Craft and Quilt Fair in Porirua

Yesterday I had a road trip to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Porirua. Wasn't sure what to expect, and it has had mixed reviews from people attending. We were off to a good start when the first stand we came to was the very inspiring Dijanne Cevaal. She sat in the midst of her Medieval project - initiated by her with additional contributions from other textile artists, each piece has been hand printed and then layered, embroidered, stitched, quilted and embellished. Click on any photo in this post to see lovely details.

She had panels for sale which are her original linocuts printed onto hand dyed cotton fabric which she has also dyed. I couldn't go past this one - beautiful weeds. I discovered her original blogpost about it here.

The intention is to add some soft wadding and a backing, and then stitch it intensely similar to what she's done below 

Then we moved on to the stalls of other things for sale. Disappointing with how many shops there were, but I was happy to see a range of stencils I hadn't seen before. So managed to come away with these, as well as my weed panel

Then it was time to check out quilt displays. There were a few to inspire. First up was "Our Wishes for the World" - Queensland based textile artist with concerns about the environment. These were my favourites : 

"African Mahogany Seedlings" by Rebecca Saunton Coffey.

"Seed Pods" by Jane Rundle. Here's a detail of the lovely stitching

Next up was SALT : South Australian Living Textiles - their exhibition was called "Inner Journeys" and each artist shares 5 quilts. I wish I could share all of it! but explore more HERE. This is Julie Haddrick :  

 Francie Mewitt - click on any photo to see lovely details

Suzanne Gummow :

Moving on to the AQC Challenge : Tradition with a Twist. See all those quilts HERE. This was the winner : "A Happy Place" by Alison Withers

Colourful, quirky, and masterfully stitched.This was the kind of quilt you see more in the more you pay attention

Also loved "Illumination" by Jan Clark. Beautiful moths and butterflies

Last we saw the Hoffman Challenge Touring Quilts 2016. Quilts must be no more than one metre square, and the quilt is not allowed to be square or rectangular. The artist must use a recognisable amount of the challenge fabric.This was the challenge fabric :

Was great to see some familiar names in the clever quilt artists that got picked for this exhibition, but I'll post just a couple of my favourites cos this post is getting quite long! For photos of all the touring quilts go HERE.

Detail of mermaid quilt - perhaps making quilts with faces are in my future...."Honey! You're home" by Jo Hollings. This next is called "Parisian Bon Bon" by Mary Transom 

So overall, although we were disappointed about the number of stalls on offer, I am happy with the quilt photos I took for inspiration and had a lovely day out with friends - that makes for a happy Saturday :-)