Easter Monday 2016, March 28

March has flown by and it is Easter, hope it has been a good time for everyone.
Have been busy preparing a couple of new class samples to hopefully inspire some new students.

Circular Circles #2 Two shades of batik fabric, half square triangles and pieced circles.

Heavy walking foot quilting in straight lines, matchsticks and curves.

Wild Flowers, raw edge, fused, satin stitched, freezer paper and embroidery stitched applique with bias stems and 3 dimensional leaves, free motion and walking foot quilting, for appplique technique class.

Silence Brokan


So now it is 2016, and hopefully this will be a far better year for everyone.  Did manage some creative time over the last 12 months and of course still held classes and assisted in the shop at the PatchWorks.

First a small piece 8"x10"prepared for publication in the 15th Anniversary edition of Quilting Arts Magazine.  It was called Eclipse.

Techniques included, quilting and bobbin work with metallic thread, heavy metallic thread, hand beading, glass beads and polymer cabochon, painting with Inktense blocks on batik fabric.

Next  part of a garment shown at the Schoolhouse Gallery at the bi-annual Clarence Textile Art Show.  "Pagoda" was made with individual triple layered pieces of heavily embroidered silk, lame, and organza, beaded with Myuki square glass beads, suspended together with heavy metallic thread, the "sleeves", constructed on dissolving plastic, are made from heavy metallic thread with suspended organza triangles, and are machine beaded.

"Redtangle" was created for a Stitching and Beyond challenge
and exhibited at the Long Gallery in October.  It has some of my
favorite techniques, massed built in embroidery stitches in
metallic thread over batik and organza, machine made cords
couched by machine and hand with extensive beading.  Great
fun.

Couched beads and painted cabochon

This black and gold piece was also finished for the Stitching and Beyond exhibition, but had been started ages ago.  It was black organza over black homespun cotton, with heavy stitching in various gold threads, metal coils and washers, over silk dupion bits, and Angelina fibers.  It is called "Metallic Explorations".

The following quilts were experiments in "Modern Quilting".  The Modern Quilt Guild was started in the USA by a woman named Jacqui Ghering, members have shied away from traditional designs and blocks, and have created a style of quilt which features large amounts of "negative space". So the basis of the quilt may be 2 or 3 non traditional blocks, in a large amount of plain background.  Plain fabric is preferred, as is straight line quilting by machine with the walking foot, which of course, does not require the skill level needed for good free motion quilting.  Straight line quilting, whilst quite effective when finished, is a little tedious and repetitious to say the least.

"Log On"

"Down the Tubes"

There was also lots of silk painting, and FME playdays with the gang at Ken Smith's, and I will catch up with some photos next time.  Also the Tuesday group, now called "The Closed Shop Textile Artists", continues as ever, don't know what I would do without them all (10 members currently), I think we are in our 22nd year of meeting each week ( no one is exactly sure any more).



The year that I have totally skipped was really rotten and should not be dwelt upon.  My husband Heinz was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2014 and struggled through treatment for the rest of the year.  He finally passed away on 4th February,  and we are all still coming to terms with his loss.





After more than a year of silence, finally an update!  Last year was incredibly busy, not only with the usual making of teaching samples, teaching classes and enjoying play days with Ken Smith, attending shows etc., but my daughter Erika was married in August to her long time partner, fiance, Robert on 31 August.
It was a lovely last day of winter, still, sunny and calm for the ceremony on board the Peppermint Bay catamaran down the Derwent River towards Kingston at the Alum Cliffs followed by a leisurely cruise back to Wrest Point for photos and dinner.

As you can see they are both very happy and we all had a wonderful time.  There were friends and relatives from all over Australia, from Far North Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and of course Tassie.  Greetings were received from other relatives and friends in Germany.  I was delighted to have my sister and two lovely nieces from Queensland, we had a lot of catching up to do.  My niece Jennifer, who was in training for a marathon in Brisbane, ran from Wrest Point to beyond the Shot Tower and back before the wedding an subsequently was placed 5th in the race.  Wow to have that much energy again!!
I put the last stitches in "the"dress at 9.30 pm the night before the wedding, the most stressful sewing project ever, I told the bride that if she ever plans to remarry she will be wearing jeans and a T shirt!

In June we had the local Quilt Show in Hobart.  I entered two quilts - Circular Circus pictured earlier and Fish Kaffe.

The quilt fabric was a wonderful, very large fish print designed by Kaffe Fassett with inserted manipulated strips forming a wave like pattern.  This was a technique pioneered by Caryl Bryer Fallert in the late 70s, it was a fun, quilt as you go method.
The show was disappointing to me because of the unprecedented judging of the quilts.  One of the judges won Best Of Show, something I have never heard of before.  I have judged the Tasmanian Quilt show twice, there are usually three judges, and although we were invited to hang quilts for viewing, they were never included in the official judging.  I queried this and was told that the judge concerned "went out of the room"when that section was being considered.  So who became the third judge?  Wouldn't everyone know that there was work from the absent person in the batch?  (Usually, it is a requirement that names are covered by a calico square on the back of the quilts to hide the identity of the maker).  A very dodgy state of affairs to say the least.

On a brighter note, last night saw the opening of an exhibition by the Closed Shop Textile Group, called Visual Treats, at the beautiful Schoolhouse Gallery, Hobart.  The Schoolhouse is a charming reproduction of an old schoolhouse, 4 rooms with lovely light from big windows, two fireplaces with mantles, and a high gabled ceiling in one room.  The Closed Shop group is my little band of women, 12 in all,  who have been meeting at The PatchWorks in Hobart for more than 20 years, 5 have been coming every Tuesday since the beginning. Tuesday is a day when the shop is not open, hence the name, although we frequently have customers wander in to buy fabric.  Inspired by the 12 x 12 Internet Art quilt challenge in 2011, each member chose a topic for interpretation in a 12 inch (30cm) square quilt.  Topics included Fruit,  Birds of a Feather, Patterns in Nature, Family Tree, Reef, Fantasy, Beachcomber, Paradise, Renaissance Underwear, Put your best foot Forward.  These were completed using a multitude of techniques and materials - Paper, dyed papers, collected papers, found and collected items, beads, rice paper, cotton fabrics, batik, hand dyed silk, crystals, mohair, net - free machine embroidery, applique, 3D applique, digitised machine embroidery, built in machine stitches, hand embroidery, fabric and paper collage, free motion qulting and patchwork.
As yet I have not had time to photograph the exhibits now they have been hung, but will post some photos when I have them.