The Girls' Big day Out.

41 ladies travelled by bus to "Calico Christmas - 2009 - A Garden Party." It is the Annual Exhibition of members' work of the Auckland Patchworkers & Quilters Guild Inc. That left only a few spare seats for our chilly bins and on board refreshments.( Thanks Denise) Nobody complained about the early start as we all wanted as much time to see and shop as posssible. Along the way we had prizes - my job, then a stop of half an hour at Ngatea. ( for coffee and toilets and there was that areas quilt exhibition on in the hall. ) The look at their exhibition was rapid but we thought there was some lovely work.  

Standing on an artist easel in the foyer were these lovely pieced irises.

This quilt had some good ideas, as some of the flowers were fussy cut squares, some appliqued, but certainly gave the bright overall garden feel; but I would have loved to see some of the flowers overlapping at the edges.

This wall hanging used the theme of the NZ native Clematis and had thread and bead embellishments that are hard to see in the photo.

This quilt appealed because of the angles created and accentuated by the quilting stitches. It was bright and fresh.

Back on the bus and reaching the North shore in Auckland before 11 am. There was so much to see and much shopping so I'll show a few of the quilts that took my eye and tell you why.The space was crowded so trying to get far enough back for good pics was tricky.( the lighting also created shadows )

Flowers Love Company by Chris Bailey was in the Challenge section. I liked the colours shape and texture.

The workmanship and quilting were amazing and I think the very reduced pallette drew your attention to the detail. By Ansa Breytenbach.( sorry couldn't fit it all in ).

Wendy Johnson's Christmas  wall hanging was bright and the Noel hanging part added something.

Usually the little ( school ) house block is one I dislike.This is just one block on a large quilt - each block had used a different block set in as one wall in the house - certainly a different way to display a sampler.The quilt was browns and fawn and cream and only the blocks had colour.

I'll have more quilts from Calico Christmas to show you tomorrow.