Red Pleated Dress…

For Jan.

Here is a close up of the dress that interested you. It is my sister’s favourite too. She wants to take this image to a dress maker and have one made to wear on special occasions!!

Sixteen…sigh

Last week my daughter (my eldest child) turned sixteen. I am really not sure where all that time went, nor am I sure that I could really be old enough to have a sixteen year old child! She went to leadership camp just a few days after her birthday and while she was gone I made her this quilt.

This is a Jan Mullen pattern called dressez. Thanks Jan and Sally for the kit that you sent. I was really pleased with the red ‘hightlights’ to the dressez. I am sure that I owned some of these dresses during the 1980s. I know that I made myself a red with black polka dot number for a wedding around 1988. Beautiful!

Name in Print

Isn’t it nice to see your own name being acknowledged in a quilting publication. This is only the coming next issue section of Quilters Companion – not even the actual article! It still warms my heart, although I’m sure that I am the only one who noticed (after looking and searching!)

It seems odd to have my work descibed as traditional – I know that I hover around all quilt styles without specialising in any particular genre. I don’t think of myself as traditional. Although in this project I was experimenting with shapes that gave a traditional result. I am looking forward to the magazine when it is published in November.

Elements – Kyoto

This is my entry to the local quilt competition which has the theme of ELEMENTS. It is called Kyoto as a political comment about energy. The red squares along the left hand side have a Japanese script printed on them. This is a lovely coincidence. I just liked the contrast of the red against the other colours. When I showed it to my quilting friend Jenny she asked “Did you choose the red fabric as a comment about the Kyoto protocol?” This is an issue which is close to her heart. Her daughter is actively involved in raising awareness around global warming issues. It sounded good to me, I was trying to make a comment about elements and energy from elements. So the quilt is now called Kyoto.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. I was quite impulsive in my processes. I just cut the shapes that I wanted from fabric already attached to fusible web, without any drawing, just visualising and cutting. I am sure that I will use this process a lot more for my own art quilts. No patterns! This photo has been taken prior to the quilting, which is quite heavy. I will take another photo when it is hanging at the exhibition.

Dying with Flo

Last weekend my friend Flo and I had a lovely time experimenting with hand dyes. We were pretty happy with our fabrics and have ordered more fabric.

I had initially envisioned us working in a very controlled manner, creating our colour combinations and recording them diligently. This lasted for about an hour, then we became completely impulsive and threw colours together. Naturally our impulsive work was much better than our controlled stuff. Who can be controlled and creative at the same time? NOT US!

Witches’ Workshop

Tonight we are having a make it til midnight quilting session at the patchwork shop. My brief was to create a project in black and orange. Mine is not too witchy. It is however simple enough to be completed during our ten hour stitching frenzy (with plenty of breaks for eating, drinking, talking etc…).

You might recognise that the same fabrics were used in the postcards that I made. I quite liked this colour selection of analogous colours. I finally read a book about art and colour theory in quilting! All those colour choices that I had been making instinctively apparently do have some theory behind them. Fancy that!

Where to go with this?

This is a quilt that I have started. I think that it is for a local challenge with the theme of elements, but I’m not too sure where I am going with it. I like it…I guess, but it is not very interesting to me just now. My husband was glowing in his respnse to it, which is very unusual. Generally his comments are in the form of constructive criticism; lots of suggestions for improvements. Maybe the fact that he seemed so accepting of this work is the reason that I am not so trusting of it. Now that’s reverse psychology!!!

I am thinking to quilt this in big circles and shading. Maybe I’ll add some more applique after the quilting. It needs some other colours, it’s a bit too monochromatic.

On another note I have been pondering the notion of the textile artist. When does one stop being a quilter and become a textile artist? Generally I refer to myself as a quilter. I design quilts, they are original designs with influence drawn form all that I see around me. (Even though I said original I know that there is nothing new under the sun) I create because I like to and I usually like what I create. I was drawn to consider all of this when someone referred to me as a ‘crafter’. I found that a little offensive to my sense of art, but it seemed pretentious to say ‘no, no I am an artist’. Maybe I’m nothing but completely self indulgent to my own desire to create! Whatever it is, whatever label is attached: I’m having fun.

Family Joy

Tomorrow my sister, her husband and their daughter fly to Taiwan to pick up their new son. Joseph has been in an orphanage since his birth in February. Our family has been waiting for many months for court processes to finalise to allow Joseph to come to Australia. We are looking forward to meeting him next week when they return home.

I have made some postcards for my sister to take with her as tokens of thanks for various people. I kept them very simple as I needed to be culturally sensitive. I am interested in further exploring the negativ space flower which is on top of this pile. It might feature in another quilt somewhere.

Border of the Month

I had to finish my quilting fast today so that I could get to my Border of the Month pattern for Sails by the Sea.

I spent far too long on photoshop trying to get my page set up just right. It was worth it though. I think it looks pretty darn good! Each page has a blue sea like section at the bottom, with an overlaid ship’s wheel and fish. These were cut out from the photo…very time consuming. I am adding little pieces of interesting, but probably useless information, to each page of the pattern.

Now that I have the page layout and month one completed it shouldn’t take me too long to finish the rest of the pattern…should it?

Jan’s House

This little quilt is the result of a workshop with Jan Mullen of Stargazey Quilts. We were so lucky to have her visit our shop in Townsville. Fortunatley her style doesn’t require exact measurments because I was terribly ill with the flu both days that I worked with her! These two blocks were the ones that Jan cut as a demonstration and I stitched for her. I randomly added bits and borders in a ‘log cabin’ style to finish this quilt at 19 inches by 20 inches. I still need to hand stitch the binding in place.

The ladies who attended the workshop were very keen to continue working in this style, so this weekend, with Jan’s permission, I am teaching the first gathering of the Jan Mullen club the Christmas Treez block. Should be fun!