Fabric, Dye and Threads

Makin' Backpacks

2012-02-05T20:43:00.005+10:00

I've been busy this week sewing backpacks. This is a little one that I designed for my children when they were kindy kids. They got used to death, a very handy size. I have been refining and writing up th pattern to sell, and this is the "demo" model I have made to show it off. It has a zip across the top and the front pocket is velcro'ed shut. The yellow fabric is my own hand dyed, and the blue print has been hiding in the cupboard for years - a remnant I bought to make little girl's clothes out of, but little girls all grew up before I could decide what to do with it!

And this one is an adult sized backpack. Once again, I made the pattern years ago when I wanted one for myself. My original backpack I made from hand dyed cotton drill and copped heaps of use, had the zipper replaced and now looks pretty tired and worn. So for the updated model, I thought I'd use the matching print I had to the child's backpack, which turned out pretty colourful and funky! I've written up the pattern and will have it available soon for all backpack lovers. This one has more pockets than the little one, with the front pocket zippered, side pockets and a pocket inside. It's also lined whereas the little one is not.

Fabric Designing

2012-01-28T12:33:00.007+10:00

I've been on a learning curve! I have always been fascinated by the designs printed onto fabric and so I've been having a go. I've ordered my first trial from a website called Spoonflower, that custom prints your design onto the fabric, can't wait for it to arrive in the mail!

Here's a design I did with some photos I took of a bunch of marbles, it's called "Marblicious"

I did another one, using some watercolour images which I then played with in the computer, this one is "Sea Shanty"

I'm really pleased with this one, and it was lots of fun to do.

Let me know what you think of them and if you'd buy fabric like this. These fabrics will eventually be put up for sale, but I want to design a few more before getting more test swatches printed because of the overseas postal costs, and it takes a few weeks to get here. Oh, if only it could arrive sooner!

Mmmm, what to design next....

Tulips

2012-01-06T15:28:00.007+10:00

I decided to dust off the watercolour paints and have a go at painting some tulips. So I drew myself a little bunch of tulips, and this is what happened:

But then I decided that I didn't like that, too amateurish. So I dug out some books with tulip pictures in and did some practice runs:

then came up with this:

Definitely an improvement! It was really nice to use the watercolours again, and I would like to get them out a bit more often in the future.

Christmas and a Brand New Year

2011-12-21T20:58:00.006+10:00

Good evening to my blog readers,

I know it has been a long time since I posted, it has been a long and difficult year for me. Things have gone wrong, and I haven't been able to do much creative work, but life is returning to normal in my home, and I will soon get busy stitching and blogging again. So stick with me because 2012 is going to be a good year! In the meantime, I do wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

Wildflowers

2011-03-30T09:17:00.004+10:00

Here is a little machine embroidery that I recently finished. I enjoyed this one, using very different colours than in the past. I decided to use a piece of fabric that I had painted previously that was at the time a complete dud. I painted over it afresh and found the process of not starting with white fabric interesting and satisfying.

Funny thing happened when I was scanning the embroidery - there was a little creature perched on top!! So I didn't crop him out of the image, so you can see him sitting there dreaming about being inside the scene of flowers and grass. Poor thing had to go out into the miserable rain!

Australia Day Awards

2011-02-10T08:51:00.003+10:00

Well, what do you know, the Sunshine Coast Australia Day Creative Award went to my friend and mentor, Cynthia Morgan. She is such a talented, generous and down to earth and inspirational lady, I hope to be just like her when I Grow Up!! And it was wonderful to see her contribution as a Textile Artist being recognised within the community.

Exhibition Success

2011-02-10T08:21:00.004+10:00

Good morning, dear readers. I do apologise for being so slow to tell you all about how well our exhibition was, despite the rainy weather, which got so much worse afterwards, poor Queensland has been awash! Anyway, back to the exhibition, which went very well, and I am happy to report that I sold 3 works off the wall! That's the best I have done so far in a show, and sales table items proved to be extremely popular too. I almost feel like a Proper Artist now - probably would help if I did less housework and more artwork! Thank you to all that bought my works, I do hope you enjoy owning them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Anwyay a very good and generous friend helped out with setting up and manning the gallery, and he wasn't even a part of it, just did it for us because he wanted to. So, how could I not give him a little gift to repay his generosity? Best way for me to do that was hit the paint pot and sewing machine! And here is what he got:

I was very pleased with this little piece, just seems to sing a bit of happiness, and I do so love the wild weeds & grassy look. He was very happy to receive it as well!

Exhibition News

2010-12-02T08:57:00.007+10:00

There's only a few days to go before the exhibtion I'm involved in will be opening. Here's what our invites look like:

There's eleven artists involved, and they are myself and the following talented artisits:

Alwyn Bowyer, Elaine Campbell, Marion Douglas, Di Flint, Helen Forrest, Daphne McKinon, Cynthia Morgan, Joan Morrison, Susan Pietsch, Fran Robinson.

The theme, Nature as Designer, has really got the artist's creative juices flowing, and I just love what these talented ladies have come up with.

If you can make it to the exhibition, do please come along, you won't be disappointed, the work on display is fantastic and of a very high standard. There is a wonderful blend of different styles, and there are quilts, embroideries, felting, sculptures and more. So mark your diaries -

Gradon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Road, New Farm (Brisbane, Qld)

December 7th to 19th

Opening hours mon - sat 10am to 6pm, sunday 11am to 5pm.

If you can't afford to buy big, there is plenty of small stuff on sale as well, so if you need ideas for christmas gifts, or want some beautiful cards featuring artwork on display, then bring your spending money. There's a really good coffee shop up the road, too that I'm planning on trying out next week on set up day.

I have a range of little miniature artworks for sale, they are very tiny and very cute, all originals. Alwyn has some beautiful brooches for sale, and there are also bookmarks and other interesting items too.

So hopefully, I have talked all you S.E.Q.er's into coming along for a lovely day out.....

Summer Field

2010-09-20T15:02:00.005+10:00

I've been working fairly small lately, and my latest work has been getting even smaller. This little piece is only 20cm x 25cm. I've also been doing work with not a bird in sight!! Lots of flowers, though. Here is a piece called "Summer Field" and it's an embroidery over fabric paint. I used the Valdani threads for the first time in this piece, and absolutely love them!

