On my design wall

An assortment of my printed fabrics and a couple of commercial pieces are pinned to my design wall. As I pass by my ideas bubble away and a design is formulating. I have enjoyed looking into my stash and pulling these out. They were printed perhaps with another project in mind, but that was some time ago and my ideas and skill levels have moved on.

Back to basics

These squares have been up on my design wall recently. They came from a layer cake pack that I used for a couple of baby quilts and it was time I did something with the left overs. Being 10" they make a four patch or 9 patch design very quickly.

Seams are pressed in opposite directions and butted together to give precise joins.

Also found these bright squares, which are more my colours.

On my design wall

I have slowly been working away at a new quilt I've put together with my Hawaiian printing and am enjoying the stitching. There is a lot of stitching and decisions to make along the way, so am I not rushing the process.

Hopefully at the end it will look as good as I'd like it too be. It will be my 'textile souvenir', one of a few I intend to stich as a reminded of the fabulous trip.

An audio book by an Indian author is keeping me entertained. The backing fabric is a piece I bought in Hawaii and is probably the least colourful one from my yardage purchases. 

On the design wall

Have been working on this small quilt using the pieces of surface designed fabric created during my teaching at the TAFTA Forum in Geelong last September/October. It has been good to put it together and remember the fun we all had in class. It was cold doing the rubbings outside and the wet weather was not appreciated, but we got through it.

This batik boomerang fabric seemed to be fitting for the back. 

Designing process

As I have been working on the samples for the new workshop I have been photographing the steps to use as a teaching aide for the students. I thought you may like to see the progress, so far on this piece. It is A4 size. The commercial batik fabric has been stencilled.

I have added organic shapes of painted fusible to the surface.

Not knowing how the pieces I'm working on are going to turn out is keeping it fresh for me. I know the techniques I'd like to highlight and that is helping inform my design decisions. Silk is the layer for the reverse applique above.

 After free motion quilting which gives added texture even though a thin wadding has been used.

This is the backing fabric, a piece of fabric I have printed on in the past. This little piece still has more to be added on before it is finished. The surprises along the way are part of the process and something I like.

Australia Day

Congratulations to Ita Buttrose, our 2013 Australian of the Year. Other worthy recipients are listed on the website.
Today is the day but our official holiday will be on Monday. It looks like a very wet weekend in Brisbane with the wet weather and flooding interrupting many plans.

My mind this last week has been on my new quilt. I have had the button jar out and have been stitching them into words-"beach", "fun", "joy".

I created a background with printing using purchased large rubber stamps. It is a subtle effect as you can see from this progress shot below. This is all I can reveal at the moment.

 

Slowly

I am making slow progress on India Adventure work, as I tackle a number of other things that need to be done now!

These pieces are on the design wall for consideration. I rubbed and printed the top pieces in India, so they will be part of the exhibition. 

On my design wall

I am having another busy week, but am happy with having finished my Quilt National entries. Now I am working on the third quilt in a little series about Wattle, Australia's National Floral Emblem.

This is the work in progress on my design wall. You can see the free motion writing on the hand dyed lime green and printed photo.

When I have finished quilting this small panel it will be trimmed and edge finished before being positioned on the prequilted, printed background.
 

'Shake the Tree'

The final blue quilting before the black binding was stitched in place. Interesting how this quilt was used as a jumping off point for the next 40cm square quilt I made for one of my 2 entries for Australia Wide #3. I think this is a good reason to keep working, developing ideas and designs; some will hit the mark and you will have a series and a body of work!

Design progress

Remember this quilt design from last Saturday's post? I have it quilted now and a title too.

'Shake the Tree' has vertical lines quilted in the background.

The raw edges were stitched in zigzag using the walking foot then free motion echo stitched in a vibrating design in yellow.

Extra vibrations stitched in blue rayon.

Almost, but not quite.
Brenda, thanks for telling me about the Hakea laurina,  a native of south-west Australia. Lots of images on google.
Jan, I will probably admire the African fabric for some time!

