shopping bags

I REALLY  don't enjoy grocery shopping.  Making an effort to reduce plastic & remembering to bring my shopping bags before I leave home adds to the required shopping prep.  We have a wonderful system at home, if you use the last of a product - write it up on the kitchen white board.  I photograph the list on my phone then of to the supermarket.
Its buying the small produce thats annoying. 

To much plastic!!

I was cutting meters of Mutton Cloth for a customer last week.  Out of curiosity I asked her what was she going to make.  Grocery Shopping bags for bin buying for all her friends for Christmas. 
What a great idea.  So after leaving Pak n Save this afternoon, I headed straight to my sewing room.

Mutton cloth and cotton twine

I liked the idea of Mutton cloth because as a knit it will stretch nicely around whatever produce I am intending to put in my bag. BUT when its cut the ends roll. 

Sew two lines across the width of the cloth at several places on the fabric (fig 1).  These will become  the sides to each of the bags.  Cut between these lines then overlock both sides (fig 2).

fig 1

fig 2

Sew two lines across the width (center) of each section then cut between the rows of stitching.  Three sides are now sewn and the fourth is a fold.  Cut open the side that is on the fold.  This edge will not unravel.

Sew on your tie / twine 

Ive put my ginger into one bag as an example.

I'm sure you may come up with other ideas.  Now to start my production line.

Happy stitching

Shirls 

Symposium 2017

Congratulations to the committee who organised the NZ Quilt Symposium held earlier this month.  It was held on the grounds of St Andrews College in Christchurch.  Exhibitions were located at four venues and each participant recieved a catalogue containing photographs of quilts on display in the main and challenge exhibitions.

Christchurch is a city still rebuilding after a major earthquake 22 February 2011 and it was the first time I had been there since.  There is still more buildings to be repaired or demolished.  I can't really describe how I felt.  Very emotional.

A humming merchant mall,  fun happy hour sessions and a great Carnival evening kept us entertained.  Lots of classes to inspire.  I was fortunate to be one of the tutors at this symposium.

Here are only a few of my photographs.  Enjoy.

The Cardboard Cathedral (the tempory Christchurch Cathedral)

Exhibition Catalogue

St Andrews Collage.  Venue of the Symposium

Bitter Sweet by Claire Smith (tutors exhibit)

Silence by Jean McLean (won best use of colour)

New York Lights by Sophie Wood

Merit in the Creative Construction section.

Im a fan of Sophie's work.  There is always lots to see in her quilts

Chirpy by Rosemay Rush 

Merit Best Applique

Aide-Memoire for the Post-Modern Quilter

by Catherine Croucher

Unknown Furtre by Kat Martin

One of the quilts published in the 2018 Aotearoa Quilters Calendar

Luke Haynes
I attended Luke's lexture.  He's very inspiring.

Year of the Cat by Tracy Carew

Winner Modern Quilt

Ties that Bind by Jeanie O'Sullivan

Winner Traitional Quilt & Viewers Choice.

Simply stunning - my photo doesn't do this quilt any justice!

Fly by Donna Ward

Best in Show, Merite best Piecing, 

Mughal Dynasty Reflextions by Michele Hill

Tutors Exhibition

Breaking Waves by Dianne Southy

Merit Landscape / Pictorial

Watermark by Alison Laurence

Isolation by Sophie Wood

See What My hands and Feet Can Do

By Ruth de Vos (Tutors Exhibition)

Star Burst by Linda Rae

Paint the Town Red by Natalie Murdoch

1 of 20 quilts to tour New Zealand in the

"Aotearoa Quilts on Tour"

Most Fragile by Sandy Briggs

One of the quilts published in the 2018 Aotearoa Quilters Calendar

Cheers by Camilla Watson

One of the quilts published in the 2018 Aotearoa Quilters Calendar

There are so many quilts still on my camera so I may get round to posting more later next month.

Wimsical (with out the h).

My entry in the Tutors exhibition.

Here is the story of my quilt.

Wimsical  (without the H)

Fabric designers spend hours creating their unique fabric designs for quilters, crafters and dressmakers to enjoy.  For several years now I have been creating quilts out of one fabric.  Basically, I cut up a fabric and re-design a different look by manipulating the fabric using traditional blocks.

I love visual textures, illusions and where possible also like to add tactile surfaces to some of my quilts.

The inspiration for this quilt came from the fabric itself - Marianna by Gray Sky Studio for ‘In The Beginning fabrics’ (2015). I was drawn to the elegant shapes, curves and subtle colours of the print. 

The centre of my quilt is made up of kaleidoscopes using the four-sided kaleidoscope block method.  Inserted between each kaleidoscope I have added a windmill block to add colour.  It was exciting to lay out my blocks on my design wall.  Sewing them together incorporating the windmills was a bit of a challenge.

Wonderfil Dazzle has been couched into the borders to add sparkle.

This quilt is Whimsical but I have left out the H in memory of my uncle Wim who took me to visit a windmill for the first time in Holland in 1967.  I wasn’t so much in awe of the windmill itself, but of the family of eleven who were about to eat their dinner sitting around a dining table that stretched right across the room. 

One day this quilt will be passed on to a young girl to enjoy.  Very Wimsical.

Students wotk in my Stacking Bow Tie class

Students work in my weaving class

We had great classroom facilities at St Andrews College

Playing with layouts using student blocks in

my Quilt As You Go class.

(Another sample below)

More photos are available on the blog of my local club.  Capital Quilters

The next New Zealand Quilt sympoisum will be held in Auckland in 2019.

Click HERE  to register

Happy stitching
Shirls