Pelican Portrait

2010-09-20T14:46:00.004+10:00

I had the urge to do a monochromatic piece, and what better bird to pick than one that is black and white. So the Australian Pelican it is. Mind you, there is still a lot of colour in the pelican, all the sublteties in the shading and the soft pink of the beak. This piece became a little quilt, as it really needed a border around it. It's painted with inks and fabric paints then embroidered over.

Flowers for the Lady

2010-09-20T14:35:00.002+10:00

For my latest birds, I decided to do the colourful Major Mitchell Cockatoos, also known as pink cockatoos. They don't come native to my part of Australia, but they can be kept caged as pets, so I have seen them in real life. I wanted a nice fun vibrant piece, and hopefully that's what I got. This one is appliqued and machine embroidered, then mounted onto a canvas. It's quite liberating not having to quilt backgrounds, so I am very much enjoying this type of process and have been doing lots of it.

Beautiful Butterfly

2010-08-12T11:43:00.004+10:00

Recently I was picking basil from the garden to pop into the evening's dinner, and there upon the basil bush was a beautiful delicate and small butterfly. I raced inside, grabbed the camera and started snapping madly. afterward, I poured over "The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia" and eventually identified it as a Plumbago Blue. That was the first time I got to identify anything from my lovely new book, and took a good hour of studying all the images to get it right! It has lovely blue wings on top, but patterened brown and white underneath. I just had to have a go of doing this in fabric, and here it is. The wings and body are a synthetic fabric which I used Polysol dyes to colour, both transfer printing and direct painting. I also used artist's inks in the background and hand dyed fabrics too.

Hanging the Quilts for a Show This Weekend

2010-05-28T20:06:00.005+10:00

Just in case you thought I've been quietly doing nothing (and yes, I admit it, there has been plenty of that going on this year) I thought I should inform you all, dear readers that I have had a very busy week preparing for my group's bi-ennial quilt show. Today was set up day, and I was in charge of the quilt hanging. I have already done it a few times, so that makes it easier. We had some excellent teamwork happening, and it all buzzed along very happily. I never know what quilts or how many we have to hang, but somehow, every (second) year, we always manage to get the number of quilts pretty well matched to the number of places we have to put them. Right now the Peachester Hall is choc-a-bloc and looking pretty good. So if you live in the SE Qld region, need something to do this weekend, here's your solution!!! At the Peachester Hall, Peachester Road, Peachester (got that?) Saturday and Sunday, opens 9am, closes 4pm saturday, a bit earlier Sunday. And yes, you will see some of my quilts there, too - 4 of them to be precise!

Fabric Painting Workshop

2010-03-30T12:21:00.020+10:00

Last week at my Quilting Group, I conducted a Fabric Painting workshop. The ladies all had lots of fun and learnt heaps. First I introduced them to different types of paints and inks, then I got them to do a series of exercises to familiarise themselves with the medium, then after lunch they all commenced their very own little fabric painting! I should have taken the camera along to show you some of the their work, but no matter. I've got some of my sample pieces to show you anyway. We did our paintings from copyright free designs, as I didn't want to scare anyone away thinking they would have to draw their own! These are fun to paint, and I found them very relaxing and enjoyable to do.

Seahorse painted using 3 colours only.

Tulips are painted onto black homespun.

The fish have been painted with inks and sparkly paint.

The floral garland was an 'applique' pattern that I drafted in the Electric Quilt 5 program.

The bouquet I painted from an embroidery pattern. I did it years ago to try out some new paint purchases!

A Piece in Production

2009-11-02T21:05:00.009+10:00

Good Morning dear readers, today I am going to show you from go to woe my latest little piece and how it sprang to life from a little pile of bits and pieces. For interests sake and to see what would happen, I decided to take the same starting point I used with my previous piece I showed you, the lovely Golden Headed Cisticola. So here's where it all began.....

First I do sketches. I use an assortment of reference points being mainly books and photographs being particulary mindful NOT to breach copyright. I like to keep the bird reasonably accurate so get out the trusty bird identifier books - they are really good for shape and colour etc.

Next, I take the sketch I like the best, scan it into the computer and then print it out to the size I want it to be in the finished piece. I then trace that onto white fabric, with a normal drawing pencil. then comes the colouring in bit. For this bird, I used my new Tsunikeko inks that I had bought to paint it.

Then I select thread colours.... I ended up using all but 2 of the threads you see here, so quite a few colours went into him.

Then off to the machine. First I clean, oil and pop in a new needle and attach the darning foot. Next I fill my bobbin with a fine bobbin thread such as The Bottom Line, with something to match the top thread. I adjust my tension by loosening the top and I use a bobbin case I have especially for messing about with the tension screw.

To prepare the painting for stitching, I stretch it in a wooden embroidery hoop. The trick here is to use one that you can do up with a screwdriver and get the fabric really taut.

Then I begin to start stitching. I drop the feed dogs, take the stitch length down to zero, bring the bobbin thread to the top and away I go! There's lots of thread changes, lots of threads and periodically I stop and draw the threads to the back of the work. When I've done stitching I cut it out just roughly at this stage. These are a couple of work in progress pics above.

On to the background. I take my hand dyed piece I have selected as the base, (which I did weeks ago) and then start cutting strips of fabrics for the grass in selected colours. I have acquired some company at this point, looking for attention, no doubt.

But now I don't like the background, I think it's too light. So off to the paint pots. Here I go over the dyed fabric with paints.

I like this much better, but now it throws out the grass colours I had previously selected, so I have to start again with grass strips.

How can I use that fabric if you are sitting on it??!!! This species is more commonly known in the household as A.S.M. (Attention Seeking Missile)

When I'm happy with the layout, I throw under some tear away and start pinning everything into place.

Back at the sewing machine, I free motion straight stitch everything down with clear monopoly thread. The bird gets stuck in place with fusible web near the end of this process.

Then I re-hoop the bird and stitch it in place along with more detailed embroidery to finish it off. The final grasses are stitched down over the bird, then the whole thing goes back onto the painting board for finishing touches here and there wherever I feel it needs lights/darks or colour balancing.

Lastly, the tediously slow process of removing the tear away, then I stretch it over a small artist's canvas, staple it in place and voila! Finished!

It came out quite different from the original cisticola, despite starting out from the exact same sketch. That was a really good exercise and I hope you like the results as much as I do.

