Vision 2020

I spent the last few weeks before Christmas working on a piece for Brenda Gael Smith's latest exhibition called Vision 2020. She announced the idea a few months before and as usual I never have an idea straightaway.

Then in late November, I got the idea of people having a vision or thinking about the future of coral reefs, as they are currently in danger. I wanted to use a face and took a few photos of myself that I wasn't very happy with. I went to the shopping centre with my daughter and her children to get 4- year-old Jack's haircut. He hates haircuts and you can hear his screams all over the centre. When it was finally over, I took a photo of Jack. Jack doesn't know how to act in front of a camera and instead of just smiling he did this funny side to side look.

Anyway, it was just a fluke but it was the perfect face for my quilt, Fragile Future.

Fragile Future ©2020 Linda Steele

I was absolutely thrilled to find out that I was one of the accepted entries and they will be on display at AQC (Australasian Quilt Convention) in April and then going on to tour around Australia and overseas.
Working on that quilt meant that I didn't make anything for the AQC challenge called Going Green this year. I decided to take the pressure off myself and I am glad that I did.

I also received the news that my quilt Magical Coral Reef got accepted into Gems of the Ocean in Oregon, USA and it will be on display there in February.

Magical Coral Reef ©2019 Linda Steele

The other good news was that one of my contemporary quilts called Connections-The Teenage Years got accepted into Art Quilt Elements 2020 in Pennsylvania USA and will be on display there in March.

Connections-The Teenage years by Linda Steele

Just in case you think I live a charmed life, I have just heard that I didn't get into the Australian Textile Art Award, so I certainly don't get into everything I try out for. It was just a lucky start to the year.

Bye for now,
Linda

Happy 2020

We are only 3 weeks into 2020 and I have had a busy but fun time.
We had a lovely family Christmas but on the 1st of Jan it was time for my youngest son Cam to go back to Japan. He has been teaching English over there and his 12 months will be up at the end of March. Then he will come home again. He is enjoying living in Japan but he says he is ready to get on with his life in Australia now. Here I am saying goodbye to Cam at the airport.

On the 4th of Jan it was my father in law's 90th birthday, so the family minus Cam were back together again.

I had a lovely day with my two daughters and 3 grandchildren at Chelsea beach.

The flyers arrived from Vista Print to advertise my upcoming solo exhibition in Kyabram.

My phone kept going flat and I had to start charging it twice a day! It was time to gt a new phone and I got the I Phone 11 which I really love.

It takes wonderful photos. We have had terrible bush-fires here in Australia over the summer. Luckily I live in Melbourne and was at least 3 hours drive away. We did have some horrible smoke haze for a few days. Luckily, a cool change arrived which helped the fire fighters get the fires under control. One minute is was really hot and next minute we had a hail storm.

I took the photo above with my new phone and was pleased with how it photographed the hail.

I love everything about my phone except for one thing that I had heard nothing about before. Apple have changed the photos to a Heic file and Windows computers do not recognise that type of file!!
I was shocked when I uploaded my photos to the computer and they were all blank. I Googled it and had to download an app that lets Windows PC open the photos.
Then I tried to open the photos in Photoshop where I crop and resize my photos, to find that Photoshop cannot open a Heic file either. Then I had to download another program that changed the photos to a jpg!

I do not know why Apple decided to be so difficult. Anyway, that's the only drawback to my new phone.

I also planned the program for Waverley Art Quilters this year, it's all about working in a series, that should be fun and hopefully successful.

I have been busy sewing as much as I can and well as socialising with the grandchildren. I have had good news too and have successfully got into 3 exhibitions. I tell more about that in my next post.

My calendar is already pretty full for this year but I can handle it! Here's to a good 2020.

Bye for now,
Linda