Crumbs, It's a Quilt!

I've been thinking about how to reduce my vast collection of scrap fabrics so I have been working on some scrap quilts. This is the first I have finished. It is made from crumb blocks and I have made so many of these I have another top pieced in exactly the same way ready to add borders to, and enough blocks for a third top. As you may guess, the stack of scraps doesn't look any smaller.

I had a terrible time quilting this. I used some cheaper thread on my Pffaf and it didn't like it at all. I got very cross at all the shredding that was going on. I stopped and re-threaded so many times I lost count. I tried everything, new needle, re-threading, change tension, clean the machine. It just didn't like it. The same thread worked fine on my Elna, which is okay but the Elna has a small throat space and that's why I bought the Pffaf. The good news is that the cause is probably a burr in the hook. The bad news is the cost of freight to get it fixed. The good news is that I quilted another quilt after this one with some Madeira Polyneon thread  using the Pffaf and I didn't have one breakage. So I guess it is quality thread for the quality machine!

The quilt is actually a bit darker than the photo suggests. The flash has washed it out a bit. I'm calling it "Broken Glass" I guess the others will be called Broken Glass II and III. Do you think this what they mean by 'working in a series'?

The Ribbon

After hearing of my prize win I decided I needed to travel to Hamilton to collect it in person and, of course, view the other quilts on show. They were of a very high standard and I am pleased to be in good company. Congratulations to all the other prize winners and to all those who had quilts selected. Heart-felt thanks also go to the AQNANZ (Aotearoa Quilters National Association of New Zealand) committee who all worked very hard to mount a great looking exhibition despite noen of them being resident in Hamilton.Thank you also to Anne Scott of New Zealand Quilter for the very generous prize book voucher to use in the Minerva bookshop. I am planning a trip to Wellington soon! My quilt looks great on a black background, don't you think?

Quilts Aotearoa was part of the Hamilton Craft and Quilt Show run by Expertise Events. We arrived about 15 minutes after the opening time on Saturday morning and there was only a small, fast moving, queue for tickets. I headed straight for the quilts (of course!) and there was hardly anybody looking at them at that time. It made it easy to really study the quilts and get photos. The crowds did grow later in the day but I am sure the $14 entry fee was a bit of a discouragement for some people.

Along with the quilt exhibition there was a fantastic Creative Fibre exhibition. This shawl made me want to get out my long unused knitting sticks. It was made by Pamela Strode of Te Awamutu and she spun the wool and knitted the shawl. It won Most Outstanding entry using more than 70 % merino. If it hadn't already sold I would have been very tempted to buy it myself. I guess I'll have to hunt out those sticks :-)

Exciting News

I've just had a call to tell me my quilt "Urban Stripe" has won Best Use of Colour at Quilts Aotearoa in Hamilton. Yippee!. This quilt was made for my son, Jacob, who has generously allowed me to 'keep' it for a while. It was exhibited at Symposium in Queenstown and was recently published as a pattern in the NZ Quilter magazine. I have a big smile on my face :-)