A Little Cisticola

2009-10-28T20:55:00.006+10:00

Finally, here I am, in the mood to do some blogging, and have I got a little treat for you! This piece was fun to make and a challenge colour wise, I like the way that there is only fundamentally two colours - blue and orange (with lots of earthy variations). The bird is a male Golden Headed Cisticola, in full breeding plumage, and I reckon he's calling out for a mate, but he's keeping himself out of danger by staying just within the confines of the long grass. It was made with dyeing the background and all the grass fabrics are dyed, the bird was painted, free motion embroidered and then appliqued on along with all the grass. I then went at it again with more fabric paint to add lights and shadows where the piece needed it.

Latest Blue-Ribboned Effort

2009-08-08T20:04:00.004+10:00

No, I haven't dropped of the face of the earth, although my blogging efforts of late might have made you all think so. But I reward you with a pic of my Rainbow Bee-eater. She's currently roosting at the Quilts Across Queensland display, at the Ekka in Brisbane. So if you're a Brisbanite or near enough, you can get to see it for real. And what do you know, she took out 1st place small quilt professional section! There's another ribbon for the brag wall!
I enjoyed the challenge of using different techniques to execute this little bird, although it was extremely tricky sewing the borders on before appliqueing and then getting the whole thing to stay square. Not sure I'll try that trick again, I don't really like to repeat headaches in a hurry. Its 110cm x 127cm.
And if you are wondering what I'm secretly sewing away on right now, the only hints I'm giving out is this time the birdie is a male!

Wayside Daisies

2009-05-30T10:49:00.006+10:00

Time to share my piece I made for the Queensland Quilters challenge. The quilt had to fit the theme 25, as Queensland Quilters is celebrating it's 25th birthday. So I did 25 daisies. I had taken photos of some daisies growing wild that I came across in my travels many years ago, and had the images stored away for the right moment to use them as inspiration for a work of art. This piece has a painted background, with hand dyed fabrics used for the leafy bits, and some yarns couched down for the stalks. The daisies were machine appliqued and I used whip stitch for their centres. It was all stitched together with monopoly, which is a bit tricky in the photographing phase as it really reflects the flashlight and goes all shiny.

The exhibition opening was last night, and prior I had a fabulous meal with Kate and my dearest friend Karen, at a turkish restaurant. Delicious! There was some beautiful textiles hanging about the restaurant, so it was very fitting. After that we moved on to the exhibition, which was terriffic, superbly organised and the quilts were hung beautifully. Congrats to those that won prizes in the challenge, they were well deserved.

Dropping a line to you

2009-03-14T19:44:00.003+10:00

I've been busy on a couple of pieces, but I'm not going to show you them yet - one's going to the Sydney Quilt Show (see the clever button to the right about that) and another is off to the Queensland Quilters challenge. Soooo, instead, thought I'd show a pic of something else I've done. This little piece I made ages ago and is the "chuck ya scraps onto fusible web and have fun stitching over the top" kinda stuff. Haven't done one of these for a while...maybe it's time to do that again and reduce the scrappy pile....

New Year New Fun

2009-01-22T22:00:00.004+10:00

Boy, it's been a while since my last post - that's what happens when you get busy with end of school stuff, christmas, summer holidays. The holidays have once again drifted by in a blur of relaxation, swimming, humidity, rain, family and friends. And the last week has been the busy preparations ready for the new school year. So, soon to have time to myself again. But never fear, the sewing machines were buzzing away nicely in between all that stuff - dressmaking though. I don't know what other sewers are like, but I just don't like what the shops have to offer, the pants never fit me, and I much prefer going to fabric stores, fondling all those fabulous array of dress fabrics and buying that, rather than traipsing endlessly from boutique to boutique. And now that my daughter is in ladies sizes, I find myself doing a double dose for her as well. I might have turned quilter, but the dressmaker in me remains a permanent fixture.

The other evening whilst mucking about on the computer, I did a big splurge purchase on threads, got the lovely squishy parcel in the mail a few days later. All these lovely greys! Some really lovely browns, a few blues and a smattering of red/purple/orange. I bought the Isolon threads this time, haven't used them before, but I think I will be very happy with how they perform in the machine.

NSW Guild Challenge

2008-11-21T19:22:00.002+10:00

Ohh, so exciting, my entry into the NSW Quilters Guild challenge won first place!!!! What a happy dance for me. Today I collected my prize, a Pfaff 3.0 select sewing machine, wow! I can't wait to use it. Thank you so much to Pfaff for your kind donation. The challenge was to make a quilt 50cm x 70cm with the theme Coast and Country. I got so inspired by this theme, abosulute loved making the quilt, and was so pleased with the results, so I was just so thrilled about it winning. It's called "The Sentinel" and yes, another Aussie Bird, this time the kookaburra. If you want to see all the entries, check them out on the Guild's blogsite.

Queensland Quilt Show

2008-10-24T22:25:00.010+10:00

Well, it's that time of year again, my state Guild's annual Quilt Show. I love being a part of this wonderful display, with the yearly trip down to check out all the marvellous quilts on display, catching up with friendly quilters, recognising faces but having a hard time remembering all the names to go along with them! Then there's the shopping and the pauses for coffee. What a great day. And to top it all off and make it a bit more special, this year I took out 2 awards, third place Pictorial Section for "Alexandra's Interlude" and second place Small Quilts Professional for "Rufous Fantail". Ros Ward, another talented art quilter and Queenslander (and fellow prize winner) was kind enough to take this pic of me beside my birds.

You can see all the winning quilts on the Queensland Quilters website. I won some terrific prizes, kindly donated by Homespun Magazines, Can do Books, Perivale Gutterman and Freudenberg. Thank you to all the sponsors, you help to make it a great show. I'll be on a high for weeks.

Workshop Results

2008-09-27T10:35:00.003+10:00

Late last year, I did a "Landscape Mosaic" workshop with the fabulously talented and lovely Gloria Loughman and very much enjoyed myself. We had to design our own piece, and with Gloria's guidance our quilts came together. Mine, titled "on Bustard Head" was based on some holiday snaps I took a few years ago, and I just love the feeling it evokes in me of a wonderful holiday that we had. Bustard Head is a brilliant spot, unspoilt by development, just north of Bundaberg in beautiful Queensland The headlands in the distance are where the Town of 1770 and Agnes Water are (closest towns). The only way to get to it is either by boat, helicopter or (what we did) on the amphibious vehicle day trip.

