This is my latest offering for ‘Latitude quilts’. The theme was ‘The sounds of silence’.

‘All is Silent…’ , by Linden Lancaster c2013

The ‘Sounds of Silence’ was a tricky theme, as there are very few situations where there is no sound. What is it like to be deaf? Is it silent on the moon? Then I thought of the saying ‘All is Silent on the Western Front’. Being an avid reader of first and Second World War history, I remembered the pictures of pastures and woodlands turned into a muddy wasteland. This piece is meant to reflect the silence after the catastrophic winter battles on the Somme. At the recent anniversary of 9/11, I heard about a man who dug his way up and out of a collapsed tower. When he crawled out and looked around, he said what he remembered most was the absolute silence.

Using some reference pictures from books I drew up my own composition. I decided to have a large land mass and small sky. Using this drawing I made a freezer stencil mask. To reflect the sombre mood, there is no colour. I chose a piece of mottled hand dyed grey fabric as my starting point.

I then discharged all the parts I wanted white (the sky and the craters). I then masked them off and applied a shiva stick rubbing over various handmade collograph plates. These were made previously with things such as toothpicks and lace glued to cardboard and varnished. The reflections were added with Inktense pencils. The trees, wheel and fence posts were fused on lastly.

I usually thread paint my pieces with a stabilizer before I layer them up and quilt them. This time I decided to go straight to the quilting. I used horizontal lines in metallic and rayon threads for the puddles. To offset this, the sky was done in vertical lines. The ground was quilted in a heavier variegated thread (Valdini) in a squiggly pattern that got smaller and more horizontal towards the horizon.

I tried to add a canon gun with the wheel, but it just didn’t look right. This perhaps would have added more weight to the theme. I will also experiment more with the barbed wire- I executed it with bobbin drawing this time and I’m not sure whether this quite worked. There must be a better way!

This was a quick and satisfying quilt to make and one I would like to make into a larger and more considered piece. This would be especially significant as the centenary of the first landing at Gallipoli (and subsequent First World War events) is coming up in 2015. My great grandfather was in the first landing of Australian soldiers on April 25^th, now our national day of remembrance, Anzac Day.

All is Silent… detail

This piece has come from material collected from a holiday I had in Halls Gap a few years ago. It was about eight months after the terrible Victorian Black Saturday fires of 2009. I was taken by the contrast between the blackened trunks and the bright wattle seedlings beneath.I have incorporated some new techniques including monoprinting (background), confetti applique and bobbin drawing (wattle).

18 in x 36 in

Detail

‘Con anima’ (with spirit)
Every Single Day my life is filled with music…

My intention for this piece was firstly, to break out of my usual way of working and to try some new techniques. I had to keep reminding myself of this as I felt myself drifting back to trying to make a perfect thing.
Being a lover of music, I wanted to convey the feeling of being uplifted into a different world outside of myself. I wanted the piece to be painterly and of an ephemeral quality. I used elements, such as the bird flying upwards, indicating the spirit, and a strain of music, which is escaping from its boundaries, to represent this concept. I cannot imagine spending even one single day without listening to music!

The quilt is a whole cloth created in two layers; one cotton, and one silk organza (I have been keen to work with transparency for a while). I was guided by the techniques mapped out in Melanie Testa’s ‘Inspired to quilt’. Each layer is mono printed with thickened dyes with various resists. The top layer bird and music is hand painted. I made eight at the one time and experimented on each. This was far too many, as I soon got worn out free-motioning all the backgrounds. Next time I could make smaller samples.

One problem was how to make the notes stand out, whilst keeping them in balance with the other elements. I ended up cheating a bit and darkening them with a black fabric marker. I had the same issue with the words. The butterfly was not in the original design and kept vying for attention- I had to knock him back a bit with a stencil brush and grey Shiva stick! I really like the way the quilting follows the brush strokes in the organza; I’ll definitely do that again.
It took a while to work out the best way to quilt the stave. I didn’t feel monofilament stippling would be very interesting and finally settled with shimmering rayon in a horizontal curling pattern. I would have liked to add some hand embroidery, but I thought the background was busy enough with the leaves.

I will definitely incorporate more of these new techniques and materials into my work. I’m hooked on mono printing!

This quilt was made for a challege as part of an online quilt group called ‘Latitude Quilts’. The theme was’Carnival’. This quilt is based upon a photo I took at our local country town’s New Year’s Eve Carnival.
Nearly everyone has had an encounter with these laughing clowns. You might of found them cheerful, magical or downright creepy! I could not resist representing this lovely moment with mother and child. There was a lot of reflected light bouncing around and I loved the way the shiny fake clowns contrasted with the softness of the mother and child.
I used a collage process, first colouring the fabric with crayons and pencils and then fusing all the pieces into place. It was then finished off with thread sketching and quilting.

Here are a few pics of the latest quilt, a commission for St. Mary of the Angels SC, Nathalia.

I have been adding leaves, to soften the tree trunks and add perspective. The background is being thread sketched with a selection of variegated threads, which is taking a long time due to the large size.

It has been a challenge at times getting the quilt through the machine; I have to do the sketching sideways and upside-down! This is definitely an ‘ugly’ and therefore, scary stage. I’m wondering whether to add a darkish border.

I’m not sure about the title of the quilt….’Red Gums in Flood’ does not sound very interesting–perhaps I will come up with something else by the time I have finished it.

I am currently working on a commission for St. Marys of the Angels Secondary College, Nathalia (where I work part-time). The piece is for a large wall space in a conference room. I decided to use a long horizontal landscape format, showing off the natural bushland around Nathalia, mainly River Red Gums. I have been thinking to do something with trees and water, with reflections etc. for a while. I roughly sketched my idea of the trees in water, (which was approved). I then took some photos and sketched out the drawing in more detail. I then took it to a copy shop to be enlarged.

Funny enough, two weeks after this Nathalia had its worst flood since the 70s and the school was closed  for a couple of weeks!

I think it is always a good idea to keep thinking, looking for inspiration and collecting ideas, even if you are busy with other projects.

I have had a few ‘lulls’ – at the moment I am trying to work out how to get the transparency of reflections on the water. Please note that the following is only half way through finished. Unfortunately I have run out of the wonderful key fabric for the trees, which I brought a few years ago. I also used this fabric for two other Barmah Forest quilts.

I have so many people ask me if I have a website – now I do!