Despite having taken a hiatus in patchwork and quilting since I returned to Rotorua (life and getting used to sharing a house and the weekly commute), I was thrilled to go to The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua this weekend. Given the name, I could be forgiven for expecting it to be bigger than Quilt Symposium which I attended in Lower Hutt last year. Alas, it was not. There were probably a quarter of the vendors (or possibly even less) and the numbers of quilts on display were somewhat small. With a skew towards art quilts. I was also somewhat confused by the categories in which quilts were entered: the winner of the traditional quilt category wasn’t a traditional quilt; and contemporary was a category that caused some confusion of what it meant – I think it was supposed to be a replacement for modern, but got lost in translation. Despite that there were some that I loved and I took photos so I could share them here.

First up, was this beautiful rendition of one of Michelle Hill’s appliqué patterns – not sure on the name of this pattern but it is the feature quilt in her book More William Morris Appliqué. Though I was disappointed to see that the designer and pattern had not been attributed. This was sewn by Elvene Mitchell.

There was this rather intriguing quilt made by Debra De Lorenzo based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

This quilt made up of one inch 60 degree diamonds made by Jocelyn Thornton was my favourite and the one I voted for in the Viewer’s Choice. I liked how she had used the same fabric for several different stars within her overall layout, and some of the photos below show some of the collections of them. Plus I love fussy cutting kaleidoscopes, so it’s no surprise I loved this one.

This applique quilt of New Zealand birds caught my eye. This was made for the retiring president of Aotearoa Quilters Christchurch. The blocks were adapted from Margaret Mathews patterns in NZ Quilter magazines and made by committee members.

There were a couple of art quilts with an amazing level of skill in machine thread painting by Sonya Prchal. Both which one prizes. First up this amazing work of a dog near a stream.

But her Red Panda quilt was my favourite of this style.

And finally, there was this work in progress piece in one of the guest exhibitions by Simone Michaux. When finished, there will be twelve sections completing the circle – one for each month of the year.