Design progress

Digital cameras are such a great tool when making design decisions and you can always go back to an earlier composition, once it has been recorded. I wanted a focal point in the negative space.

Getting there.

Ah, that's better- now for the added texture of the quilting. Behind this quilt, you are getting glimpses of my triptych 'In the Moonlight'. I love my design walls as I can pin multiple ideas up at a time!

On my design wall

'Pinch and a punch for the first of the month!' You're getting this as Bob isn't home.I'm busy trying to start and finish new work for my exhibition 'Taking Leaf of my Senses'  July 5- August 19 at the Warwick Art Gallery. I have this quilt on my design wall at the moment. To get a sense of the next step in the design, I cut out paper pieces in place of fabric and pinned them in place.

This is not how it ended up, but was a good starting place. How do you like to design your pieces? I know there are many ways to get from inspiration to final design and what works for 1 person does not necessarily work for another.
Sometimes I have difficulty finding a solution to my design dilemma, but I try to relax and let intuition, honed by practice take over.

On my design wall

Thinking of all my quilting friends in New York & the north eastern States of the USA & hope you are OK after the earthquake. I am being kept busy here with the micro quilting on Roundel which is giving the printed area more dimension. This design proves inspiration can be under our feet, as the print is from a door mat in Texas.

This quilt will be part of my Destination Texas special exhibit in Houston at International Quilt Market & Festival 2011.

Work in progress

My panels of the Grand Canyon are stitched together, waiting for batting & backing. The left hand panel is a print from Ponderosa Pine which are tall, majestic trees on the South Rim. We rode through pine forest on the mules.Thanks for the comments on the painted panel Jan & Ali.

AiR #11

The studio design wall is constantly changing. The freedom of such a large wall is generally producing larger pieces of coloured, printed & rubbed fabric.

AiR #4

La Grange, in Fayette County, population listed as 4478, is laid out around a public square with an historic Courthouse built in 1891.

For Veterans Day [Remembrance Day] flags decorated the perimeter of the square.

Design wall view shows L-R some fabric coloured with Dye-na-Flow, by Jacquard, ready for printing, 'Too Hot to Handle' fused quilt top & 'Grand Canyon Memories' in progress. Unfortunately I didn't bring quite enough hand dyed, as at the time I didn't know what I was going to encounter & do with them on my travels. But stay tuned to see what I come up with.

On my design wall

Thanks everyone for the notes of congratulations re Quilts=Art=Quilts. The 2QAQ group had an 'Off the page' challenge, to make a small piece which was inspired by reading page 127 from a novel of your choosing. My novel was 'The Birth of Venus' by Sarah Dunant & love was the inspiration for my work.

The background is a crazy patch of synthetic fabric embellished onto felt, then stencilled, with wool finishing the edges.

Recycling

These are parts of garments that I plan to recycle into art quilts. The embroidered cuffs and shirt front [upside down in the photo] with shisha, would work very well with the Pukka Components, I'm thinking.

Journal covers

Thanks everyone for your congratulations on my prize mentioned in yesterday's post. Kate, I have listed the quilt as NFS at the show, but yes it is for sale. It previously toured with the STATE of the ART quilt 09 juried exhibition. For more details please contact me.

In between the quilting of the Quilt National entries, [machine quilting No 2 & hand stitching the facing on No 1] I reward myself at the end of the day with painting on pieces such as these which I'm turning into A5 size journal covers.

Studio reveal # 3

My fabric storage is in stackable colourful crates which once housed toys when the kids were little & in open mesh basket units from Ikea. These live behind the shutter doors of a built-in wardrobe.

My design wall on this side of the room has now been extended & gives me a good 2metres plus of width. It is floor to ceiling in height & covered in white felt. The final view is of what is behind my sewing table- another bookcase & my workshop boxes, making it easy to prepare for any workshop as samples, supplies & notes are in the one location. I hope you've enjoyed the 'sticky beak' [a look around] of my sewing studio.