Rusted fabric quilts

Curator of the Rust Tex Quilt Exhibition Lois Jarvis has put the 25 selected entries online. The exhibition will be seen in Chicigo at the International Spring Festival, April & at the Festival of Quilts Birmingham, August. Congratualtions Carol Ann Waugh on the Honorable Mention.

Complementary colours

When we design our work & choose colour, often we are told to look to Nature for the lessons. Here is the beautiful complementary colour scheme of the Australian native Flame tree Brachychiton acerifolium.

An avenue of these trees grow outside the State Library of Queensland.

The Retrospective Comparative Quilt Show 1850-1930

Not only did the World's Biggest Hexagon Quilt originate in Gatton, Queensland but a quilt show has been organised for May 13-16, 2010. The Retrospective Comparative Quilt Show 1850-1930 will showcase quilts from Australia, England & America accompanied by stories of families & communities.

Workshops are also available from 7 talented tutors. What a wonderful opportunity to soak up some quilt history.

Hexagon quilt

I went to the Craft Expo, on in Brisbane, yesterday & was just gob smacked by the length of this hexagon quilt. This section of 45 metres is just 1/3 of the intended finished, record breaking quilt.

You can follow the progress on the blogspot set up to document the making of the quilt.

Monoprinting Magic

Linda & Jan thanks for your comments yesterday about the monoprinted SAQA auction quilt. This detail from my 'Spirit Land' quilt which was exhibited in Art Quilt Australia also uses the same technique.

If you want to know more about monoprinting, please join me at AQC for the Monoprinting Magic 1 day workshop.

Colour Patch Series- Black, Blue & Red

This whole cloth monoprinted 12" quilt 'Colour Patch Series- Black, Blue & Red' was made last year & selected for the Quilters Guild of NSW 2010 Calendar. It appears as 'Miss July'!

I've donated this quilt to the SAQA 2010 Auction & you can see it on page 1b. Fellow Brisbane SAQA member Linda Robertus also has her donated quilt on this page. The auction bidding begins in September.

Sewing

Jan the quilt on the sofa, in the last post, is made with African theme fabric & was a one day project for a group of us- we stitched & swapped blocks. It is the same pattern as the charity quilt we're making. Two of the cushions are batik from Indonesia & the brown & denim one was made by daughter Rita.

I've been sewing some utilitarian things- placemats! The blue shibori fabric comes from Dali in Yunan Province China.

Mongolian quilt

Do you remember the quilt Bob brought back from Mongolia for me? Well, I put a rod pocket on it & we have hung it in the lounge room with the bottom unfinished edge showing. These quilts are also called Kazakh dream quilts & the bottom is not finished as this section is near the floor in the gir & cushions hide this section.

Printmaking demonstration

If you're in Brisbane today, with time to spare, you may be interested in the free Printmaking demonstration by Sara Rumsey at the Art shed, Montague Road West End. It begins at 2pm & block printing, collograph, etching, embossing, papers & inks will be discussed.

Quilt by City Mary

Thanks to City Mary from the Empire Quilters Guild, Manhattan USA who sent me a photo of her completed quilt, which was started in the 1 day Divide & Conquer workshop I taught in May last year.

As a tutor, it's very rewarding to see the outcome from workshops.

Marika I hope you will enter your work in some of the European quilt festivals & realise your dream.

World Quilt Competition 2010

As the Australian coordinator for the World Quilt Competition, I'm happy to say the 2010 entry form is now available from my website. Entries are due May 17. I process them and send them on to the jury in the USA & entants hear by June 16 regarding selection. Quilts are then due, to me by July 7. I arrange all the international shipping & forms.
Your quilt will tour & be seen in 4 major quilt shows in the States from New England & Pensylvania to California & Florida. It's a great opportunity for cash prizes and awards for traditional & contemporary quilters. Contact me if you have any questions.

Sunnybank charity quilt progress

Between the 5 of us, Jan, Rachel, Sue, Chris & I, we had enough blocks for 2 quilt tops.

Our orange, blue & brown colour scheme looked great with the colours in diagonal rows.

Asia Pacific Triennial # 5

This mixed media work titled 'The road to tomorrow' by New Zealand artist Rohan Wealleans was framed, containing the eruptions of cut paper, making the design. And making photography hard also.