Anyway, I do digress from quilting, here, but if you ever get the chance to do a workshop with Gloria, then jump at it, just seeing her quilts in the flesh is an awesome experience, she is a truly talented artist.

Bedtime

2008-09-24T19:15:00.008+10:00

I've had a mad traditional moment, and have made a new quilt for my bed. But, when I say mad, I mean really stupid mad. I decided to make it double sided, didn't I. So, we have a queen size, double sided project, which sounded like a really good idea when I was designing it, but by heck, trying to stitch it all together, and keeping the perfectionist at bay was quite a trick. Eventually the perfectionist portion of me just gave up and said "I don't give a damn, just get this stupid quilt finished", which is what the sensible side of me did. Anyway, whilst it is mighty fine, and my bed doesn't mind all the stitching flaws, (puckers, misaligned points, wobbly borders etc etc) it is finished, and I am pleased with the overall design,and it was all made from stash fabric. But, viewers, be warned, doubled sided quilts are HEAVY. Not good for sleeping under, at least the bed looks nice in amongst the jumble and weary bedroom. I really should paint the walls and replace the holey carpet..oh well, when I stop sewing long enough I'm sure I will!

The "back" of the quilt and the "front" of the quilt

Just to prove it really is double sided!

Quilting patterns were based on the pansy fabrics used.

What Flower are You?

2008-08-18T19:38:00.006+10:00

I came across this little quiz, and thought I'd check out what flower I am. A little surprised at the results -

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

Well whaddya know, bit of a prankster eh? I must have a sense of humour somewhere....now where did I put it?

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

A Little Aussie Culcha

2008-04-29T21:09:00.003+10:00

How many of my readers here remember watching the Paul Hogan Show? Beaut Aussie entertainment there, I've just been watching it on DVD. People seemed more "Australian" then. Shame that most of our top talent moves offshore when they get really famous, though. I promise, dear readers, that should I ever become obscenely famous (hahaha) I will stay an aussie always. Anyway, in keeping with the local flavour, thought I'd flick up a challenge piece I did a few years back now with a good aussie theme. The challenge fabric had all these rich earthy colours in it, so just had to go with something a little 'native', but as all good Aussie Artists are aware, it is not on to directly copy the aboriginal artistic style, but it's a great inspiration, like all ethnic art forms. I did this one in reverse applique, stitched on the machine, of course. The piece is 50cm x 70cm and was for the Queensland Quilters challenge. Some of those little bits were pretty tricky for turning under the seam allowances.

"Little Yabbie Dreaming"

Success at the Exhibition

2008-03-16T17:23:00.003+10:00

Yes, I sold a piece in the exhibition!! Woohoo, first textile sale..Ripper Rita.. I must be a fully fledged artiste now!! And what did I sell, I hear you all ask.... this little piece, called "At the end of the Day" a machine embroidery over canvas. I do hope the new owner enjoys this lovely piece, whoever you are, it is one of my favourites.

Blog Fiddling

2008-03-14T22:27:00.005+10:00

I've just spent a large chunk of my evening trying to make one of those funky-doo headings for my blog, finally succeeded after much fiddling and faddling. Hope you like the nice colourful top, featuring yet another machine embroidered moth. I think I deserve to go to bed now and have a nice recouperating sleep after all that hard blogging work, what with 2 posts in the one day as well!! Oh, and plus the neocounter, all because somebody else had it on their blog and it looked really cool.

Moths Today

2008-03-14T21:26:00.004+10:00

I've been so quiet on the creative front, but never fear, the action is stirring, fabrics are moving, paint bottles are being disturbed....

In the meantime, thought I would share with you this piece of a moth. Most enjoyed making this one, it was fun coming up with ideas on how to make it a bit furry. A bit of fantasy thrown in there colourwise.

It's a machine embroidery mounted onto a canvas, just a bit bigger than A4 size. And I promise next time I write, I'll have been doing something more than dressmaking, as I'm sure that pictures of my new jeans is not so impressive and a nice bit of textile art!

Opening Night

2008-03-02T19:19:00.005+10:00

Well, the exhibition opening night was a wonderful success! We had the Governor General of Queensland, Quentin Bryce, doing the official opening, along with the local Mayor of the Pine Rivers Shire Council, Yvonne Chapman. Dignitaries galore! The gallery did a fantastic job of hanging the works, and the Coffee Club served coffee (delicious), so all in all it was a pretty good evening in the world of Textiles. The pic is of me, all spiffied up, in front of a couple of my pieces. It was nice to have an excuse to get dressed up and put make up on, don't often do that. And here's some more pics of the evening.

the Governor General waiting to do her speech

Yvonne Chapman at the podium

The exhibiting artists

Exhibiting Artists

2008-02-20T08:51:00.002+10:00

Thought I would give you some links to those artists in the exhibition that have got websites, for those of you who live waay too far to come see our exhibition. I will check out the prospect of taking along the good ol' digital camera & take some snaps to upload, too. So, we have Lorraine Carthew, Sue Dennis, Cynthia Morgan, Fran Robinson, and more of Fran's work (her stuff blows me away every time, I just love it). The other fine artists don't have any links for me to post, sorry. Elaine Campbell does the most amazing outback scenes, sometimes quilts, sometimes framed under glass. Joan Morrison does a lot of hand embroidery, vibrant and innovative, and she made a fabulous barbed wire bra for the ATASDA group challenge. Our member who does felting, Marion Douglas, is relatively new to our group, but her work is delicious, and adds a different dimension and variety to the group. Joyce Hyam is an amazing lady, I hope I'm still producing quilts at her age. And of course, we also have Noeleen Fleming, Muriel Coulton and Helen Forrest, all adding their own individual talents and diverse styles. Oh, and me, but you already knew that, and you've all checked out my blog, so you know what I do!

Exhibition News

2008-02-15T09:25:00.003+10:00

Exciting news, the Textile Art Group I am a member of is having an exhibition! 2 weeks till it opens, and as you can see, the flyers look wonderful. If you will be in the area then, go check it out, there is some scrummy work on display.

The exhibition title, "Many Voices, Common Thread" comes about because each artist was given a piece of yarn and an artist canvas, and we all had to create something incorporating the piece of thread and then mount it onto the canvas. These pieces will all be hanging together. Considering the diverse talents and specialities of the exhibiting artists, this was a very interesting exercise and they really do look marvellous together.

