McKenna Ryan visits The Cloth Shop!

This week we had a special visit from a very popular quilt artist, McKenna Ryan! And wasn't she fabulous!! Three quilt shops in New Zealand got together to bring her out from Australia, where she was doing a series of talks, and we were lucky to have her in store for a brilliant talk on Tuesday night, and then on Wednesday for a class. We had as many students as space allowed, and it was a very busy and fun packed couple of days!
For those of you who aren't familiar with McKenna, she is well known for her beautiful appliqued blocks and quilts. Many of which we stock patterns for, right here in our shop. Don't you love McKenna's appliqued apron? What a great idea for some of those block patterns you've made up into a quilt and now have sitting idle!
On Tuesday night McKenna gave us all a run down on her background and told us about her beginnings in the quilting business, and how it all started. She also answered lots of questions.

She bought lots of quilts with her for show and tell, explaining where she got her inspiration from for each one. Slowly each one got hung on the walls in the workroom at The Cloth Shop, until the room was alive with colour from all the stunning animals and flowers and scenes.

McKenna was kind enough to sign quilts for anyone who wanted theirs signed, and she posed for lots of photos with her fans!

During the evening our guest of honour made 2 draws for prizes of some of her own range of fabrics, the lucky winners were.....

...... Jo from Taupo

..... and Vicki from Wellington
Well done ladies, we'll be waiting to see what project you've used these gorgeous fabrics in!

On Tuesday McKenna took a class and the project was a small 8"x8" block called Daisy Daze. You can see the finished block on the table below. Here are some of the students concentrating on their projects.

Pam

Lynette

Lynne

Pam

McKenna took over a sewing machine to give a demonstration on free-motion stitching which was very interesting. When she is making her quilts she often doesn't have time to put a great deal of detail into the applique and the quilting of them. She puts the quilt top, the batting and the backing together and appliques block by block. She was very impressed by some of the quilts that had been bought along, and made by New Zealand quilters.

At the end of the day we all had lots of fun, learned lots, saw new patterns and remembered favourite old ones.

Thanks Liz for keeping the jug boiling, and the mugs clean!