Contrast & repetition

Contrast between shiny & dull, rough & smooth adds interest. This is a return to the street art of last Friday's post & features more of the alien like sculptures.
Also note the wonderful use of repetition & line.

The Power of 3

We are told to use odd numbers for good design & often we can divide our surface into thirds for placement of our design elements. Yesterday I went to Yum Cha, Chinese lunch where the food comes past the tables on little trolleys. Each trolley has a different selection of dishes to choose from & the items are always served in 3's. Luckily there were 3 of us to enjoy the delicacies.

Queensland Quilters Art Quilts meeting

We have seriously good textile fun at 2QAQ [Queensland Quilters Art Quilts]. Judy Glanville is showing her journal quilt with a beautiful Lumiere painted fusible background & felted flower. Felicity Clarke's journal uses the embellisher machine & an old favourite made new again, the Suffolk puff or yo-yo.

Australian Machine Quilting Association Show 2009

Yesterday Susan Campbell of Rowdy Flat Quilting, Victoria & I judged the AMQA Show which is on all weekend at the Eventide Auditorium, Beaconsfield Terrace, Brighton, Brisbane.
These are some which caught my eye with many more amazing quilts on display.

Street art

A UFO in the city? On a corner of Edward St Brisbane, several are happily ensconced, minding their own business.

Indian wood blocks

If you are wondering where to buy the Indian wood blocks, I have found another shop in Brisbane which stocks them- The Tree of Life. You can use for printing as the artisans of Jaipur India who have been block printing since the 12th century or for rubbing as I do. The blocks are carved to have a repeating pattern.
Remember the Indian prints on cotton in the 70's?

Fresh flowers

I love seeing fresh flowers in a vase in my house. Here's a special delivery for you too.

Chasing Peacocks

I posted my entry in the Quilters Guild of NSW challenge yesterday. The challenge theme was 'What tickles your fancy' & since I love working with oil sticks decided to rub Indian wood blocks, add metallic thread stitching, gold braid & sequins & a shiny silver spotted purple organza.

Can you spot the peacock? I wonder what the other entrants have stitched?

Monoprinting Magic

Kate & Jan, thanks for your best wishes regarding the Remarkable Symposium. As yet I don't know which workshops I'll be teaching, but I've been having some fun monoprinting samples for this new workshop that I'm launching in 2010.

I love the hand of the maker being apparent in this technique.

New Zealand Symposium

I'm happy to announce that I'm 1
of the Australian tutors invited to teach at the New Zealand Remarkable Symposium in 2011. Yes, it's a long way off but the days seem to speed by so will be here before I know. The mountain range that towers over Queentown is the Remarkables.
Beautiful Grevillea's are blooming. They come in a variety of colours.

Sold

I'm happy to say that my quilt 'Anthill Country # 3' was sold in the SAQA Auction & is now in the Maureen Hendricks collection. I had the pleasure of meeting Maureen at the 2007 SAQA conference in Athens, Ohio where we shared lunch & swapped stories on our travels in China & Steve Irwin.

Variety

This snapshot from the garden of well known Brisbane gardener, Dennis Hundscheit has a wonderful grouping of varigated plants. Variety in size of the plants gives it interest.

And for textile artists variety is a key to adding interest to our work. I'm lucky to live near this beautiful tropical garden & can enjoy it on my morning walks.

Never give up

'Are We Winning?' made in 1997 was my first entry in The New Quilt biennial exhibition of the Quilters Guild of NSW held at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. The plastic pollution floats across the quilt near the shining Clean Seas Cup. This quilt was rejected & since then both of my other entries have also not been selected.

However, I don't give up easily & will be putting in another entry for The New Quilt in 2010. Download an entry form from the link above.

Design wall

Jeri commented that she was also working on Hidden Wells designs. Her's use lovely bright colour combinations. Diane Wright looks like she is also using the pattern, or her own variation, proving what a versatile & enduring Mary Ellen Hopkins design it is!

I'm working on the challenge for the

Quilters Guild of NSW. The theme is 'What Tickles Your Fancy'. However the size is smaller than previous years & I have goofed using a larger size for my original design.

Oh well, this is where creative problem solving will come into play!

Design- radial

Firstly thank you to everyone who came & chatted & enjoyed the Anzac biscuits & cake. The $1 table was very popular with some great bargains. It was a day for quilt shows with most of you going on to see the Redlands Quilt Extravaganza, finished now.

