The official title of the exhibition was Blanket Statements: New quilts by Kaffe Fassett and historical quilts from the collection of the Quilt Museum and Gallery, York, England.

Have been here now for a full day.  Slighly surreal to have left winter in Wellington and arrived in summer here.  Uneventful trip – and aside from queuing for the best part of TWO hours to get through immigration in San Francisco and therefore missing my first bus to the Napa Valley – everything went very smoothly.

Because I was here last year, the bus trip was re-assuringly familiar – nice views of San Francisco from the bus, all the way down the Bay to the Golden Gate Bridge, and then in the Napa Valley lots of vistas of lush, green vineyards.

After some homemade pasta, good Wine and a tot of very good homemade (from Italian friends) brandy, I had a very good sleep.

Yesterday Caroline and I headed off to San Jose (about 2 hours from here) to visit an exhibition at the quilt museum of historic quilts and modern reinterpretations of them by a well known textile designer, Kaffe Fassett.  It was well worth the trip.  The historic quilts – all hand sewn – were amazingly complex and reflect a time when well-off women were expected to sew well and had lots of time.  The fact that the earliest ones (made in the late 1700s) survive at all is amazing.  The modern reinterpretations were very vibrant, but much simpler in construction.  It was possible to get really close and therefore see the stitching that give quilts texture.  And it was fun to be there with Caroline so we could discuss and critique them!  I’ll post some pictures in the next post.

There was also a smaller exhibit of ‘art’ quilts – which are meant for wall hanging rather than for use.  It was interesting to see the range of techniques in these small works – beading, embroidery, painting etc.

Quiet day in store today.  We head to Mariposa on Wednesday.

Warning – this will only excite the photo nerds amongst you!

The start of this week was cool but with really clear evenings and almost no moon – ideal for trying to make a star trails photo.  I’d done an on-line workshop earlier this year but hadn’t tried the technique out – ideally you need a clear night, no moon and little to no light pollution.

We went scouting sites on the south coast – about 15 minutes from here – and tried it out the other night, suitably dressed in warm gear complete with beanies.  A surprising number of folk were at Wahine Park on a winter’s night in the cold(!) My technique wasn’t quite right, so I had another go, this time from our front deck.  Not ideal as there was still light pollution, but helpful in terms of getting technique right and being handy to somewhere warm.  So, below is a star trails photo looking at the southern sky over Karaka Bay.  Hoping to try for more in the US where it will be warmer, and hopefully darker.

Its been 18 days (according to WordPress) since the last post.  There’s been stuff happening, but wrestling with the blog hasn’t been high on the list of priorities.  Winter has truly arrived; we’ve had some southerly gales, but also some lovely days, and most Sundays we’ve gone for a long walk around the general ‘burb, up to the streets on the ridge above us, taking in the views, and calling into either Seatoun (for a coffee) or Strathmore (yummy things for lunch from the Gypsy Kitchen deli).

I’ve been sewing, John’s been reading and chilling, and there’s been the odd trip to the movies – including to the local Italian film festival (to see Bertolucci’s classic movie The Conformist and The Mafia Kills only in Summer, an interesting mix of 1970s and 80s italian politics and a coming of age movie) and to see the new NZ movie, Hunt for the Wilderpeople.  Also relived my 1980s youth by seeing the Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense.

I’m off to the US on Saturday to see Caroline for a couple of weeks, so John will be home alone.

Following are some pics from the last few days – from our walk along the ridge on Sunday morning, and a drive around the south coast scouting locations for an attempt at photographing star trails.  We ended the latter with a drink at the Spruce Goose at Lyall Bay (the Wellingtonians among you know where that is) watching crazy kiwi surfers in very thick wetsuits!

I did a class here to learn to make an equilateral triangle quilt.  As an add-on, we also got to try machine quilting, something I hadn’t tried on my ancient Bernina in Oz.  But on my whizzy new machine and with some hints from the class I’ve machine quilted my first quilt😀!

Am very pleased with the result.  Another one is in the planning!

The north-westerly gales were really strong but nonetheless I had a go at some opportunistic vineyard shots!  But mostly it was just too windy!

Things have taken a distinctly cool turn here in Wellington in the last week or so.  We’ve had north-westerly and southerly gales and some rain.  Today has turned out bright and sunny after a damp start, but the rest of the week is supposed to be cool, windy and wettish.

At the end of last week we went for a drive over the Rimutaka Hill Road to the Wairarapa – mostly to order our guest bed – which is a fold out (in the US described as a Murphy bed) so I can maximise the space in the spare room for sewing etc when we don’t have guests.  But we spent a night in Martinborough and visited some of our favourite vineyards: Ata Rangi, Poppies and Martinborough.  And some good Pinot Noir came back over the hill with us.

Unfortunately, the weather was windy-north westerly winds strong enough that the Hill road was closed overnight.  Put paid to much photography but some pictures follow…in the next post.

This quilt won best of show – a gazillion little bits and entirely hand quilted.  Not my thing but the skill in it was amazing.John – not the only bloke at the quilt show!

This quilter is from Wellington!

Again, the skill in this quilt was amazing!

Last week we went on our first road trip – to Rotorua so I could go to the Aotearoa Great Quilt Show.

It didn’t begin well as we left on the wettest day so far this year and the weather system tailed us all the way from Wellington to Rotorua.  While in Brisbane the amount of rain would have been considered paltry, the combination of very dry ground and autumn leaves meant it caused havoc around  Wellington.  But we had an uneventful if longish drive of 6 hours, mostly in the wet.

Rotorua is like lots of coastal towns in Queensland – with thermal activity and more tour buses!  We stayed on Fenton St – a long straight street that led to the CBD which was lined with motels (think Mackay!).

After a morning at the quilt show, we had a walk around town in the afternoon.  Lots of lovely autumn colours and the odd spot of thermal activity.

Then home again, this time in dry weather, in time for my first Mothers Day with my Mum in 20+ years.   Pictures to follow.