NZ National Quilt Symposium : Part 1

The main thing I want to make in 2015 is quilts - lots of quilts. I've started the year right with our national Quilt Symposium that's been right here in Palmerston North.  

I am full up with inspiration and thought I'd share some of it here with you over a few posts.
First up, I attended some great lectures. The artists I saw are all very talented in quite different ways and I took something away from hearing each one. I have provided links to their sites and photos of the quilt they had in the tutors' exhibition ::
Sue Benner creates original dyed and painted fabrics which she combines with recycled textiles. She fuses and then cuts her fabrics to create detailed quilts. Her quilt on show was one of her cellular structures : click on any photo in this post to make it larger

"Cellular Structure V" by Sue Benner

She shared some of her landscape quilts in her talk - tiny detailed pieces and wonderful colour - see her gallery HERE.
Betty Busby works with all kinds of fabrics and uses a layered approach to her work. It was really interesting to see her work inspired by the natural world through a microscope in contrast to Sue Benner's work above - go HERE to see her gallery of that work. Her tutor's exhibition quilt was one of her waterscapes - see similar work HERE. But what I'm sharing is a piece from one of the other exhibitions in town since I far prefer flowers to fish :

"Buffalo Gourd" by Betty Busby

Linda Beach creates all her quilts with piecing and commercial fabrics. It was fascinating to see her take on landscapes in contrast to Sue Benner above.

"Evening Wall Shadows" by Linda Beach

Go HERE for her gallery of quilts which includes many trees and lots of colour - the one above is much more muted than most of her pieces.

Helen Godden is an Australian quilter. Her work is predominantly pictorial, with strong design and colour. Lots of free motion quilting is a feature of her work.

"Rainbow Lorikeet" by Helen Godden

Click HERE to see her gallery of art quilts.
Here are a few of my favourites from the Tutor's exhibition  which might inspire quilts from me this year :
Sheena Norquay's lovely quilt pair inspires me to make a seascape quilt :

"Summer and Winter island strips with oystercatchers"
by Sheena Norquay



Jo Dixey is a New Zealand quilter - I love the way she uses fabric. It was hard to get a good angle of this quilt because it is quite large, so see it and more of her work in her gallery HERE.

"Watching" by Jo Dixey

I think I might have to make 1 abstract quilt this year - I just love the colour and composition of this one by Deborah Louie from Australia.

"Medallion #8" by Deborah Louie

I am very lucky that at the end of January I'll be spending 2 days with Karen Stone - love her work and a good way to start the year with fabric and colour design ideas. This is her tutor's quilt, but not one of the classes I will be doing.

"Reptile wisdom" by Karen K. Stone

I particularly love the circles in the border

There will be more posts about Symposium so I can share other exhibition quilts. I also shopped!...More soon.