Annual Report Monday 12 March 2018
Needless to say I am not addicted to blogging, since I appear to have skipped an entire year.
Briefly on that score, I spent the last three months of 2017 nursing a fractured right arm/shoulder so was immobilised in a sling for seven weeks, and convalescing until Christmas.  Very frustrating BUT because of the internet was able to research masses of information and tutorials on my favorite subjects, although at the same time, resisting the urge to run off and experiment because of my handicap.  Did manage some left handed drawing.

Some finished work from earlier in the year, small quilts and some embroidery and painting on hand dyed silk.

Hand dyed silk, stamped, machine couched metallic thread, built in embroidery stitches, metal coins and other items,  beaded.

Collage- cotton batik and prints,  tulle, free motion embroidery, applique, beading, paint.

 Cotton batik background, built in embroidery stitches, rayon and metallic thread, hand embroidery with perle cotton, beading.

Leftover batik squares, machine pieced, quilted,  organza overlay, foil, stamped, couched heavy cotton yarn.

 So not completely unproductive.

Currently working on new art quilts, and of course, still enjoying wonderful golden days dying silk with Ken Smith and the gang of other enthusiasts.  My silk dying technique seems to be improving - and it's only taken 17 years!! 

Talk again eventually.

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.

Back again with some good news.  Yesterday I reluctantly parted with my 1130 Bernina, a wonderful machine which has worked tirelessly for years, helping me create many Art To Wear garments,  quilts, dolls and machine embroidery, and is still going strong.  But the machine was so heavy it was starting to give my arthritis affected hands problems therefore it has gone to a new home with another sewing enthusiast who loved it on sight.
I now have a lovely little and light Bernina 215 to replace the old machine.  It is a very basic model, with few stitches, just the practical ones, but has all the good Bernina features, rotary bobbin, easily dropped feed dogs, a good straight stitch, needle down etc, and is easy to lift and carry.  Looking forward to lots of fun times sewing with this little baby which looks tiny sitting beside the 820 big brother.

Here is a small quilt called Mardi Gras, made from our Closed Shop group challenge fabrics 2012, with some digitised 3D appliques stitched out on black synthetic felt,  cut out with the soldering iron, and mounted on the quilted background.  Sequins and crystals added later.

Update! Update! Update!
 An entire year has flown by without a single word being added to this post.  It has been a very busy year as usual, with Tuesday group (now to be known as "The Closed Shop") various classes, and shop duties, as well as wonderful monthly visits to Silk painting and machine embroidery with Ken Smith.
I think I am finally getting the hang of silk painting and have managed some quite attractive pieces this year.  I did photograph some of them, but they are such bad pictures I will not include them.  Will endeavour to take some better ones over the holidays.

"Its Not All Black and White"

Attended a workshop with Jane Sassaman, Applique Quilt Artist from the USA in April.  Really enjoyed her technique and the quilts she showed us.  All beautifully finished, mostly using her own fabric designs and plenty of built in machine stitches for quilting.  Interestingly, Jane doesn't free motion quilt, but uses the walking foot for this work.  I love her prints, and had just finished a quilt  "It's not all Black and White" using them on the front and back.  This quilt received a Highly Commended and Judges Commendation in the Tasmanian Quilt Show.

This is a little quilt I finished using Jane's techniques.  An  interesting  machine interpretation of traditional quilter's hand applique methods, plus Jane's slant on abstracting designs from photographs and nature.  My very literal head had difficulty grasping the design principles but I am quite happy with the results and did manage to finish a class sample, quite a rarity for me.
Still a work in progress in this picture.

PS to the latest

As well as all this spent many enjoyable hours with Ken Smith and friends experimenting with Shibori and other silk painting techniques, with variable success for me, but some outstanding results for others in the group. These are always very happy times spent in the Dye shed and the studio, with new challenges on the way for 2012.

Update at last

There has been much activity during the months that have passed since the last update. Time devoted to a visit from my sister and her friend Sue, from Townsville, down in Tasmania on a golfing trip which included games for them at Barnboogle, (I think that's how it's spelt) Royal Hobart, Tasmanian and a couple of other courses. As a non golfer not familiar with any of these, but they were very impressed. Sue is a quilter so required a guided tour of all Hobart quilt shops, as well as a trip to Wafu Works at Kingston, where Sue was happy with fabrics and threads and my sister delighted with Origami supplies.
At the same time my daughter Erika became engaged to Robert Wallhead amidst much screaming with excitement from mother!!
Classes still going at PatchWorks -

Casual handbag











Quilt as you go Cot Quilt






Machine Embroidery for Quilters






Group challenge for 2011 was due on the last meeting day. The challenge is set each year with each member receiving a set of materials, and in 2011, the work was to be a three dimensional piece - box, bag, doll or vessel - I chose to make a box that I had been longing to make for some time, inspired by the book Beginners Guide to Embroidered Boxes by Janet Edmonds.
This was a favourite project because it included embroidery with programmed stitches, free machine embroidery, applique and beading, all techniques I love.

