So, today I put up a few of the blocks I have done so far, just to see how the whole thing is coming along, and given that among the approx 250 or so I reckon I’ll need, I am satisfied that the colours so far are going to be lovely – DD wants a lot of jungle prints included and so they shall be, some appear already in this selection.

Once I get more prints I might do something with lights and darks in groups of 4 but that remains to be seen. And, I might not settle on this block arrangement -tomorrow I will arranged them with the arcs all readiating out in the same direction and see how that looks. After all, there is time to fiddle a bit.

In colour schemes there should always be a value of yellow, not necessarily much, and lots of colours can do the job of yellow – in this case there is a beautiful citrus colour which will be scattered throughout the quilt – plenty of it showing hanging and in the blocks on the wall – there’s also a much more subdued mustard colour, and several other golds and mustards will appear at times, I just haven’t got round to them yet. ‘Yellow’ is relative, and it can be a colour from greeny yellows to orangey and browny yellows and greyed values of those colours, too. If you are auditioning colours for a quilt, take out anything with yellow in the print or any fabric that reads as yellow, and you will see the difference.

These blocks have been trimmed to 6 1/2 inch squares.

Structurally there’s nothing interesting about this box of apartments, but I have always loved the whimsical surface decoration. Not only does someone have a sense of humour, but the dedication and will power, or the money to pay for them, to be painted so precisely on the bricks and maintained over quite a number of years now.

This piece stopped me in my tracks as I entered the Encounter design gallery at the Museum in Auckland.
Entitled “Little Barrier” by Malcolm Harrison , a large figure stands on a canoe in front of a sail. The whole thing stands about 6ft tall in the glass case, which unfortunately caught a little of my flash no matter which way I approached it.

My first thought was ” that looks like a quilt….great” but then it seemed to be a sail and then it had characteristics of a map. On it are appliqued shapes suggesting wind and wave, and schools of fish up to the right of and above the figure’s head. Some of the appliques could read as suggesting fluttering seabirds…..anyway, the sail in muted greys blues and creamy whites on the sandy coloured canvas offset the warmer coastal sandy earthy tones of the figure itself: is it a man? or a woman? It is godlike in pose, anyway.

Found objects include wood, presumably driftwood pieces, stones and some tiny shells formed into hair or is that a diadem? The clothing on the figure is of a natural silk, embroidered in toning and near-toning threads to provide interesting textures and patterns; it is also marked by quilted lines and hand written figures – making no sense but suggesting recorded information of some kind – the passage of time? sailing data? cultural information? or weather records perhaps? … it really doesn’t matter that we don’t know this, it’s powerful anyway. Other techniques around and on the figure include wrapping, applique, fabric manipulation and hand painting. There may be more. The head is a simple stone marked in such a way to suggest an ancient mariner searching the distant horizon ahead. A wonderful tribute to the ancient people who arrived by sea from distant Polynesia, over 1000 years ago.

Oh , and in case you hadn’t picked up on this, I loved this work.

The three sets of glasses in this case had retired for the night -as had their wearer – in repose they struck me as rather comical, appearing conked out after participating in an all-day hectic juggling act at conferences and quilt exhibitions; taking turns in and out of the case, on and off the nose. W – it’s really time to trade them in for the 3 in 1 number!

Over the past couple of weeks I have had very little time for anything at all related to email or blogging and will try to do gooder over the next few weeks, although I will be on the move again, in the USA, including QN07, SAQA and SDA, with a couple of brief family visits fitting in between them.

The 8 days in New Zealand, based on Waiheke IS off Auckland, with my two sisters, was fabulous . On one day we spent several hours in Auckland’s War Memorial museum where there is a wonderful design gallery where I took some snaps of a few interesting fibre related things and pics of these will pop up in the next couple of days. We also fitted in some time to browse in book and shoe shops before going to a terrific comedy show, The Kransky Sisters, a rather dark domestic comedy routine from Australia – that seemed appropriate since we three were there together. The dynamics of each 3-sister group , Kranskys and Padmans, were at times parallel, and we totally related to them.

We visited the home of a noted NZ interior designer Neil McLachlan and marvelled at the design features there, including a beautiful enclosed courtyard garden complete with almost art deco gates, and as always seems to be the case in NZ, a fabulous view. Everywhere we went it seemed so hilly, up and down all over the place, that either reflects or formed New Zealanders’ hardy national character, I’m not sure which way that went, but I feel less indomitable people would never have persisted !

One thing I was very aware of was the water themed nature of the NZ contemporary art and fine craft I saw in various places. By contrast, Australian equivalents are earthy, land-themed, and this is especially noticeable in colours used in each country. To me it is a perfect reflection of the different history of human colonisation in each land mass- the Maori people came from Polynesia by sea, the Australian Aborigines moved over land, for the most part, from the Asian land mass, and much further back in time. I know from my passing, ie not very deep, acquaintance with the mythology of both peoples that their legends also bear out this different ancient history.

Apart from a bit of local history and culture there, we spent a few days up in the north of the North Island around Tutukaka and went beyond up to Kerikeri to see the very early mission station up there, which in the early 1800’s was under the supervision of an early twig in our Aus family tree, The Rev. Samuel Marsden, aka The Flogging Parson of Parramatta (in the aus colony then known as New South Wales) Reading through some of the mission station records, what we were totally amazed at is how this man, so dreaded and loathed in NSW, was so totally beloved by the Maori of the northern regions.

So, I have crossed the Pacific and am cooling my heels in Santiago once more awaiting a flight to Montevideo very early tomorrow. More soon.