A FEAST WITH COLOUR!

This quilt for the wall was a creation based upon what I learnt from Gloria Loughman, and then embellished in my own way. 

Quiltcamp at Kurrajong was a 3-day sojourn where I attended Gloria’s “Lighting the landscape” class.   My piece is based on a photograph taken during the Ridgetop Tour at Arkaroola in South Australia.

After placing tiles onto the background, fabric pieces were carefully chosen to depict light and shade of the mountain ranges.   The grass tree was a combination of fused fabric and thread work (machine stitches) to depict the leaves.   Hard to see in this photo is the head of the grass tree with its multi-coloured beads, stitched one bead at a time for durability.

This was such a feast,  a whole quilt to play around with intense colour.

Myrtle – Australian hard wood

Every now and again someone special walks into your life!    It doesn’t happen often, and it comes out of the blue.  To acknowledge this friendship my husband Chris crafted this beautiful jewellery box from a flat piece of myrtle hardwood.  It also features tiger myrtle wood with its eye-catching textured lines.  

I made the fabric insert, based upon my love of the Ozzie outback and colours of the desert.   This features silk and cotton fabrics, embroidered on my machine with lots of lovely threads, especially Superior Rainbow threads. 

This box is on its way to Fibre Forum at Orange – being delivered by a colleague who is attending a week’s long workshop there.   One of the international tutors will get a nice surprize in April.   I cant wait to hear her excited response.   It is such a nice feeling to give freely something that is made from the heart and hands, from the two of us too!

Mixed media collage – cool colours

Silk and cotton fabrics feature in this little quilt – many I hand dyed.   Also included is a glorious metal rose from my treasure trove.  And…to add an international flavour,  embroidered Indian sari cloth and fabric from Argentina.

I love most colours.  Especially blue.   It is a colour I will never grow tired of, a bit like my love of greens and all the other colours of nature.   As a child living in Adelaide I spent a lot of time with my family on boats frequently sailing to Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln during my school holidays  - I have very fond memories of being mesmerized by the colour of deep sea.  

This piece of textile art is reflective of those times.   Time to enjoy the great summer blue skies of southern Australia and all the shades of blue that only comes from very deep ocean waters.   Sailing at nighttime, the sea turns black – watching the water gush past the portholes I loved watching twinkles from white/silvery miniature sealife.   And when the dawn skies showed purple tones, it was a warning of rough weather to come.

T0 show these colours of life at sea, my piece includes pieces of silk and cotton fabrics that I dyed some time ago.  

Riso screen printing, paints & fabric

Working once again with paints and fabric, this quilt was created as an escape from our summer heat.   Being a quieter time of the year with minimal commitments, I took the opportunity to learn how to use a Riso screen.   I included my first attempt in this quilt – a photo I took near Arkaroola was used to screen print the image.  Can you pick it?

Creating this piece aroused memories of flying over outback Australia, which occurred quite regularly during my earlier life living in Adelaide S.A.

Interestingly, my friends all “see” something different from its imagery.   No surprises though that many thought of an aerial perspective, or viewing a map.     During the time I made this quilt, I was reading about the Flinders Ranges and once again was struck by the ruggedness of its rocky backdrop formed millions of years ago, its particular vegetation suitable for dry climates,  and its people of the land.

   Just finished this - and ready to show in its completed form.

Thoughts of outback Australia emerged as I created this art-quilt.  

Made with paper, fabric, stitch and paint.   Jo Sonja paints and textile medium worked well – giving vibrant colour along with ease of application.  Stitching was achieved easily too.

I stitched around the binding to finish it off with a rustic look – to give the feeling of what you see when travelling the outback tracks in outback Australia.  

Not only do I enjoy the adventure of this techniques, I am looking forward to sharing knowledge by teaching a Sydney-based workshop in 2011. 

Creative hearts & minds

Sydney’s continuing rainy weather is influencing the time spent in my studio.   Straying somewhat from my usual methods, I have been playing with paper, acrylic paints, threads and other yummy bits and pieces.  

