Category: Patchwork

Pieces of fabric stitched together to form an overall pattern.

New directions in 2024

There has been a famine in this part of my life, too many other things going on. No Blog entries for a couple of years…. But maybe I’ll get back to this in the near future, I have lots of new little bits and pieces. I’ve been doing more drawing, painting, papery things, book making… less of the quilt making, and surprisingly, less textile art. Featured image in my blog post is a photo of the one and only quilt I made in 2023. The rest of the year was – playtime! Travelling, Camping, being retired and lazy!

so here is a wee look at some of the new stuff…. small works in progress – enjoy!

Exploring little paper houses – monoprinting, quick pen drawings
Still Waters - in progress, almost finished, part of a Reddy Arts Textile Group https://reddyarts.wordpress.com/ exhibition that is coming up in 2024. More details in a future post.
Exploring mixed media collage: the pardalote didn’t make it into the piece, but another wee bird did… come see the Reddy Arts Textile Group Exhibition in May 2024 to see which one! (Details to come)
by Categories: applique, Art, ARTyfacts, birds, drawing, Mixed media, Nature, Patchwork, Piecing, quilts, sewing, Textile artTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Benefit Auctions

Being a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates, I decided this year I would submit a couple of small pieces for auction, to help in a small way to raise funds for the SAQA exhibition programmes, and I guess it is another platform where people will see my humble work….. These are the two pieces  – the first,   postcard sized, is an Eastern Yellow Robin  for the Spotlight Auction, and the second, Silver Gulls, is for the Benefit Auction. I had fun making them. The postcard is already on it’s way to America, if it hasn’t already arrived, and the other will be soon winging it’s way to Lisa Walton , vice president of SAQA who has kindly offered to take the Oceania Membership Group’s donated quilts to the USA.

Eastern Yellow Robin for SAQA Spotlight Auction
Silver Gulls 12″ x 12″ made for SAQA Benefit Auction 2018 Cotton Raw edge applique, couched velour yarn, machine stitching

The past 10 days have also seen me quilt and bind a charity quilt top  – one of the Linus quilts – made by another Queensland Quilters member, so I will be handing that back this coming Tuesday at the QQ Inc March gathering. Just a teeny contribution…. and it keeps my hand in just a bit with the machine quilting…

IMG_4494

Then there were a couple of tiny miniature pieces I did for fun, that were not birds for once!!! I have had these tiny frames in my stash for years so with a bit of the old crackle medium and acrylic paint I dressed them up a little and made these wee gifts…. 2″ x 2″ and 2″ x 2.5″ respectively!

Sunflower for Kim (What else?) Inktense on cotton duck, thread sketched
Fish for Brenda (of course!) painted vliesofix on hand dyed fabric, thread sketched with metallic polyester thread.

I have a mind to have a go at the Coastal Threads Art Prize, “Coastal Fringe” if I can get my act together… I have yet to finalise my subject, but with a March 30 deadline I will be on to it this week! Next on the list following that is a commission! Exciting times.

 

 

by Categories: applique, Art, Art Quilts, ARTyfacts, birds, machine embroidery, Patchwork, Piecing, Quilting, quilts, Textile art, thread sketchingTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Just for fun

Today I went back to persevering – for a couple of hours – with the watercolour experience! It’s all pretty horrible. Haha I don’t know, if I get hooked on it, I might improve…. giving it a bash with some free online lessons from Www.ArtTutor.com which I tell myself will help me in my art practice – and even if it doesn’t, I don’t suppose it’ll do any harm!

The main textile work I am currently busy with is a group challenge which was set by the members of our Textile Group (Reddy Arts). I have to run with it, and the criteria are: 60cm square, start with a white fabric, (e.g. a bed sheet) and all commercially purchased prints and hand dyes are forbidden. I am not convinced that challenges are a good thing.

For this I have opted to  use a very old painted and stencilled piece made several years ago and which has been languishing in the cupboard ever since… It started way back in the days of experimentation with new techniques… there were so many possibilities, so many to try, and thus we gave ourselves permission to play which resulted in giving everything a go! Until eventually we ran the risk of becoming technique junkies without a clue where to go from there… that is a trap, BEWARE! (I still get sucked in….. viz: the watercolour painting) So this piece of original painted and stencilled (with various texture media – eg glass beads and structure gel – mixed in with acrylic paints) now altered with cutting and reinvented with stitching, both hand and machine, is planned to feature a couple of birds… (Surprise!)  but is so far from my usual style of work, I believe it will not be recognisable as mine at all…..  but isn’t that what challenges are all about? Exploring new directions?

The starting piece before I attacked it with the rotary cutter
Reinvented on an acrylic ink painted rejected background, a little bit of stitch added
In progress stitching

So onward, I need to go get stitching, painting and whatever!

 

by Categories: applique, Art, Art Quilts, Embellishments, Mixed media, Patchwork, Quilting, Textile artTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Wetlands of Queensland

Today, as the big wet (compliments of ex Tropical Cyclone Debbie) drenches the southeast, I recieved notification that my latest artwork didn’t make the grade for the Moreton Bay Regional Art Awards – no matter! It was the very first time I have entered this competition. I’m not much given to entering competitions, but sometimes they pay off and often in the most splendid and unexpected ways! Just not this time, alas. I ought to have approached this piece with 4 intact sides perhaps, and no empty – literally!  – spaces…. but no, not me, who likes to make it complicated.

I made this to be

1) part of a series I am working on at the moment (Anfractuous Continuance)

2) as a possible entry in the Australasian Quilt Convention Challenge – Fauna and Flora of Australia –  but it transpired that by it’s very nature, it would not fold well, therefore would not travel well, and as a consequence I opted not to enter – clearly I didn’t think that one through…

3) it being not entered in AQC decided to give MBRAA a shot…. never mind, I think it looks good on my wall!!!

I have named it “Cooloola Flight”. Because it’s an aerial view of the Cooloola wetlands and it features a wonderful bird we saw there – a Black necked Stork. An Aussie would call it a Jabiru. We spotted it out in our canoe on Lake Cootharaba, and was the biggest thrill of all of our canoeing excursions. He was just sitting on a little island, minding his own business, then as we drifted closer, he casually got up and strolled away for a drink, and eventually flew off to feed around the corner.

In  this piece the lake and river systems of Cooloola Wetlands are depicted by the empty spaces….. it will be exhibited as one of my pieces at Pine Rivers Art Gallery along with the Reddy Arts Textile Group’s work in December and January…. until then here is a wee sneak peak because I’m too excited about it to save it for a few more months! But you will be able to see it in the cloth there.

Lots of you have seen my first piece in the series – see “Cudgera Creek”  and my previous post for photos. This quilt is now in Melbourne and can be seen at the Bernina   Best of Australia Awards at AQC 20-23rd April 2017.

I am currently working on my third piece, which is based around the Tinchi tamba wetlands, on the Pine River. Now I really must go and sew!!!

Cooloola Flight 2017
Cooloola Flight detail

by Categories: Art Quilts, birds, My Quilts, Nature, Patchwork, Quilting, quilts, Textile art, thread sketchingTags: , , , , 2 Comments