Sisters of The Travelling Triangles

SISTERS OF THE TRAVELLING TRIANGLES (SOTTT) 2011

Earlier this year I participated in a HST (half square triangle) swap through www.thequiltshow.com They had over 700 participants and around 3/4 million HST's to sort and swap. I was the only NZ participant.

The idea was to sew HST's, paper pieced, and send them in multiples of 28 to the US and the organisers would mix them up and you would get back new ones from around the world. I sent 308 and recieved back 308 HST's from the US, Australia, Germany, Finland, Scotland, Canada, UK, and Wales. I even got some signed ones from Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson. All the HST's were labeled on the back so you could see where they came from. Such fun!

Early on in the exchange, before anyone had sent in their swaps, the February Christchurch Earthquake happened. Immediately I was asked through the forum if we were OK. We were, but family members in Chch had lost a sister in the CTV building and their house damaged. Wanting to know how they could help, they offered donations of HST's to make something special for that family.

A few months on, 1500 donated HST's arrived in the post! Oh boy, what to do with them!?

A message went out mid July on the Quilt Show to say one of the members was planning a book to show all the quilts made from the swaps and could we have a picture of the quilt to her by 1st September? PANIC! No pattern and no idea of what to make. I started by ripping off all the papers from the HST's, trimming the 'ears' and ironing them open. That took almost 2 weeks.

I found an 'orphan block' that would really suit the centre of a quilt and looked on the net at other quilts to steal ideas, I mean use as inspiration, and designed and made that quilt, even quilted it and had it professionally photographed. How I did it by the deadline I don't know!

Anyway, here it is, and it still hasn't been presented to the family, so don't say anything!! They don't even know it's coming.

Feathers galore!

This quilt had loads of empty areas just screaming to be filled with feathers, so that's what it got!

Miche'le from By Hoki Quilts in Hokitika made this quilt.

My Grandson, Jacob, just arrived on the 14th of May. He is SO cute, and yes, it is wonderful being a Grandma!!

The Last Year or so.....

It's been quite a while since last blogging and SO much has happened.

I have quilting some amazing quilts over the past year and am constantly humbled by the talent we have in this part of NZ.

We lost a dear friend in the quilting world on March 20 2011. Kris Jemison lost her battle with cancer, but before she did we were able to make her this gift of love. The Grey Valley Patchwork members made colourful star blocks which were pieced together and quilted. The quilt was laid over her casket at the funeral. We shared a caravan at quilting retreats and I miss her!

Last year I went to the Houston Quilt Show in November and was totally overwhelmed by the size of it (a whole city block, and 2 1/2 floors high). To give you some idea of the size of the convention area, the building housed 7000 evacuees during Hurricane Katrina.

I took multiple classes and learned some great techniques, including this mixed media paper cloth. I am teaching the technique in Reefton at the annual West Coast quilters retreat in July.

It was also fun to meet many of the quilting celebrities we only see in books!

Paper Cloth combines fabric and paper using PVA or Gel Medium and can be painted, dyed, stitched, embellished, textured, sprayed, stuffed......

So versatile, and I get to use some of the bling and found objects I've been collecting forever!

Here a just a few customer quilts completed over the last few months:

This is a gorgeous batik diamond quilt made in Karamea.

I freehand quilted feathers up and down it.



Below is a baby quilt completed using Pam Clarke's design with lines method.

A hand appliqued quilt that I outlined quilted and added a feather border. You should have seen the hand work on this, it was perfect!
Well done, Kath.



Happy stitching!!