Craft, Quilt and Stitch Show

Day 2 of our Perth sojourn and Carly headed off to the state library to do some uni work online and finish an assignment.

I jumped on a train to the craft quilt and stitch show at the showgrounds. As I got off the train I started chatting to a lovely lady who was there for her second day, so she showed me the way. The first person I saw as I came into the fair was the ‘infamous’ Maggie Grey. It was so exciting to meet her and Clive in the ‘flesh’ after chatting online and admiring her textile prowess for so long. After meeting her I can say she is the one of the most open, friendly and welcoming people I have ever met. It was quite amusing that she continued to call me ‘aussie’ over the next few days.

(This photo was actually taken at the workshop on the Tuesday)

Maggie gave a wonderfully professional talk about her textile work (despite the technical difficulties) to packed houses, and demonstrated at the Thread studio stall, surrounded by her beautifully crafted creations.

The first and most obvious port of call at the fair was the emporium of “The Thread Studio“; Dale and Ian’s stall was massive!!! Of course that meant all the more goodies to tempt you with and of course I managed to find some (well quite a few) items that were absolutely necessary. It makes it so much easier to pick out the colours in the flesh. 

After Carly had flown home I amused myself making a wrapped cord (a la Effie Mitrofanis) with one of the Thread Studio’s beautifully dyed stranded cottons.

Read on for “The Workshop!” 

Quilts galore

I was going to call this post ‘just a quickie’ as it’s late and I’m tired after a couple of big days in Melbourne, but thought better of it.

Thursday we took the school on an excursion (two hours driving each way) to the Ceres Environmental Education Centre in Brunswick. This is an area in the inner suburbs which is teaching sustainability by example. There is a fantastic cafe with yummy food, mostly grown on site and many environmentally friendly systems operating, showcasing recycling, solar power, water conservation etc. We all had a wonderful, if tiring day.

Friday I had to pop up to Melbourne once again to uni, so I took the opportunity to drop into the Australasian Quilt Convention at the Royal Exhibition Buildings. Unfortunately this building is too cavernous to air condition so it was nice to stop every now and then in front of  a fan as it was a very warm day. Dale’s Embellisher Challenge was on display with some really lovely and interesting pieces. I booked in for an Embellisher workshop to have a try at the Babylock. We made the scarf below which was great fun.

There were also some lovely textured quilts in amongst the more traditional styles. I took a few close up photos of the texture and stitching and also enjoyed seeing Dijanne Cevaal’s beautiful art ‘in the flesh’.

 

 

And finally some purchases: some rubbing plates for shiva sticks, beautiful hand dyed silk thread and silk carrier rods from Dale (Dale had some great pieces and little books made from the carrier rods that she showed in her little talk/demo); some cotton lace which will be used to add texture; inkjet printable fabric; some lovely NZ batiks (from Tulis textiles); and I also bought a bias strip maker, a beading foot for my sewing machine, a pendant threadcutter to use on the plane and a little bunny Japanese button for Claudia.

Time for bed

Cheers

Angels and stuff

A progress report on what’s been happening. I have been working/out/socialising so much there hasn’t been much time to ‘art’.

I have signed on for a six week challenge at the local gym. We have bootcamp sessions Monday and Friday at 6am, keep a food diary, are expected to do weights sessions another three times a week and some form of exercise on the other two days!!! To fit this in around work, four children, uni and arting is quite a feat (but I’m working on it). I have managed to do some of this but I’m not at peak capacity yet. It’s a matter of utilising every spare 40 minutes and squeezing it all together. Thus I’ve done a weight session on the way home from work, after dropping children off, prior to picking up etc. Also needing to fit housework and cooking in there somewhere. Luckily the eldest daughter is very good at grabbing a load of washing and hanging it out (thanks Carlz).

Last weekend eldest daughter and I  toodled off to Melbourne with SIL and niece to see the stage show ‘Wicked’, a sensationally beautiful show and a fantasical story. We went to a great Japanese restaurant in Fed Square for tea and then to the Regent Theatre. We all enjoyed it immensely, though I was glad I hadn’t taken Claudia; it was a bit too scary and ‘old’ for an eight year old.

Now to arty progress. This is a mock up of the body for the ’sea angels’ (corn flake packets come in very handy for this sort of thing) standing on my wooden cheese board, which is the size I planned for the wooden base. 

I have cut the triangular pieces from pelmet vilene and have been looking for a source of ‘builder’s scrim’ sometimes called cotton tape by the plastering fraternity. Most plasterers today use fibreglass (ezy tape) which is self adhesive. I assume the cotton tape is used mainly for renovating older homes. I have decided not to use quink ink as it is a little dark, so I’m using a technique from Angie Hughes’ new book, Stitch, Cloth, Paper, Paint, which I borrowed from the library. The clearly displayed process uses tissue paper and scrim PVA’d to the vilene followed by machine stitching, gesso, paint and hand stitching.

