Anniversary

Bob & I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary with lunch in Brisbane. Often we have been apart on this day due to work committments. I'm a 'sweet tooth' so couldn't resist the plethora of chocolate desserts & the huge chocolate fountain.

More Christmas table decorations

These are some of the other Christmas decorated tables that were part of the Queensland Quilters Christmas Party.

The green fabric tree was made by Nancy & the silver tree is a palm seed frond repurposed.

Rusting fabric # 3

If you need more imprint, the fabric can go through the process again. The 'right' or 'wrong' side can be used depending on the look you're after. Detail of 'Outback Communities Thank Reverend Flynn' showing the rusted fabric used for the main background area with machine writing, hand stitching & monoprinting.

Do you use rusted fabric in your work?

Rusting fabric # 2

After 24 hours the iron oxide from the rusty nails

is working its magic on the wet fabric, top L. Another 24 hours sees a darkening & further spread of the colour. When I'm happy with the colour & patterning, I remove the fabric wearing gloves & rinse it in half a cup of salt dissolved in 5 litres of warm water. I then rinse in fresh water several times & finally wash in the machine. The last photo shows a double layering of fabric as the objects can be placed under the fabric or on top.

Kimberly Baxter Packwood has great advice on her site for rusting & natural dye use.

Fantastic Christmas at 2Q

The theme was for a 'fantastic' Christmas party at Queensland Quilters, so I took it literally & got the fan quilt from 1994 out of the cupboard. Barbara added the decorations for the centre piece & with help from Sunnybank members we arranged our beautiful fans. We won Best Decorated Table- yeah!! first time ever. L-R Bev, Sue, Barbara & Denise, some Sunnybank members before the party got underway.

Rusting fabric update tomorrow.

Rusting fabric

A few years ago, while at Mt Cuthbert in the bush for 3 weeks, I decided to make some rusty impressions on fabric, using the old objects discarded & abandoned from the last century of mining in the area.
It was a discovery process for me, but now I can recreate some of this at home. Here is the first stage- wet white fabric in a plastic tray- rusty nails placed on top- a splash of vinegar to help the process- cover the container & wait for the magic to begin.
If you already enjoy using rusted fabric in your designs Rust-Tex are orgainising a juried touring exhibition to premier at the Spring International Quilt Festival in Chicago April 16-18, 2010.

Bubbly world

The 50 bubble machines started their magic at 11.30am yesterday in the sculpture forecourt of the Queensland Art Gallery & along with many visitors we watched in awe & excitment as the wind picked up the single & multiple bubble clusters & dashed them into the walls & onto us!

Other flying things included this mountain of flying machines made from recycled materials.