Play Time

Just about the launch into the last class samples for the year, a new bag and a little cot quilt using the super fast quilt as you go technique and then it will be time to play with all the things I have been wanting to experiment with for ages.
Have a lovely, inspirational, collection of silk shibori thanks to my mentor Ken Smith, ready to make up into all sorts of gorgeous things and want to try some dying on my own, and some painting and some stencilling and some shading and a million other bits and pieces. Still have several machine embroidery projects to finish and Christmas presents to make.
Will make a box of some description with group challenge fabrics; the fabric was distributed to the group last December with the challenge to make a three dimensional object - box, bag, vessel or whatever, so I had better get a move on, can't expect the others to do what I haven't. Better get started, more soon.

Something new

This is a new quilt created for a class using an old setting of the Drunkard's Path block called Moor's Path, and the beautiful fabric range "Valley of the Kings". Quite significant as I was recently in Melbourne with Erika, shopping, shopping, shopping, but when she had to go to work, I was able to go to the NGV Vienna Artists exhibition and the Tutankhamun exhibition, and get a quick glimpse of the Man Style exhibition also at the NGV.

I love visiting the National Gallery in Melbourne. It is always buzzing with activity with masses of beautiful exhibits to stimulate and excite the imagination. I am always amazed at the depth and brightness of colours in even the oldest paintings and the many and varied techniques displayed. The Vienna Artists were wonderful, glorious paintings, furniture, jewellery, architectural drawings, cutlery, silverware, china, garments, fabric designs, a whole host of wonderful work, including the paintings and drawings of Gustav Klimt, magic.

The Tutankhamun exhibition was very interesting, but a little sad as well. Some amazing artefacts, jewellery, sculptures and the like, many gilded wooden objects. The carved designs were of particular interest, many are familiar and often used as quilting designs.
Of course, I had to visit the much loved Clegs fabric store, wouldn't be a visit to Melbourne without seeing the beautiful fabrics there, and just had to have a couple of pieces to bring home. Chartreuse and Purple!!

Also visited all our favourite eating places, the Meat and Wine Company, Young and Jacksons Hotel and the marvellous Grossi Florentino, as well as every shoe and bag shop, every shop in Collins Street, Block Arcade, Royal Arcade, GPO, and beautifully renovated Myer and David Jones. Drove Erika mad with my "oh that used to be" and "I used to work in that building" stories.

The morning E had to go off to to an Audit, we had brekky up in Collins Street and I walked with her around to 500 Collins to her office. There in the foyer of the building was this marvellous applique work by Stewart Merret, approximately 6 meters high, all satin stitch applique using decorating velvets and silks. Just amazing, and very exciting to see it in situ. You will find it in his book Applique Art.

Snow Time!!

Well what wonderful weather for quilting and creating. Yesterday (Sunday) it actually snowed almost all day, but mixed with rain, the snow didn't settle down here in Taroona. Further down at Kingston through to Kettering, and on the mountain and surrounding hillsides there was still lots of snowy piles at lunchtime today.
My Art to Wear has returned from Sydney in reasonable condition although not pristine. Sadly I found the ATW a little ordinary this year, and my outfit certainly seemed pretty lifeless in it's setting at the show, maybe it's the lighting and the predominently black and red surroundings.
Now working on two sample quilts, some cushions for my daughter's new home, several machine embroidery projects and spent the weekend cleaning up the "studio" to make room for a new computer which will eventually replace the rather old model currently in use there. This will be terrific as I will be able to connect to the internet right along side my machine, so can sew along with things like the Bernina tutorials and other information sources. Robert, my daughter's partner, is my computer wizard and has devoted much time to upgrading and programming the new toy, he is really very good to me and is teaching me lots of new computer stuff.
Today's photo is from 2009 ATW - the theme was black and white, and I think, was much more spectacular with all the garments on white mannequins. Mine was called Bye Bye Blackbird. It was made from heavily embroidered black silk dupion, studded with about 1000 black swarowski crystals on the bodice, digitised flowers embroidered and cut out of double white organza with a soldering iron, heavily embroidered and beaded bag, black silk nickers with machine embroidered lace edgings on the legs, skirt hand beaded white garden netting with about 1500 beads, net mask made from digitised flower embroideries and hand beaded edgings, Blackbird cuff, machine embroidered and hand beaded.

