Jar Quilts

A strange title for a quilt I know but I was talking to a friend Raewyn about 'Jar' quilts. You probably have seen one or two of them, they were a trend a few years ago. Remember Bugs in Jars, and Sewing Notions?

Well Raewyn was saying a food one would be good, and I said I have one in my kitchen.

To be honest it's been there so long I forget that it's there. There was the funny story of a friends husband who was visiting and had had a 'few'. He was trying to convince me to open up some of those preserves!

Anyway here is a photo for you and Raewyn to see what I mean.

I had to wrack my brain to think about when this was made (early '90s I think). I only made 2 blocks in it, the strawberry one and the raspberry one. The other blocks where made by others in a swap.








My friend Roz who started all this madness taught me to quilt, was one of the swappers and when the time came to make something with them she decided she didn't need another UFO, so gave them to me. Score!

I tried to make them look like they were on a shelf and even used wood grain fabric, shame I didn't look at a real shelf and see the grain lines don't go the way I made them! And you can see I thought just quilting in the ditch was enough. Anyway it still makes me smile, because it's cute and it reminds me of Roz.

Lets have a closer look.....

Isn't this centre block clever how the quilter stacked the two jars?  

And this 'onions in a jar' is my favourite. I love this onion fabric!

At the time I made up this wallhanging, decorative preserved fruit and vege jars like this one above, were all the rage. I thought I was so clever making my own fabric version!
Now you have seen this blast from my 90's past, just think yourself lucky I haven't kept the leg warmers I knitted in the 80's to show you!

Show n Tell April 2011

An Easter table runner,
made by Aurely de Smith for her daughter in the UK.

Bunnies Prefer Chocolate is a W.I.P that Aurely de Smith has been working and she hopes to complete for Easter this year.







I love this block, isn't this chick towing the bunny in an 'egg trailer', incredibly cute!

Marie Finnegan started this quilt about 5 years ago at a class at the Country Yard. It was put aside till last year when she redid some sewing and had it quilted by Sandy. Marie has given this quilt to her grandson Thomas.









Heres a close up, I like how the whiskers have been quilted in.













Another cat quilt, this one is made by Jennifer Cullen she said 'two and a half years of decisions, three weeks of sewing' The cats 'attitudes' are just right!


And this quilt is also by Jennifer she made it for her brother & partner as they wanted Red.






Lynne Wilson calls this her 'Learning Quilt'.
The top has been in the UFO pile for a while and Lynne decided she wanted use it to practice her free motion quilting. Each block is quilted in a different way, and now that she is finished she feel much more confident. She says "I have learned that practice, practice, practice is the key to free motion quilting".












Robyn Halverson stenciled this flower to practice a '3D look' applique technique. The background was heavily quilted first, before the design is outlined, which makes the flower and leaves puff up and look 3D. Very clever.







This wallhanging 'Funky Flowers' (it is straight just photographed at a strange angle sorry!) was made by Shirley Julian, at a recent Bernina class that taught the use of Floriani products.














This lovely floral bag was made by Lynne Watkins at a class at The Apple Basket.
And the gorgeous cream bag was hand embroidered by Sandy Robinson, she changed the pattern to make the bag more practical by adding a zipped pocket, cellphone pocket and a latch for her car keys.

Shelia Udjur made these 'Bowling Buddies' for her grandson Benjamin.







This little tea cup has been turned into a beautiful pin cushion by Lynda Parker.

'Kohen's Quilt' Marion Roke made this quilt for her grandson (Kohen), the centre is a panel and she has added the applique alphabet.







Yvonne Davis has been very busy making more quilts for Starship (National Childrens Hospital)
Sorry my camera was on the other side of the room when they were opened up, so I didn't get a photo but I'm sure they will be loved by the children at Starship.









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Barbara Bilyard an incredible quilt artist and tutor recently passed away. As a small tribute to her, we asked club members to bring some of the quilts they had made in classes with Barbara over the years.

Reminder! Quilt Club this Saturday

Gee doesn’t the time fly by, it’s nearly the end of the 1st school term, seems like only yesterday it was new year! I haven’t been doing much sewing at all lately, so nothing fabric to show sorry. But I did buy a new foot for my sewing machine so I should try it out soon and show you something from that.

In the mean time I wanted to show WP&Q Club Members this large hand quilting floor frame.

It belongs to the Club but hasn’t been used in a long time. The committee is thinking about selling it. So have a think about that, we are going to bring it to the meeting on Saturday so everyone can see it. If you are interested in buying it talk to Fiona.

CollaboratioNZ 2011 Art Auction

To start off I better explain what CollaboratioNZ is. Every 2 years a large group of National & International Artists gather together at McGregors Bay for a week to share, learn and make art together. At the end of the week all the art made during the week is auctioned, and the money from the auction funds the next CollaboratioNZ in 2 years time. Here's a video make during the 2009 CollaboratioNZ which shows various Artists working together.

So now you know what CollaboratioNZ is all about, here's some photos I took at the Art Auction on Saturday.

I liked this large piece and thought it would look good in the garden! I wanted to get a photo of my son and his girlfriend looking through it but, he didn't like that idea (see him dragging her away)

I really liked this little house on a cliff and the stairs to a diving board. On the back there was a ladder to climb back up!

I thought this would have looked good at home too, but I was out bid.

This large outdoor wind sculpture was interesting. This is the first time I have seen a propeller attached to the singer sewing machine! The whole top spins when the wind catches the large 'sail' and the propeller is attached to the wheel so when propeller spins the machine 'sews'.

Here's what some different Artists made with the sewing machine cover. I love the carrot on a stick.

It's title is 'Horseless Tart' which made sense when you looked inside the cart! This piece made a lot of people laugh.

The Auction went well with all 150plus pieces selling. Prices ranged from $50 to $10,000. Nothing came home with me, I was out bid on everything I liked. But I still had a great time seeing all the Art and the intense bidding for some items.

After the Auction I went and had a look at the Billboard Competition entries (for promoting Whangarei) at the Town Basin.

There are 12 Billboards to see on the grass behind Reyburn Art Gallery, so make the time and go and have a look. These were my 3 favourites.

Pataua Bridge by Diane Stoppard

Town Basin by Val Rufus-Ellis

Surf Life Saving Champs, Ruakaka by Nickie Muir