Quilt Guild Exhibition

I don't often talk about the Guild I belong to but we have just opened our biennial exhibition and it would be great to see you there, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

We are back in the Academy Gallery for the exhibition and our quilts are looking wonderful hanging on the gallery walls.  Its' a great spot on the waterfront in Wellington and very close to where they hold the WOW show each year (if you don't know about WOW do have a look - it is a veritable visual feast and brings a whole new meaning to creativity!).

Above is a view of the gallery - the quilt in the front is by my stitching buddy Marilyn, Scully Series #4 Protection Blanket. A wonderful quilt that I keep mentioning to Marilyn that I would happily own... Marilyn won a merit prize in the Upcycled category.

Behind it is a quilt that you may recognise of mine - Gateway. I made it early last year and I am thrilled at how fabulous it looks hanging. It's been quite a while since I made it and gifted it to my friend for her birthday so it is lovely to be able to spend some time with it again.

And here I am - the proud maker, out from behind my peg apron. I was incredibly lucky and very surprised to also win a prize - Best Contemporary Quilt. Such a thrill.

 

 

If you in Wellington I hope you will be able to drop by and see many of the other lovely quilts - the exhibition is on until Sunday 7 October. I hope to see you there!

 

 

Lovely, lovely lace

So here's a wee story for you - a couple of months ago I was the monthly speaker at our Guild. They were doing me a favour really. I wanted to do a dry run through of a presentation I was due to give at the Costume and Textile Symposium in Nelson (another story, for another time).

The talk I gave was about some research I did last year into a donor to the textile collection at Te Papa, our National Museum. The donor was Mrs Phyllis Cousins who, in the 1960s, donated well over 200 items of mainly women's clothing, dating from the late 1800s through to the 1930s, to the Museum.

I'll tell you more about Mrs Cousins and her collection another time, but as part of the presentation I talked about how struck I was by the decorative laces on many of the garments and how dull our modern clothing often seems in comparison. The item which caused me to trail off into this side observation was, I think, this one.

 

A morning jacket from around 1900 it features a particularly stunning lace with what I can only describe as thread balls featuring on the lace edge of the sleeve. The jacket is thought to have perhaps have been a maternity jacket as it has fullness at both the front and back to accommodate a pregnancy.

Then again it may have been this 1905 morning jacket that set me off - both are firm favourites from among the Cousins collection and I felt very privileged to have been able to study and work with them.

However the really unexpected part of this tale occurred a few weeks after my presentation when a parcel appeared in my letterbox containing this lovely silk and lace handkerchief. It was accompanied by this note:

Hello

Did I hear you say at your presentation that you like lace? I do hope you did because I am sending a small treasure for you to be custodian of -----

I know it is very old, the team at the identification day at Te papa a few months back indicated that I should look after it. I know that I probably won't but thought that you might.

It came to me via an op shop collection of linen a few years back. No provenance I am afraid. Comes with no attached strings - has been rattling around my linen cupboard for years.

Kindest regards


So I wanted to say a big thank you to my unknown benefactor. It is a treasure and will be looked after and, from time to time, bought out and admired.

Absent but Active

I've been away for far longer than I ever intended but I'm pleased to say that this time it's not due to stitching inactivity. In fact, I've been steadily working away on my Kimono crosses and now have most of them stitched and up on the wall while I play with layout ideas.

This stage is always fun, if a little challenging. Somehow it never quite looks like I imagined it would. I started off thinking I would alternate all of the crosses against blue kimono squares, so it would look something like this

Then last week I had another thought - maybe I could also use red squares and do one half red and one blue, so it would look something like this

Now I'm not so sure - I think maybe it needs some central sashing to divide the quilt visually

Maybe some of the red kimono squares are too loud, too patterned and demanding more attention than I want them to

Maybe.... I need to just keep playing. Any thoughts???

All Roads Lead to Frida

Well, so it seems at the moment anyway. Last weekend I visited a few places I hadn't been to for a while and was richly rewarded by treasures beyond my wildest imaginings. I found these wonderful mirrors which I snapped up.

The woman in the shop thought I must have been watching them and finally made a decision - Oh no, I assured her. I had just seen them for the first time and immediately know they need to move to my house. Nothing Like a snap purchase decision!

The family were a little taken aback (I don't know why really - they should be used to it) and there is still debate over just where they will hang. I had thought the bathroom but my husband wasn't so sure he wanted Frida's gaze of silent assessment looking at him every time he ventured in there.

With that success under my belt, I headed to Asia Gallery - I thought I needed some more red for the quilt I am working on at the moment. I was basically spoilt for choice. They had just had another shipment in and the pile in my favourite $5 bin was literally taller than me. I have never seen anything like it. Deciding was almost impossible and there was no way of getting through the pile to see all the treasures buried in there....

What was a fabric loving girl to do?? So another 8 kimono have moved to my house. These are the red's...

