Sick

There is never a good time to be sick but last week the timing was even worse than usual. I have been sick with a horrible cold and a hacking cough and am only just starting to get better.

 My daughter has had to make hasty alternative arrangements for someone else to mind my granddaughter, Savannah. We certainly don't want her to get sick again because she had a cold and ear infection last month.

My cold also meant that I was unable to go to the Victorian Quilters Showcase this year. I was very disappointed because I have never missed a show since I started quilting. So I have no photos to show of this year's show. I'll have to wait for the Vic Quilters magazine to see the photos of the winning quilts. I do know that Sugy Kim won Best of Show with her quilt A Journey to Nirvana and you can see a photo of her quilt and a list of the other prize winners on the Victorian Quilters Website.

I have been taking it easy trying to keep warm and get over the cold as quickly as possible. A friend of mine gave me series 1 and 2 of the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries which is an Australian series that has been a huge hit here.

The costumes are absolutely beautiful and the show is set in the 1920's so there are many Art Deco features in the sets. My daughter even gave me a Miss Fisher plate for Mother's Day.

I haven't just been watching the DVD's though, I have still been doing some sewing.

Hopefully this will be the last cold that I will catch this year, only one more month of winter to go and then the weather should start to warm up again.

Bye for now,
Linda

Craft and Quilt Fair 2015

The Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair begins on Thursday 23rd July and ends on Sunday 26th. It is open from 9am to 4.30pm daily and is held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 2 Clarendon Street, South Wharf.

It is always a wonderful event especially as the Victorian Quilters Showcase is held there every year.

I was helping Vic Quilters with the judging over the weekend and there is going to be such a wonderful display of quilts for you to see.

As well as the many shops and new quilts there is also the Best of Australia Quilts on Show and the AQC Challenge quilts - True Blue that we can enjoy again as well as many other displays.

Linda White- Best of Australia 2015

True Blue Mates- Yvonne Chapman

I'll be there on Sunday.

Bye for now,
Linda

Melinda Harper Exhibition

The Waverley Art Quilters met at the Heide Museum of Modern Art to see the exhibition titled Colour Sensation: The Works of Melinda Harper.

Even at 10 o'clock in the morning it was very busy but the 12 of us managed to get seats in the Cafe for a coffee before we entered the exhibition.

As we entered the exhibition we were greeted with a riot of colour, it was quite overwhelming at first after being outside on a grey winter's day.

Melinda Harper

It didn't take long for us to adjust to the vibrant paintings and start to appreciate Melinda's dynamic work.

None of Melinda Harper's painting have names so they were all Untitled which was shame, but she has been so prolific, coming up with names for them all must have been too much.

Melinda Harper

Melinda Harper

You can see from the paintings how quilt like they are, especially when you consider the current trend of Modern Quilts, although the modern quilts tend to have more negative space.

Melinda Harper

My photos do not do these wonderful paintings justice because they are quite large and the colour can sometimes almost pulse with life.

Although Melinda Harper is known as a painter she also does screen printing and textiles and there was a room devoted to this work. 

Here are a couple of her embroideries, but they are still very much in her style.

Melinda Harper Embroidery

Melinda Harper Embroidery

We all felt so inspired after being surrounded by so many colourful paintings of squares, stripes, circles and triangles that it was almost sad to leave the exhibition.

Here is a photo of us having a wonderful time, although there are 4 of our members missing from the photo.

The Waverley Art Quilters

Don't we look gorgeous and happy? They are such a wonderful, supportive group of talented women and I am very glad to know them all.

The Works of Melinda Harper is on at the Heide Museum of Modern Art until the 25th October and so there is still plenty of time to see the exhibition if you live in Melbourne, Australia or are here for a visit.

Bye for now,

Linda

Queensland Holiday part 2

Last week I wrote about our visit to the theme parks on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
 We also went to the Brisbane Art Gallery, it was a lovely sunny day and we walked around the beautiful and well set out Arts precinct. I really enjoyed the Art Gallery and saw works by artists we have studied with the Waverley Art Quilter's group. I can remember seeing a Margaret Preston and Sydney Long painting as well as many others.

My husband took a photo of me in a modern work called Woods 111 by Shigeo Toya, was an abstract forest.

Brisbane Art Gallery

One day we drove about an hour inland to Tamborine Mountain. It was a really beautiful area and we went on the Rain-forest Sky-walk which was a 1.5km walk through the rain forest as well as bridges that take you high into the tree canopies. Because it was winter none of the flowers or butterflies were out but it was still a lovely walk.

Tamborine Mountain Rain-forest

We also went on another walk that led to Curtis Falls, apparently you can hear Lyrebirds in the winter but we didn't. We were very excited to see a scrub turkey though.

Curtis Falls

We were very lucky to be in time for the glow worm caves tour, although you weren't allowed to take photos.

When people think of Queensland they think of the beaches and theme parks so it was good to explore another side of Queensland.

We walked on the beach that was across the road from our apartment most days and one evening I tried to get some sunset shots, because there was a really beautiful glow in the sky.

I always take some sewing away with me and often never get any done but I did do a little bit of sewing this trip. It looks funny to be sewing in sunglasses but it was very basic embroidery.

That's our holiday over, but I did come home feeling refreshed and very excited to get back to sewing, especially as it's the school holidays which means two weeks of sewing without having to mind Savannah. As much as I love her she does restrict my sewing time.

Bye for now,
Linda