Kiwiana: My New Zealand Souvenirs

I have travelled enough and collected enough souvenirs to think hard before I buy another piece of useless crap overseas.

Having said that, I bought two souvenirs on my recent trip to New Zealand, a Kiwiana fat quarter and a copy of New Zealand Quilter magazine.

I’d seen New Zealand Quilter in news agents here in Melbourne, but had never felt inspired to buy a copy. A favourable exchange rate and the idea of doing a review of the magazine persuaded me that this was the right time to hand over some cash. After all, I had a three hour plane trip ahead of me.

New Zealand Quilter came from a lovely but expensive bookshop  called Books A Plenty on Grey St in Tauranga’s CBD. They had a great collection of New Zealand travel books, craft titles, magazines and children’s books. It was a lot more atmospheric and charming than your average book seller chain and I recommend it highly.

When I think of your typical (stereotypical) New Zealand male, I think of a bloke with a slightly weathered face and some muscle bulk born of doing actual work. He might be wearing a singlet or something made of wool, combined with either work pants and gumboots or short shorts and hiking boots. He might possibly wearing a knitted hat, especially if he’s gone for the shorts and boots combo. A man’s head can get cold, after all.

The stereotypical New Zealand male may be short on words but he can fix anything with a length of fencing wire. Watch this video to get a sense of what he’s like. The voice-over is by Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Chonchords fame.

Now check out this cover of New Zealand Quilter. Other than the beautiful scenery behind him and the checked shirt, is there anything New Zealandish about this model – and surely he can only be a model.

For heaven’s sake, he’s wearing plimsolls.

Effete Anyone?

Now on to Kiwiana. Kiwiana is a group of patriotic New Zealand items that instil a sense of national pride. It includes a range of foods, emblems and designs that are instantly identifiable as from New Zealand, such as the koru scroll, chocolate fish, a lemonade called Lemon and Paeroa (L & P, originally made using mineral water pumped from a spring in the town of Paeroa) and of course anything related to the national bird emblem, the kiwi, or the national religion, the All Blacks rugby team.

The colours of Kiwiana are most commonly red, black and silver. Red turns up in Maori weaving, silver represents the the silver fern, and black the All Blacks. New Zealanders are lucky that this is a pleasing colour palette to wear and to work with. Much as I love living in Australia, few of us are flattered by green and gold, the national colours of this country.

My choice of Kiwiana was a red, white and black fat quarter featuring koru scrolls. Now all I need to do is decide what, exactly, I should use it for.

I Quilt and I’m a Volcanologist

Have you ever chuckled over those bumper stickers that say, “I shoot and I vote” or something similar? While I personally can’t conceive how the right to bear arms or shoot animals will make our world a better place, I do enjoy reading the bumper stickers.

I have often pondered what bumper stickers we quilters might have to demonstrate that we don’t quite match the stereotypical image.

Yup, that's me

After going on vacation to New Zealand last week I’m going with, ”I quilt and I’m a volcanologist.” I’m not actually a scientist but I’ve been to an active volcano so I’m claiming bumper-sticker rights.

My beloved and I went to White Island with Pee Jay Tours last week as part of a week long New Zealand vacation and it was an amazing adventure. Not only did we get to run around breathing sulphur fumes while wearing hard hats and protected by gas masks, we also got to see dolphins and flying fish on the open sea. You will notice from my beloved’s photos and that even an amateur with a low-end point and shoot camera can take photos like a pro on White Island.

While out and about in the North Island of New Zealand, I stopped by at quilt shops in the towns of Tirau, Tauranga and Waihi. Cushla’s Village Fabrics in the seaside town of Waihi was the stand out of the group and probably the best quilt shop I’ve been to, anywhere. It’s a free-standing house with a pretty front lawn, shiny polished floorboards and lots of light. They have a dedicated teaching area and a great selection of fabrics. Cushla wasn’t working the day we visited but the lady behind the counter was friendly and helpful. I noted with a little smile that she was not overly impressed by the American customer in the shop  at the same time who declared “I have a web site,” in a rather self-important tone. Kiwis (New Zealanders) don’t appreciate self-aggrandisement much. It’s just not considered polite to make a fuss.

