Working in a Series- Seasons

In our Art Quilt group, we have decided to try working in a series again. This time we were to do a series of four quilts over four months. I chose The Seasons. I wanted to start doing some fabric printing again and thought it would be a good way to begin.

I started to print some PFD (prepared for dyeing fabric) in various oranges, yellows and reds using the gel plate and some fabric paints. I was planning to work on Autumn first.

Then Charlotte Scott from New Zealand came to our group to run a class on printing leaves and painting organza to make an art quilt. I enjoyed the class, especially as I had been meaning to get back into this type of work. I made a small quilt, that I called The Wetlands in class.

The Wetlands

Well, you know what it is like when you do a class, afterwards you pack everything away and forget what you did.

I changed my mind and decided to do my little series using her technique, so I could remember how I did it.

I  printed leaves or a stencil on white fabric and overlaid some painted organza and some appliqué to create each one.

I started with Summer.

Summer

Then I tried Spring, I couldn't help but think that the organza dulled the quilt down a bit, so I added more little pink blossoms to try and brighten it up.

Spring

Next came Winter, I didn't use leaves this time, I stencilled on some winter trees with bare branches.

Winter

Finally, I did Autumn, the season that I was going to start with and I used some of those fabrics that I had printed for the autumn leaves.

Autumn

It has been a busy year and to tell you the truth, it was a struggle to get these little quilts done. They are only 12inches square.

Today, I listened to a talk by Jane Dunnewold, near the end she said that if creating the work does not give you joy, then why are you doing it?

I have lost some of my joy because I have too many commitments. I have decided to cut out two of the responsibilities that I have next year. I have to be brave and say no.

I have some good news, I have won a prize in the Sydney quilt show. I looked at flights to go there for the day, but it would have been so expensive and travelling to the airport and back is an ordeal so I have decided not to go.

Bye for now,

Linda

Memories of France

 The Waverley Art Quilters were supposed to meet this month for the first time in 2024. Unfortunately, there was a big summer storm which took out a lot of people's power. I had to cancel the meeting at the last meeting because the venue had no power. I emailed everyone and messaged as many as I could but unfortunately four people turned up anyway. It seems that not everyone checks their emails regularly.

Our Christmas holiday challenge was called Memories of France. I had bought the challenge fabric at the European Patchwork Meeting in France last year. The fabric is called Eclectic Elements by Tim Holtz. We all had a different colour accent strip to use, mine was Olive Green.

Challenge Fabric

This year I have decided to work in a 12" x 12" square format for a change. I wasn't happy with my first attempt, it was too brown, busy and dark.

Memories of France 1

I had printed photos of a door and some windows and flowers from my photos of France, so there were plenty of memories but it didn't remind me of France.

I stared at it for a month or two until I finally decided to try again. This time I simplified the design and used pink instead of brown.

Memories of France 2

I like the second one much better. It is light and pretty and reminds me much more of my time in France last year.

A member of my sewing group has moved down to the beach and we decided that we would all drive down and spend the day with her during the holidays. They have Magpies, Kookaburras and Parrots visiting all the time, they seem so tame. I loved having the opportunity to take some close up photos.

I've always loved birds, maybe I will make some quilts inspired by these photos!

Bye for now,

Linda

Waverley Art Quilters

 Last week, the Waverley Art Quilters had their final meeting for the year. We showed each other our latest challenge and everyone brought a plate to share. 

One of the artists we studied this year was American Collage artist Rex Ray. He's always been a favourite of mine and I've had his book for many years.

Rex Ray Book

I was trying to do my Rex Ray inspired piece quickly before I went away to Europe. I decided to use spot fabric to sort of cheat a little and make it a quick little quilt. The photo of it is below.

 I was so disappointed, I didn't like it at all. I realised that the spot fabric was too even and perfect. There was no getting around it, I had to cut the work myself and sew around the shapes.

Here is my finished Rex Ray piece, I actually really like it. It is so different to my usual work and I love the colours.

Stepping Stones

Our final challenge for the year was Desert-scape.

I had some hand dyed fabrics left over from the class with Gloria Loughman, so I used them. 

Uluru by Linda Steele

Last week, I was guest speaker at Mornington Peninsula Patchworkers. A lady named Anne came up to me afterwards and said that she loved one of my little A3 Art Quilter quilts. It was the one from earlier this year, inspired by printmaker, Angie Lewin.

She asked if it was for sale? I was so shocked that she bought it that I asked if I could have a photo of her with the quilt.

Anne with my quilt.

Now I have had two sales in two weeks. Maybe, I'll start to mention that I sell my quilts when I do guest speaker talks.

Speaking of talks, I am the guest speaker on Saturday for the Victorian Quilters Gathering. I'd love to meet you there, if you can manage to come. Of course, it is in Victoria Australia!