Just loved this - don't think it has ever been worn

This on the other hand has been - by me. I've worn it twice now. Its a heavy wool ikat (not sure what the Japanese term for it is), jacket length with the square neckline and domes rather than the full length kimono. It's perfect for this time of year and is helping to brighten up my rather dull winter wardrobe.

In the meantime I've also been working away on the new quilt project. I've decided to chain stitch onto the centre of the crosses. This may be at risk of turning into the most epic quilt project ever ever now I've decided to do this hand work on each block, but it is a nice project to have sitting in front of the fire of an evening. I think there will be about 100 of these blocks in the quilt, so it should keep me going for a while!

I'm starting out by using up some of the threads I already have. This red thread is a Tentkulum stranded cotton which I bought several years ago along with a blue version. They are called Painter's Threads - so it will probably be no surprise that the name of this shade is Frida.

As I said - all roads lead to Frida!

Regaining my Quilting Mojo

I've been very off the pace lately with my stitching - and I've been really missing it. So over the last month or so I've been taking concerted actions to get back behind the machine and moving on.
I started slowly - went to a few quilt events, tried to find some inspiration among the fabric - and low and beyold its starting to reap dividends.

I'm pleased to say that Frida Kahlo is finally finished - and even better it is currently gracing my bed and keeping me warm as the cold weather hits. Of course once I pulled finger it really didn't take that long to do - funny that! It's simply quilted with mostly vertical lines in a verigated red thread.

I'd chosen this thread almost before the quilt was even begun because red thread is a amulet worn in a number of cultures. So it adds another layer of meaning, and protection, to my quilt which is already loaded with protective amulets. If it is to be taken away to university with my daughter then a quilt of protection and motherly love will be just what she requires - of course we are yet to see whether it actually makes it off my bed!  I'm quite pleased with the back too.... if I do say so myself!

As part of the grand plan to get me going I went to my first ever weekend quilt retreat with our Guild and spent a whole weekend sewing, laughing and doing more sewing. It was great and definately got me moving onto my next project - my next kimono fabric quilt.

I started off with the idea of doing nine patch quilts with a off balace cross cut into these with a cream fabrics - my dear quilt friends kindly told me it looked like masking tape.

 

They were right - it caused more laughter, but then I came up with these... I cut very thin strips and stitched them staight over the top with three rows of my exceptionally useful red verigated thread.

Much better. At this stage the plan is that they will be alternated across the quilt with solid blocks of kimono fabric. They need the space I think otherwise it all looks a bit frenetic. Here they are just pinned on top of a few strips of kimono fabric - it was my experiment to get a feel for how it might look.

I'm very pleased with how it is all shaping up - just need to get myself up into that sewing room to keep up the good work.

Thanks for perservering with me and dropping by to see if I am still around - I'll endeavour to keep you posted.....

Turning something old into something new

It's always a sign that if there are no posts on the blog that it's unlikely that there has been any stitching going on at my house. Work and home commitments have been absorbing much of my time - poor Frieda is languishing with only two borders actually stitched on. I hope to get back to her soon.

In the meantime I've been filling the odd free moment with some hand stitching on what will become a collar for myself. It's a collar with family history. My mother tatted this collar when she was about 10 years old. Hard to imagine any 10 year old these days being able to whip something like this up!

She made the collar to be part of her school uniform in anticipation for when she performed in the school orchestra. It was a requirement of her school, the Catholic school in Timaru - imagine that! Unfortunately she never made it into the orchestra so the collar has sat for over 70 years waiting to be pressed into service.

I'm mounting it onto felted wool and am toying with the idea of adding a few beads onto it to highlight the design. Time will, as always, tell.

When I showed it to my daughter she told me I was very on trend as the shops are full of lace collars - it was almost enough to make me stop but mine will be a collar with provenance, rather than something mass manufactured in China.

And while considering felted wool I thought you'd also like to see this felt cushion cover I bought some time ago. I thought it was irresistible. It dates from around the 1930s or 40s when embroideries and home textiles often featured dutch motifs. I particularly enjoy the cigarette dangling from his lips, something it would be difficult to imagine being included in contemporary work - how times have changed.

Southern Textile Treats

What trip away would be complete without the odd textile treasure snapped along the way. This well dressed cabbage tree was at the bottom of Baldwin St in Dunedin.

Baldwin St has the distinction of being the steepest street in the world. How steep? This should give you an idea.

While we were there several tour buses stopped there for people to view it - I suspect I was the only one who stopped to photographed the cabbage tree. We all walked to the top - one of my boys even ran it! There are obviously a few characters on the street - I loved this letter box.

In Queenstown I was most taken by these two pieces of knitwear - anyone with a pile of orphan peggy squares might want to start stitching them up into coats. This one was retailing for a mere $1600NZ. Obviously they were targeting significantly more well heeled travellers than us! I joked to my husband about buying it for him to wear - and it was then he pointed out the price which had us both shaking our heads in amazement.

Let me know if you are inspired to pick up the needles - there could be a retailer waiting for your work in Queenstown.