Display gives blanket recognition

You don't hear of quilters having expensive drug problems, stitching venom about former lovers into their work, or behaving appallingly in public because it's good for profile.

But don't think they're a bunch of nanas who never drink - or think - anything stronger than tea.

"You bet there are rock stars in quilting," says champion quilter Anna Prussing, 57, though she's talking more about status than bad behaviour. "We're not all old ladies making nice pastel things," which she calls, quite straight-faced, "thumbsuckers".

"There are quilters who make edgy, difficult and really complex work that makes strong statements" - art for the wall rather than craft for beds.

But quilting doesn't get praised as art either, grumbles Ms Prussing, a Wellington medical practice manager, because it's about creating beauty out of domestic odds and ends, like fabric scraps, "and because anything women create is automatically devalued.

"But we're as passionate as anyone else. We need to come out of the shadow of being 'women's craft' and into the light. Some of the work done here in New Zealand is breath-taking."

Among that work is her arresting quilt Gallipoli, on display at Epsom school St Cuthbert's as part of the 11th National Quilting Symposium, which has attracted more than 1000 delegates to various Auckland venues.

Gallipoli has won three awards, including best in show, making Ms Prussing wealthier by $4500 and a top-flight sewing machine. The 2.5m by 2.5m quilt was made in memory of her grandfather Alfred Troughton, who survived Gallipoli's horrors in 1915 only to be gassed at the Somme in 1916. Although a "wheezy old treasure" afterwards, he lived to 81.

The quilt, which features recycled scraps of men's shirts and old school uniforms, exudes an elegant serenity as well as sadness. Golden crosses stand out from a backdrop of muted colours that suggest muddy fields under gloomy skies.

Meandering, horizontal machine stitching suggests tears and rain. It's not a thumbsucker. And it's not for sale. Mrs Prussing was once offered $10,000 for a quilt, but the 100-odd she has made are largely inspired by family, and tend to stay in it.

On the back of each one she stitches in her name and her inspiration, hoping that the links between weaver, recipient and the future will never be lost: "We are all woven together."

Where to see them

* The Subversive Quilt, a show of 27 quilts, which make political or social statements, runs until tonight at the Pitt St Methodist Hall, Auckland central.
* From January 13 to 16, the University of Waikato at Tauranga hosts the exhibition Raising a Ruckus with Quilts, showing 20 statement-making quilts.
* For more information on the 11th National Quilting Symposium, see the Quilt Auckland website (see link below).