Quilt Show, Rotorua

Our group is having an exhibition of members' latest work on 20-21 June 2009. It is from 10am - 4 pm each day. The venue is the Bridge Club Rooms, Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Road, Rotorua. (Take the Lakes turnoff at the roundabout on Te Ngae Rd. Look forward to seeing you there.

I have just completed my latest piece, Ties that Bind.

Vikki Pignatelli

Quilting by Improvisation was a class at Symposium with Vikki Pignatelli.
Here is the sampler I worked on in class to try out her techniques. I was trying to create a splash of water. I found Vikki’s technique of curves extremely useful. I am much more confident now of using curves, and want to finish a larger improvisation piece for our quilt show (June). Vikki’s technique of using strips, and pleating them, also created great textural appeal to fabric, and I will put this in my larger piece as well.

Having fun Dye-ing

After taking a class with Shirley Goodwin at Symposium, several of you have been asking to put some pictures up of what I did, so here they are:

Toilet Duck Leaves

I have been experimenting a little with the Toilet Duck discharge method of printing on fabric.

The Janola Duck is easy to control, and after squeezing a little of the cleaner into a plastic container, I painted the cleaner onto leaves, and stamped them onto dyed fabric. I don’t know the names of the leaves, but I love the look of the fabric once it is finished.

String and Sun
I painted the fabric with textile paint, and laid it outside (out of the wind), I randomly cut lengths of string and just let them fall / drop onto the painted fabric. I let the sun do it’s work, and came back later and removed the string. Voila. Fantastic technique.

Happy Accident
You know, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. I was attempting shibori, and working outside my comfort zone, by using black. I used rubber bands, and just randomly bound the white fabric. Added black dye and let it rest for a while. I removed the rubber bands, and left the fabric outside to dry. Another member of the class, hung their shibori above mine, and the wind flapped it, causing droplets of dye to land on my black fabric. I just love the natural looking “rocks”. The accident created an almost organic feel to the fabric. I would really like to duplicate this feeling and imagery in the future. It will take much more experimentation, but that is what I like, learning from my mistakes.

What have I been up too?

I have been working small, trying to achieve one small thing a day to help me get my creative rthymn back. I have started to draw insects for a snowball quilt for my little boy. I will post photos of them on my other blog, once I get myself organised.

http://ruthmcmonagle.blogspot.com/

Decided to make a small series of Trading Cards to swap with friends, so using the left overs from "Crop Circles" I cut small balls of the thread fabric, and using metallic thread meandered around them. My daughter wants them, so I told her she has to make some to swap with me! It's the only way for her to get her hands on them.

Calculator cover

It has been a while since I have written in this blog, but a side effect of the medication I am on, causes "emotional blunting" at the moment and this is affecting my creative side.

On a more positive note, I encouraged my daughter to design a calculator cover for Casio. Her entry is "G-man". Please view it and vote for it. She did a great job.

http://www.projectrecalc.co.nz/

She also made me do one, so here is mine. I pieced together some polyester scraps, and then did some free motion zigzag to create the circles. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Where to next?

Been away camping and the New Zealand bush always manages to help me re-focus and provide refreshment for my heart, and eases away the pain.


I managed about 40 A4 quilts in the past year. I have learned so much, but for 2009, have been thinking about another approach.

So, my theme for the next few months will be happiness, and will be making art around this theme. Perhaps more small quilts, maybe Trading Cards, undecided yet. Who knows? Just plenty of "What if..."

If you had a symbol for happiness, what would it be?

A feather representing your warm snuggly bed?

A musical instrument whose music soothes your soul?

Or just your cat's purr, knowing you and the cat are content?

Fabric scraps just waiting to be used in another new way?



At the moment, it is a feather for me, my feather bed, so soft, blissful, but as sleep seems so elusive, and I would just love to sleep for more than 4 hours, and just snuggle in the mornings, and not rise until after midday. Oh such simple pleasures.

Have fun, and don't forget to let me know what your happiness symbols are.

Pleated squares

Got the sewing machine back, finally repaired, so going to make some pleated squares. I have always wanted to try the technique, so here goes.

Drew lines 5cm apart horizontally and vertically. Ironed the vertical lines and then with purple thread sewed 0.5cm from the fold line. Wasn’t certain which way to push the pleats so on the first row horizontally I pulled the pleated towards me, and sewed in the same direction so all the pleats were turned the same way.

Vertically when I sewed I alternated the direction of the pleats, so sometime the “box” felt very small with the top and bottom pleat facing in, and then on the next row, these were facing out.
Decided to see “what if” so on every second seam a tight zigzag instead of a straight stitch.

Maybe I should have used metallic thread, but I like the contrast look the purple thread provides. A simple textural quilt. Would look nice in silk or shot taffeta, but would be slippery to sew.