Dandelion Decisions

With the revelation of the dandelion challenge quilts on the Twelve by Twelve blog today, it was time to make a decision from the contenders:
  
I like each of Make a Wish and Dandelion Meadow but Piece de Resistance prevailed.

Getting here

Those philosophical souls who claim that it’s not the destination but the journey that matters clearly didn’t have trans-Tasman travel in mind. In the scheme of things, Copacabana is not that far from Warkworth, my hometown in New Zealand - yet I spent the best part of 9 nine hours getting from my studio to touching down at Auckland airport yesterday. And no, I didn’t have any handwork with me. Not that I would have been up to stitching while standing in the check-in queue for almost TWO hours. Oh joy. Then my flight was almost TWO hours late. Oh, even more joy.

Fortunately, upon landing in Auckland, my mother whisked me away to my grandmother’s place for a very pleasant dinner. (My grandmother happens to be called Joy, and this time I am not being sarcastic.) I presented her with an early Christmas gift - an anniversary calendar from the Quilters’ Guild of NSW. You can buy one too by clicking on the image which takes you through to the order form:

Out and about

I expect blog posts to be more sporadic this week as I am in New Zealand not glued to a computer. On Tuesday I will be teaching Serendipity Circles and I can’t wait to see what the students come up with.

Here is a Rags to Riches blog post featuring Clara’s quilt that she started in one of my Colour Rhapsody workshops.

A fine finish

One of my aims is participating in the Twelve by Twelve challenges is to experiment with new techniques including finishes. In this quilt, I have tried out a very fine 2mm accent or “fillet” strip before applying the binding. This unforgiving close up reveals a few wobbles but overall the finish complements the quilt finely:

Linear Expressions

Neither of my entries were selected for The New Quilt 2008 but this doesn’t distress me overly. First of all, I doubted that the quilts were sufficiently innovative and “edgy” enough for the forum. Secondly, I recognise that non-selection is not necessarily a criticism of the work - all chosen pieces are considered in the context of the entire exhibition and the space available. Finally, I plain enjoyed putting the two quilts together - especially Grass.

Meanwhile, three of my early quilts (the earthwaterfire triptych) exploring linear expressions feature in an article on the Mini Marvel challenge in the current issue of Down Under Quilts:

  

What’s in a name?

I have remarked before on the proliferation of labels that can apply to those caught up in the world of patchwork, quilting and textile art. Sometimes choosing a preferred label is accompanied by a great deal of reflection, even angst. I notice that Lisa Call, who once embraced the word quilt, has recently taken the deliberate course of rebranding her work as “contemporary abstract textile art”.

For my part, I continue to use the label quiltmaker for the reasons that I’ve cited before and because it covers both the traditional and contemporary quilts that are part of my creative vocabulary. Also, since I no longer practice law, quiltmaker is the occupation that I insert on my official documents such as the will I signed today and the immigration forms that I’ll fill out on Sunday. What do you call yourself?

Complementary Circles

On Sunday I head off to New Zealand for a week or so. I’m attending a 3+ day quilt judging workshop and taking the opportunity to catch up with family and friends.

I’m also teaching my Serendipity Circles workshop with Warkworth Quilters. This class covers both free-cutting and fused techniques. I provide fabric for practice circles and collect any spare blocks afterwards to make into a charity quilt. Here are some circles from students in my last workshop:

Ragged around the edges

At Saturday’s Guild meeting, Erica shared her collection of Artist Trading Cards. Here is just a small sample:

I haven’t made many ATCs partly because I don’t enjoy working in such a small scale and partly because I get dissatisfied about the finish I achieve. My satin stitch edging invariably ends up uneven, shaggy and ragged. So it was with some trepidation that today I decided to try out a satin stitch finish on one of the contenders for my quilt in the Twelve by Twelve dandelion theme challenge. I can’t show you the quilt but I am reasonably happy with how the black satin stitch “binding” turned out. There were some parts where the light coloured batting obstinately showed through but nothing that a pigma pen won’t fix!

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Yesterday was the Guild’s Annual General Meeting and I handed in my Exhibition Secretary’s badge. I will continue as de facto Guild webmaster and blog administrator and have been busy compiling the online gallery of quilts entered in the 25th anniversary theme challenge - Looking Forward, Looking Back. It’s well worth checking out.

Twelve by Twelve: New Look Blog + New Website!

In these pre-daylight savings days, I’ve been waking up ridiculously early. I’ve been putting this extra time to use developing a new website for showcasing the Twelve by Twelve quilts as we complete each challenge. Here is the result: www.twelveby12.org


Check it out and let me know if you find any broken links or other strange happenings. I’ve also had fun dressing the Twelve by Twelve blog to match.