Here I am with my Vibrant Curiosities quilt at our national Quilt Symposium in Christchurch last week. And here's another photo with slightly better lighting: I started this quilt a whole year ago in October 2016 when I was looking at photos of all the fun people were having at Quilt Market in Houston. I had a bundle of Tula Pink's Slow and Steady fat quarters, and decided it was time to rip into them and start making something pretty. I do love English Paper Piecing, and Paper Pieces in USA had recently started advertising octagons and squares papers. The idea of working with octagons appealed, because I was born in Dunedin where they have a big octagon right in the middle of town! Yes, not a town square, but an octagon. So I started to play around with the shapes and thinking about what I could make from octagons and squares. All quilts in our national symposium have to be original designs. They do not accept quilts made from a pattern. Although many people enjoy fussy cutting Tula Pink's fabrics, I decided that I was more interested in letting the colours shine through. I did make sure my stripes and diamonds all matched, but I didn't fussy cut any animals of flower motifs. Interestingly Jen Kingwell said that she also thinks too much fussy cutting can detract from a quilt, rather than enhance it. After about two months of making blocks I had enough to start joining them up. A lot of thought went into balancing the colours. As usual, I had a couple of blocks left over that just didn't suit my quilt, so rather than forcing them, I just made a couple more that did suit the overall effect. I used my kitchen floor to plan the layout of my blocks. I've used Tula Pink fabrics on the outside round of each block, and sometimes in the centre too. Once the top was finished I hand quilted it with my favourite Aurifil 12wt thread. I'm so glad my quilt got accepted for symposium. It was very special to know that my quilt was one of the ones hanging in the exhibition. I could have put a price on it and offered it for sale, but I want to keep it. I just love all the rich colours - hence the name, Vibrant Curiosities. My quilt had a great position in the exhibition, just underneath a lovely stained glass window in the Great Hall at the Christchurch Arts Centre. Details: Finished size: 80" x 80" Hand quilted with Aurifil 12wt Octagons and squares have 1" sides