I immediately thought it would make a great cushion for my daughter's friend who we recently made the quilt for, given she refers to herself as Queen Elizabeth III.
I really loved the detail in it - you might just be able to make out the Queen in her carriage below.

Yesterday I went out to visit the Craft Fair at Pataka Museum and the Maori Art Market which was also being held out there. Lots of wonderful creativity on show at both events and it was particularly lovely to meet Rochelle there and her friend Cleo. They both have me very inspired to try the organic dying techniques of India Flint - I'm thinking it will be a perfect activity for post Christmas when I have three weeks at the beach with lots of time for experimentation and access to the materials needed. I have resisted getting into fabric dying and printing for a long time as it all felt so messy and difficult, but this feels different - like an adventure that I am on the edge of. At the same time I have a few ideas for discharge dying that I want to try and which will be a great partner to this new activity. It's always so good to have something to look forward to - I feel a trip to Minerva for India's book coming on... Roll on summer!

Poor neglected blog

It's been one bout of illness after another in our house - if it isn't bad enough looking after children getting ill in sequence I finally succumbed and this cold is a beast to shake. Its a true plague house here if it ever was one!

However I was very surprised when downloading the latest photos off the camera to discover that life over the last very weeks hasn't been completely full of bleakness and illness. I was reminded that at some point I found my way to the sewing machine and made this banner, inspired by much loveliness over at Ravenhill.

I made mine out out of old Japanese kimono fabric that I had and some of the many, many crochet doilies that appear to be breeding up in my sewing room. As I recall I'd gone to the sewing room with the intention of starting a new quilt but couldn't settle on what to do. So I decided that something small and easy would be the thing to get me stitching again. And it has worked as I now know what the next quilt will be... should I ever get shot of this cold enough to get cracking on it....

I also had a real flying visit to Christchurch which was a wonderful 20 hours of indulgence with fantastic food and wine and uninterrupted strolling in the Arts precinct, to be tempted by the creativity of others,and in the Christchurch Art Gallery, which is always full of interesting exhibitions. And even if the art isn't to your taste (not sure I will ever fully get my head around Et Al...) there is always the building to just marvel at and enjoy.