Quilting winners:
Nimble fingers have made stunning quilts with love, which were on display at the Dannevirke Cottage Quilters two-day exhibition over the weekend.
And while there are just nine talented club quilters, the show highlighted a wide range of diverse work.
“Quilting isn’t just about the big pieces,” Cottage Quilters president, Barbara Christian, said.
Among the displays over the weekend were quilts destined to wrap around new babies.
“The baby capsule quilts will be donated to the Dannevirke Community Hospital’s maternity unit,” Barbara said.
Juliet Walshe was the lucky winner of a large cat quilt, a fundraising raffle prize.
Barbara admitted a lot of work had gone into the quilt, which everyone wanted to win.
“Raffling this quilt provides funds for us to carry out our community programme, such as the baby capsule quilts and to develop our skills as quilters,” she said.
Quilters need to have patience, and an eye for colour and design and Barbara loves colour.
“I set goals for myself and we all quilt just for the love of quilting,”she said. “My colourful large quilt was made with memories of my mum. You need to have a purpose and most of my quilts I give away.”
And with most of the quilts having their own story, Barbara acknowledged the quilters all do quilts for different reasons.
“What our quilters have produced is phenomenal. Everyone has contributed amazing work and some have put their first quilt in the exhibition,” she said.
Pam Smith’s large stars and sprigs quilt was described as “absolutely equisite,” while Anne Ingram’s winning large quilt took three years of love and hard work and had already won top prize at a Hawke’s Bay competition.
“You have to do it for yourself,” Anne said.
Sarah Wadley’s first quilt was produced on a 1970 Bernina sewing machine, which meant lots of counting and measuring.
“It was a real labour of love,” she said. Now, husband Phil has ■ The challenge, Pam Smith 1; Sarah Wadley 2; Diana Morris and Anne Ingram 3=.
■ Encouragement award winner Diana Morris.
■ Merchant’s award winner, Judy Coldstream.
■ Small quilt winners, Cynthia Irwin 1; Pam Smith 2; Judy Coldstream 3.
■ Large quilt winners, Anne Ingram 1; Pam Smith 2.
■ Raffle winners, quilt, Juliet Walshe; hamper and win, Elizabeth
Judd.
purchased a fit-for-purpose machine and Sarah couldn’t be happier. And while the exhibition was a chance to share their work with the public, the nine members, including life member Cynthia Irwin who lives in Auckland, all came together for a great social night out in Dannevirke on Friday.