I'll have to remember to wear my pearls!

Bye for now,

Linda

Angie Lewin Printmaker

 We studied printmaker Angie Lewin in the Waverley Art Quilters this month. Angie lives in England and she has a very successful career. One of the reasons we decided to study her apart from the fact her work is wonderful, it was a chance to look at how she simplifies botanical shapes.

I have had Angie Lewin's book for a few years now.

It's a wonderful book to study because it shows her drawings and her printing blocks. Actually, I have only ever looked at the photos in the book. I must put it near my bed to actually read it.

I chose one of her botanical works as inspiration.

Work by Angie Lewin

I ended up following her work more closely than I usually do. I decided to use her colours because it is a combination that I would never normally choose. I would never usually put the darkest colour up the top either.

I was going to turn it into a coral reef quilt and add fish, but in the end I decided to just use her work as a learning experience.

Inspired by Angie Lewin

I learnt that I should probably be more adventurous with colour. I also learnt that a very busy lower half of a work can balance the top dark colour.

Most of all I learnt to appreciate her work even more, because there is so much detail and work involved in her prints. Wow, these prints must take her ages to make.

Set up for AQC, the Australasian Quilt Convention starts tomorrow, it will be good to catch up with some of the interstate quilters that I haven't seen for a few years.

Bye for now,

Linda

Landscape

 We are exploring various 'Scapes' in the Waverley Art Quilters this year. We started off a bit easier using Landscapes.

I wanted to try and abstract a landscape rather than a realistic depiction. I had no access to my fabrics because they had all been packed up to make way for my new carpet. I love playing around with paper so that was what I decided to use.

I have been doing a lot of paper collages this year so my papers were still handy. 

I had been using some lettering in my collages so I had some already printed out and I printed out a photo of a tree in winter.

On a large A3 piece of paper I cut and pasted some of the lettering. My photo is me trying to make a composition with the lettering and some black and white papers. The lettering really had nothing to do with the landscape but I thought it would be a good way to make it more abstract.

I got so involved that I didn't take anymore progress photos. So this is what it looked like in the end.

Landscape Collage

 I couldn't help myself, I had to add some coloured papers in the composition. I suppose one of the advantages of our group and working small is finding out what you really like!

Well, that really didn't take long to make so I decided to make another one, especially as I was a bit disappointed with my first one.

I printed out another tree and added some of my collage papers, but to abstract it, I sliced the papers into narrow strips. The photo below is what I started with but the tree looked too stark on the white paper.

I found a pale blue paper that I had painted and put it in the paper tray of my printer and printed it out. I got that hint from a collage artist, Rebecca Chapman in the Collage Makers Summit that was held earlier this year..

As long as the paper is clean and flat, the printer doesn't mind at all.

Here is my finished collage, this one is only 10 inches square.

Landscape Collage 2

I like using the papers, no batting and quilting to worry about and nice and flat to store. However, my carpet has been installed and I can get to my fabrics now. It took quite a few days to put everything back again.

I love my new carpet, everything looks so clean and organised. I must take a photo of my improved sewing room, it's working well so far.

But I am off to grandparents day at Kinder with my granddaughter Anna, she is very excited.

Bye for now,

Linda

Moroccan Challenge

 The Waverley Art Quilters met last month for the first time in 2023. Everyone was very happy and enthusiastic to be back. They like the program that I have made for this year too.

Everyone received some fabric, braid and thread in a brown paper bag.

When I was in Marrakech last year, I took a photo of a beautiful pot and I used it as my inspiration.

Pot in Marrakech

I would have made the pot in that beautiful blue colour but because I had to incorporate that dark pink thread, I made a pink pot.

Morocco Challenge

 I put that curtain on the side, so I could include that beautiful blue colour and I could have a more interesting negative space.

It was interesting that only half the group actually did the challenge, but I also understand that. Sometimes you just need a break from working and enjoy the lovely summer holidays.

I had a really busy summer break because we have ordered new carpet for the lounge, dining, study, passage and my sewing room. So we decided to paint the rooms before the new carpet arrived. Moving furniture, tidying up and getting rid of things that I don't need anymore has taken ages. In fact, we are still working on it and the carpet gets installed in two weeks. Yikes! It has taken much longer that we thought it would.

Unfortunately, because my sewing room has been packed up, it is very hard to find things.  It will take time to set up the rooms again but it will be so good to get back to normal.

Bye for now,

Linda

Drawing Practice

 The theme for the Waverley Art Quilters this year is Back to Nature. We have a different topic every month to research and draw. Our topics for the last couple of months have been Insects and Birds.

I have enjoyed working in my sketchbook and I think I am improving with my drawing. At least it makes me do it, otherwise there is never enough time no matter how good my intentions are.

Here are some of my insect drawings. I like using a fine liner pen but I sketch lightly in pencil first until I am happy with the result.

