Western News: October 14, 2021

WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday October 14 2021 5
Quilters’ work on show at exhibition
• By Fiona Ellis
THE COVID-19 pandemic has
caused a surge of people reaching
for a sewing machine to try their
hand at the craft of quilt-making.
Christchurch Quilters president
Maria Rohs said the club’s
biennial exhibition this week has
more than 200 entries.
“We used to struggle to get
100,” Rohs said.
“We’ve got a lot more quilts in
the show than we usually do because
people have had two lockdowns,
this year and last year, so
everyone’s had more time.
“People are keener on getting
back into traditional things.”
The exhibition will run in the
Papanui High School hall until
Sunday. This year the theme is
“vivid.”
A wide range of styles from
traditional to modern would be
on show, with three non-members
selecting prize-winners.
Roh is among the exhibitors,
although she had been to busy
organising the event to enter any
major works.
However, her handiwork
earned her a national award in
the Aotearoa Quilters’ Great
New Zealand Quilt Show earlier
this year.
She was thrilled when her
piece, Night View at Sunset, won
the small quilt section.
The piece was inspired by
the view from her home, and she
captured the intense light by using
metallic thread.
In over three decades of the
craft, she had only ever made one
quilt for herself, she said.
“I’ve only ever had one of my
own, when I had my 60th birthday
I got some floral fabric and
got everyone to make a block
each.’’
Several sewing machines
were set up as around 50 people
pitched in with their contributions,
and each person also
signed their fabric.
This favourite quilt of the
many she had made, and received
a lot of use, she said.
She first discovered quilting 35
years ago after hearing that her
local church ran craft sessions,
charging just $1 to cover cups of
tea.
A keen sewer since her
school days, her curiosity was
aroused.
“I’d heard about it and I
thought: ‘That sounds interesting,
I’ll go along and try it’.”
Three years later, she became
one of the earliest members of
the Christchurch Quilters.
Scraps of old, handmade
clothes, as well as specially
bought fabric, were used to
make her first piece, a “pretty
SEW
CREATIVE:
Christchurch
Quilters
president
Maria Rohs
with her ‘vivid’
themed quilt,
one of more
than 200 on
show at an
exhibition in
Papanui this
week.
PHOTO: GEOFF
SLOAN
basic” bed quilt for one of her
daughters.
Over three decades later, she
had much more material to
hand.
“You see lovely fabric that you
like and then you buy it and
gradually you build up quite a
collection.”
Her current stash included
pieces from the early days when
she was just starting, as well as
fabric from her family’s native
Austria, and hand-customised
fabric she had worked on during
craft classes.
Most were cotton, the standard
quilting fabric because of its
longevity.
The creativity of the craft was
her favourite thing about it
“It’s an artistic outlet. I’ve got
more into art quilts and I’m not
making so many bed quilts now.”
This was common for quilters
who had worked their way
through all of their family members,
she said.
All her grandchildren were
equipped with personalised
quilts, so she had turned to make
smaller, ornamental works of her
own design.
Nature was a constant inspiration.
A forest scene depicting
kōwhai and kererū was currently
under way, and she had recently
finished a piece based on fallen
winter leaves.
Another quilt she had recently
finished was based on leaves
she noticed on the ground over
winter.
“I don’t think it is hard, you
just need to decide you want to
do it and find out how.”
Learning the craft was easier
than ever these days, especially
because of online tutorials on
sites such as YouTube, she said.
However, it was a time-intensive
hobby.
“Only once did I actually take
a note of all the hours. It was a
queen-sized quilt that I made
for a friend. It was 90 hours, and
that . . . was just making the top
of it.”
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