June Nixey Interview on National Radio

I wrote a post the other day about June, and then on Tuesday I was listening to the radio and they were interviewing her about her work with the Shut in Stitchers. I enjoyed listening, and then this morning I thought oh I can put a link up for others to hear the interview too!

So here it is.

The Shut-In Stitchers

Originally aired on Afternoons, Tuesday 6 August 2013

The Shut-In Stitchers is a group of volunteers who've been teaching quilting to the inmates of Arohata Women's Prison every Saturday morning since 1993. Two decades later and the stitchers are still at their work. Their efforts were recognised last week with an award from Arts Access Aotearoa. June Nixey is the force behind group.

Duration:  11′ 43″ 

Famous Friends

Several friends made quilts that were accepted into the Symposium Exhibition. I feel proud to know such an awesome group of talented ladies. Here are some of their quilts.


This was made by Shelia Udjur for the Web Challenge. It was a very involved challenge with different elements having to be used in each row.

A close up of two snowmen.

and a close up of the skate rink. This row had to use a 1/2 inch bias strip of a certain length and Shelia was very clever and used the strip around the top of the rinks fence.

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Donna Rowan's beautiful Triptych. I remember saying to Donna I thought it would be a winner at Symposium and I'm pleased to see I was right. (Yes it does happen-I'm right sometimes!)



Detail of the quilting

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Sonya does thread work so well, a well deserved ribbon.


Close up. Isn't he just so sweet? Makes me want a dog even though I'm more a cat person.

Sonya also won the Red Challenge with her Red Gerbera

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Francien works at our local Bernina shop here in Whangarei. It was so nice to see she had two of her mermaid quilts accepted into the exhibition.






Love the stitching on the hair, that's a lot of thread changes.

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Blogger Charlotte from The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady and won the ribbon for Best First Time Entrant.



detail- this wall hanging has lovely overlays of hand painted silk organza.


I really liked this large quilt by Charlotte too.


Detail of the saddle back bird from Charlotte's quilt.

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Sorry if I have missed anyone from club out, I hope not.  Rose Silvester had an entry in the Hoffman Challenge that was wonderful too, with a Southern Belle and Mansion House. Use this link to go and see the post with it in. OK that's it for now bye everyone. 

Some of the Award Winning Quilts

Well it's a while since Symposium now, but I'm still catching up with things like sleep, housework, going back to work etc. Slowly getting there, so I have some time to post some more photos.

I really liked the quilts that received awards this time. It's not always so, but even when I don't like award winners I can understand why they were chosen. 

So here's my  'funny, but true' story of the first time I was walking around the exhibition. 

I was grabbed by a total stranger (non-quilter) who said "Oh good you're a quilter, (she saw my symposium lanyard) you can explain!" and dragged down the aisle so I could tell to her why these quilts had won awards. 

She was very upset as the Best of Show was only small and not as impressive as "All the other big quilts" So I mumbled that it had beautiful workmanship and I liked it. I didn't have time to form a more complex answer! But later I was pleased to see 'superior workmanship' as one of the Judges reasons!

Best of Show

See the Judges note!

Close up

Detail- loved the gold triple stitch.

Detail- there were lots of beads, but it wasn't 'overdone' as I feel some beading can be.

I was then dragged around the corner to see the Best use of Colour Award. Because the lady was very unhappy about this choice. She pointed to all these other quilts she though were better. 

Anyway I said that "Judging was subjective, and colour especially so". But she was having none of that! So I said  "The quilter was very clever using an unusual fabric as the background fabric, and I thought it was beautiful."  

Best Use of Colour winner (but colours aren't right in photo)  :-(

The background fabric appears 'yellow' but was more green as ---->

Lucky after that I was left alone by this lady and could look around in piece :)

The Miniature Quilt winner was amazing, and it was good to just enjoy it, without having to justify it's win to anyone. Does this being grabbed by strangers at quilt shows happen to anyone else? It has happened to me more than once, which makes me wonder what people see in my face (the husband has suggested a few ideas, all not very flattering!)  

No I'm not touching it but wanted my knobbly fingers in the photo so you could appreciate how small the hexagons are.

Just as I was nearly ready to leave I recognised Jenny from Romany Quilting so had to say Hi and get a photo. (Gee the lack of sleep really shows on my face!) It was lovely to meet Jenny in person as I have followed her blog for a long time. 

I also meet Ali of the Quilting Orchardist on another day but forgot to get a photo, but Hi Ali.

When I was wondering if it was Jenny before I said hello,
I decided it must be as her as she was wearing her favourite colour blue.

National Award for June

 June Nixey has been teaching quilting to the Shut in Stitchers of  Arohata Women's Prison for 20 years. This week the stitching programme received a Highly Commended in the Big 'A' Prison Arts Community Awards. Read all the details using this link to the story on stuff.co.nz 

June also blogs at Junez Scrapz and is on my blog list (right hand side of blog) so check out her blog and leave a comment congratulating her.