Adventures at the Quilt Show

Today I am back from the Quilt Show in Sydney, luckiest person, so many people have been stranded all over the country by that Volcano and its aftermath, but I (touch wood) escaped most of the drama. Arrived in Sydney Tuesday just before all flights were cancelled and although it took quite a lot of time of get into town, I eventually made it to my hotel along with people from Canada, Brazil and many parts of Australia who were grounded. Wednesday morning off the the quilt show with some delicious fresh berry yoghurt for breakfast from the food court at Darling Harbour and the nice walk through the Convention Centre, delivered my (late) technique display board to Art to Wear and surprise! there was my friend and colleague Jill Griffin from the PatchWorks in Hobart (her mum Joy is the owner, but Jill is running the shop now). Jill was stuck in Sydney after attending a trade show and a bit of retail therapy. So we had time to look around the show together, something that has never happened in 20 odd years, it was great fun looking at some quilts and plenty of traders. I had to go to a meeting mid morning and Jill had to get a plane to Melbourne as her direct to Hobart flight had been cancelled, so we said goodbye about 11.30. I spent the entire day at the show and was literally kicked out at closing time. Took 70 photos of Art to Wear and winning quilts, some of which were quite amazing. I can't show any of the photos here due to copyright restrictions, but I can tell y9u there was some wonderful quilts, many that were made for children, mothers, aunties, friends, lots that should have been prize winners, and all contributing to a wonderful show, about 370 in all. Amongst the winners, a beautiful hand appliqued quilt by Shirley Gillam of Mount Nelson, which was best of show in Tasmania. The major prize winner at the show is an extraordinary quilt which will now doubt, appear in many magazines soon.

I was pleased to see the Bernina stand and some of the Circus Berzercus entries from the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane. Kirry Toose was the winner with "Tilly the Tightrope Walker" a wonderfully detailed garment, beautiful colours, textures and technique. Also a lovely entry from Ruth Osborne, and several other wonderful garments. So much to see, so little time.

Thursday, lucky again, my scheduled flight late in the day was the first out of Sydney to Hobart and although delayed we finally arrived back. Interestingly, although there were some hiccups, and of course masses of people to move, most people were very calm and considerate, chatting to each other to pass the time and swapping "delay/cancelled" stories, I met a wonderful woman from Glenorchy, who was an absolute bundle of enthusiasm and a very nice man from the Huon who worked in Gladstone and missed the old days when the valley was filled with apple orchards, and a lovely lady from NSW who was coming to see her grandchildren and another woman and her son who had been stranded for days. So all in all a very positive experience. I must say that seeing all that creativity spurs one on and my enthusiasm is renewed.

A picture I can show you is one I took of my "studio"/work space in response to a comment on Dale Rollerson's blog. Apparently Dale was demonstrating at the Textile Art Festival and someone commented that she was a pretty messy worker. She passed this comment on to all on her blog which caused quite a bit of comment, including mine which was along the lines of "if you have a pristine work space, you are probably taking too much time tidying and not enough creating". Then I looked at my space, took the photo, and congratulated myself on being extremely creative since the room was such a mess. I reckon that's a pretty good excuse!!!

What's new

Currently working on a number of projects in rotation. A smallish machine Applique sample quilt to illustrate a number of techniques-fused applique with traditional satin stitch edging, buttonhole stitch and decorative built in stitch edging, freezer paper and raw edge applique, bias stems and three dimensional leaves. Photos when finished.
Followed by a quilt using an old traditional block setting, updated with some new, gorgeous, very rich fabric called Valley of the Kings.
A "What's in the bag" challenge, the random contents of a bag to be transformed into an embroidery approximately 12"x12", well under way and needing only finishing touches. Photos soon.
A round robin challenge, my first, with completely unpredictable results but lots of fun and plenty of inspiration, and certainly out of the comfort zone, another 12"x12" embroidery by machine of course.
A wonderful silk bowl, machine embroidered in the round, much work needed yet.
Back to work, more soon.

