“Unfolded" Quilt Retrospective By Val Cuthbert
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I happened to visit a quilt exhibition in 1981 and fell in love with the idea of printing/painting fabric, cutting/stitching into a quilt and quilting by machine or by hand. In 1983 I joined Brown's Mill, NZ's first art co-op, in Durham Lane, Auckland, selling quilts, clothing and other items.
During the 80's and into the early 1990's I taught fabric art at local community colleges, nationally at invited venues and symposia, and several times in Australia at quilting symposia. I edited and published NZ's first quilting magazine “Pacific Quilts”. And I exhibited my own work at The Pumphouse in Takapuna, and other galleries around NZ. Having “Day Dream” accepted into an Art and Architecture Exhibition at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland in 1985 was a highlight.
In 1986 I returned to full time secondary teaching at Northcote College to help support the family, while managing my art interests at the same time. That wasn't very easy and I had to let it all go by 1992. It has given me a great deal of pleasure to unfold my stored quilts to look at after so many years.
“Day Dream” brought together many different patchwork techniques including fabric sculpture.
“The Next Valley” featured the suburban development of Glenfield in the 1980's.
“Blue’s Garden” was made using a technique of strip piecing I developed from a pattern called Log Cabin.
“Blue's Garden” was a later quilt, using a strip piecing technique that I developed.