New Zealand Quilt

I don't make very many quilts now, but I had to make one for my sister-in-law who turned 60 this month. The theme is beautiful New Zealand with our gorgeous plants and birds. I made applique blocks by various designers including Jacqui Karl, Amiee's Homestead Quilts, The Cloth Shop and myself. This is what I gifted her over the weekend

I fused the pieces to the backgrounds, and then quilted and appliqued all in one pass of free-motion stitching. Here's each block closer up. Each has special meaning and I can't pick a favourite.

Pohutukawa = NZ's Christmas tree and a favourite of Sandy's

Clouds

Pikorua = a powerful symbol for loyalty, friendship and love, signifying the strength and beauty of enduring friendships

Mountains to the sea 

Kowhai = NZ's national flower 

Sheep = they are now living on a lifestyle block

Kapiti Island = view from their previous home 

Piwakawaka = Fantail, my favourite NZ bird 

Cats = she has 2 

Harakeke = NZ flax  

Every stitch made with love. And a handmade card of course. 

Baby Quilt

A new first baby arriving in our extended family = an opportunity to make a new quilt. I was able to make this one ahead of time because we knew a little girl was coming. I already had a fabric I wanted to use for the border, and I found that the mum-to-be likes pastels, so instead of going with my first thought of brights, I found this lovely paisley fabric which meant I was able to fussy cut the bird shapes with the pattern for wings. Also decided to add a few flowers fussy cut from the border fabric

I fused and appliqued the tree and borders on first

and then the words

Then I layered the top with batting and backing

I attached the remaining elements by stitching through all 3 layers so I was quilting at the same time. I free-motion stitched a double-loop for the background quilting

My Janome 8200 QC machine is FAN-TAS-TIC. Love it more with every project ♥ Here are the leaves/birds before and after appliquilting

and then I added the background quilting around

This is a view of the back

You MUST label every quilt you make (I used this Sharpie fabric marker)

And here is the quilt complete

Click on any photo to see it larger. 
Loved having cuddles meeting her yesterday - one day old :-)

Since I only have boys in my family, I also had to make a very girly pink card

and gave her my favourite Fairy Tale book 

Jane Ray is a gifted illustrator - if you don't know her work, here's a spread from this book :

Happy creative weekend to you.

Quilts on show

Every year our quilt club (Rose City Quilters) hosts Tote & Gloat. It's a day of sharing the quilts we've made over the past 12 months, being inspired by each other and a great speaker, and the opportunity to shop for even more fabric :-)
Quilts were held up on stage and then hung for later closer enjoyment. I am sorry I can't credit most of the quilt makers here because there weren't labels. These were the quilts that spoke to me that day...turned out to be a long post!
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENJOY IT LARGER
Turquoise is one of my favourite colours - the addition of yellow makes this quilt glow

Stunning applique - very striking on the black and love the variegated fabric

Love everything about this - colour palette, circles, flowers...

Soft and pretty fabrics - I have some similar in my stash and this quilt makes me want to dig them out and start cutting. This one I can credit - by my very lovely friend

By Katherine Boyle

This one shows how gorgeous fabric can be showcased using simple block cutting

Lovely landscapes inspired by a Symposium class with Sue Benner

The above 2 and this one below were not much more than postcard size

A lovely pair of quilts for single beds in a spare room

This simple pieced design had lovely quilting ideas

This floral applique is a stunner - check out the quilting too

There were a couple of challenges set for club members this year and I have to share this brilliant quilt by my friend - she won 2nd place for this challenge as well as viewer's choice.

By Debbie Jacques

If you'd like to see the full list and photographs of the award winners please click HERE to go to our Rose City Quilters blog post.
There were also some special exhibitions. One of these was The Hoffman Challenge which I shared in this post earlier about Symposium quilts. Also on display was the Suitcase Exhibition 2015 :

A group called Stella Quilters also shared their quilt challenge inspired by the same 10" block. These are a few examples - I love the variety in interpretations from the same base block (the small one at the top)

This year our speaker was Kay Haerland, born in New Zealand, now living in Australia. She brought many wonderful quilts to show us and was very entertaining. The photos are not as good as seeing her quilts for real, but these were 4 of my favourites. 

Click on her name above to get to her website and see more of her amazing work.
Hope you enjoyed this taste of how I spent last Saturday, and I'm happy to say that I'm going on a bus trip this Sunday to the Kapiti Coast Quilters' exhibition at Southward's Car Museum - see further details at their events page HERE. More quilts and more opportunities to shop! I'll be sure to share what I see...