Art To Wear Sydey 2011

At last have completed, and posted, my ATW entry for this year. The criteria stated that the colours of the Rainbow Lorikeet be used, 80% Emerald, 10% Cobalt, 5% Yellow, Orange, Red or colour of choice. I used some Emerald/cobalt shot silk dupion, emerald sari ribbon and silk top from the Thread Studio, masses of glass and crystal beads, hot fix Swarovski crystals, silk organza, Rayon, polyester, cotton and metallic threads in various weights. The very short dress is princess seamed "scrunched" silk dupion, invisible zip (put in with a very useful speciality Bernina foot) and fully lined. The shrug is made from the sari ribbon and silk top layered on Wet and Gone Tacky, overlaid with "Romeo", heavily stitched with metallic, rayon and polyester threads, edged with couched heavy rayon thread (another speciality foot from Bernina for this couching technique) and then dissolved in the bath. Unfortunately I discovered that the Wet and Gone Tacky was very difficult to completely dissolve and there are still traces of it left in the fabric, although not enough to destroy the overall effect, I will be very wary of using it for this application in future.
My favourite part is the neck decoration. This is made from the silk dupion, the design stitched with heavy metallic thread in the bobbin (the large bobbins on the 820 Bernina make this job so much easier, they hold so much more thread), lined with my own hand dyed silk habotai (thanks to my mentor Ken Smith) and beaded with #11 glass beads around the edges and design lines, enhanced with hot fix Swarovski, bugle beads, faceted crystal beads and the two "wings" joined by a jewel cabochon encased in cobalt silk organza.
Some interesting tid bits - I was surprised at the amount of dye that bled out of the green dupion when I wet it to "scrunch" it, even though it had been prewashed, I finished up with more than green thumbs, I had a green bathtub as well.
The sari ribbon, of course, also bled profusely and smelled quite strange for a while. All the silk smelled of white vinegar after I had worked on it, but the odour disappeared after a time.
Off to work now on some interesting machine embroidery projects, and of course a quilt or two.

Quick Update

It has been ages since my last post, because I have been concentrating on a number of new projects. Firstly an entry for Dale Rollerson's latest challenge "Pockets". This is my entry "There are pockets at the bottom of the garden". I understand the pockets created lots of interest at AQC in Melbourne recently and will now go on to the Brisbane Textile show. Secondly my entry in Art to Wear, Sydney, which is still not quite finished, but should have some pictures early next week. At the same time still working away at The PatchWorks, and trying to complete a number of samples and other projects still in the pipeline. Busy, busy, busy but never bored!!

February Update

Another month well and truly started. Tuesday sewing group back on the job with some difficulty as the council has been concreting the kerbs in Patrick Street for three weeks, so some fun and games getting everyone into the carpark. The workers seemed surprised and bemused that up to 15 cars arrive each Tuesday, the owners disappearing into the building down the lane and reappearing 4 hours later. We had several visits from them checking us out and letting us know when we could get in and out.
New classes schedule has been sent out to all, and so far the response is good. I have had permission from C & T Publishing to teach a lovely applique design from one of Laurel Burch's books, it is called Santa Paws. but mine is now Meowy Christmas and belongs to my daughter Erika. She has lent it to me for a time. It is an excellent sample because it features many techniques - satin stitch applique, free machine embroidery, three dimensional applique, beading, painting and quilting.
Currently designing a quilt called Simply Seminole, using a number of different strip pieced Seminole patchwork designs and using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Should be fairly dramatic when finished and this sample is due at the PatchWorks in March so better get back to work.

Art to Wear Update

Happy to report that Art of Wear 2010 Oz Rocks will be on exhibition at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery Coffs Harbour from 25th February until 26th March, 2011. I think this is the first time that the exhibition has travelled to galleries after the Quilt Show at Darling Harbour, so a feather in the cap for Maureen Locke-Maclean and her team.

This year the invited artist is Wendy Wright, a wonderful Queensland textile artist, whose work has been exhibited globally and whose wearable pieces have featured in many publications, and exhibitions both in Australia and overseas, notably the Bernina Fashion show in Houston. Very excited to be able to see some of these garments.

New Year Musing

Good heavens it's hard to believe that 2011 is here already. Took down Christmas today, seems as though I only put the tree up yesterday.
Changed my Christmas Wall quilt for an old favourite, "Millenium" quilt, made in 2000/2001 and featured in a APQ Showcase Special in 2002. Still love all the fabrics and the digitised embroidery, it still looks like new.
The year at PatchWorks was busy until closing on 24th December, with classes and customers and the business of planning for this new year. Have a number of projects in the pipeline, several quilts as well as two Art to Wear projects. Have been invited to exhibit at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery in April, and then comes Art to Wear at Darling Harbour. Would like to enter an Art quilt in the Tasmanian Quilt show, but because it will be early this year may not make the deadline.
Also taking a course on Embellishing with the wonderful Dale Rollerson from the Thread Studio in Perth, my favourite online shop in the whole world. Have had the Embellishing Machine since last year, purchased after a marvellous workshop with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn, and used only once, so hoping for progress in this area.