Busy Day at the Queensland Quilt Show

2007-10-24T18:14:00.000+10:00

Well, the yearly trip to the Qld Quilt Show has been done today, now I'm tired, hungry & broke. But had a good day, lovely stash of threads bought, lots of lovely quilts viewed, and lots of chatting.

Before I go any further, I must comment on the Pe-ac-ed with Love quilts, they were wonderful, moving and very special. They were story quilts made by war veteran family members, many of them not even quilters. Well done.

Nice to see Lisa Walton up in Brissie (hello Lisa!!), her quilts are so vibrant and colourful. I had a lovely chat with Helen Godden, nice to meet you Helen. Whilst Lisa was lucky enough to bag a few ribbons for her entries, not so for me this year, but no matter, I still enjoyed making my quilts, and we must all take our turn in receiving awards. Anyway, you might like to see what I had entered, so here it is.

This piece is called "Dryad of the Eucalypt" I really enjoyed making this piece, here's a close up of the gum blossoms. I enjoyed working in the earthy tones.

Before I made this one, I did a very similar piece, "Rahn, Goddess of the Sea", and as I enjoyed it so much, I had to repeat the idea with a different theme. They were very much art nouveau inspired/influenced, and the flowing, elegant nature of this art style appeals to me very much, so it would be safe to say that it will appear in future pieces, between birds, that is...hang on...one could say these pieces are 'birds', just a different sort, hehe!!

Wot, more birds?!!

2007-10-18T14:12:00.000+10:00

Yes, more birds - Rufous Fantal this time. This little piece is a case of 'what can go wrong, will
go wrong'. But all was saved in the end. It measures 40cm x 40 cm, a nice little size to work on. Rather pleased with the results despite all the stuff ups I had to endure to get there. It's a wholecloth piece, dyed and painted, then free motion embroidered & quilted. And no, I'm not going to tell the world what those stuff ups were, they're a 'trade secret' now!!

I made it for a challenge, but, alas, was rejected. Sob, sob, my first rejection - oh well we all must suffer at least one of those, and at least it wasn't on a perfectly executed, masterfully constructed, flawless piece (not that I've made any of those, either).

Back to the drawing board, on with the next bird, or something else... might surprise you all and do something completely different! Cheerio till next time, dear readers.

Another day, Another bird

2007-09-19T20:32:00.000+10:00

Just whipped up this little piece the other day. Cute little Azure Kingfisher, sitting in the deep dark rainforest. I based this on a photo I took of said bird, with the little image of him about 1cm big in the vast expanse of green. Sadly, bird photography is not my strong point, happily, quilting is. This is a wholecloth dyed and painted piece.

Butterflies & Birds

2007-08-23T20:56:00.000+10:00

Just in case you are all starting to think that I've been doing nothing, which, yes, actually I have been doing a lot of 'nothing', besides reading Harry Potter (love those books), thought I had better do a post to show that I have been doing something, too...unless you want a book report on HP? No? rather sewing stuff??? oh, o.k.....

Anyway, here's the result of me playing with a few 'new to me' techniques. Firstly, did some sunprinting, secondly, played with lutradur. About time, too, that Lutradur has been languishing for well over a year in my drawer. I enjoyed working with it, I painted it, stitched it and cut it, that's the butterfly wings, that is. I'm rather happy with the results, and it was fun to make. Thought I might call it Summer's dance, even though it ain't summer here (wild & woolly here right now). I thought that the name of the butterfly too long winded to put into the title (that's the Small Green-Banded Blue, in case you were wondering) and I figure that the botanical name won't mean squat to most people, unless you're an insectologist......don't imagine too many of them reading my blog....

Anyway, speaking of native wildife, despite the shocking weather, earlier today a pair of king parrots came to visit me today, sat in the tree next to my verandah, and the female hopped on the railing for a closer look...it was lovely....can see a quilt in there somewhere. Besides the parrots, there were 4 kookaburras, 1 magpie, several blue faced minors and the usual noisy minors. That's a lot of wet birds prancing about the garden all at the one time, it's like the whole neighbourhood of birdlife hopped in at the same time for 15 minutes then disappeared again. I rushed off to get the camera...batteries flat...grabbed the sketchbook instead. Then sat inside, in the semi-darkness (blackout happening) drawing birds. (Isn't it amazing that the moment the power blacks out, it's like everything you want to do needs electricity, even just switching on the reading light) Roight, now I've kept the ornithologists happy with that little story...I'll be back...with another bird quilt, just you wait and see.

Rainbow in the Banksia does it again

2007-08-14T10:26:00.000+10:00

It's turning out that so far every where this quilt has been entered, an award has been given. Third time lucky - it's just placed 2nd (category: professional, small quilt, any technique) in Quilts Across Queensland.

Gosh, I'd better get cracking on another quilt, mmm, what will it be this time?

Sydney Quilt Show 2007

2007-06-28T14:27:00.000+10:00

I wasn't lucky enough to go to the show this year, but 2 of my quilts flew down for the event. But lucky for us, the Guild has pictures on their webpage for us to view. I was busy checking out the wonderful work there, some fantastic quilts, especially best of show, it is spectacular.

Anyway, lo and behold, I found my name down the bottom of the pictorial page, my quilt was awarded a judges commendation!!! I feel quite chuffed now, because competition there is pretty fierce amongst Australia's best quilters. Now I'm almost one of them!!! There's no picture of the quilt on the Guild website, but it's been on here before.

Now, what to make to enter next year.........

Challenge Piece

2007-06-10T19:38:00.000+10:00

I had 2 challenges sitting on my desk to be done, so what does one do, but do a double whammy and combine the 2 into 1! The first challenge was to use a piece of Australiana print fabric, and mine was a colourful aboriginal print, which had some interesting sections that I fussy cut. The second challenge was to use some cardboard shapes I was given, being a 1" octagon, 1" square, elongated hexagons of 1" and 2". Now fitting these little shapes was easy...until I tried to fit in the 2" elongated hexagons. They were very tricky to include. The challenge rules was to use at least 2 shapes, one of them being the octagon, which meant I didn't have to use the annoying 2" hexagon, but a challenge being a challenge meant I just HAD to do it.

