The Great New Zealand Quilt Show.

 Yesterday myself and some other ladies from our local club hopped into a mini bus and headed to Christchurch for the day. The Great New Zealand Quilt Show is normally held on the North island, making it an expensive overnight trip for any one from the South wishing to attend. So it was great to have it local. We had a good day, the sun was shining and the trip up really didn't feel like two hours.

The show is curated and judged, so not every piece that was entered was on display. Two of our club members were lucky and has pieces selected.  At times it was difficult to get good images as I just couldn't get far enough away to capture the whole thing. That or folks walked in front of me at the wrong moment. I didn't even try to get images of everything, just those that caught my eye and of course the information cards next to them. Because of the way I saved them to my laptop the info card shows first then the quilt. But you can live with that right? The images should all be clicky for a closer look. Enough from me, you want to see quilts.

This polar bear was needle felted and was 3D.

The Ocean series was from a European quilters exhibition. They were stunning, my photos don't show their full beauty.

There were very few EPP quilts this year. Loved this one.

If you read the info card you will know that the blocks here were hand pieced while she was travelling. I couldn't get far enough away to capture the entire quilt, it was huge.

That's all the quilty photos I got. There were more quilts there of course. A total of 125 local pieces were on display and I think around 20 from Europe. 

There were about 20 vendors tucked around the walls of the hangar. (The exhibition was held at the Air Force Museum. So there were planes and helicopters too!)

I visited a few of the vendors but was very restrained.  First I found myself a new clover thimble, the kind I like with an open back to allow for a longer nail and it also helps to stop my finger from sweating when I wear it for a long time. At the same kiosk I found some felt and chenille needles.

Next month at club we are having a door stop/pincushion sew along using wool felt. 

At another kiosk I found some more smaller felt pieces and some milliners needles. Finally at another kiosk I got two pairs of embroidery scissors and two more thimbles. In a very pretty titanium, but still with that open back. I have a tendency to leave thimbles in work boxes, and when you have several work boxes it can mean a lot of hunting for a very small object. LOL

It was a good day out, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Some like myself were very restrained in the spending department, others.... not so much. But what happens on road trips, stays on road trips right?