I was one of three members asked to be guest speakers at the ATASDA NSW Christmas meeting yesterday on 4/12/2010.  I showed fifteen quilts – traditional and contemporary and talked about the techniques used and inspiration behind their designs.    Being part of the ATASDA group yesterday felt very special – time to enjoy other’s hearts and minds – to see and hear about their creative endeavours and what matters to them.  

My presentation included this unfinished piece of quilt-art made primarilly with hession and paper.  I applied Jo Sonja’s acrylic paints and stitching by machine and hand.  More work is needed to complete this piece of quilt-art.

And….after my presentation, a very nice surprize happened…..After the meeting I was delighted when one lady asked to purchase my tulip quilt that I designed especially to enter into the Quilters’ Guild Darling Harbour exhibition earlier this year.   It’s gone to a good home – I couldn’t be happier.

Once home again, I unwound by doing a little more work to this piece which reflects my love of outback Australia where the rich earthy colours dig deeply into my soul.

More and more, I am finding my mind is concentrating on elements of design.   This piece is quite symmetrical but with subtle diversions. 

Do you like it?  I welcome your impressions especially about design and what impacts on YOU.

A journey returned me to collage

A recent short Victorian break lead me the spa water country of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs.  

Surprize – surprize – I discovered the textile shops were even better than the waters!   A huge bag of pieces of Indian sari fabrics came home me with me, along with yummy other fibres I discovered along the way.  

Back home I found some silk fabric that I dyed in the microwave to produce glorious colour and such a soft feel.  

This formed the base colour of my collage using wool and silk rovings, fabric, yarns, and of course my Indian textile pieces.   It took a little journey to stimulate my creative direction to return to this type of collage work again.

Altering the visual texture by process of discharge on pre-dyed fabric.

Whilst all the buckets and messy stuff was readily available in the courtyard,  it was just the right time to mess around more with the discharge process.   A piece of cotton fabric that I previously dyed with Procion MX dyes was just waiting to be altered.  So I applied a thickish flour paste, waited for it to dry rock solid hard over 2 days, then cracking it all over, it was able to be discharged with an application of bleach.   The bleach settled into the cracks but not the area where the flour paste remained.    By the time I got to undertake the discharge process I discovered a few holes in the fabric – nibbled by a nighttime visitor, probably a hungry possum with a liking for some carbs.  Now doesn’t this makes for a unique piece of fabric? 

Seriously the process produces an interesting visual texture which in this case, enhanced the darkly dyed fabric that was sitting in my cupboard.   Now it beckons to be used in my art-quilting work, so in my book – that is a good result.

Click on the small pics to get a closer view.

Textile Art for hanging around (wall)

Again my love of the Flinders Ranges has been expressed in yet another wall quilt. Created with cotton fabric I rusted with things collected from the council cleanup (lots of fun looking), then more fabrics were stamped and painted with Jo Sonja acrylic paints (dilluted with textile medium) I am very happy with the outcome. You will see that monoprinting techniques were used to create textural images that reflect the essence of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

Beads were also applied, along with hand stitch using some of my “precious” yarns bought on a whim.

Again I was interested to view the tonal qualities of these colours, by playing with Photoshop to create a black and white image.

I have been reflecting a lot on the degree of time I spend on the computer – something I find too frustrating for words, but relief is in sight – as plans are underway to make more time and space available for my textile art experiences. So, you can hope to see more of my work in the near future. I am looking forward to sharing with my wider community in this way, so please do drop me a comment every now and again, will you?

Textile Art – new pieces are on the scene!

“Natures Forces” was created on cotton cloth using Jo Sonja’s acrylic paints, then stitched by machine, embellished further with hand stitching. This time I did not dilute the paints and so the high pigmentation gives an intensity I really like for this particular image.

Curious to view the values I included a black and white image of the same piece.

“Natures Forces” has been entered into the “Brush With Art” exhibition in South Australia.

More pieces are coming to my blog….so please come back and revisit soon. You will see more of my entries into the Brush With Art exhibition.