Norma Slabbert Quiltmaker
Quilting
Series: Old Skills, New Quilts
Old Skills, New Quilts
Norma’s current quilt series – Old Skills, New Quilts – is firmly rooted in tradition. Her quiltmaking embraces patchwork, appliqué, and the quilting stitches that sandwich the layers. She uses old skills and traditional quilt block designs as reference points to express ideas, emotion, and the worry of our time. Her process is one of having a conversation with each quilt that evolves as she works.
Her quilts are a documentation of our time. They represent the life she lives and the things she cares about. As a journalist and migrant, her work often reflects on the realities of daily life, emotional truths, comings and goings, isolation, belonging, place and displacement, and the space between.
In this series, she reflects on the dark days New Zealand experienced during 2019.
Family Making Things – Passing on Tradition
EXHIBITION: ARTSPOST GALLERIES, HAMILTON, 6 DECEMBER 2019 – 6 JANUARY 2020
Wall Quilts by Norma
SERIES OLD SKILLS, NEW QUILTS
Front: Comforting Coverlet, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Suffolk Puffs or Yo-Yo’s
Blue Sun, Norma Slabbert, 2019. English Paper Piecing – Sunburst. Hand pieced, machine quilted.
A Cold Wind Chills Us – When People Become Numbers, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Based on traditional Windmill quilt block.
Fences, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Raw edge appliqué.
River of Tears, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Freestyle quilting.
Searching For Home, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Based on traditional Flying Geese quilt pattern.
We Make Our Own Path – Or Do We?, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Trapunto
Our Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Half Square Triangle.
Hyphen – the line that stands between but also connects, Norma Slabbert, 2019.
Grief Sounded Like A Silent Prayer, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Whole Cloth quilting.
From Morning into Mourning, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Log Cabin, Light and Dark variation.
Garden Abandoned, Norma Slabbert, 2019. English Paper Piecing, Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Hand pieced, machine quilted.
All the Flowers of All the Tomorrows are in the Seeds of Today, Norma Slabbert, 2019. Broderie Persé.
Norma Slabbert Quiltmaker 