Norma Slabbert Quiltmaker
Quilting
About
Norma Slabbert Quiltmaker
Norma Slabbert is a quiltmaker and writer from New Zealand who grew up on a bushveld farm and a mission station in Lebowa. She started doing fabric collage and making quilts in the early eighties, while working as a pre-school teacher. Her early work was bright and playful – inspired by children’s art.
During a mid-career break, Norma backpacked through Europe to visit major galleries and museums to study art and quiltmaking. She researched quiltmaking at British museums, libraries, and quilt shows, and the experience inspired a lifelong commitment to quiltmaking and art.
After returning from Europe, Norma’s passion for art led to a career change and a position as an art gallery curator. As curator, she initiated and curated a number of quilt exhibitions in the city gallery – which was groundbreaking at the time.
She returned to university in midlife, to fulfil a passion for writing. The Honours in Journalism had an impact on her quiltmaking and after qualifying as a journalist, her work became darker, more political, and grounded in reality – to question and reflect on world matters, the realities of daily life, and emotional truths.
Norma and her family migrated to New Zealand during the late nineties, which also had an influence on her quiltmaking. As a migrant, her work often comments on coming and going, place and displacement, and the space between.
Now semi-retired, Norma spends her days on all things related to quiltmaking: doing the stitches, reading, research, writing, quilt judging, and exhibiting. Recent highlights in her quilt journey were visits to the 2015 and 2017 Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival, in Japan. She has published a number of books and wrote for New Zealand Quilter until it ceased publication.
Norma was the 2012 recipient of the Aotearoa Quilters Scholarship Award, while she worked towards her second solo quilt exhibition, The Walled Garden. Her third solo quilt exhibition, While We Stitch, was shown at ArtsPost Galleries in Hamilton, during September 2016. During 2019 she showed a new series, Old Skills, New Quilts at ArtsPost Galleries – with her family under the umbrella name Family Making Things – Passing on Tradition. Norma showed her latest solo exhibition, House Home Place, at Wallace Gallery Morrinsville during October / November 2022.
Quilt CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 – House Home Place, Wallace Gallery Morrinsville, Morrinsville
2019 – Old Skills, New Quilts, ArtsPost Galleries, Hamilton
2016 – While We Stitch, ArtsPost Galleries, Hamilton
2014 – Walled Garden, Minerva Gallery, Wellington
2013 – Walled Garden, ArtsPost Galleries, Hamilton
2006 – Stitched Stories, ArtsPost Galleries, Hamilton
2006 – Stitched Stories, Taia Textile Gallery, Wellington
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 – Selected for the 2023 AQC Challenge, Australia
2023 – Selected for Memories of Childhood, an Ozquilt members’ virtual exhibition
2022 – Selected for Textile Expressionism (SAQA Virtual Gallery)
2022 – Selected for Changing Threads 2022 – the Contemporary NZ Textile Fibre Art Award
2019 – Selected for National Quilt Symposium 2019, Auckland
2019 – Selected for Art Quilt Australia 2019, National Wool Museum, Geelong
2019 – Ailsa Graig Quilt and Fibre Arts Festival, Canada
2018 – Auckland Festival of Quilts 2018, Auckland
2018 – Australia Wide Six Exhibition, Sydney, Australia
2018 – Art Quilt Australia @ Yarra Ranges Regional Museum
2017 – Japan Challenge, Handmade Makers’ 2017, Yokohama, Tokyo
2017 – Auckland Festival of Quilts, Auckland
2017 – National Quilt Symposium, Creative Construction, Christchurch
2017 – Art Quilt Australia, Queen Victoria Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
2017 – Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne, Australia
2016 – Auckland Festival of Quilts, Auckland
2015 – Purple Challenge, Aotearoa Quilters, Palmerston North Quilt Festival
2012 – The BIG Quilt Show, NorthArt, Auckland
2012 – What the World Needs Now, Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne
2012 – Connections, NorthArt, Auckland
2012 – Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton
2012 – Year 60 Quilt, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton
2011 – Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton
2011 – On the Surface, Aotearoa Quilters challenge and travelling exhibition
2010 – Made in New Zealand 11, NorthArt, Auckland
2009 – Made in New Zealand 11, 15th European Patchwork Association, Sainte-
Marie-aux-Mines, France
2009 – World Quilt Show, New England, Manchester, New Hampshire; Pennsylvania
2009 – National Quilt Extravaganza; Pacific International Quilt Festival, USA
2009 – POST Stitch, Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi, Waitakere City
2006 – Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne
2005 – NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton
2005 – Quilt Auckland National Symposium, Auckland
2005 – The Subversive Quilt, Auckland
