Historic Tainan

The Anping historic area of Tainan is loved by visitors and we joined the crowds to visit the Fort and Tree House. The Dutch built the original fort with some original foundations still visible. Trade was the force behind foreign countries coming to Formosa, named by the Portuguese.

 The Tree House is a building completely encased by the Banyan trees and their aerial roots which have replaced the roof and wall support.

We were also in town for the opening at the Blue Dragon Gallery of the Texture Exchange Print exhibition, in which I had a piece.

Mine is the blue one, bottom centre.

 

Danny Amazonas

 Our group of 9 travellers met Danny Amazonas and his lovely wife Patricia for lunch in Tainan. Thanks to Cara Feenstra Gulati who organised this meeting, we were treated to an amazing trunk show of Danny's textile work. His work is seen in many exhibitions and he has a huge following on Facebook.

Quirky Tainan

My friend Sofia took us to some art galleries, designer shops and the Blue Creative Precinct with quirky things tucked in here and there.

 Sofia and I take a break and get cute for the camera.

A selection on things that caught my eye.

Quilts from TIQE 16

There were so many wonderful quilts to admire at TIQE16 and all needed to be seen more than once as sensory overload kicks in! The red and white themed banners at the entrance held one's attention.

This colourful wall of small quilts was on the wall facing the elevators and were just so joyful! Hand appliqued.

 Visiting Japanese tutor Yasuko Saito's quilt Movement #61 was stunning and used many small pieces of Japanese textiles in various textures and fibres.

 President of Taiwan Art Quilt Society, Lin Mei-Hui with her quilt Light and Shadow.

Cara Freenstra Gulati and the Director of the arts centre stand beside her large colourful quilt [sorry forgot the title].

 Nature/ A Tree's Talk by Huang Pei-Ying caught my eye and the repetition carried the theme.

Undersea Fashion Party by Katsumi Ishinami was another favourite.

 As was Favouring Multi-Medium by Gau Shiow-Meei which used small couched twigs in the blocks, held together to form the whole with red thread and beads.

 And Betty Busby's wonderful Abyss used led lights to light up her deep sea creatures, plus there was so much added texture with paint dots and googly eyes.

 

Taiwan International Quilt Exhibition 16

What a buzz it was to arrive at this exhibition, which had been the focus and original starting point of the trip. Our party of 6 artists at the entrance to the National Tainan Living Arts Centre. L-R Annette McRae, Cara Freenstra Gulati, Kathryn Iliff, Merody Buglar and myself.

The entry to the large exhibition space where the work is hung beautifully on white walls. Volunteers from Taiwan Art Quilt Society help visitors and guard the work. The theme of the exhibition is Save the Environment.

Exhibition organiser Hsin-Chen Lin and her huge hand stitched work, inspired by her Taiwan homeland.

Lots of photos in front of our pieces. Here Broadstrokes+ members in front of their section. L-R Christine Jones, Merody Buglar, Kathryn Iliff.

I had a total of 9 quilts in the exhibition. I was busy last year!

Viewpoints 9 group exhibition was great!  There are many more photos on Facebook on my pages Sue Dennis Textiles and Sue Dennis so please like and follow for up to date information.

Into the mountains

We toured a small part of the coastline to the north of Taipei then climbed and climbed up, up to the Jioufen village, an old gold mining area now a tourist attraction and with views like this it is little wonder.

Many interesting tea houses and eateries dot the steep streets that are overrun with excited tourists.

Chinese brushes made with horse hair and fox.

An old tea house with a beautiful wood interior. 

On the streets of Taipei

The clean streets of Taipei with the scooters neatly lined up under an avenue of trees.

This elderly flower seller approaches a potential customer. Love the conical bamboo hat he is wearing.

Panda love

The Taipei Zoo, which was established 102 years ago has a Panda enclosure and they were delightful to watch as they ate their snacks and stripped bamboo or rolled around with huge ice blocks that held  a tasty treat in the centre.

The gardens were very tropical and well maintained. We are finding Taipei is clean, people are kind and helpful and the traffic obeys the signals!

These were the colourful doors in the ladies toilets. Aussie and Taiwanese bonding!

And a super message for us all.

Not on our menu

One delicacy we didn't want to try was snake. We saw a couple of snake restaurants in the area near the Longshan Temple with large carpet snakes and even a cobra.

The small white snakes are in the cases on the bottom while their dinner is above them.

Taipei, Taiwan

We are in Taipei for a few days and have discovered it's all about the food here! The choices are endless and variety also amazing with cafes, restaurants and night markets plus street vendors all competing for our attention! It is hard to decide but this stall with everything on skewers caught my eye, although we didn't try one of their pieces.

Loved the colour.

When you ordered it was then cooked in a deep fryer. This stall was at the Ning Xia night market.

This was my dessert another night. Sweet potato, the orange colour, with green Matcha jelly and Mocha balls, the brown ones [glutinous rice outside with yellow custard filling]- yum!

TIQE16

This is a detail from When all the trees are gone made for the Taiwan International Quilt Exhibition 16 with the theme Protect the Earth's Environment.