Tag: New Zealand

  • Happy New Year and the adventure continues on the North Island in Wellington

    Happy New Year and the adventure continues on the North Island in Wellington

    2017 was a year filled with the best and the worst of times. I hope with all my heart that democracy makes a comeback in 2018 and we can set the US back on course for saving the planet, civil rights/justice and helping instead of hurting those who need help the most. I’m falling behind…

  • Next stop Nelson, New Zealand

    Next stop Nelson, New Zealand

    I find a lot of inspiration from the places I travel to, and that’s why I share them here on my blog, to show you how these experiences can influence the work I make, whether it is a color palette (like the photo above taken just north of Greymouth with the violet-gray sky, soft aqua-gray-green…

  • Greymouth, New Zealand

    Greymouth, New Zealand

    Pronounced ‘Grey MOUTH’, not Grey myth like one would think. I was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, pronounced ‘ports myth’ or probably more like ‘pohts muth’ if you say it with the right accent, lol. I think Greymouth has to be one of the greenest place I have ever been. Not like the rest of New…

  • The most beautiful train ride I’ve ever taken

    The most beautiful train ride I’ve ever taken

    The day after Phil joined me in Christchurch, we boarded the Tranzalpine train to Greymouth on the west coast of the southern island of New Zealand. This is a 3 hour train ride that begins by crossing the lush green farm land of the Canterbury plains dotted with sheep, then over the majestic southern alps,…

  • My big adventure down under began with teaching at Quilt Symposium, Christchurch

    My big adventure down under began with teaching at Quilt Symposium, Christchurch

    I’m back from a month away and am finally getting back on top of things. I have so much to share from my trip to Christchurch; teaching at Symposium, then traveling through New Zealand for 2 weeks, teaching another class north of Auckland, and then flying to Australia to visit friends in Adelaide and Melbourne…

  • Wellington, New Zealand

    I am finally getting to my last few pictures of my journey across the north island of New Zealand. The day had low clouds obscuring the mountains with patches of drizzly rain. I went through several towns that looked like this with just a few older buildings on each side of the street. It felt…

  • Mixed Media Painted Fabric with the Rose City Quilters

    The Rose City Quilters of Palmerston North booked me to come to New Zealand to give a lecture at their Quilt show, judge their quilt challenge (yikes, that was out of my comfort zone, not that giving a lecture is but at least I have done that a few times) and give a workshop. These…

  • Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Erilyn, my host in Palmerston north lives on 3 1/2 acres with her own mini farm with a fruit orchard, flock of sheep and a clutch of “chooks”. One of the first things I wanted to do the next morning was to meet Erilyn’s sheep. What a beautiful face. This is my friend Casper, who…

  • The Road to Palmerston North

    The Road to Palmerston North

    The Rose City Quilt Guild of Palmerston North was responsible for booking and bringing me to New Zealand to give a lecture and workshop for their Quilt show. So I was very excited to start our drive south to meet the people who made all this happen. One of the first stops Erilyn and I…

  • Waimangu

    Waimangu

    Another excursion I took was about a 20 minute drive over rolling green hills dotted with cows, sheep and deer from Rotorua.  Wai-mangu is a lushly forested gorge and is the worlds youngest geothermal environment, the only one created during written history.  If you click on the photo below you can read about how this…

  • Rotorua

    Rotorua

    I am actually back home now, from my fantastic trip to New Zealand. I loved every minute, it was soooo good for my soul! I was so well cared for by my hosts, I had warm and friendly students in every class. The air was so clean and fresh, the water so soft, I could…

  • On to Rotorua and Wai-O-Tapu

    On to Rotorua and Wai-O-Tapu

    When I finished up in Auckland I took a bus to Rotorua, an area known for its geothermal pools. This area is quite a tourist destination, and for good reason it is fascinating, but now that it is fall and being off season it’s pretty quiet. My hotel, The Princes Gate originally built in the…

  • Auckland workshops

    This is a group shot of my first class with the Auckland Patchworkers and Quilt Guild teaching Tsukineko Inks. We had a great day with our class just down the road from Glens at a boating club. The following day we moved to another part of Auckland to have the painted whole cloth fabric class.…

  • Day one in New Zealand

    Day one in New Zealand

    What an amazing introduction to New Zealand I had with my host Glen at her lovely home on the beach in Milford, a suburb of Auckland. This is the view from her balcony. Just a little bleary eyed but happy to be on the ground again after 17 hours of travel. Glen and I took…