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 :-)

Local craft fairs

Such gorgeous weather at my place today. In the couple of months leading up to Christmas there are lovely craft fairs around this area to visit and to be inspired, or to purchase goods that you just know you've left it too late to make yourself! Starting next weekend :  
Saturday 15th November 9am-4pm : Cross Hills Gardens Country Fair located in Kimbolton. Details HERE and they have a FB page HERE

$15 entry fee to fair & gardens (children under 16 free)
Saturday 22nd November 10am-4pm :: Country Christmas Gift fair at Caroline's Creative Interiors - Aokautere. Full details HERE.

FREE entry and beautiful location. I blogged about my visit there in 2011.
Friday 28th November 5pm-9pm : the last Village Night Market for the year.

FREE event held at the City Library. Details HERE.
Tuesday 2nd & Wednesday 3rd December 2pm-10pm : Magic of Christmas Night Market. Full details HERE

$5 entry fee - this event is being held at the Awapuni Racecourse.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend :-)

Lucky Quilty Week

A lovely week with 2 quilt shows to inspire me. Last Sunday I went to the Feilding Kowhai Patchwork Quilters' Exhibiton at the Coach House. It was a fabulous location for the quilts, displayed on the Coach House Museum pieces. 

I'm only showing you these 2 photos because you're best to go to the club's blog where they've posted lots of wonderful photos of the event. I was very inspired by this stitched quote for obvious reasons! 

They also had some shops there, and I stopped by the stall of Fabric by Three to stroke their beautiful hand-dyed fabrics, and admire their range of stencils (also available online). 

I'm still being thrifty, and although tempted, didn't make any purchases. I don't usually win competitions and thought my win last week of the online classes was simply amazing. But when I opened my letterbox today there was a package for me which contained a letter saying I had won a daily draw from Fabric by Three - so glad I filled out a piece of paper while I was there browsing! My prize was 4 beautiful hand-dyed fat quarters and a notebook with a lovely fabric cover. You can order their fabric online.

This weekend I'm off to see the Quilt show at Pukeora : Wine Country Quilts. There'll be more quilts to get inspired by, and there'll be more shops. Thinking I might have to enter another competition...or buy a lotto ticket! Have a great weekend

Happy Monday

Lots to share from last week - so much that I think I'll share my stitching progress from last week in my next post...

I helped at Cecile Whatman's Unique Stitching stand from Thursday - Sunday at the Craft and Quilt Fair here in Palmerston North. This is me fondling some of her gorgeous dyed cotton scrim.

Had a ball - so cool to meet so many lovely like-minded people and of course I made some purchases...
Cecile has very cool stencils - 6 came home with me

I also found some cheap lace cardstocks at The Craft Spot which I will also use as stencils

And at the same booth, a fantastic buy on these scrapbooks

They have 10, 30x30cm clear pockets, and are perfect cheap storage for my stencils.

I love Sew Somerset magazine but don't usually treat myself. This older issue was on 1/2 price sale.

I love Priscilla Jones' work and found you an online copy of the article if you don't have this issue.
And I also got a wonderful deal on my very own Gelli Plate

Will be interesting to see how it goes compared to my homemade plate experiments.

Here I am looking at the gorgeous cotton scrim bundles. Below are what I succumbed to.

Then I found these hand dyed wrapped muslin cords from Felted and Stitched. You can use them as cords, or pull them out wider.

The variegations are lovely.
There were some very cool quilt exhibitions. You might recognise some of these quilts on display from Rose City Quilters.

I have been an admirer of the Twelve by Twelve group for ages and have had their book for a while.

It was so lovely to see their Colorplay quilts up close.

Go here to see all of those quilts.
And a group new to me was AQUA - Art Quilters Uniquely Australian with their exhibition "Essence of Australia".



Read more about them and see other examples of their quilts here.
The good news is there will be another Craft & Quilt show in Palmerston North next year.
I look forward to showing you what I do with my new supplies. Have a lovely week.

Hello again

The time out from blogging was just what I needed. I appreciate so much all those people who left supportive comments about my month off.

First page inside my first Full Tilt Boogie journal

I've made progress on some projects, and pared down my to-do list. I'm also enjoying spending less time on the computer.

Sari Ribbon Slow Cloth completed May 2012.
Finally mounted on stretched canvas and hung on the wall.
Read more about this piece HERE

Unfortunately one of the low-lights over this time has been a continuing increase in spam comments. When I reached 20 spam comments in the space of one day, I had to add the word verification step. I hope this doesn't put you off leaving comments for me in the future.

Another page begun in Full Tilt Boogie Journal.
Love how the glued serviette dries transparent so the old writing shows through.

I'll start sharing properly what I've been up to from next week, but in the meantime thought I'd share a couple of local outings I'm hoping to make in the spirit of Christmas shopping....first stop next Friday at the alt.shift.craft fair :

Then the Craft Country Fair is in Greytown Saturday 15th December - click on the link to see some of the gorgeous exhibitors from last year.
And if you're in Wellington you might like to do some arty shopping

I know I don't NEED to take anymore classes BUT I'm seriously considering getting a Ticket to Venice with Mary Ann Moss - start date 15 December

Class details HERE

Will let you know if I fall for it! Talk to you again soon.