Welcome to the March 2024 Newsletter. Wow! Nearly 3 months gone already, summer is over and we are into Autumn. At the Face to Face meeting at the beginning of March the committee decided that we take turns writing the opening article of the newsletter so members get to know more about the committee. Heather Craig our treasurer is starting this off. Colin and I like to go camping in our tent over Christmas and New Year holidays in the Tasman area. We love swimming in the sea or lagoon depending on the weather and ..read more

AQ AGM Minutes 2022 ..read more

AQ AGM minutes 2020 ..read more

Kia ora koutou! Welcome to the February newsletter. I hope 2024 has been treating you well. I’ve been enjoying the much better summer that we’ve had compared to last year. Here in Northland we are now on water restrictions and have a fire ban in place – last year we had WAY too much water around for everyone’s liking! See The Herald story below from Cyclone Gabrielle, a year ago on 14th February. In a happier tone, our committee are meeting face-to-face over the first weekend of March. We try to do this once a year and spend the two days grinding through as much as we can in terms of pla ..read more

Kia ora everyone and welcome to the first newsletter for 2024. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas with family and friends and are looking forward to 2024. Unfortunately, Covid is still around so for some the New Year has not started on a positive note, but I am optimistic and am looking forward to the challenges that the new year brings. I hope you are too. Having spent 7 weeks travelling, we ( my husband and I) have been trying to catch up with jobs around the house and trying to get the garden back to looking presentable. It has been so hot that in the afternoons I retreat t ..read more

Is it just me, or has this year zoomed by? Suddenly it’s another whole year to contemplate, goals to set and New Year’s resolutions to consider. I sometimes think that the Northern Hemisphere peeps have it round the right way. – their Summer holidays in the middle of the year. They can have their big relax in the middle, and then when the New Year rolls around, they are stuck inside in the cold anyway, so why not get all enthusiastic about making plans and starting diets and checklists and to-do lists?! Whereas when the New Year rolls around here, lots of us are firmly planted in our deck chai ..read more

I attended the Auckland Festival of Quilts at the beginning of November (wonderful show BTW) and it got me thinking. How many volunteer hours do we put in as quilters? From organising a huge show like the Great New Zealand Quilt Show, or Festival of Quilts, to smaller regional exhibitions, to making donation quilts, to being the secretary of your local club, to making pillowcases for deployed defence personnel, to teaching grandchildren to sew. Hours and hours and hours. It is wonderful and should be celebrated. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our craft. Pat yourself and all the volunteers you ..read more

Greetings from the USA For the last 2 weeks we have been on a tour of the Great American Parks. Each day was busy, but we have seen some magnificent scenery.  The most memorable for me would be Monument Valley, Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon. I have learnt quite a bit about the Indian tribes in the various parks and have enjoyed the various museums that have wonderful displays of their lives and culture. The exquisite bead work on clothing and bags, the amazing Turquoise jewellery, the weaving and quill work. Quilts did not feature at all until we came to a park close to Mt Rushmore Na ..read more

Spring is really in the air! It’s warming up so fast, calving is pretty much over here in the north, and suddenly the lawns need mowing every time I turn around. It’s invigorating and it feels like the quilting community is invigorated too. There are so many quilt exhibitions coming up, it’s time for inspiration! Scroll down to see the advertising posters and write the dates in your diaries. And the 30 Day Spring Challenge that AQ has been running seems to have had plenty of energy too, with lots of interesting projects going on. Aotearoa Quilters had our AGM in conjunction with the Kapit ..read more

Kia ora everyone, It seems to have been a very busy month and the days are flying by. As the weather begins to improve there seems to be so many jobs that need doing around the house which means less time for sewing. There is a lot happening in the quilting world, so I hope you have been able to attend the many exhibitions that have been held around the country. I went down to Taranaki to attend the opening of the Threads in Time Exhibition at the Percy Thomson Gallery in Stratford. This was a showcase of works by the Aotearoa Quilters Taranaki Regional Group. What a fantastic body of work it ..read more