2004 – Whakatane District Community Arts Council
2004 – Celebration Quilts, Taia Gallery, Wellington
2004 – New Zealand Quilts, Pataka Art Museum, Porirua
2002 – Calling All Quilts, Hamilton
2001 – Celebrate the Quilt, National Symposium, New Plymouth
2000 – Calling All Quilts, Hamilton
2000 – Contemporary New Zealand Quilts exhibition, Pataka Art Museum, Porirua
1998 – A Passion for Quilt Making, Bellville, Cape Town
1998 – Transformed: Textiles as an Expressive Medium, Durban
1998 – Innovative Threads, Cape Town
1997 – Innovative Threads, Cape Town
1997 – The Quilt Fairs: Sussex, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Bruges
1996 – Innovative Threads, Cape Town
1996 – Seasons National Quilt Festival, Durban
1994 – National Quilt Festival, Cape Town
1987 – Designer Crafts, New Forum, Cape Town
AWARDS
2018 – Best of Show, Auckland Festival of Quilts 2018. Quilt: Wall
2017 – First Prize, Modern Quilts, Auckland Festival of Quilts, 2017. Quilt: Modern Conundrum
2016 – Best of Show, Auckland Festival of Quilts2016. Quilt: No Entry
2005 – Best of Show, 2005 NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton. Quilt: I thought I Saw Some Red Hot Pokers in the Gully
2005 – Best Innovative Wall Quilt, NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton. Quilt: I Thought I Saw Some Red Hot Pokers in the Gully
2004 – Best of Show, 2004 NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton. Quilt: Welcome on Foreign Soil
2004 – Best Original Wall Quilt, 2004 NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa, Hamilton. Quilt: Welcome on Foreign Soil
2002 – Best Wall Quilt, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton. Quilt: I Had a House in Africa
2002 – Best Contemporary Entry, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton. Quilt: Foreign Soil
2002 – Merit, Original Wall Quilt, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton. Quilt: Sacrifice
2000 – Merit Award, Contemporary New Zealand Quilts, Pataka Museum, Wellington. Quilt: I Had a House in Africa
2000 – Merit Techinical Excellence, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton. Quilt: Raw #2
1996 – Third Prize, Art Quilt Small, Seasons National Quilt Festival, Durban. Quilt: Seasons of the Soul
1995 – Roland Hill Award, Best Journalism Dissertation, University of Stellenbosch. Dissertation theme: Quilt Making: Art or Craft
1994 – First Prize: Tomorrow Innovative Small, National Quilt Festival, Cape Town. Quilt: Journey in May
1994 – Judges Choice, Jonathan Shannon, National Quilt Festival, Cape Town. Quilt: Journey in May
QUILT JUDGING
2021 – Juror, Oceania: Distance and Diversity, SAQA Oceania Regional Exhibit, Rotorua
2019 – Quilt Judge, Great New Zealand Quilt Show, Rotorua, 2019
2017 – Quilt Judge, Fragile Challenge, Aotearoa Quilters, New Zealand
2016 – Quilt Judge, Great New Zealand Quilt Show, Rotorua, New Zealand
2012 – Quilt Judge, Calling All Quilts, Hamilton
2007 – Quilt Judge, NANZQ Elemental Challenge
2007 – Quilt Judge, Human Rights Challenge, Quilt Symposium 2007
2007 – Judging Skills Certificate – Jeannie M Spears NQACJ, Auckland
2006 – Mentoree Judge, NANZQ Quilts Aotearoa 2006, Hamilton
WRITING AND PUBLICATIONS
Written on quiltmaking for numerous publications including:
New Zealand Quilter
Art/Quilt Magazine, USA
International Quilting Times, UK
SA Country Life, Cape Town
Vuka, Tswane
Talking Threads, Cape Town
Woman’s Value, Cape Town
De Kat, Cape Town
QUILT BOOKS PUBLISHED
1998 – A Passion for Quiltmaking, Cape Town
1991 – Patterns for Patch Pictures
1991 – Crazy Patchwork
1988 – Patch Pictures
SCHOLARSHIP
2012 – Aotearoa Scholarship Award, New Zealand
QUILT MEMBERSHIP
SAQA Studio Art Quilt Associates – https://www.saqa.com
Auckland Quilt Guild – Auckland Quilt Guild
OzQuilt Network – Ozquilt Network Inc : Australia’s organisation for art quilters
Aotearoa Quilters – Aotearoa Quilters
SPEAKING
2022 – Wallace Gallery Morrinsville – floor talk during solo exhibition: House Home Place
2021 – Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Conference – virtual studio tour and talk
2019 – ArtsPost Galleries – floor talks during exhibition: Family Making Things – Passing on Tradition
2019 – Judge’s Floor Talks, Great New Zealand Quilt Show, Rotorua
2017 – Floor talks on Year 60 Quilt, Australasian Quilt Convention, Melbourne, Australia
2016 – Talk on Year 60 Quilt, The Great New Zealand Quilt Show, Rotorua
2014 – Guest speaker, AGM, Capital Quilters, Wellington – Walled Garden Quilts
2014 – Guest speaker, Peninsula Day, Patchwork Unlimited Turua – Walled Garden
2013 – Guest speaker, Embroiderers’ Guild, Rotorua – Year 60 Quilt
2011 – Guest speaker, Waikato Embroiderers’ Guild – Year 60 Quilt
2011 – Guest speaker, Waikato Patchwork and Quilters – Year 60 Quilt
1999 – Guest speaker, Palmerston North – A Passion for Quilt Making
1999 – Guest speaker, Wellington Quilt Guild – A Passion for Quilt Making
1998 – Guest speaker, Kapiti Coast, Wellington – A Passion for Quilt Making
1995 – Durbanville Quilt Guild – Working on a theme in quilt making
Norma Slabbert Quiltmaker 