Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Other Exhibitions.

As well as the large exhibition in the Great Lakes Centre in Taupo there were 3 more smaller exhibitions at the Museum.
 The 12 by 12 RED Challenge.

The red gerbra won.

The bird was entirely stitched.


I liked Lois Wine's perspective ( but it wasn't square )
 One side of the display was poorly lit so detracted from those entries.
.
 Also in another room was Gwen Marston's trunk exhibition


*****
Fibres Unlimited had an exhibit called My Place.
 I loved Orakei Koraka by Aletta Lamprecht and Robin Tinker.
 The colours used depicted the thermal activity of this area.
 The strata was wonderfully stitched.
 Also at the Museum to my surprise was The Garden of Well Being, (Ora )  I had seen many years ago at Elerslie Flower show. It won at Chelsea and was then recreated back in NZ. It now lives and grows beside the Taupo Museum walls.


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 I am still coughing - seems hard to get rid of. Every day I have been getting as much sun as I can. It is worst first thing in the morning. That has been a good excuse to do quite stitching outside for and hour or so each day.
 I have still more to report on my week away. Another class and the new purchases I made. ( Next Post )

Sunday, July 28, 2013

I Loved this Class.

My 2 day class with Gloria Loughman was everything I hoped it would be. What a lovely lady and great encouraging teacher. We were upstairs in the Tech Drawing room, so anything she hung on the wall for us to study was surrounded my other work with computers standing in front. The view from the window was amazing straight down the road to the lake with mountains behind. The view was spoilt by 2 huge ugly power poles  - Taupo you need to go underground with those!
 Here are some of the examples we got to see.
 ( don't those trees look like stained glass windows! )


 The work on the left was the class sample for the course after ours.

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 This was the brief for our class as it was published in the catalogue of classes.
 ( click to enlarge )
Having looked at her samples of trees we could trace I drew my own on the spot.( many of hers were Australian trees. )

 This is my layout. I am still fiddling with it and embroidering the circular shapes - using some of the many stitches available on my Bernina. These are sewn with a reinforcing fabric behind and can be discarded if the aren't  right. One only so far has ended in the bin. That is brilliant advice because if you were sewing the decoration on the shapes already attached to the trees you could not discard them. So this is still a work in progress.

 Here are some of the other pupils efforts.






My namesake was the fastest worker - her's is ready to quilt.Well done A.
 I also got Gloria to sign my copy of her book. As did some other pupils. She wrote a lovely message.Thank you Gloria for an enlightening 2 days. 

Saturday, July 27, 2013

More Quilts.

 Michele Hill's  class to make this  quilt was one I didn't get into. It was stunning. I later met Michele at the museum; she was as nice as her work. The detail in this work required close inspection - a photo does not do it justice. (this is the case with most of the quilts on display. )
 Another tutor I met (as she was sitting alone at lunchtime in the classroom next door to the one I was in on Monday,) was Lenore Crawford. Her class had been my #1 preference but, I didn't get  into it . I had been watching her making this scene on her blog for the last couple of months. 
 Some of the flower detail.
 and this 
 Such great fabric to find for just what she needed.
 She was very pleasant and we visited the classroom I was in and looked at Gloria Loughman's samples and quilts on display - Lenore was a big fan of her work. ( as am I. )
 *****
 Downstairs from our classroom was this excellent cafe. Here ladies queue for early morning coffee.  They know what we need!( they also did excellent soup )

If you were wearing one of these around your neck it got you into most places free as a registered participant.
 A few funny things happened. 
 About 1.15 on Saturday the fire alarm went off( you couldn't fail to hear it! ) and everybody - even the merchants had to evacuate to the bottom playing field. This is just some of the 2500 plus participants, waiting for the all clear. An urn over heating apparently or were they just seeing how well we all obeyed?
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 This pitch black quilt did not photograph well. I loved it .
 In the border of a large quilt Under the African Sun by Valda Sutton were  many of these. I thought it was the best
part of the quilt.

 I loved this detail an another quilt.
 Gloria Loughman's Landscape was another of her 2 day courses - not the one I did. I have some really close photos of the detail for my own use later. She taught us lots of easy / crafty ways to do things and create texture in backgrounds and detail added bit by bit.
 More about the  classes I was in in my next post.



Friday, July 26, 2013

Some of My Favourite Quilts.

At Taupo Symposium 2013 ( Fabric Art Festival ) there were several different exhibitions of quilts. The Great Lakes Centre housed the large main Exhibition.

 This is the sloping walkway at the start of the show.
 There were more quilts on display than I have seen anywhere else. What a visual feast!
 Here are just a few of the ones I liked the most.
 Misty Morn by Sheryl Meech. ( she won the Totally Taupo Challenge. )
 Fifteen, by Camilla Watson. ( this won the Professional Art quilt section )
 Sue Weston made this from recycled wool. Such a simple bright snugly quilt - fabrics getting a second chance. Well done !
 Daughter of Neptune by Trancien Bot.  (Sorry it is not straight ) The quilting texture gave this amazing movement.
 Turning by Sheryl Meech.
 This is a tiny bit of detail from Mary Transom's Kings Garden.
Amazing thread work there.
 Gleaming by Jancy McClellan - Ryan was part of a trunk show of tiny works  from USA. It was difficult to photograph these as they were all covered with reflective acetate.

 Gloria Loughman's, Grass Trees is my all time favourite quilt.
 I was lucky enough to spend 2 days in class with Gloria . What a lovely person and great teacher. More on her in a later post. ( she told me this quilt is also her husband's favourite of all her work. ) The colours are so stunning.
 More quilts and class work, next post.
( I am still coughing and not totally over my cold! blah!.)