So there you go, and the results I called "Tribal Dance". And the best bit was that instead of doing the traditional paper piecing by hand method, I prepared the pieces in the same way (over the papers), but then stitched it together by machine using a small zig zag stitch, what fun!!

Machine Embroidery & More on old Berninas

2007-05-06T10:24:00.000+10:00

Since I bought the old bernina in my last post, I have, yes, bought another old Bernina, this time a 544. It is older, only does straight & zig zag, very well worn, but running well. So.. to put it through it's paces, I decided to do a machine embroidery, and this is the result. Pretty good stitching work for such an ol' gal eh? (that's the sewing machine, not me, I'm not over 50 years old yet!!!)

I love free motion embroidery, it tends to have a more fluid result that digitized embroidery, and besides, when you consider that the machine I stitched this on cost me $45, took me 4 -5 hours approx to complete, it wins hands down on both accounts. Laughing just like a kookaburra - hoo hoo haa haa hee hee!!!!

The New Machine

2007-04-26T19:48:00.000+10:00

I was wandering around a dusty, junky second hand store, and there in the corner, all forlorn was this stately old machine, a Bernina 640-2 Favorit. Couldn't help myself, I just had to bring it home. What a grand old Dame she is, built around 1961 and her motor is so quiet! I got the instruction book, and box of feet with it, but oh dear, alas, NO bobbin case, and no bobbins, either. I would just love to put her back into service, but a new bobbin case, well yes, they are available, but so expensive, it takes the less common rotary case, as opposed to the more common ossilating Bernina bobbin cases. If I'm lucky, I might just be able to get a hold of a second hand one. Anyone out there just happen to have one lying around?

Now, if you are wondering why I would want to sew on a 45 year old machine, rather than a fancy computerised model, well the answer is simple - free motion embroidery. All you need for that is a needle going up and down, feed dogs dropped, fast motor and fingers outta the way. And my wonderful computerised Bernina wants to do more than that, with all those step motors, it needs a different sort of work out to stay fit. Besides, where's the fun in owning only one machine, when we can have 2, or 3 or 4 or......

Journal Quilting

2007-04-05T09:48:00.000+10:00

For a very long time, I have been planning on 'one day' doing some exercises from all those delicious books on my bookshelf. Well, finally the day did come where I made a start. I followed the instructions in Bonnie McCaffery's "Portrait Quilts" book, and above is the result. Come up rather nice, and I am very pleased with myself for having done the exercise. Now to dig out another book.....

What I made today

2007-03-17T16:23:00.000+10:00

Here's what I made today (besides rather yummy choc chip bikkies which I'm eating right now). It's machine embroidered, took me just under 3 hours to make. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon, eh?

Saw some Thangka Art Today

2007-03-05T21:55:00.000+10:00

Today I checked out some traditional Tibetan Buddhist Thangka art today, and boy, is it magnificent! Unfortunately I couldn't get up close & personal with the pieces, they were hung behind the counter of the local bank.

This is the pic from the local paper, and the article telling you all about it, too. Just click on the article to enlarge enough to read.

This is the first time I have ever come across this type of artwork being done as applique, they seem to be far mor common as paintings on cloth.

Things that Break

2007-02-08T09:04:00.000+10:00

Finally, after a long break, I have started creating again. There was a forced break over christmas, as my sewing machine decided to refuse to co-operate, every time I turned it on, it switched itself back off again! It is now all repaired, and running far better than it has in years. There's a lot to be said about finding a sewing machine mechanic with good ethics who knows his stuff. I have spent years being frustrated by my machine not working properly, so to say I am happy at it finally being fixed properly is an understatement.

But now our digital camera has had to go in for repairs, so I can't post any photos! I switched it on, and on the screen, it came up with a picture of - a broken screen!!! It will still take photos, but you can't see what you are photographing. The repair wait on that is very long though, takes about 2 weeks just to get a quote on fixing it.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-21T12:13:00.000+10:00

I would like to wish everyone a wonderful and safe christmas. I hope you all have enjoyed my somewhat erratic blogging. Thank you to all who have given me positive feedback, I much appreciate it. Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

All about "Astral Muse"

2006-12-21T11:18:00.000+10:00

Oh my goodness, 2 months since my last post!

Well, I have been busy, not a lot of sewing, though. Today I am sharing with you some images of my quilt Astral Muse, which is a depiction of the western zodiac. I had fun making the individual images. Each has a painted background, and each sign is free motion embroidered. On some of them I have used whip stitch, which was really fun, basically bringing the bobbin thread up to the surface and stitching very tiny stitches. It gives a lovely effect and I used it for the woolly effect on the sheep and for the curly haired babes of gemini. Each sign was appliqued onto the background
piece after stitching. The dark blue background

has sheer fabrics applied and also metallic threads couched down, all radiating outwards. The sun and moon were painted with metallic fabric paints, then their facial details stitched in.

This piece goes to show that with just straight stitch, you can achieve amazing things with your sewing machine, you certainly don't need expensive computerised embroidery equipment to gain great effects.

Queensland Quilt Show

2006-10-18T19:23:00.000+10:00

The results are out, and I have won 2nd place, pictorial section at this year's Queensland Quilt Show, with this piece. It's a whole cloth dye-painted piece, and free motion embroidered. I rather enjoyed the process in making this piece, and whilst it didn't turn out the way I imagined it should, it still came out o.k.

Holidays

2006-10-04T13:26:00.000+10:00

I have just come back from a wonderful holiday with my family, further north in Queensland on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Beautiful beaches, unspoilt bushland, snorkelling on the Reef, what a great way to relax. I feel quite lucky to live so near to such unspoilt beauty. There was plenty of inspiration from nature for some great quilts, and have a few new ideas in mind. Just need another holiday up there to consolidate those ideas some more!

Oh, My Has it Been That Long?

2006-08-18T21:36:00.000+10:00

Gosh, I am a slack blogger, 2 months since my last post! Lucky you're all not on the edge of your seats in anticipation of the next stunning instalment......
Maybe I'll just keep you all waiting a bit longer bef ore showing you another quilt, whaddya reckon??? No? Oh, well, have a peek at this one then

This little piece is called "Alien Oddity" and was a challenge quilt. Had to use three small pieces of commercial fabric, and the theme was space, or something like that. Got a highly comended for it anyway. Alien is saying to his girlfriend "No, Suzie, we're the only intelligent life forms in this universe". See what happens when you read too much of The Far Side - your artwork becomes tainted with weird humour!
Twas very fun to make though.
O.K. are you all happy now? I have come, blogged and returned back to blogspace oblivion.

