A little colour brightens my day...

On Sunday Mum and I went to the Quilt and Craft fair in Hamilton as we do every year. It was full of inspiring new ideas, notions and gadgets and its always good to see things in the flesh isn't it. I did a lot of admiring of the pretty fabrics, came very close to buying some Echino fabrics that I'd only seen online until then but I was extremely restrained and bought zilch. The reason being that my DH will be bringing some back from the US with him soon so couldn't really justify buying more now could I? I did enjoy looking at the lovely quilts on display and there was quite a few of them this time. Unlike last year I took not one single photo. There were no signs up saying no photography but I only saw one person taking photos. Last year when I was snapping away an older lady came up to me and asked if I was allowed to take photos and I replied that yes I was. Now I'm not so sure what the etiquette is about taking photos at a show when there are no signs saying not to. I'm interested to know what everyone else thinks about this issue??

While in Hamilton though we did have time to visit Spotlight and I found some more wool in different colours for my crochet project. The best bit was they were half the price I normally pay at my local craft shop!! Gotta love a bargain!

And look my pile of squares is getting bigger!

By the way if you live in or near Christchurch I highly recommend going to The Quilt and Craft show this weekend even if it is to just look and get inspired!



Quilt Eye Candy

On Friday my Mother and I went to the Hamilton Quilt and Craft Fair. We look forward to this annual event every year! There are lots of exhibitors showing the latest in crafting tools, techniques and of course supplies so for someone like myself it is a feast for the eyes. There are free mini workshops and craft circles plus there are displays from the local embroidery, cake icing, weaving/fibre artists, and quilting guilds. There was a beautiful display of quilts from Quilts Aotearoa 2009 hosted by the National Quilting Association of New Zealand which I've often thought of belonging to but for some reason never seem to join. This is a link to their website. I'm not sure why I haven't joined before. I used to belong to the local Quilting group but stopped going when my husband and I opened up a cafe at the same time as I fell pregnant with our eldest daughter 'Amelia'. As you can imagine things got a little busy in our house and I haven't been back since. Also most of the ladies that belonged to this group were all retired with a lot more time on their hands than I have but they did have a wealth of quilting knowledge and experience to share.

Anyhow let's get on with showing you some of the quilts that took my eye. I'm not sure what the etiquette is with regards to taking photos at these shows but there were no signs saying not to take photos and there were others taking photos so I took my cue from them.

I liked this quilt because of the beautiful rich fabrics used. The centre squares were made up of various 'oriental looking fabrics' and the 'leaves' and border from richly coloured batik fabrics. It reminded me of a quilt that is on my 'to do' list from a book called " More Quilts from "The Quiltmakers Gift".

I admired this quilts beautiful and intricate detailed machine quilting and embroidery. It must have taken hours or maybe weeks but was simply stunning.

The kaleidoscope quilt below caught my eye I think because of the simplicity of colours used. The quilting was simple but effective by enhancing the kaleidoscope effect.

This circle quilt was eye catching with the quilted circles sewn with a variety of machine embroidery stitches and again enhancing the pieced circles

This machine appliqued wall hanging was beautifully machine quilted and embroidered with the 3D flowers being fused with thin batting and hand embroidered and beaded.

There was also an exhibition put on by the "Creative Fibre Association". This rag rug was impressive with it use of very tiny scraps of fabric. Now I know what to do with all those tiny

scraps I have accumulated!

A beautifully crafted felt bowl and balls. Not sure what to call these felt spheres but they definitely caught my eye.

And last but not least this exquisite "felt/fibre sculpture of a lady and tree. I definitely could've bought her home!