Last Entry for Symposium

A piece of my final entry for Symposium this year in Wellington. This is for the New Zealand Quilter Small Suitcase (Made in New Zealand) category. It is a Monarch butterfly, but I have painted with setacolor the orange sun rays from the Edmond's "Sure to Rise" logo on the wings. The body is layered scraps of fabric, thread and chocolate papers trapped under black tulle. The whole butterfly is heavily quilted and a few scattered crystals for further decoration.

Digital and photograph entries need to be in Wellington by Wednesday, mine will be posted today, hurray!

Another Symposium Entry

Here is a portion of another small quilt I finished last night. It is a whole cloth, with a silver (feathered) fern in the middle, and with words stamped with paint or stenciled with gel pen, saying things that I think wearing the silver fern means to New Zealanders'. For example, "To Be The Best", "Family", "Blessing" and others. It is also completely quilted 'to death', but it needed something to make the words stand out. I was also inspired by the website thisisnotajersey.com which has quotes from the All Blacks (national rugby team). I stitched the silver fern with silver thread and it shows up beautifully on the black fabric.
I'm struggling to get the 'right' title for it though :-(

New Additions to the Family

Four little Blue Andalusian chicks hatched on New Year's eve - 2 black, 1 silver and 1 will be grey. 2 bantam mothers.

This is about the only time this chicken will be able to sit on mum's back - soon they will be too big!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

In a few more hours we (in New Zealand) will begin the countdown to the new year. 2009 is going to be a year of new beginnings, lots of art quilting, a new job and a new me. This year has been a sabbatical in which I have managed to do lots of sewing. I have 2 more stamp challenges for the Wellington Symposium at Easter finished. Here is a small close-up of both of them:
this is inspired by a 1960 issue 3d pictorial, and this one is from the same series but the 4d stamp.

The middle colour is actually teal, not green. I will need to take the photos with natural light for it to show well.

Something to Share

I have been able to enjoy the Pohutukawas (New Zealand Christmas tree) coming into flower the last few weeks on my daily walk, so today I took the camera to share these photos with you.
This is the flower unfurling:

In all it's glory:

Here is a tree (a very young one) with more flowers opened - just in time for Christmas!

And here is a yellow one, which I haven't seen before. It doesn't look as dramatic as the red, but still pretty.

The New Machine is Finally Here

WooHoo! today I went into the store to find out where my prize winning sewing machine was - and they had one to give me - it doesn't have a plaque on it, as you would expect after all these weeks, but it has that new smell and lots of things for me to try out. For example, I've not used a knee lifter before, and I'll HAVE to read the manual, even before turning it on.
So, see you around!!
:-)

A Retirement Quilt

My friend Gendie turned 60 this last September and retires from her workplace after 15+ years. I figured that she deserved a quilt especially for such a significant birthday. So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that I have made this lap quilt in a week and that I can present it to her at the 'retirement afternoon tea'. It's called Sudoku and measures 49.5 inches square (126 cm).