Tis Me You See

2006-06-26T10:40:00.000+10:00

Thought I'd let on to just what I really look like! This is a rather nice photo of me beside my quilt "Tara" at the Sydney Quilt Show. I rather like this particular quilt, although was not as happy with it when I first finished it as I am now. Seems to have grown on me somewhat with time.

Not much quilting, but lots of Quilt Shows

2006-06-21T20:21:00.000+10:00

I haven't done any quilting for ages, now. Been having a break, just being a mum for a while and keeping in tune with textiles by dressmaking and quilt shows. My local club just recently had it's bi-ennial quilt show, and being on the committee, was well immersed in the whole organising thing. Local shows can be so wonderful and full of atmosphere, ours is in a very old hall in a quiet rural town, we serve home cooked food, the hall is crammed with quilts, and the visitors just love coming along. Good ol' fashioned country hospitality.

I went along to another local group's annual show and tell morning. A different style to a quilt show, but lots of fun. Everyone gets a turn to show off some work, not just the host club. This is great for smaller clubs who don't produce enough work for a show, and don't have the volunteers to spend time hanging quilts etc. It's a great way to network with other quilters in the area.

Finally, I did a plane trip to the Big Smoke - flew to Sydney for 3 days and went along to the Sydney Quilt Show. That's big stuff in the Australian Quilt circuit. There was enough traders and quilts to keep me occupied for a full 2 days. The quality of the work was superb, the variety plentiful, the show was well hung and very well organised. There was also a display of Japanese quilts, wearable art and a small exhibition with more creative art quilts. Despite the size, the quilters were just as friendly and just as keen to share a chat over a quilt as any where else. What more could you ask for?

Guest Speaker

2006-05-18T21:11:00.000+10:00

I was recently invited to be a guest speaker at a local patchwork store in my area, Patchwork Angel. It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning, showing off some of my quilts which haven't been aired for a while, and had a lovely time talking to a group of ladies about my work. This is a picture of me showing one of my quilts.

Painting with the Children

2006-05-03T12:02:00.000+10:00

My children both love doing fabric painting, too. I drew the pictures onto the fabric for them, and away they went. The car is done is metallic setacolour paints, and is quite sparkly. They are going to become cushions that will eventually be donated to disadvantaged children.

Painting on Fabric

2006-05-03T11:56:00.000+10:00

Here's a piece I painted to get going with fabric paints.

Healing Heart

2006-04-02T12:45:00.001+10:00

I spent this morning sewing a healing heart for a lady in my local patchwork group. The request was purple on cream. I decided to go with a machine embroidered idea, but was a little disappointed in how much my fabric pulled in despite very tightly hooping it. I always have that problem, must be the way I sew. For those of you who don't know what healing hearts are, when a friend becomes seriously ill, everyone makes a heart, and we join them all together to make a quilt to give them, to show how much we care, and it is really uplifting for the recipient, too.

Husqvarna Viking Challenge Quilts

2006-03-27T10:38:00.000+10:00

Went away with my family for the weekend, just so I could see the Husqvarna Viking "C0lour" challenge quilts. Where I live, we don't often get to see international quilts in real life, and it was great viewing. It is fascinating how different nationalities interpret a theme, how they put their work together, and how, as an Australian, I seemed very drawn to the Australian entries. It was worth the long drive, worth making the kids wait (although not too long) whilst I looked around, and worth the money purchasing the catalogue and reading it leisurely over coffee back home. Quilts are such a global art form now, it is wonderful that they can draw people together from the other side of the world. I wonder if the more traditional art forms do this as well within the art communities?

Painting Fabric

2006-03-05T16:34:00.000+10:00

Seems like ages since I posted a blog, I must be busy! I've been exploring fabric paints and experimenting with them. It's quite nice to work in paints for a change, and am much enjoying it. I've been using Setacolour fabric paints and recently discovered the lightening medium, which has allowed me to use the paints in a different way to what I was previously achieving. My kids love fabric painting, too, and they have each painted a panel which I sewed into a cushion for them. They got all excited over the sparkly paints that Setacolour have, so I ended up buying quite a few of those colours just for the kids. They come up nice, though. I'm quite happy with the Setacolour paints, they're a nice paint to work with, and don't stiffen the fabric too much.

Using Flat Rods for Hangng Quilts Smartly

2006-02-01T10:31:00.000+10:00

Was talking on a forum about using flat aluminium strips for hanging quilts with. This is a really neat way to hang quilts and present them in a professional manner. I have taken some photos to show everyone just what I was talking about. The aluminium strips I buy come in 4 metre lengths, but I can have them cut to size when I purchase them. (Contact your nearest aluminium supplier). They are cut to be a little shorter than the quilt measurement. This is the sized aluminium that I use, although some friends of mine use a narrower strip for smaller quilts.
I get my husband to drill the holes in each end. Through this hole I tie a small loop of fishing line and this loop is used to hang the quilts in a gallery situation.

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Here you can see how I do a flat rod pocket to accommodate the rod. If I know that the quilt will be hung at a quilt show with the large dowel rods, I do a double pocket, with the underneath one flush for the aluminium strip, and a larger one on top with extra room for the fat rods.

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And here you can see how the quilt sits flush to the wall. I am now following the example of other artists and attaching a second rod pocket to the bottom of the quilt for a bottom rod to be placed in. This then weights down the bottom of the quilt to keep it 100% flat from top to bottom. (note that the way I have hung it with a string and one hook is not as good as 2 hooks, one for each side, but unfortunately I don't have proper gallery style hangers in my house, yet!)

Challenge in Machine Stitching

2006-01-24T21:26:00.000+10:00

Thought I would share with you the 2nd of numerous buddhas I have done, but this is the only one that so far is not a quilt. It is a free motion machine embroidery. It measures 26cm x 30cm, so it is not real small, but all you fellow stitchers can appreciate just how long it takes to fill up a piece of fabric that size with machine stitching. It was done using straight stitch only and mostly rayon machine embroidery threads. I really enjoyed doing the figure, that was great fun, but boy, was the background tedious work! Typical of me, though, start a very ambitious project without really thinking through just what is involved in making it, then halfway through I think "this is harder than I thought it would be". It's good to be challenged, though. As for my passion for buddhas, that hasn't abated yet, so I expect I'll be doing more again in the future, or maybe there's a Hindu deity or 2 just waiting to pop up in quilt form?

