The New Zealand Quilt Show

Clare Smith is a textile artist living and working in Tawa, a suburb of the capital city, Wellington.  Clare began teaching adult education classes in surface design, applique and Japanese bookmaking at the beginning of 1998, and has now taught at many NZ quilt symposiums, all over New Zealand and internationally including the UK and South Africa.  Clare is a talented fabric dyer, including the art of indigo dyeing, she is also widely skilled in other facets of textile arts including machine quilting, applique, pojagi, sashiko, costume design, and pretty much anything else she turns her hand to.

Lisa Walton is a textile artist from Sydney, Australia.  Lisa started quilting about 25 years ago, and now she makes art, runs her own fibre arts business, travels, teaches, runs textile tours, slips in a bit of jewellery making, volunteers, is the SAQA Vice President and I’m sure I’m only brushing the surface of what Lisa fits into life!

Juliet van der Heijden lives in Christchurch, New Zealand but is originally from Scotland, hence her alternate name, The Tartankiwi.  Juliet has had careers in archaeology and radiography but has now turned her skills to quilting and, in particular, the exacting art of designing and creating wonderful foundation paper pieced patterns.

Helen Jones is the founder of the new chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) right here in New Zealand.  Back in November 2016, Helen asked for expressions of interest and was so pleased with the results that she went ahead with her plan and began taking official memberships in February.  We discuss what modern quilting is, what makes a modern quilter and the exciting line-up of modern quilt teachers at this year's NZ Quilt Symposium.  I learn who Helen's partners in crime are (thanks Anna and Melissa!), what she thought of this year's QuiltCon show and what Helen's 'can't live without' tools are.