Tommorow Never Comes

How true is that saying seeing as I was going to add to this blog "tomorrow" in mid September!!
It has been a very busy time at The PatchWorks. Classes have been very popular, so have met many new students, keen to learn as much as possible about patchwork and quilting. Also necessary to make new class samples for the current term. We have found too, that many younger women are wanting to learn to sew and create clothing for their children and themselves, which is a wonderful sign for those of us who have been making clothing and accessories for many, many years. I remember as a girl I was always interested in couture fashion, but could never afford the originals, but with the aid of Vogue designer patterns, could make wonderful copies. I still have many of those patterns and cannot part with them or my huge collection of Vogue pattern books dating back to 1968 I think!! Interesting to see how fashions and fabrics come and go and come again, just slightly different each time.

My beautiful Bernina 820 has been away to Sydney for some warranty repairs, it was found that there was a slight fault in the tension system and this has been rectified with replacement parts and a computer update. Thank heaven it was not gone for long, although I had my wonderful Pfaff 2140 to fall back on. The Pfaff seems tiny now in comparison to the 820, but still performs beautifully. I am very lucky to have both.

As far as I can tell I have been teaching at the PatchWorks for 20 years now, as well serving as sales clerk in the shop. What a life, surrounded by fabric, new bolts arriving all the time, new thread, new gadgets, and lots of great work colleagues and quilting buddies. Can't get any better than that!

Time Passes Quickly

Quite some time since my last blog, not very good at the daily thing. I now have 3 comments on my previous ravings, hallelujah, I must have been discovered! Have been very busy preparing class samples and teaching a number of classes over the past weeks so will update tomorrow.

Island Quilts 2010

Have now finished the winding up processes of the show, thanking sponsors and sending "Saffron"on to the next destination.
An important note - without the hard working Exhibition committee and volunteers there would be no show at all. Judy Spurr and her band of helpers are well organised and very professional in their handling of all aspects of the quilt show and I thank them all for their exceptional work every year.

Island Quilts 2010

Island Quilts, the show organised by the Tasmanian Quilters Guild is over for another year. I spent much time preparing for the event, finishing a small quilt started some time ago. It was a good opportunity to practice free motion quilting on the 820 Bernina, which performed very well as expected. I did experience some difficulty with a particular metallic thread, but finished that part of the work with my ever reliable Pfaff 2140, which also stitched some great quilt labels for me. The quilt is called "Moongate" and won a 4th place prize in it's category, Small Quilts, Professional/Advanced.
Also included was "Geisha" a vest, which won 1st place prize in "Other Quilted Items".

























I was occupied for the 3 days of the show with a travelling suitcase exhibition from ATASDA (Australian Textile and Surface Design Association) called "Maharajahs Garden". This exhibition has been mentioned before in earlier posts, with a picture of my entry. Having all the pieces together was exciting, they are all very different and colourful, and arrived in the wonderful suitcase called "Saffron", which a number of viewers wanted to buy.

Art to Wear Sydney 2010 The Last Word

Now the Sydney Quilt Show is over, the garments from Art to Wear are on display at the Gosford Regional Gallery until July 26th. As far as I know, this is a first for ATW thanks to Maureen Locke MacLean's organisational and promotional skills.

Art to Wear Sydney 2010

Hot off the press!! Have just received pictures taken by my good friend Maree Kennedy (Kennedy's Quilting, Sandford Tasmania) at the Sydney Quilt Show of Ancient Artefacts looking pretty good on a plinth. Some good looking quilts in the background too.

Maharajahs Garden

PS: The picture below is my entry in Maharajahs Garden, just to make sure that you know it is mine to share. (There is someone around at the moment who is ultra sensitive about the copyright matter, to the point of writing lengthy lectures on the subject on her blog).

Maharajah's Garden

Had the opportunity today to look through photographs of entries in this travelling suitcase exhibition organised by ATASDA. Two cases, "Saffron" and "Jasmine" are travelling around Australia for about two years, Saffron will be at the Quilt Show in Hobart in July.
There is an enormous variety of work, and the exhibit will be well worth a visit, when the show is on, so, once you have seen all the fantastic Tasmanian quilts, come and see Maharajah's Garden.

