Giraffe hunting – Part 1

Since the earthquakes which struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, a number of quirky temporary installations have popped up in the empty spaces where many buildings in the central city and the suburbs have been demolished. (A report in the Christchurch Press in September 2013 noted that at that time, 984 buildings in the central city and 519 in the suburbs had already been demolished, with a further 108 full or partial demolitions still scheduled, which means a lot of empty spaces!) I’ve previously posted about some of the Gap Filler and Greening the Rubble projects, and it’s been a delight to see such ingenuity and creativity playing a part in lifting spirits and bringing a smile to people’s faces.

Recently the Stand Tall Christchurch folk came up with another public arts project which caught my eye.  Wild in Art is presenting this project, in partnership with Christchurch Casino, as part of their 26th Arts Trail and their first in New Zealand.  Businesses, community groups, charities, education establishments and individuals have sponsored the blank Giraffe sculptures – the canvases.  Artists, well-known and undiscovered, young and old, were invited to submit their designs. The best designs were selected by sponsors to feature on the Christchurch Stands Tall sculpture trail.  Forty-nine local schools were also able to sponsor and decorate their own Giraffe calf sculpture to feature on the trail, and each will be theirs to keep after the event.  Fifty Giraffes, each 2.5 metres high, are on display around Christchurch and surrounds until the end of January, forming a spectacular sculpture trail for all to enjoy.  At the end of the public art exhibition, in February, the Giraffes will be auctioned to raise money for local charities.

Recently a friend and I took the day off work to undertake a Giraffe Hunting Safari 🙂

We parked in the Botanic Gardens and spent the next three and a bit hours following a map to find and photograph some of these lovely quirky creations. We only managed to cover 15 or 16 of them, but they’re here until the end of January, so plenty of time yet to get to see the rest of the herd!

While some were a little bland and not very inspiring, others were beautifully or humourously decorated, and I would quite happily have them in my garden! 🙂

I thought I’d share with you some photos from our quest 🙂

 

  

 

(Apologies for the absence of photos of some of the explanatory plaques, sorry!)

More photos to follow 🙂

 

 

Scraptastic Tuesday

Linked up today with Mrs Sew & Sow’s Scraptastic Tuesday, contributing my post on the myth of scrap quilting, which was written some time ago, I know, but I have recently resumed working on the quilt referred to in that post, so I felt I could sneak in … 🙂
Some of the other scrap creation links are pretty amazing, and everyone seems to get just as much pleasure as I do out of using all those itty-bitty leftovers, so it’s good to know I’m not alone!
Tonight has been spent making more scrap squares – no project in mind, but it keeps the creative juices flowing while I cogitate on how to finish off the floral creation mentioned yesterday. Oh, and I was also keeping an eye on the second NZ/Pakistan cricket test, which started today – thank goodness the NZ side is performing a lot better so far than they did in the first test, when we were beaten by over 200 runs!

Sew-sew weekend

I am a Fabric Tart. There, I’ve said it. Put me in a fabric shop, any fabric shop, and chances are I will not leave alone. Chances are I will succumb to the temptation. Chances are I will submit, oh, so willingly, to the attraction, to the pull, to the desire. Resistance is futile. The fabric pheremones call out to me, sing to me, wink at me, beckon me with their potent scent, and I go weak at the knees. (Not to mention the brain.) I fondle the pretty patterns, drool over the colours and the brightness and the charming designs, and scheme how to use them, to show them off, to take them home and make them mine, all mine. And lo and behold, suddenly I am at the counter clutching bolts of fabric, ordering two metres of this and three metres of that, and – “Oh, there’s only another metre left on the bolt, well, I may as well take it all then, yes?” – and the assistant smiles to herself, she’s thinking, “Oh, yes, we definitely have a fabric tart here, she just can’t say no”. My excuses for my behaviour vary from, “But they’re offering 30% off this weekend!”, to “I really need this fabric because I saw this beautiful quilt online the other day, and this fabric would be just perfect for me to make one just like it”, to “I’m creating a stash to use when I retire, so I need to buy it NOW”, to “I saw this other woman eyeing it up on the shelf and I knew if I didn’t grab it first, she’d buy the whole bolt and I’d miss out.”

And just to prove that I actually do use the fabric that I buy (even when it was bought so many years ago that I really have no idea when or where I bought it), here are some photos of one of my current WIPs (works in progress). I initially wanted to make a kaleidoscope quilt, but didn’t have sufficient of the feature fabric, so matched it with five other fabrics already in my stash, used an idea I saw online, and came up with this project. There’s still a bit of work to do, but I’m pleased with the progress so far.

Feature fabric …

… matched with these from my stash …

… cut out and ready to sew …

… sewing, sewing, sewing …

… and coming together nicely …

It needs a border of some sort, and a backing, and then I’ll think about whether to quilt it or tie it (I’ve been doing the latter on my quilts lately, and like the simplicity of it), so there’s maybe another month’s work in it … should be done by Christmas, anyway.

So that was (partly) my sew-sew weekend: a three-day affair, given that Friday was a holiday for this part of the country, being Canterbury Anniversary Day, or Show Day as it’s more commonly called, due to it also being People’s Day at the annual Canterbury agricultural and pastoral (A&P) show. As well as working on this project I also went back to a scrap quilt I blogged about some months ago here – that one is also coming together nicely, and photos will follow in due course.

But for now, with a return to work in approximately seven hours, I need to go to bed! 🙂