Textile Events In New Zealand

The next New Zealand Quilt Symposium is in Taupo which is in the centre of the North Island of new Zealand. The dates are 18-23rd July 2013. Click here if you would like to register to receive information about Taupo symposium. 

There is also a mini symposium to be held in Nelson in 2012. Patches of Tasman will be held from 12th - 16th April 2012. I will be teaching my 'Modern Wagga', 'Fabric Painting & Printing' and 'Putting it into Perspective' classes there.

Queenstown Quilt Symposium

I have just got back to Wellington after a week as a tutor at the Remarkable Symposium in Queenstown. We all had a lovely time and it was nice to catch up with old friends (and new) in such a beautiful place. The autumn colours were really beautiful.

I arrived 15 mins before the tutors meeting on Monday because the plane was delayed  due to high winds in Wellington. There was snow on the mountains as we flew over the South Island.   I then worked 5 days without a day off to look around. There was an exhibition at a church that I never even managed to see because by the time I finished in the evening it was usually too late to get to it. It was very frustrating to not be able to see all the exhibitions but the quilts I did see were pretty amazing.

This morning I managed 1.5 hours looking in the Queenstown shops so I feel like I've done more than teach, eat, talk and stay at the hotel.

My students did amazing work in the 'Next Step' class which was on Tuesday and Wednesday.  My class sample for them looked like this

and the students were warned beforehand that their designs would not look anything like mine because of the process we would be following.

Here are some of their designs, published on this blog with the students permission. NB. If you made one of these quilts please email me you name so I can put it beside your quilt.

I was blown away by how different they all are. Thank-you to the Remarkable symposium 'Next step' class for letting me share these photos on my blog.

On Wednesday I taught the class' Modern Wagga'. A wagga is a 'utility quilt' often made with old clothes, tailors samples or whatever is to hand.  Here are some examples of quilts made in my class.

 We were lucky to have a small class and a large classroom so each student was able to use 3 or 4 tables to construct their 'wagga' and each was at least single bed sized which made them hard to photograph even when standing on a chair. Again, if your quilt is here tell me the colour and your name and I will attribute your work.



Here are some images from the flight home

Costume making

It has been a busy couple of months with study for the costume course and a few extras. We have to do an industry placement and I have been working with Mr Peter Rigby who is a well known Wellington character and Tailor to make a jacket for a member of Alf's Imperial Army. Each week I have been going over to the Hutt Valley to learn how to do the next step in making the jacket. I have never made a mans jacket before so I have been learning about shoulder pads and sleeve head caps!

The jacket is pretty lurid and has strange badges and buttons but I have learned a lot about its construction and fitting. pretty much every seam has been unpicked and resewn at least twice! Unfotunately I don't have a male mannekin so it doesn't show how fitted it is (I tried it on my son but he is so skinny it looked ridiculous).

As part of the course I have also made a corset and combinations and am in the process of designing and making costumes for dance. After that a few of us will start making enormous hats for a show in May.

Not much time for quilting but I will be teaching at the quilt symposium in Queenstown so am making class samples and writing notes for a new class on Sashiko stitching.