Quilting with the Bernina 820

Some additional information regarding twin needle stitching on the 820. I have discovered that it is essential to set the twin needle security before threading the machine for the this work. The security function ensures that the swing of the needles will not be wide enough to break them, and apparently influences the threading as well. I have not tried this yet, but was interested to learn this fact. As soon as I finish my entry for the Tasmanian Quilt show I will try this technique again.

Art To Wear Sydney 2010

Have had some very positive feed back from Sydney. The Quilt Show opens next week at Darling Harbour so I am looking forward to hearing how the exhibition was received and seeing the DVD produced for participants.

Textile Tantrums

Textile Tantrums is a challenge being run by The Thread Studio in Perth WA, my favorite supplier of threads and other marvellous things, like Romeo dissolving material, silk and wool, lutrador, aquabond and shiva paint sticks to name but a few.
Tantrums were restricted in size, and weight because they are to be a travelling exhibit, firstly in Melbourne at the AQC, then Brisbane at the Textile show, later in Perth at the Craft Show and finally at the Stiches and Craft show Alexandra Palace, London.
Techniques to be used could be any Textile art method/methods, including fusing, burning, painting, hand and machine stitching, felting, embellishing and so on.
I used machine stitching, painting, digitising, flower stitcher embellishments, applique, hand stitching with silk, rayon and metallic threads, beads and found objects.
Happily my entry, "Alpha Tantrums" was chosen amongst the four winners, as was the entry from Sandra Champion, a fellow Tasmanian and member of the "Tuesday" group that I convene. Hooray for Tasmanian textile artists!!!!

Art To Wear

Well, after a long delay, I am finally finished my Art to Wear garment for the Sydney Quilt show. This year was quite a struggle, the title "Classic Oz Rocks" and because the criteria was fairly stringent, 70% Ochre, with Indigo, some Green and any other colour to make up the 100%. Luckily I was able to find some smashing Batik fabrics at the PatchWorks which more than suited the requirements. I had two Ochre fabrics with greenish highlights, a wonderful Indigo with touches of purple and lime, and a gorgeous turquoise green speckled piece. I needed nothing else, but found a leather coat I had made in Hong Kong in the 70's which was a perfect colour match and could be cut down to make a great little wrap skirt, lined with one of the Ochre Batiks with a ferny, leafy green over print. To go with the skirt is a little pleated camisole in turquoise and a Shrug jacket featuring heavy machine quilting and layered and slashed sleeves with all the fabrics included. The focal point of the outfit is a neckpiece on a base of batik, heavily beaded with copper crystal beads, glass beads, bugle beads, hand made copper coloured cabochons and hand made beads in clay, organza and tyvek. The outfit is entitled "Ancient Artefacts".

Quilting with the Bernina 820

If you are lucky enough to own this new Bernina model you will know what a beautiful machine it is, although very different from other machines of all brands. I am gradually getting to know the various differences apart from the obvious ones, like the extra large bobbin, and different bobbin tension adjustment. My latest experiment was with twin needle quilting in a border. Threads need to be placed either side of the top tension disc then brought down through the system together, parted and threaded into each needle manually. I had to stand to do this, and watch carefully, because the tension disc is on the top of the machine rather than at about eye level as on most others. The top tension needed to be lowered to 1.5, and the foot pressure lowered to 45, and I used 4.0 width, 90/16 twin needles. It took some time to arrive at these settings, and the bag for thread scraps taped to the table got plenty of additions. But, once set correctly, I was able to stitch a lovely double curving line, in Madeira Black Jewel thread, which I think looks very attractive.

Dissolving Fabrics

Today I received in the post some Aquabond, Solusheet, and Guilliet, plus some lovely fabric paints from the Thread Studio in Perth.
All of these materials are dissolving fabrics and are wonderful for machine embroidery. The cap and drape for this Art of Wear outfit were made using water soluable plastic, in this case Romeo, combined with silk tops and metallic free machine embroidery.

In The Beginning

On Saturday I was discussing sewing with a number of women engaged in a hand appliqué class. We all agreed that today's creative sewing world is vastly different from the time we spent at school, making peasant skirts by hand, smocking babies dresses, making babies matinee jackets with wobbly blanket stitch edges, all under the baleful and watchful eye of an extremely serious sewing teacher. These activities were, for 12-15 year old girls, boring in the extreme!!!! How things have changed.