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)

January 22, 2024 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: applique, Art, ARTyfacts, birds, drawing, Mixed media, Nature, Patchwork, Piecing, quilts, sewing, Textile artTags: Art, Art Quilts, birds, collage, drawing, mixed media, monoprinting, Paper, paper arts, patchwork, pen drawing, Quilt Art, quilting, Textile art, wee houses Leave a comment

August musings

RATG has a challenge currently on the go….. I’ve been playing with interpretations of tree roots, and realised that in fact this has been a recurring theme in my work over the years….
My current work has reached a bit of a stalemate, or perhaps this is just an off day… , but anyway here are some pics of some previous tree roots work

“Afternoon Light”

August 2, 2022 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: Textile artTags: Art, Art Quilts, patchwork, quilting, textile art, Tree roots Leave a comment

Regaining momentum

Such a weird year, all in all. Covid restrictions, and retiring, and babysitting…. drawing and painting…. not too much sewing, but a few exhibitions of work around the ridges. Coming into summer and a soon to be New Year, I am only just regaining my incentives to get back to stitching…. so here I am planning on combining some painting (on calico!) with maybe fabric collage and definitely some machine stitching…….. a Triptych for one of my girls. Plus, I have some other ideas I would like to explore… and of course now we have retired there will be more excursions in our little tiny caravan -but maybe wait until after the school holidays, and the wet weather, and the heat, have abated! Meantime, this will be keeping me very busy over the next little while….. a new work in progress. Osprey reference by Graham Bell, Brahminy Kite reference by Ang Th Ang : both used with permission. The Sea Eagle is from my own photo reference.

Triptych work in progress

November 26, 2021 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: Art, Mixed media, Textile artTags: Art Quilts, australian birds, coloured pencils, ink on fabric, pencil painting, Quilt Art, raptors, textile art, Work in progress Leave a comment

Colour can be fickle

After a brief sojourn up at the Downlands Art Exhibition in Toowoomba recently, I have at last re-hung my Threads of Survival Tetratych: so happy to have it back on the wall. But, Beware!

Originally, I painted the sky background with a dye paint product developed for fabrics, which I would have expected to be stable. It was perfect for getting the right shade of blue and for graduating the sky intensity…. SADLY, it has proven not to be colourfast, and has faded badly in the three years since I made it, and it no longer reflects the intensity of the Australian summer skies. Very disappointing, and  if this fades further which I expect it will do, I am now faced with the dilemma of whether I can save it….. given that I have a lot of areas between the tree branches and leaves to recolour….  Something for the back burner, perhaps.

It is a lesson learned….  I won’t be using that particular product on anything I want to last….

To see how it was in November 2015 click here

October 12, 2018 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: Art Quilts, birds, Home decor, Nature, Quilting, Textile artTags: Art, Art Quilts, changes, design, erosion, eucalypts, Fabric paints and dyes, Nature's Threads, nest, Quilted Art, sky, survival, threads, wallhanging, whistling kites 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…

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.

 

 

March 11, 2018 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: applique, Art, Art Quilts, ARTyfacts, birds, machine embroidery, Patchwork, Piecing, Quilting, quilts, Textile art, thread sketchingTags: Art, Art Quilts, australian birds, birds, design, fish, flowers, framed artwork, quilting, Quilts, sunflowers, textile art, trapunto Leave a comment