First, the inspiration for this quilt comes from some prints my Mum has by Kate Spencer. Kate lives in St Kitts in the Caribbean, which is where my parents used to live and my sister is still there. This is one of the paintings and I have wanted to turn it into a quilt ever since I first saw it (in 2004 I think!).
Sometimes it just takes time for an idea to fully develop. I thought about making it a New Zealand quilt. Then I started to think about images I could use and the idea developed into an Onehunga quilt. There are so many cool things right on my doorstep! The old Post Office, Carnegie's library, the old Onehunga Primary School, the Tongan church and so many cute little houses. How about these images, the mosiac table and chair on Onehunga Mall and the fountain in Jellicoe Park. These are things I love about living here.
Then I also have Cornwall Park just up the road from me. Melanie took this photo of a Cabbage tree in Cornwall park when she was putting together her installation for her final year of her Fine Arts Degree.
I think she did a painting of it. Look what I did with it!
Of course you can see One Tree Hill from Onehunga so I had to paint that too, as it is just now without the tree!
I'm really enjoying making this quilt! Just as well because this one is going to be nine panels, about 2m by 2m or perhaps a bit smaller by the time I make the wonky lines. So I suppose it's going to be 6 foot square. Oh, and I think I'm going to make three of them. I've got so many ideas for panels that they won't fit in one quilt. So what am I going to do with twelve square metres (over 100 square feet) of wallhanging?
