Flower power

 Loving this time of the year, with Summer solstice just yesterday in the Southern Hemisphere. Christmas just around the corner, getting excited for my Grandchildren and the fun on  Christmas morning. Wishing all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas and may 2017 be full of all the good things you deserve xxx

Paintbox travels

I was gifted this beautiful Winsor and Newton paintbox by my dear friend Annette, who always has hers when she travels. I am looking forward to the flexibility of this new art toy on my Chilean travels. Water brush packed, tick!

Quilt construction

Currently, before I go on holiday to Chile & Argentina, I am working on a new quilt design based on my visit to Beijing, China last year. This photo shows the progress on the dragon's body, only a section of which will appear in the lower portion of the quilt. Each scale is cut then, using a silicon mat ( Giddess sheet) and Misty Fuse , fusible web, I heat set sections together. I am enjoying the slow repetition of this work.

Christmas trifle

 Family Christmas gathering today and I get to make the trifle. This is a berry trifle and has been popular the last couple of years. Who doesn't like jelly, custard, cake, fruit & a bit of cream, all mixed together?

Hand made Christmas paper

I was gifted this lovely Lino cut, Partridge in a pear tree, wrapping paper for Christmas. Too pretty to use, for now.

It's been a while

It's been a long time between blogs. Sorry for that but with our young family of 4 living with us for an extended period, before they settled into their own home, there wasn't time left in my day.

I did get quilts stitched for Viewpoints 9 deadlines though. Bark Impressions, above is one I completed using undesirable materials- synthetics, which I don't usually use in my work. Hoping to keep you a little more up to date on this platform. Bye for now.

SAQA Auction quilt- Indigo #1

 

The quilt above, Indigo #1 is my contribution to the 2016 SAQA [Studio Art Quilt Associates] Auction beginning September 16. While I worked on this small 12"square quilt I also worked on Indigo #2, slightly larger and Indigo #3 a much larger piece. The impetus for the quilts was my stitched white fabric that a friend put through her indigo vat.

When I saw the fabric I was disappointed that my stitching wasn't the feature I thought it would be. Much more practice needed! But happily for me, my garden yielded the plant printing matter I used to enhance the indigo background. I use the actual foliage for the print. Luckily I took a few progress photos, as I was on a tight deadline to finish all 3 quilts before returning to live in Mongolia.

  

Pinned ready for stitching by machine and hand. White and red thread colours were used in the free motion quilting.

Binding strips, cut from Japanese woven cotton, brought more red to the piece.

 It's always interesting to hear the story behind quilts and I hope you have enjoyed Linda Stokes post and go on to read Rasa Mauragis' post on August 27. The full set of quilts from SAQA Oceania members can be seen on the blog.