Emperors of the Elements

2006-01-02T19:42:00.001+10:00

This picture is a detail of 'Emperors of the Elements' and is the Earth Dragon. The full quilt can be viewed on my web page.

Right, it was time to try some more dragons, but the question was how to do them differently. First, step, reasearch at the local library. I read a wonderful book full of Chinese Folk Tales. No illustrations to copy, but great short stories that fired my imagination as to just what a dragon means in Chinese literature. A great leap forward in the creative angle, not using any one else's artwork as reference to draw these dragons, but my own imagination and practice from having drawn numerous dragons already. I drew the backgrounds separate and after drawing each dragon.

I began with the water dragon. All 4 dragons have been made using pretty much the same techniques. First, I painted the dragon body parts using fabric paints onto cotton poplin. They were cut out and vlisofixed onto the backgrounds. Backgrounds were pieced by using a freezer paper pattern and each piece had the seam turned and then blind hem stitched down onto a tearaway backing. I followed the instructions for the technique in a magazine article by Gloria Loughman. The fire background was done raw edge and straight stitched, because I couldn't handle the small curves with seam allowances. Each dragon was satin stitched down, machine embroidered in a circular motion to give scaley texture, and had fringed knitting yarn and metallic threads couched down, and other loose bits added for dramatic effect. I couldn't purchase a blue yarn to match the Earth Dragon, so I bought some nylon dye and overdyed to get the dark blue.

I originally planned each dragon as an individual piece, but, after reading the entry rules for the World Quilt Competition, realised that if I wanted to enter quilt shows, I needed to make larger quilts, so decided to join them all together. Border design came about after all 4 finished. The black/gold fabric came about with a friend's help. She laid a similar commercial fabric alongside and it worked. But me being me, pulled out a piece of black I had at home, loaded up a spray bottle with watered down gold paint, and made my own black/gold fabric. Easy. Chinese writing was taken from a Chinese/English dictionary, and the right column reads "dragon emperor earth fire air water" or it is supposed to, if I did it correct. I needed a central column of text, and I came across the 10 heavenly stems in the ancient chinese calendar, so that's what I used there. For the actual quilting, I just followed the landscapes around the dragons. After pouring over countless Chinese art books, I found a pattern on some ancient pottery which I copied and used in the blank border areas. Interestingly, I have found this same pattern used in other ancient cultures.

So that's how the quilt came about. My first large art quilt. The quilt won 1st place pictorial section in the 2003 Queensland Quilt show, and in 2004 was accepted into the World Quilt & Textile Competion and flew off to the U.S.A. where an aquaintance reported back that it was very nicely displayed at the venue where she saw it at.

Along came Number 3

2006-01-01T14:47:00.001+10:00

There I was, thinking that, great, I'd done 2 Dragons, time to try something else, when a friend told me I needed to make a third, but this time light on dark. Mmmm, interesting idea. Now this turned into the biggest challenge yet. Making dark on light was easy, but reversing the order presented new challenges and this was by far the hardest piece to select colours for. Eventually I pared it down to a very small colour palette. I don't think this one is as dramatic as the Green Dragon, but is still has great impact and was a fantastic learning curve. I used more metallic threads in the dragon, stuffed up the cutting of the background piece, so the red design at the top had to be designed to cover over where I cut the fabric too small. Sometimes our mistakes give us a new creative challenge! I like the medieval feel and I think that this series taught me a great deal. I have more dragon ideas that one day I would like to go back to doing. I also like the combination of the patchwork border framing the pictorial element. I haven't done this again for a while, but is re-emerging in my current work.

What happened Next

2006-01-01T14:36:00.001+10:00

O.k., making that first dragon was fun. I wanted to do it all again. This time I managed to sketch a dragon that was less of a copy of someone else's illustration and put more of myself into the drawing. Added a different colour scheme (which has become my favourite colours to put together) Everything was done to the same size and format as the Red Dragon, but to fit with a more western style of dragon. I have couched metallic thread down his spine, and the diamond squares in the centre of the patchwork blocks are vlisofixed down and couched around with metallic thread. There's some pretty small pieces in the patchwork, and some of it was strip pieced. The black border arch is part pieced (the straight section) and part appliqued (the curve). The flames are all machine stitched.

Where it all Started

2006-01-01T14:19:00.001+10:00

I started making art quilts after a friend introduced me to hand dyed fabrics. All of a sudden I had ideas! I purchased a pile of hand dyeds and after making a small quilt from a photograph, I realised that I needed a big range of colours to satisfy my creative urge. So I bought a book on how to dye fabric and began my creative journey. This quilt, 'The Red Dragon' was my second art quilt I ever made. It came about by looking in my Mother's cupboard for a book I knew she had, and coming across an old calendar with dragon illustrations. Wow, I thought, there's a great idea! Sketched out a dragon and started dyeing and stitching. The patchwork borders were designed and added as the work progressed. The body of the dragon was made by stitching circles onto cotton lawn and allowing the fabric to scrunch up, giving a scaley texture. This was then cut and vlisofixed down, satin stitched. Claws, teeth and eyes all machine embroidered in place. He has tufts of threads on his head and chin (from the tangle of threads left over from dyeing). Wings are lined and stitched down along veins only. Overall size is 60cm x 76cm.

Introduction

2006-01-01T14:04:00.000+10:00

I'm Bernardine Hine, I live on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia. I began stitching as a general sewer and crafter, making clothes, useful items etc then started making quilts in 1992. I stuck to cot quilts for a while (for nieces and nephews) and after having children of my own made my first full size bed quilt in 1997. After all the beds in our house were covered, I decided I needed some other creative outlet. I had always been arty and pre-children used to do water colour paintings. Wasn't game to try that with children who would instantly want to join in! Art quilts seemed the perfect answer because they can be picked up and put down quickly, and can lay idle indefinitely whilst family life takes precedence. I made my first art quilt in 2001 and have been hooked ever since. I dye my own fabrics, design my own quilts, and use almost entirely machine stitching techniques on my trusty Bernina 1530.