I go to great lengths to research quilt shops for my readers

I purchased a fat quarter of New Zealand themed fabric (known as Kiwiana) for NZ $6 and am thinking about making a special holiday quilt with a piece of fabric from each major trip. I don’t have any design ideas at this stage though.

What would your bumper sticker say?

Pattern Making at the Council of Adult Education

The Council of Adult Education in Melbourne’s CBD offers an introductory course in pattern making, covering a range of professional pattern making techniques. I’ve signed up and I can’t wait to start.

I chose the CAE because they offer pattern making as a two day intensive, running on consecutive Saturdays. The CAE course guide promised that we would get to make a basic skirt, slacks and bodice blocks to our own measurements, make patterns for various skirt silhouettes, learn various style tops (they weren’t very specific on this) and how to alter a block to suit various figure types.

In order to prepare, I went to the library and borrowed Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear by Winifred Aldrich. I’m not particularly interested in sewing menswear but I figured the basic principles would be the same. Besides, it was the only related book that wasn’t out on loan at the time. Pattern making books are hard to find at the library and expensive to buy at the bookshop, it seems.

I visited RMIT University’s bookshop to check out the pattern making and tailoring books there and subsequently placed an order on Amazon for How to Use, Adapt and Design Sewing Patterns by Lee Hollahan. I feel guilty whenever I preview a book at a physical bookstore and then buy it on line, but the price differential is so great that I simply couldn’t own the books I want any other way. To put that comment in context, we’re talking about as much as double the price from a bricks and mortar store. Book distribution in this county is very messed up.

I’m counting the days to my book order arriving and will post an update after the class starts. I’ve just got back from vacation so am glad to have something new to anticipate.

Cot Quilt Finished

Another Finish

I’m not very good at estimation. Once again, I completely under-estimated the amount of time it would take me to make this cot quilt. Unpicking never helps get the project done and there was plenty of unpicking with this one too.

I used my brand new walking foot to echo quilt the pyramids and I’m pleased to report it worked well. In fact, it worked so well that I’m going to rip out all the machine stitching on the modified Dolly Madison Star quilt and machine quilt it in the ditch all over again. I can hardly wait. No, really.

Even though this quilt measures roughly 34 by 45 inches finished, it was tricky to work the bulk of the quilt through the throat of my sewing machine. There was also an unexpected problem along the way – the quilt top touched against the part of the machine that holds the needle  and goes up and down (which I’m sure has a name) and a speck of sewing machine oil was transferred to the top. I treated it with laundry soap, but this one will definitely need a wash before it goes anywhere.

The echo quilting was more of a pain than I expected it to be. The quilting wasn’t done in long straight lines, or even continuous curves, so I found myself starting and stopping frequently and then needing to travel to my next pyramid.

Soft and Cuddly: Note the Pyramids

For a positive learning from this project, the hand basting didn’t take that long and I’d do it again for the stability it gave the quilt sandwich.  The presence of pins would have made it just that little bit more difficult to position the quilt at the right starting point. As it was, I had to hold the presser foot lever up by hand to give sufficient clearance while positioning the quilt top to start quilting.

Time and time again, I would start sewing without remembering to put the presser foot lever down again and the stitching would go all over the place. There’s a saying about idiots being the ones who repeat the same error over and over. By that standard this quilt provided ample evidence of my idiocy.

Now that this quilt is ready to gift, I think I’ll move back to my house blocks. Once they’re cut, they come together quite quickly. I’m working to a vision of a 9 by 9 house quilt with blue sashing.

Garden Trellis Quilt Finished

Here is another quilt based on Pam & Nicky Lintott’s Jelly Roll Quilts book. The two colour border was my own minor variation. I like that the burnt orange border hints at ochre, and in turn Australian Aboriginal art. OK, so that’s probably over-analysing it a bit but it’s how I see it. The border colours were something I settled on after my original border fabric candidate failed the audition.

