The Supreme Award winner, Rattle Your Dags by Paula Coulthard and Ursula Dixon of Auckland, who were first time entrants.
The show was superb, and that Supreme winner really did stand out. I'll be back, soonish, with U and V!
The crocodile and the thong were bought on a trip to Darwin. The 'thong' was a joke with a colleague. "What's the dress code?" I asked. "Oh pretty casual", he said, "but no thongs". "Do you know what a thong means to me?" "No", he said, "I don't think I want to". We laughed and laughed. The thistle came from Edinburgh, and the three monkeys (see no, hear no, speak no evil) a souvineer from someone elses travels.
Here's the kitten J bought for me when my cat got run over (oh, Flossie!), E for Edward, and that beautiful steam train I bought in Adelaide. The thimble was a gift from my Mum, and the stein came from Munich of course.
The shell is from Gisborne, reminding me to be thankful, after a horrific car accident from which everyone recovered, the London bus was a gift, and there's J for Jack. Can you see the four leaf clover, horseshoe, and wishbone? A lovely gift from my Mum. The turtle is from London, he has a top hat and a cane. There are bagpipes there, from Sterling in Scotland, when you open them up, there's a dancer inside. There are some lovely Aussie souvineers there too, including a map of Australia, which was a gift, along with a Tasmanian devil (yep, I know one of those!), a cockatoo, and a boomerang, because I wanted to go back. I had a Eiffle Tower, and a white tudor rose I that bought in York, but I lost them in the sea in Corfu. Bugger it.
I've been a lot of places I guess, but there's still room on there for a Statue of Liberty, don't you think?
A little Christmas party dress perhaps?
Or this one, for a luncheon party?
Oh, Boss, about that pay rise...... That little black one would work wouldn't it?
That's my favourite. The blue one with the long sash. I could sashay about in that someplace, couldn't I? With the caplet of course. I live in Wellington after all.
Yep, I'll make me one of those, just as soon as I get the 18 inch waist sorted.
Q had to be quilt, of course. This is Out of the Blue from 2001. It won a blue ribbon at the New Plymouth National Quilt Symposium. That was exciting. I love that cool, clear sky blue.
Ohh, there're some lovely curves in this quilt. It's nice to see it again. It's a shame I keep so many of them rolled up (carefully) and hidden away.
I whipped this up, it was supposed to be a speedy quilt, for me, at the same time I made the fleece backed quilts for the boys. In the spirit of use-what-you-have, I hand-dyed the border fabric one quiet afternoon. I pieced the back from bits of stashed fabric, and an old curtain. I even pieced left over cotton batting together 'til I had a piece big enough. Then I thought I would quilt it heavily with a quarter inch grid. I soon realised the folly of that, it would take forever, so I stuck to a quarter inch diagonal line. Somewhere along the way, the lines developed a curve, and of course, each row magnified the curve a tiny bit more, and now the quilting looks horrible. The quilt is creased in the photo from being folded and left neglected in a corner. But now that I've got it out again, I realise I really do love it. I call it the virginal quilt, just quietly. Well, if I'm going to be sleeping by myself, I might as well sleep among flowers. I can't imagine inviting any man to join me under it, it's far too pretty for that!
P is apparently also for perfectionist. Because that quilting is going to be unpicked, and I'm going to start again.
