Aotearoa Quilters 100 Days Project 2020 Virtual Exhibition

"Covid Blues" detail. Piecing #3 Quilting #2 Melissa Gelder Northland NZ 100 days of improv blocks using (mostly) Oakshott cottons.   Taking part in the Aotearoa Quilters 100 day project was a way to keep a structure to making something I’d always wanted to do, using improv construction methods for blocks. Starting out I thought it would be one big quilt, but during the first 20 or so days new colourways were calling and I started to imagine the pieces as wall art. I made a total of 5 pieces, and the further into the project I got the wilder the shapes became. Day 47 - the blue colourway process.  We all have fabric we love so much it’s hard to cut up… for me it is Oakshott cottons.  Cutting and slashing freehand cured that problem.    This is the 2nd piece, and remains unquilted. I missed the odd day, but mostly stuck to it. The last part of my project was quilting the 5 pieces I’d made. I use a statler long arm so a lot of the quilting was a bigger learni...

Jill Bowman Wellington Bojagi I have been quilting for about 30 years and started, like most quilters, doing traditional quilts. I now generally make quilts of my own design, experimenting with different techniques, but I usually include some hand stitching on them.  I took part in the challenge as a way of giving myself permission to prioritise some art or stitching every day rather than thinking I needed to finish other things before I could. I planned to collect something every day and use that as a basis for my work but the restrictions of working from home during lockdown meant that my sewing room became my office and I didn’t have easy access to all the equipment I needed.  Bojagi with the light coming through So, after a few frustrating days, I decided to make a bojagi. I didn’t have much organza but, inspired by Sara Cook’s beautiful book, I decided to use cotton fabrics and hand topstitch the French seams flat.  Closeup showing the topstitching I could push my la...

100 DAY PROJECT Marilyn Muirhead    Tauranga Special Facebook page for my art:     Marilyn Muirhead Artist   I decided this would be a good challenge for me to commit to putting in the hard yards practicing my drawing.  In particular, portraits and people.   I needed a special sketchbook A4 size with blank pages, being lockdown I hunted and found a book that Mary Transom gave me for my 60th which was decorated beautifully.  It went through my mind that it was too gorgeous to use….but realised we shouldn’t wait until we’re dead, use your beautiful stuff.   I was excited about this project and started two weeks early, was it cheating – yes, but I decided it was about putting in the work, not about doing it every day….some days just go to the pack!   I’d read in a Link from Charlotte that someone decided to do it for 20 minutes each day, this sounded like a reasonable commitment but I would work for hours some ...

My 100 days centred around continuing a previous 100 day challenge I had participated in. I was wanting to build up my body of work for a series I call PASSION. Anyway I was delighted with what I achieved and how I had changed from the previous 100 day challenge.  Making the fabric I had to make more fabric – never a chore! Then I finished "Turning Point" which I had got stalled on with the stitching.  Turning Point I was thinking about the “Aotearoa Quilters Journey” challenge and looked at a piece I made in the first challenge but couldn’t quite decide how to quilt – the reason was I wasn’t happy with it. Therefore I took the rotary cutter to it and chopped it up and changed it round completely and the result was "Crucifixion".   Crucifixtion This led me to looking at my other part made pieces which I again cut up, added some pieces and then completed which resulted in “Making up”. Making Up I am thrilled with how my body of work is coming together and the impetus...

Alice Jones Christchurch      100 Days of Cats   Quilts, art, and the people who enjoy those practices have been a large part of my life. I will complete a Master of Visual Arts through Otago Polytechnic in February 2021, with a focus on textiles. The 100 day challenge appealed to me as a way to consistently work to improve my art, and being accountable to the group provided motivation. It was also a nice way to meet other like-minded people, even if it was only virtually.  My original intention was to create collages based on several poems that I liked. I wanted to improve my compositional skills and thought that the poems would provide a focal point. The first poem that I chose was “The Naming of Cats” by T. S. Elliot. It wasn’t long before both the idea of collages and using other poems fell by the wayside. Throughout the rest of the 100 days I focused on cats, apart from one day’s focus on the Queen and her corgis. I moved between drawing cats and ...

My plan for 100 Days was to explore painting on fabric using Inktense blocks and Gelato Sticks.   I got bored with that fairly quickly, and decided to combine 100 Days with another project I’ve been working on, “Pohutukawa Paradise”. I painted a sea and sky, and appliqued some hills on the skyline, to represent Ohiwa Harbour, just down the road from my house. I then auditioned some leaves and made bunches on baking paper, to then arrange them on the background.    I decided to quilt the background first to make it easier. The flowers were made with circles of red net, folded and stitched, and tucked under the leaves.   The quilt measures 18” x 21” Another project, also part of Pohutukawa Paradise, was my Tree House. I had a lot of fun creating this using lots of different techniques.  18” high x 4” square.   I really enjoyed the 100 Days with Aotearoa Quilters.  Sharing and blogging about my project was fun, and I loved seeing the other artis...

I was thrilled to be able to join this challenge as I had just accepted a challenge from an English Stitchery club. "Scraps, Stitch and Recycle.” I started my log book with no idea as to where it would lead. After mindmapping possibilities I chose wood. This proved to be a great advantage as the Covid Lock down prevented me leaving the village where I live. My son is a wood carver so delivered sawdust and floor scrappings to my village gate. Using the quote “Show me the person who has never failed and I will show you the person who has never tried anything new,” I set out. Many days spent exploring the materials. I made several batches of paper from sawdust, finally getting pieces like cardboard to fine paper. I dyed some fabric using some gum bark which was amongst the floor scraps. Somewhere along this route I decided to make a Kakahu (cloak) of the forest floor. Instead of feathers I used the paper to make leaves, the boiled bark for the top and the dyed fabric for the form. ...