Counties Manukau Quilters Guild Retreat 2012

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Quilt retreat coming up

Our guild is going on retreat this weekend. We have a couple of tutors (more details on that later) and I've organised some entertainment for the evenings. Here's a clue as to what we are going to get up to.

Hundertwasser's toilets

On the way back from Kaikohe, we stopped in at Kawakawa to have a look at the toilets by Hundertwasser. I love his paintings.

Shop across the road from the toilets

I don't know if this lamp is his design too but it's lovely.

This seat is amazing too (don't know who did this either). I'm thinking that a collection of photographs of mosaiced municipal furniture of New Zealand would be a good idea. I already have the mosaic table and chair in Onehunga. There is a bench in Te Atatu Peninsula. I wonder how many more there are!

Screen printing and other stuff

Becky and I took a little trip up north to see Monika and play in her art room. We had a lot of fun!

My prints are the little pink flowers. I will post a better picture once I've done something with them.

Our prints making a mess of the lovely clean floor.

Monika's mum did a positive and negative print of her tree

A sample Monika made up

More samples using simple techniques

More samples - Fancy photo techniques to make wonderful screens

I tried out some sun printing. This is so easy and very effective. I liked the way the weed came out. I'm definitely going to try this again.

We also had a go at the painting technique I've been using to make my small quilts.

Monika's hibiscus flower

Thanks for a wonderful time Monika. :-)

Mel and Bec write a book

I still haven't touched a sewing machine since the beginning of February! After moving house, my Mum has had surgery (appendicitis) and I've been staying with her. So let's have a look at what my very clever daughter Melanie has been up to with her equally clever friend Bec.

They have just submitted a children's book for publication. Bec wrote it and Mel illustrated it. I wish them great success!

PS I stole that image from Melanie's blog without her permission. Naughty me! I've got a lot to say about copyright with all the pinterest and C&T publishing debacle going on. More on that later.

I've moved again

No sewing for a while. I've been on the move again. This is the view from my new deck and yet again, I'm looking out over a wilderness. I love it! There's a little creek in the middle of all that grass.

Today I aim to unpack the rest of the boxes and put up my sewing table. The sewing machine still hasn't been in for a service but I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms from the lack of sewing. I want to make some lovely feathers. Everyone else is giving it a go and I feel left out! *pout*

My Artists

I've shown you three little quilt paintings now. This is the painting I did of the three artists.

Left to right: Jamie, Becky and Josh

Becky painted the flamingos; my nephew, Jamie, painted the Kune Kune pig; and Josh painted the rhinos.


This is how the painting looked before quilting. I've printed out the photo with quite a light grey but it was enough to put all the detail into the faces. I really thinned down the paint with a lot of Aloe Vera gel to keep it transparent so that the detail showed through and then I've gone over areas that are shaded with a second coat of paint. No skill involved!

I wanted to leave the faces unquilted and I was going to leave the background unquilted too but by the time I did the border, the background was puffing up too much. I've quilted small leaves at the bottom since I had painted small oak-like leaves on the left side but then I made them bigger at the top, just enough to control the puff. It helped make the background recede so I think it was a lucky improvement.

The back, showing the quilting.