Phew!

Phew, what a few weeks it has been! First the Taupo Symposium - , then on my return my 'beginners' had their 'finishing day' - a bit like a quilting bee of old. Then I spent the weekend helping my husband with his new catering business. It has been so busy I had to hide from the shop for a couple of days just to catch up!

Symposium:

I have just returned from the Taupo symposium. What a fantastic event! It was the first Symposium where I have attended classes. The open evening was lovely, with a powhiri for all the tutors – many of the international tutors were on their first visit to NZ and were blown away. I spent two days learning about colour from Joen Wolfrom, author of Adventures in Colour and Adventures in Design among other great books. Who knew there was so much to learn? After that I took a three day class with Gail Garber from New Mexico. Gail is an expert at paper piecing and curved piecing, and taught us how to draft stars, design our own quilts and paper piece swooping curves full of all different sorts of shapes including flying geese and ‘pointy dudes’. It was lovely to learn from these great quilters and also to renew friendships and to meet new people. If this sounds like fun why not think about registering for the next Symposium – there is a ‘mini’ symposium in Ashburton next year, where I will be teaching, and the next full symposium is in Palmerston North in 2015. Registrations are open for both of these now. The earlier you register the better choice you have when it comes to picking classes. Here are the links to their websites:

Ashburton Mini Symposium

http://www.braidedribbons.co.nz/

Manawatu Symposium:

http://quiltsymposium.co.nz/

Beginners Finishing Day

At the completion of my beginners classes we always have a day where everyone brings their quilt tops, we pin them to their backings and battings and then start to quilt, plus have a quick lesson in binding. It's so lovely to see the finished quilt tops and to know that everyone is getting started on the final stage of their project. With all of the current class being teachers, school holidays were the perfect time to have the day. Not only did all these ladies finish their sampler quilts, but they also came and did a 'jelly roll' class the week before, so have now each made two quilts. Congratulations to Lee, Emma and Hayley on joining the quilting community.

Men can quilt too

Speaking of beginners, I am so proud of my husband Carl, who has not only made his very first quilt top, but also came to the Free Motion class, stipple quilted his quilt, did the binding and then stitched it down by hand beautifully. Not bad for someone who had hardly used a sewing machine before. So come on all you men, the challenge has been set - where is the Wairarapa's version of Ricky Tims? It's great to see that we have a male tutor at the Manawatu Symposium - David Taylor from Colorado - take a look at his website http://www.davidtaylorquilts.com/ - some stunning work!

Well that's all for now, off to get the Shop Hop quilt finished. I have lots more news including the new class list so hopefully will get it posted soon,

Sheila