Asia Pacific Triennial # 4

Ellen we were asked to take our shoes off before entering the installation. What I noticed was the 100,000 strands were getting a little dirty on the ends.  Work above is by Indian aritst Minam Apang using pen & paint, but very stitch like in appearance.

Asia Pacific Triennial # 4

Today I'm featuring the lovely forms and shadows of Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich.

Rattan & wire are used for the sculptures which recall the forms of a war torn country.

Asia Pacific Triennial # 3

Jan it will be so interesting to see what entrants have done with the challenge fabric, on display at the Craft Expo in Brisbane from March 25-28.

'Liminal Air-Descend-2007-09' by Shinji Ohmaki is quite an experience. I think it's like walk through grass which gets taller, except it's upside down & heads & faces first encounter this sea of knotted string. It's a strange sensation being swallowed.

'Blue Leaves'

Yesterday was the due date for the completed 50cm x 70cm challenge quilts for Queensland Quilters using the challenge fabric supplied, which must show on 20% of the front. My entry 'Blue Leaves' allowed me to play with the blue raw silk used in the central panel.

I machine stitched with a varigated thread, cut the repeated shapes out of tulle & stitched that layer to the silk with more varigated thread. I hand stitched inside the larger leaves before putting the quilt sandwich together. It was a fun quilt to make that came together quickly.

Asia Pacific Triennial # 2

The use of barkcloth is traditional in the South Pacific region with  varying motifs. 'Teitei vou' [A new garden] by Robin White, Leba Toki & Bale Jione was a fresh take on this ancient craft.

These are images from the painted piece which lay on the woven pandanus mat, which had a front edge embroidered with wool. These pieces were on a platform & above them on the wall, hung a large story piece.

Asia Pacific Triennial

Thanks for your comment on the Down Under Textile magazine Ros in NZ and Jan the design on the indigo is waxed so a very fine line is possible giving it great detail & delicacy.

This week I'm going to post about the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, as I have now seen more of the gallery spaces & noticed the use of stitch in various works.

These are details of Kyungah Ham of South Korea's work 'Some Diorama' which has been hand stitiched on silk by female artisans from North Korea. It uses imagery from the Vietnam War & the era, set in the underground tunnels used by the Vietnamese.

The artist wondered what impact these images had on the artists embroidering the work. I wondered what the artists knew of the outside world & events when their country is under Communist dictatorship. Her other embroideries were of the mushroom clouds from the atomic bombs of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

Lijiang indigo

During a holiday in China in 2006, we stayed at the historic Naxi town of Lijiang in Yunnan Province. The cobbled stone streets of the old town are closed to cars & goods are transported on hand carts. Most of the homes have the downstairs area converted into shops & many Chinese tourists frequent the town. We happended to be there during the Lantern Festival.

I bought this very long, 11" wide piece of indigo fabric and have decided not to cut it up but hang as is & can enjoy seeing it every day rather than keeping it in a cupboard.

Textile Fibre Forum magazine

The current issue of Textile Fibre Forum magazine, number 97 has the most delicious cover image from the work of Louise Saxton. Hundreds of embroidery motifs from discarded items of clothing & homewares have been reconstituted into delicate, captivating works of art.

The magazine is also associated with the call for entries for an Australian & New Zealand design book. Conditions of entry & an entry form can be downloaded from the TAFTA website. September is the closing date.

Charity quilt

A group of 5 of us, all Sunnybank Quilters members have teamed up to make a quilt for the Dialysis Unit at a local hosiptal. This is my assorted fabrics in our colour scheme of orange, blue & brown.

Now we have pooled our fabric cut into 31/2" strips & squares.

Yesterday afternoon I had time to sew my blocks. They are 9" finished & this is not the final arrangement- stay tuned for our next meeting in 2 weeks.

Travel bags

Jan made these 2 very handy travel bags for me. The small one holds the cables for camera & mobile phone chargers & now that they're in 1 spot it makes it very easy when I get to my destination to find them. The larger cloth bag with a zip down the length, is for clothes. I put all my shirts in it & also found it very efficient. Thanks Jan.

Granddaughter Ruby Eloise

Granddaughter Ruby Eloise was the reason for our Melbourne visit & here she is in my arms with Mum Rita also.

Finishing off with just a couple of shots from the cottage houses in the area. Hope you like them Diane.