Garden Trellis (thanks to my beloved for making this photo possible by mowing the lawn)

This one has a ridiculously long history. I started it way back in December 2010, as a birthday gift for a friend. It didn’t get finished in time for her birthday but went to the party anyway. I should point out that she got a handmade gift crafted by my beloved instead, so she didn’t miss out.

Now it’s going to be a gift for our friend Andrew. Hope you’re reading this Andrew. Andrew has a small but treasured collection of Aboriginal art and I’m hoping this quilt will fit in with the decor at his warehouse apartment.

A couple of details: The reverse is black and gold. The long arm quilting is by Pam Hammer.

When is a Genuine Part not a Genuine Part?

Singer? Walking Foot

My faithful old Husqvarna doesn’t give me a very good result when I’m trying to stitch in the ditch or attach binding. It’s a generic foot. That’s important here. Unhappy with my results,  I decided to invest in a Singer branded walking foot to go with my new(ish) Singer machine. I am not going to name the Melbourne sewing machine retailer that I dealt with, and here’s why.

I rang the retailer last year to get prices and find out what they could offer me. They told me I could have a generic walking foot or a genuine Singer one which would be about $35 (I asked). OK, I thought, not that big a price difference from buying online, so I’ll go ahead. Besides, I have not yet found an online retailer who offers genuine parts and is able to ship to Australia. If you know of one, please let me know.

The retailer rang me during the week to let me know my walking foot had come in so we did a dash to pick it up. The cost: $52.80. Gasp! But I have the pyramids cot quilt to finish and I want to quilt it myself rather than sending it out. Erica’s baby is due in March, so the pressure’s on. I handed over the cash and the retailer handed over a small paper bag.

Believe it's genuine? I have a bridge I can sell you.

I took the chance to open the bag when we stopped for some morning coffee. As soon as I saw the cardboard and the print quality on the box I was suspicious. Low gloss cardboard, no branding and no graphic design on the box. No place of manufacture either.

I opened the box. Same story, no branding. Looks to me  a lot like the generic low shank walking foot that I’m unhappy with on my Husqvarna.

Back we go, “There must be a mistake.”

“You can have your money back but I assure you we (the retailer) ordered this foot for you direct from Singer. All sewing machines are made in China these days, you know.”

Yes, I do know and I decided to keep the  foot. I need it, and I believe the retailer’s response to be genuine.  My best guess is it’s a matter of margins. The retailer gets stock from a distributor and if the distributor sources genuine parts, there isn’t enough margin in it, either for them or the retailer. If they stocked genuine parts, most likely they would be so expensive no-one would buy them.

I just hope the foot works. I’ll let you know.

A 12 Inch House Quilt Block

Two Tone House Block

We did a dash to the library on a recent Saturday evening, arriving just as they were about to close for the night. I made a bee-line for the craft shelves and quickly grabbed a copy of Houses, Cottages and Cabins Patchwork Quilts by Nancy J. Martin, published by Dover Publications Inc in 1984. It’s a book that falls into the ‘worth borrowing, wouldn’t want to own it’ category, which is where libraries are perfect. The book includes finished quilts and household items built around a theme of house blocks.

The book has templates for different styles of house and school blocks in a range sizes. I decided to start with a 12 inch house block. I traced the pattern onto sandwich paper and pinned the pattern pieces to my fabric before cutting them out. I must say I enjoyed the contrast of not using the rotary cutter. Sure it was slower, but the work had a relaxing rhythm and a kind of intimacy.

This project allowed me to use the Swedish steel scissors that we picked up at a car boot sale on our European trip in 2010.

A piece of Sweden's industrial history

My scissors are stamped with the anchor that indicates they were made by Jernbolaget Eskilstuna, which was established in 1868 and continued for about 100 years after that. However there has been industry in that part of Sweden for a lot longer than that.

Eskilstuna has been a base for the steel industry since at least 1654 when the Swedish king Carl X Gustav offered Reinhold Rademacher generous export concessions in exchange for setting up a steelworks there. It’s nice to think that these scissors are a product of that long-standing industrial history, though they are of course of more recent manufacture.