I have been working on workshop pieces, focusing on design aspects, so thought it appropriate to share these photos of radial design.

The SAQA auction is in progress with many quilts now at bargain prices. The price drops each day to the lowest point- US$75. All bidding is online.

Sale day

The boiled fruit cake has been sliced, the Anzac biscuits baked & fabrics sorted. Hope you'll come & have a cuppa with me on my patio today between 9am & 3pm. It's my studio sale day at Sunnybank, corner of Shelley & Sherbert St- the house with the tropical garden.

Heart yourself

The universal symbol of love, this felt & beaded hand made heart brooch was a gift from

Judith Content the SAQA President at a conference a few years ago.

I think we need to 'heart' ourselves & surround ourselves with loved ones to help us ride out the storms of life.

Sad news & happy news

Sad news yesterday that Narelle Grieve had passed away. Australia has lost a pioneer of our quilting history. I was always amazed by Narelle's exquisite hand quilting. Erica has a beautiful personal tribute on her blog.
Sorry Nina-Marie no air tickets in the studio sale. Yesterday I also received good news that 2 of my quilts will appear in the 1000 Artisan Textile book by Quarry Publishing, due for release in May 2010. 'Anthills- Study in Gold' above, is one of the quilts selected along with 'Anthills- Silent Cities'.

Studio Sale

I have never had a studio sale before so this is a first in my 20 year quilting history!

You are invited to come for morning & afternoon tea on my patio on Saturday 12 September from 9am- 3pm, 31 Shelley St Sunnybank.

I have packed up the sale books- $2 & $5. Lots of magazines & fabric, fabric, fabric as well as quilts for sale.

'Reflections' 1993 is made from the Hidden Wells pattern by Mary Ellen Hopkins. The quilts will be hung in a gallery setting in my design studio. Hope you can make it.

Anthill Country #3

'Anthill Country #3' is my 12" donated quilt for the SAQA Auction which begins on September 10.

Gallery 159

'Footsteps and Journeys' is the title of the textile exhibition which opened at Gallery 159 yesterday. The work comes from a group of Katherine, Northern Territory artists who worked with tutor Mary Crehen.
Janet DeBoer L promised to wear the beanie she had bought in Alice Springs at the Beanie Festival & this is on her head along with her fly veil.
Glenys Mann opened the exhibition. She is standing in front of her work 'Rain in Three Days' made after a trip to Lake Mungo. The very heavy pearl button vest was a gift from a friend.
I also had the pleasure of chatting to Kerryn Taylor from Katherine. She is pictured with her work 'Bridge Builders' which hung from railway iron.

Spring

Spring is officially here with our change of season being heralded in on the first day of September. The rain today will add to the new growth appearing & soon I'll be able to collect the fallen Frangipani flowers I love so much for their sweet scent.

Clifton Pugh exhibition

The prints of Clifton Pugh [1924-90] are on dsplay in a major retrospective in Brisbane at the QUT Art Museum until October 25.
Early work from his days in Paris to the familiar
Australian landscape give a very comprehensive overview of his interest in etching, lithographs & monoprints.
The interesting compositional aspect was the central placement of the subject in many of the prints.

STATE of the ART quilt 09- Boonah Regional Art Gallery

I had internet connection problems this morning so this post is very late. Sunnybank Quilters raised $7,000 for charity from our quilt show last Saturday. Thanks to everyone who came- it was a great day.
The STATE of the ART quilt 09 exhibition [I'm curator] is currently on show in Boonah at the Boonah Regional Art Gallery, High St. It is a long narrow gallery with great lighting & high walls & the quilts sit very well within the space.
Alison George, below, editor of i-quilt, an on-line quilting magazine opened the exhibition last Friday night.
In the other photo L-R are 2 Boonah art lovers with exhibitors Jan, Sue & Ros.

Wholly Holes workshop- ATASDA

This is the photo of the Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association Inc. ATASDA Queensland members who participated in the Wholly Holes workshop in August. We had a busy 2 days & lots of exciting work was produced by everyone. Look for the results at future meetings. I was so busy I didn't end up taking individual photos, sorry.

Collections # 5

This is the teapot, bought in Singapore on our wedding anniversary many years ago, which started our teapot collection. We have stopped collecting these now, as the cupboard space ran out! But still our favourite & very well used.