One of my aims every year is to enter a piece in a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) call for entry.

This year the topic of ‘Season after season’ looked most appealing.  The premiere location is Texas Quilt Museum. Each accepted piece of work is to have an accompanying artist’s journal which explores the artist’s journey from initial thought and concept to final artwork- something I’ve always wanted to do. This is the first time I have shown a work in progress in public from start to finish. The risk is of course that the piece may not be at all successful. I’m thinking that this experience will be a lot more enriched by sharing my thoughts and processes along the way- a win-win situation whether my work is accepted or not. I hope you will find it interesting….

GATHERING IDEAS AND INSPIRATION

A collection of sketchbooks with drawings and water colours of flowers from my garden

Photos in my ‘garden journal’ and ‘still life’ files:

A few samples from other projects:

Mono-printed black lines with colour trials

Stitched photos on fabric from sketchbook. Organza, a non-woven and TAP.

A sketch book page printed directly to silk.

 

Other ideas:

Garden diaries and lists of plants

‘A Country Ladies Diary’

Seasonal colour

Old and new calendars- I have never thrown out my calendars and have over20 years’ worth (somewhere in the cupboard).

Poetry about seasons and/or flowers

 

Some artists who work with florals

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

I love the way he leaves some of the flower/plant not coloured in. His line work is to die for!

Kurt Jackson

His work is very organic. The flowers are not explained too much and are nice and loose. Texture and line.

 

Chinese botanicals

I like the antique parchment look of the background combined with the lively brushwork.

 

Hitoshi Kobayashi

My latest favourite discovered form Pinterest. Beautiful depictions of flowers standing out from gold, speckled or grungy backgrounds.

 

Robert Kushner

Interesting use of blocks of colour and line interwoven with floral theme. Great use of pattern and line, negative and positive. Thick and thin outlines could be described as stitch or applique. Also use of text.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

As I was going through all those calendars mentioned above, I picked out a possible candidate that had nice printed text in Art Noveau style. When I looked closer at the actual hand-written notations, I became rather nostalgic and my feelings became mixed. This particular calendar was from 2001 and I realised that two beloved fathers and brother had passed in that time. My sister’s baby which was due is now a beautiful year 12 student. There were lots of banal appointments and running children to various activities (how did we do all that). These children have long flown the nest. Even my own bodily functions had changed! (no more marking 28 on the calendar, yay).

 

MAIN IDEA

My life marches ever onward never being the same.

BUT

The flowers in my garden always come out season after season.

Chrysanthemums for Mothers’ day, Easter daisy, winter gladiolus, autumn crocus, white Christmas lilies, Spring bulbs……

This gives me a sense of comfort.

How often do we get tied up in the busyness of our lives and forget about those little treasures peeking out from the earth all around us season after season?

 

 

 

 

 

      

*Awaken possibilities for your creative application in your own work

*Learn the process and technique

*Begin a resource file

Gelatin printing is type of mono printing that has been around for years. It is a wonderful way to add interesting layers to your fabric or paper. As an artist I find the type of marks that can be expressed with this process very exciting. I used gelatin printing for the background of my quilt ‘If these walls could speak’. I wanted the ‘wall paper’ to look old and grungy and this was the perfect technique.

             

Despite there being hundreds of demonstrations and samples on the internet, I found that many people have not tried this technique….or have brought a Gelli plate and have not got around to using it.

This one day class will give you a skill set for this process and give you lots and lots of ideas for future experiments and projects.

Look in ‘classes’ above for more information……

 

Last night was the opening of the bi-annual exhibition of ‘Australian Quilts in Public Places’. This years theme was ‘Reflection’. There were more than 50 quilts jammed into the White Horse Art space in Box Hill, Melbourne, Australia.

I received a ‘highly commended’ for the following work: ‘Place of Reflection’. It is a whole quilt and begun its life as a piece of ice-dyed fabric. I added hand-dyed sheer and cotton fabrics. The darker tree fabric is, in fact, one of my children’s baby sheets that has been over-dyed. If you look closely you can even see a few alphabet blocks! There is a lot of machine stitching with metallic and shiny threads to add shimmer to the water. Some Inktense pencil work has been added to define the waters edge.

Unfortunately this is a poor quality photo, but will have to do, for now.

 

 

 

 

The 17th of November is the last day of my exhibition at the GRAIN store art gallery in Nathalia. Opening times are Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 11 am to 4pm (or by arrangement with myself for a group).

The following photo (and article by Genevieve Barlow) is in this weeks Weekly Times ‘Miranda’ section.

Also, ‘Great Australian Quilts’ by Quilters Companion has just arrived in the newsagents with an article and pattern/instructions for ‘Bugs on Boxes’. I am the representative for Victoria.

Please note that you can get the bug kits from Sue Thiel at sewmanyblessings@live.com.au and not the shop mentioned .

Please note that the supplier for the kits for ‘Bugs on Boxes’ on page 15 is incorrect.

You may purchase a kit for $30 (per bug)  plus postage from:

Sue Thiel

sewmanyblessings@live.com.au

PO Box 3258

Alice Springs NT 0871

 

 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 8TH at 2 pm  The G.R.A.I.N store community art gallery, Blake St. Nathalia, Victoria, Australia.

A selection of over 40 works produced from 2007 until 2017

 

Design board display with inspiration and works in progress:

 

 

‘Fragments from the found’ small textile/mixed media pieces mounted on canvas $40 (or sign up for a class on Saturday October 14th and learn how to make them)

 

Post cards:

Two different sets: Michellia and Carolyn’s Roses- $10 for a pack of 6

 

 

I will be at the Gallery every Sat between 11 am and 2 pm until the exhibition closes on November 18. Come in and have a chat!

 

 

 

 

This is a commissioned project for Quilters Companion’s ‘Great Australian Quilt Designers’ which is coming out this October 2017.

Showcasing three Australian creatures in aboriginal fabrics, this is a fun project that can be completed in a weekend. Display your triptych on art canvases or in the usual way.

Due to copyright, I am showing only details here. If you would like more information, follow my classes link.

 

This year I have joined the local Wildflower group in Nathalia. Once a month they go on a field trip in our local area to identify species. I find it truly inspirational and can’t believe how many interesting and beautiful places have been right under my nose all this time! In March we visited the Barmah Lakes and I became fascinated by the Reed Warblers (even though they would not sit still for a photo!).

The following piece of work is inspired by this activity. It consists of four vertical panels that can be viewed as a whole or in part. It started life as experiments in digital photos on fabric. I was challenging myself to make as many different pictures from the one photo as I could. When I pieced them all together it looked like a dogs breakfast! So I cut them up and pieced it with other fabrics in an improvisational way. This became the background for the birds and reeds.

These are only sneak peaks. You can see it in its entirety at my solo exhibition at The G.R.A.I.N store, Nathalia (Victoria, Australia) from October 5th until the 25th of November. 

A big thank you to another local artist and naturalist, Anne Timm, who travels with me and answers all my questions.

Original and digitally altered photo of reeds for background piece.