When your friend loves pink shoes and it's her turn to get a birthday quilt you gather your friends, buy some bright fabric and make her a shoe quilt.

Australian Newzealand Art Quilters display at Quiltfest on the Goldcoast, Queensland.

I belong to the online group for quilt artists that live in Australia or New Zealand, or are citizens of these countries, living elsewhere.

It was a thrill to see the display of their journal quilts while I was at the Goldcoast with the SotAq09 exhibition.

Well done girls, great work this year and of course they are all being busy making this years journals.

An article about my involvement in the State of the Art quilt 09 on display at Craftest on the Goldcoast was in the local paper this week and I was thrilled with the job they did.

The quilt in the background is the new piece I am working on - guess there's no keeping it to myself. The photographer liked it as a background.

The exhibition is now over and was a great success and is on its way to Townsville for display at Craftfest on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of April.

This is my piece from the exhibition.

I took a photo of a pot plant, cropped the photo then played with the colours using Paint Shop Pro, experimenting with the programm not planning to turn it into a quilt. Then I had a thought, very dangerous sometimes.

I copied the photo into a work doc then printed a black and white photo, (using 3x3 in page layout) which then became my pattern. The outlines were highlighted with black marking pen, I then traced pieces using fusible webbing and ironed them to selected fabrics.

This was a fun project, different from anything I've done before and I'd like to do another one and experiment more.

Dyeing Workshop

these photos were taken last month during a workshop I ran for Queensland Quilters. I love watching colour emerge amidst a bundle of plain white fabric, and enjoy the excitement people show when they see what they've done.

The pieces in this photo are low water immersion, paint with dye and experimenting with different utensils to apply dye with fabric flat on the table.

It was a fun day and there were 2 very welcome men in the group.

One of several quilts I'm working on to send off to the Bushfire people. This is helping clean out my stash and will hopefully make someone feel good.

My Friend Dot needs 1 mtr of this fabric to finish her quilt.

Any help will be gratefully recieved.

New Bags

I've been busy making bags for sale and plan to take them to a local shop to sell on my behalf.

I even thought of going to the markets and having a fun day occasionally, with a stall and some time out in the sun. The pattern for one of these bags sold well and I'm hoping to have some luck and sell a few.

Might try a once a month thing, I did try marketing once before (not with bags) but only made enough money to pay for my stall and buy lunch. therefore I'm not altogether sure if it would be a good idea.

there are also a couple of notebooks that have been covered that will be up for sale. I gave these as Christmas presents to friends and they were very much appreciated.

Qld Quilt Show

It was a thrill to get a phone call 10 days ago inviting me to the presentation morning as I'd won a prize. What a long wait that was and I was full of excitement like a kid waiting for their birthday or christmas.

I really love this quilt, the sky and hills were made up from little bits of fabric I dip in the dyes to check the colours are what I want. I've been saving them a log time and waiting for a project to use them in.

This is the second house themes quilt I've made, the first one was put on the cover of the 2006 Down Under Quilts calendar my first big win and this one got 2nd place in the Art Category at the show.

I think I've got a series happening. Will there be a 3rd?

Playing

Had a good day yesterday experimenting with fabric, paper, and paint with the company of my friend Ann.

We watched the Quilting Arts TV DVD and then tried the paper embellishing. Our glue didn't work well and when the paper dried it started to lift off. We used spray glue then to reattach the paper and once layered and stitched everything will, hopefully, stay where it belongs.

I enjoyed playing with this but as with lots of things I'm not sure if I want to do it again. I'm sure I could have reproduced something very similar using dyed fabric, or commercial fabric without making a lot of mess not to mention the extra time involved in setting up and finding everything we needed. Now I can say I've tried that and maybe one day I'll want to try it again. Did enjoy painting over everything, it was a little like playing with dye.

Ann's piece on the left and mine on the right.

Travelling Quilt

I was fortunate to have a quilt selected to tour in the 'My Place' exhibition. This exhibition has 30 quilters each from Australia, New Zealand and Sth Africa and the quilts will be touring for some time.

There is a website where you can see more of the quilts in the exhibition, make yourself a coffee and enjoy.

These photos of my front door and some gum trees in the front paddock helped me design my piece.

How long has it been

Its been ages since I blogged and I'm hoping I remember how its done.

I've just got back from holidaying with hubby and have seen some wonderful country travelling from Brisbane to Innamincka and back.

I have a piece of my work going into the Down Under Quilts magazines 2009 Calender. A couple of years ago I had my entry chosen for the front cover, this time I'm going to be one of the months - don't know which one yet.

I also have a piece going into the 'My Place' exhibition which is being organized in Australia by Dijanne Cevaal. There are 30 quilts each from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa making up the exhibit which will be touring for 2 years.

A Couple of Challenges

This is my January Journal for the online group ANZartquilters. the chosen theme was 'Seasons' and I chose to do Autumn.


I layered a sheer fabric over a blue print that had leaves on it then free motion stitched tree branches and then added some tiny leaves and stitched them down randomly travelling over the piece.


The leaves under the sheer fabric were then free motion stitched to quilt the background.


The 2nd piece is my interpretation of a postcard that a friend brought home from Tuscany.


I wanted to be abstract in my interpretation and not do a copy of the postcard. I picked some of the main colours and shapes from the postcard to work with and just had fun free motion quilting all the pieces.

Bag Kits for Sale

The complete kit for the bag is now on sale for $30 dollars, reduced from $40.

Playing with Paint

I'm not a painter but have had some fun this last week learning a little more about paint and its applicaion.

This has been an interesting journey. Such a big change from the beginning of the painting to the finish, or almost finished. I think I might need a couple of small flowers in the lower left.

What Fun
I had to give out a gift along with others in my Art Quilt group. What to give is always a problem for me, others seemed to know instantly what they were going to have for their parcels. While I was dyeing with a friend I suddenly thought it might be fun to play with dye and some scraps of wadding.
I also dyed string, yes string, and tied the wadding up with coloured string pieces. Everyone seemed happy with their gift (as I was with theirs) some even thought I'd been felting.

Dyed Wadding really looks lovely and I'm looking forward to playing with it some more.
I made a small bag with one of the pieces and added lots of lovely threads and some of the dyed string to decorate.

Allyson's Dyeing Day

My friend had a day playing with dyes and fixed a white skirt that had picked up some colour from something else (?) in the wash.
I'm waiting for a picture of her wearing the skirt, it looked really lovely.

What I've been working on

The orange dyed fabric has free motion quilting vase and flowers. Trying to do some whole cloth work just to see what happens. I think I need different threads so the stitching stands out more without me having to overstitch too much.

The stitchery has been going to quilting group with me for some time and is finally finished. Now to add a binding or turn it into a cushion, I'm leaning towards the cushion at the moment.

Tried my hand at painting with dyes, I'm not a painter but I'm quite happy with the way this turned out. Good fun doing free motion stitching to highlight.

Some of my favourite photos from our trip


I haven't done a lot of work since I've been home, I think I've caught the travelling bug big time and would like to head off again.














I love the colours in the water picture, so true


of Australian landscape. A place to stop for a quiet cuppa in the middle of nowhere.


A beautiful sunset.













Doors on a tin building at Sunrise.


What could be better than 2 brolgas?







Driving down the road and finding a whole flock. sight to behold I can tell you.

Playing with Photos

Original, First Play, Second Play,

Its interesting playing with photo programs its like your seeing something through different eyes

Good Morning

The things you see on early morning walks.