Our most recent topic has been birds and I have found them much more challenging. I wanted to start adding some colour to my drawings. The book is only A5 size and because the drawings are not very big, I have tried using water soluble coloured pencils when I have added colour instead of paint. I've tried Derwent Inktense and Derwent Graphitint pencils.

For the yellow bird below, I bought a mini class from Design Matters TV, about drawing birds with watercolour pencils. Mine is very ordinary compared to Linda Kemshall's bird, but I have to remember that this is new to me and approach it with a beginners mind and not be too hard on myself.

I don't spend a lot of time on my drawing, but I do enjoy them. There is still a couple of weeks until our next meeting, so I think I'll try drawing a few more birds to try and get better.

Bye for now,

Linda

Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show Success

 Last weekend we had the Waverley Patchworker's Quilt Show and it was a great success. We hadn't had a show since 2018 and we didn't know if people would come or if they would still be wary of going to events.

People arrived in droves, the car park was full and some people went home and got dropped off in the afternoon by their husbands. We even had a couple of buses arrive from the country. Everyone was so glad to see a quilt show and shops too.

I had a small display of the work from our Waverley Art Quilters group.

I set up the rest of our work at the Kyabram Gallery, Victoria, that will be on display until the end of July.

There were so many beautiful quilts on display, here are just a few.

Fickle Pickle Clan by Linda Crouch

Pineapple Quilt by Naomi Hynes

The Caswell Quilt by Jan Smart

A Karen Kay Buckley design by Cheryl Meyer

Bye for now,

Linda

SAQA Haven Acceptance

 I received the wonderful news that my quilt, Melbourne Malaise was accepted into the SAQA exhibition 'Haven'. SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) is an international art quilt group and it is a big deal to be accepted.

Melbourne Malaise.

In 2020, we went into stage 4 lockdown, where we were only allowed to exercise for an hour a day within 5km of home. Even though we were surrounded by birds and flowers all we could think about were the Covid numbers and news reports. It seemed as if home was the only safe place to be. 

I thought my quilt would be a good fit for the exhibition but I was still amazed that it was accepted.

I had decided to take a month or so off from writing my blog but suddenly it is April! I have been really busy with family and also having lots of fun doing some on-line art classes.

My daughter and her family have built a new house and they had to live with us for a couple of weeks before the house was ready. It was hectic with 8 people living here and my youngest son came down with Covid, so we were short a bathroom because he had to be isolated. Anyway, we got through it and none of us caught it. He was sick for a few days with a terrible sore throat, but after 7 days he was fine.

Jack and Anna are only 5 and 3 years old so it was non stop fun and adventure, not to mention all the cooking! Jack started school and Anna started 3yo kinder and the times clashed at first so I had to help with the school runs too.

Our Art Quilters group had a holiday challenge, this is what we all received.

While I was tidying up my fabrics, I came across and lovely arty fabric that went perfectly with the neutral colours.

I put them all together and made a cover for one of my sketchbooks. Those black covered sketchbooks all look the same on the shelf, so this is a good way to tell them apart.

Unfortunately, we had a spike in Covid cases and we have only met via Zoom but this month we should meet in person for the first time this year. It will be good to see everyone.

I also went to see the Australian ballet with my daughter, it was the first performance for two years. Here we are enjoying lunch before the show.

I got my blog posts from last year made into a book and it reminded me that my blog is so handy for remembering how I do certain things, I refer to them often.

I think things have settled back into a normal pattern now and I can get back into a blog routine. I must admit that I am doing more painting than sewing lately. I am not good at it, but I love doing it. Maybe I'll get better with practice!

Bye for now,

Linda

Magazine Articles

 I've written a couple of articles for magazines lately and they were both published this month.

I wrote an article about the Waverley Art Quilter group that I run for the Victorian Quilter Magazine.

I wrote about the history of our group and how we began in 2007, mentioned some of the artists that we have studied and also talked about how we have been working in a series this year. I was thrilled when they published a 3-page article.

I also wrote an article for the New South Wales Quilting Guild. This time I wrote about how I have worked in a series this year. It was all about the Circle series that I have done, those that have read my blog will know all about it.

The glossy paper is hard to photograph well unfortunately. 

I am not in the habit of randomly writing articles for magazines, but with a shortage of articles due to the Covid 19 lockdowns, they were desperate for content. Luckily, I am used to writing for this blog so they didn't take long to write.

I have actually been asked to write another article for a different magazine and that is due next month. That is a magazine that people pay for and so I had better get on with writing it. Once I'm in the right frame of mind it doesn't take long but this one has to be longer than the previous two articles.

I posted off my Crazy quilted Christmas ornaments today, the group is thinking of having a Zoom meeting where we all open our presents!

Bye for now,

Linda