Now a couple of photos of some op shop finds. Nikki is about to release a new laptop bag/satchel pattern (for which I have been waiting). Nikki’s bag patterns are sensational, both in style and the detailed notes which amount to a workshop on how to make each bag. At the op shop I picked up two bags, one brand new, for $2.00 each. I will cut them up for the buckles, rings, bag feet, and zippers with gorgeous zipper pulls. The webbing strap with fittings will make a perfect strap for my laptop bag. I also picked up the two macro suede pieces for footstools or cushions and the ribbed fabric for placemats (matches some I already have) for $1 each. The larger book is for Maggie’s workshops and the smaller is an interesting historical look at textiles (c1968): weaving, tapestry, spinning, batik, printing, lace making, embroidery etc. I have been following Helen Cowan’s blog on the history of English embroidery so this will be a good adjunct.

I’m off to prepare for a day in Melbourne. I have to go to uni first and then to the Australasian Quilt Convention. I’m looking forward to a few workshops to try out a variety of sewing and embellisher machines.

Cheers

Textile Group

Not a great deal of textile progress this week as I worked three days teaching. This is the postcard piece with a little FME. I thought it would be thick enough to stitch without a hoop but it did become a little puckered so I will use a hoop when I continue. Instead of a pin board in my textile corner I have it attached with magnets to the side of the steel filing cabinet. This gives the distance needed to work out where to stitch next.
This week I have been reading Margaret Rolfe’s Australian Quilt Heritage, a brief but interesting outline of the part quilts have played in Australian history from the Aboriginal Heritage to the end of the 90’s. Margaret was a presenter at last week’s Australasian Quilt Fair in Melbourne with her new book co-written with Judy Hooworth which I think may be called ‘Quilts on the Double’ (that’s what her seminar was called). I didn’t get to this session, too much to see, to much to do!!! The display quilts were sensational and included the Husqvarna Viking International Quilt competition – Imagine that and a display of vintage textiles from Japan.
The other exciting event this week was the inaugural meeting in Torquay of the Textile Group from our local Embroiderer’s Guild. This group stemmed from one of our member’s participation in last year’s TAFTA Forum at Geelong Grammar. At this stage we are a small group of 5 who will meet once a month to try out and share different techniques, working towards some items to exhibit at the annual Embroiderer’s Guild Exhibition in October. We have decided to use the postcard technique to each develop an embroidered box a la Janet Edmonds. For March we will be using some of Dale’s techniques which I tried at the Victorian Embroiderer’s Guild Summer School in Melbourne.
Cheers

Australasian Quilt Show

What a shame they have to cram so many people into so small a space. I attended the Australasian Quilt Show in Melbourne for the first time on Friday and I have to say I was very disappointed with the venue. It wasn’t even the weekend and it was so choc a bloc you could hardly move. After attending the Craft and Quilt shows at Jeff’s Shed (aka New Melbourne Exhibition Centre) which has a huge space I have to say I won’t go again unless it’s moved to a bigger venue. They had some big names but the seminar rooms were way too small and access in and out was very poor. However I did attend some seminars. Dale Rollerson did a great show and tell but wasn’t game to pass around her art peices as she’d had some go missing the day before. It was good to see her new Marrakesh work in the flesh and I bought some nice Oliver Twist perle cotton from her stall. Have to email off an order this week for the items she didn’t bring with her.

I also bought, from the top, antique Japanese silk and cotton pack, silk hanky, some lace to paint/dye and a pack of silk fibres in a luscious colour. And the gorgeous braids below were irresistable. I can feel some bags coming along with these trims for pressies, I’ll have to check out the web for some freebie patterns.

The other seminar I managed to get into was a booked one with Bernina, which I did to try out their new machine. (I’m checking out some machines before I buy a new one) At the seminar we made this cute as chicken, which has a zip at the back (with the tassel on) so you can place treasures/presents/easter eggs inside. We FME over the fabric, sewed on the face, beak and comb, then inserted the zip. The pattern is just a rectangle with one side twice as long as the other. (This one was 10 inches x 5 inches). This will be daughter No 2’s easter present, so now I just have to make 3 more!! One will be funky fabric, minus the chook bits for daughter No 1 and then there will be two boy style ones. Should have some appropriate fabric in my stash.
I forgot, in my rush to go out for dinner, to include Susan Lenz’s lovely, creative ATC which she sent from the US, in my last post. It is an embellished background with velvet leaves and beading. I intend to pop it into a little box frame above my work area as inspiration. Susan is working on a very interesting installation at the moment so do visit her blog or the Cyber Fyber site.
Cheers