November 2024 Newsletter
Hello everyone, I am Nita, and I am the Secretary on the Aotearoa Quilters committee. Welcome to the November newsletter and I hope you find it interesting. The committee has had a very busy month. We met for two days in Hamilton in early November. We used one day for an extended committee meeting, and to review and sort the archives, and the second day for detailed planning for the GNZQS in Christchurch next May.
We have now planned a calendar of events for 2025 which you will hear more about as the year goes by. First up is our summer stitch along, this will start on 1st December and run until early February. Jenny has provided more details further on in the newsletter. We held our first summer stitch along last year, and did this to provide a focus, and opportunity for some social interaction via FaceBook, at a time of year when most clubs and guilds are not holding any meetings. We saw a lovely variety of quilts from the selected pattern last year.
By the end of January we should know if our proposal to provide an exhibition of quilts from New Zealand at the European Patchwork Meeting in France in September 2025 has been accepted. We will get a chance to meet with the organisers of this event at the GNZQS in May. Each year they run a challenge and some of the quilts from the 2024 challenge, with the theme “Oceans”, will be exhibited at the GNZQS. This will be a great opportunity to see some prizewinning work from overseas quilters.
The next significant date is 28th February when online entries for the Members Challenge, “Winging It”, close. We are asking for all quilts to be sent in for judging by 14th March. Of the quilts submitted, 20 will be chosen as the travelling exhibition. This challenge will open at the GNZQS in May. If you would like further details on this challenge, see the item further down in this newsletter.
Running an event like the Great New Zealand Quilt Show takes a lot of planning. As you are aware we are holding this event in Christchurch next May. Heather, our Treasurer, has done a lot of work so far to ensure we have a venue where we can put on an event that showcases our member’s work. But it is not only the venue that needs to be confirmed, we have a long list of things to organise including venue layout, quilt submissions, judges, merchants, a plan for prizegiving and the member’s breakfast, and people to help with all the jobs that need to be done. And this all needs to be done within a carefully managed budget. From this month we will have a section of the newsletter to cover information and updates relating to the GNZQS. This month will include details about the conditions of entry for quilts so you can start planning and making quilts, or think about quilts you have that would be great entries for the show.
This is our last newsletter for 2024. The next newsletter will come out at the end of January. I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the committee, to wish you all the very best for a happy and safe festive and holiday season. I do hope you get time to enjoy the company of family and friends, to relax, or to do something new and different, and perhaps a bit of stitching.
Kind regards, Nita Harding
Committee members reviewing archives during our meeting in Hamilton
