In the past few years I have been sorting and cleaning out my mother in law’s old farm house. She was a ‘saver’ and never threw anything out. She lived in this house for most of her life.

There was a lot of ephemera and old clothes. After studying the works of artists who work with preloved and ‘found’ fabric and papers, like Mandy Patullo, Mrs Bertimus, Ann Kelly and Cas Holmes, I have been making samples using Mum’s old stuff. In a previous blog ‘Vintage Concertina book’, you can see some of the fabrics I have collected.

Responding to the Australian Quilt Show’s prompt ‘Recycled and Restyled’, I have put together a quilt entirely from tables cloths and aprons.

This is a rather quirky design and a departure from my usual style. I adapted some childrens’ drawings I collected many years ago in my music teaching days (from a listening and responding exercise on ‘fast and slow’).

It was very enjoyable working with these soft and worn fabrics and combining them with a contemporary spin.

This piece is travelling around to the Craft and Quilt Fairs associated with Expertise Events.

This quilt forms part of my new series of works depicting observations from walks around my property, consisting mostly of birds and wildflowers.

The humble little bird, the ‘silver eye’ is in many gardens and backyards. They don’t seem to be able to compete for artists attention like the blue fairy wrens…..

The main process in this piece is mono-printing, using a round geli plate. Feathers were done directly, whilst I used a stencil for the bird shapes. Because this process is quite unpredictable (and more difficult on fabric), only one in four or five work out. I probably did over 100 prints to get the ones shown here!

It is worth it, however, for the delicate and interesting marks that can be produced.

It is a further challenge to add stitching that will complement these marks. After a lot of thought I decided to use have a combination of hand and machine stitching (see details).

This piece was recently exhibited in the ‘One Step Further’ 2021 exhibition at Kyabram Art Gallery.

Showcasing a collection of bold, intricate and colourful art quilts by artists from Australia, New Zealand and worldwide.

At the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum – entry is free, no bookings required.

on exhibition until Sunday 27th of February, 2022.

This is my piece with the title of ‘Nathalia’s Wildflowers’. 84 x 164 cm

Since joining our local Wildflower group, I have developed a passion for indigenous flora. Here I have included some favourites including corresponding notations from my field journal.

Kangaroo grass, Pink bindweed, Blue devil, Tufted bluebell, Box mistletoe, Yam daisy, Silver wattle, Grey parrot pea, Australasian buttercup, Chocolate lily, Grey sunray, Drumsticks (commonly known as ‘Billy buttons).

Techniques: Dye, mono-print with acrylic paints, screen print, raw edge /collage applique, thread sketching. The journal entries have been digitally printed on silk organza.

Materials: Cotton, silk organza, silk, cheese cloth, satin, tulle.

Nathalia’s Wildflowers by Linden Lancaster detail

Telling a story through collage and stitch

Three things have brought about these pieces of work:

Firstly, last year during lockdown I did an online course with Karen Stamper (from England). This was done on paper and we were encouraged to do a lot of mark making and experimenting with different media. I liked the idea of working back and forth in the pages and continually making additions, responding to what was already there.

Secondly, over the years I have been studying works by by several other British artists Cas Holmes, Mandy Pattillo and Anne Kelly. All these artists work with ‘found’ and pre-loved fabrics and ephemera. I gradually became able to see the beauty in old and worn out things. Using them in my work has been very satisfying, not to mention cost effective and an environmentally sound practise!

Lastly, I had the privilege of helping to clean out my mother-in-laws old country home. She is 91and worked on the farm until recently. She ‘made do’ in so many ways and threw anything out! Here I had the perfect opportunity to gather a collection of materials and pay homage to my husbands family history. Many years worth of inspiration and work!

Thus was born my version of the fabric concertina book- a lovely balance between fabric collage and stitch. In this proto type I have used the combination of both machine and hand stitch. I have also used a mini-theme (kitchen) and restricted colour palette (red, cream and a little green/blue) and only used materials found from the old house.

These small projects are a perfect way to try out lots of ideas for a larger piece of work. I plan to make a series of larger textile collages about this old country home and its people.

Quite a hiatus since my last blog. My beautiful mother died and I am all at sea………

The progress on our new Church has been very slow- the continuation of the pandemic has not helped our cause. As there is no urgency for the triptych to be completed, the poor thing is languishing in the spare bedroom!

Progress to date

Cutting and auditioning pieces on my design wall. With this project I am pre-fusing the fabrics with Heatn’Bond Lite (iron on fusible). I am paying close attention to the distribution of lights and darks. There is no planned focal point. I need to make sure that my blue-violet medium fabric is dominant, so I begin with blocking that in.

This process cannot be rushed. Viewing photos on my phone really helps with making decisions in progress.

Here the blocking in is completed.

Adding text.

There are lots of ways to add text. I thought about stencilling or hand drawing/painting but that can a bit risky. So I have decided to stitch the words. The problem here would be to how to make the stitching stand out. I would have to use a thick weight thread and contrasting colours/values.

I also tried to fit the text in by using a computer program. Alas, my technical skills were not up to the task, so I decided to use my own hand writing (this will be more personal anyway). This photos shows the use of tracing paper to see how it will fit. I use a chalk pencil to mark the quilt before I baste it.

As you can see, my pins do get rather tangled!

The next thing is to do a small test piece to try out some quilting ideas and threads.

This is very rough, but you get the idea. In the upper left corner you may be able to just see some sketches of possible designs.

This is where I leave you until the big reveal!