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

Who knew?

That excellent satisfaction when a piece of art is almost complete, and all the stitching is done… suddenly there is time and reason to collect all the bits and tidy up, put things away, clear the tables and counters, and breathe! The last few weeks have seen me immersed in an exciting new commission, taking me in a new direction, the art itself directing where it wants to go… we think we’re done, now, though. Just the blocking and stretching to do.

So happy am I to have reached this milestone, I did tidy up, and then gave myself permission to have a wee play with my little Bernina Jubilae 125, which was given to me 50 years ago by my grandmother. Who knew it would be the catalyst for my lifelong love of sewing… and that I am still able to use it all these long years later…  and I can do most things I want to with it…

July 16, 2018 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: Art, Art Quilts, ARTyfacts, Bernina, Quilting, quilts, Textile artTags: Bernina, changes, machine free motion stitching, Mechanical machines rock, old machines, quilting, sewing legends, Work in progress 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

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!

 

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017 by Sue Duffy Designs Categories: applique, Art, Art Quilts, Embellishments, Mixed media, Patchwork, Quilting, Textile artTags: Art, australian birds, birds, changes, colour, design, embroidery, flowers, machine embroidery, machine quilting, mixed media, paint, perle cotton, quilting, red yellow green, Reddy Arts Textile Group, robins, slow stitch, stitch, stranded cotton, texture, Work in progress Leave a comment