Chairs

This month the Waverley Art Quilters had to do a small A3 sized quilt inspired by a chair!!

I thought about it for a while until it was the weekend before the meeting and I had to do something. I didn't want to just put a chair in the middle of a quilt; I wanted to tell more of a story. I thought about doing a café chair with a Parisian background or a pool chair in front of a beach or pool but I didn't have the time or the photos to use.

I looked around the house and found a chair with a guitar propped against it and thought I would photograph it.

I put the photo in Photoshop and used Filter> Stylize> Find edges and printed the pattern out on my A3 printer.
I traced the pattern onto tracing paper to make it easy to get the reverse pattern for fusible web. I also traced the pattern the right way onto freezer paper because I wanted to use the freezer paper as a stencil to paint some of the chair and guitar to give it some more dimension.

 freezer paper as a stencil

I painted the frame of the chair with Tsukineko ink using the autumn leaf colour.

Freezer paper removed

I already had fusible web stuck behind the fabric so I just had to carefully cut around the edges and fuse it to the background fabric. I did the same thing with the guitar.

Chair©2013 Linda Steele

It is all raw edge, I just stitched around the edge with a free motion straight stitch. This was a change for me because I usually satin stitch around the edges, but I have been noticing that a lot of Art Quilters don't do that now.

Once again it was amazing to see the variety of quilts at the meeting. There were so many different chairs and so many different ideas and techniques.

Bye for now,
Linda

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Last month the Waverley Art Quilters studied Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928).

He was an architect who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but he is also known for his furniture design, particularly chairs.
Mackintosh was commissioned to design the new Glasgow School of Art and as well as being the architect he designed the entire interior including the furniture and stained glass windows.

He met his wife Margaret MacDonald at the Glasgow School of Art and together with her sister Francis MacDonald and her husband Herbert MacNair; they began to exhibit together and were known as The Four.

Mackintosh admired the Japanese  style of clear simple lines and although known as an Art Nouveau designer, I think that he was ahead of his time as he designed with restraint (similar to the yet undiscovered Art Deco style).

He died in London of throat and tongue cancer when he was 60 years old.

He was well known for his rose design and I found my quilt quite easy to make up for a change. I fused some narrow black stripes on the side and free hand drew a rose and a couple of stems with leaves.

Mackintosh © 2013 Linda Steele



I zig zagged around the edges of the rose to give it some definition and I was going to do the stems in green when I thought that it might give a more stained glass look if I did it in black. I think that it looks better that way.

Just by chance I had taken a photo of the quilt before I quilted it and it looks so flat. The quilting really does make the quilt. It is 12" x 16".

Mackintosh unquilted

Bye for now,
Linda

Cohuna Retreat

Last weekend I travelled to Cohuna to teach at their annual retreat. The retreat has been going for 10 years and some people have been to every one. I stayed at the comfortable Cohuna Motel, which has an old fashioned country charm. Every bed has its own teddy in case you are feeling lonely and need someone to talk to.

I was amazed when I saw the bathroom tiles because they were the very same tiles that were in the house where I grew up. It brought back many fond childhood memories of laying in the bath and trying to see different pictures in the shapes.

I was teaching two, one day classes. On the Saturday I taught Beginners Machine Quilting. On Sunday I taught my Beyond Beginners Machine Quilting class.

Beginners Machine Quilting

I forgot to take a photo of the Sunday class, it was a big class and we were very busy perfecting our quilting.

On Saturday night after dinner the local drama group entertained us with some jokes.

I was thrilled when Pat showed me her finished crazy quilting from last year's retreat. Pat has done some beautiful embroidery and had it framed.

Pat with her crazy patchwork
 

Here is a detail shot of her lovely work.

Cohuna is up in northern Victoria and it hadn't rained for over seven months and they were very glad of the constant rain that fell on Saturday. They had over 3 inches and it fell just in time for the farmers.

The other tutors were Mariya Waters, Michele Hill, Dijanne Cevaal, Annette Blake and Jan Preston. On the Sunday afternoon the committee gave all the tutors a bag of produce from the local area.

There were at least 8 shops in attendance with so much wonderful stock to tempt us. I bought some wonderful batiks from Gail's Patchwork Emporium whose shop in Sebastopol burnt down and couple of years ago. She has rebuilt and has been trading again for 5 months.

Here is a photo of Michele Hill who bravely got up at the dinner to tell us a funny joke.

Michele Hill

 Click on Michele's name and you will be taken to her blog to find out more about the wonderful weekend. Michele took a lot more photos than I did.

Thank you to the committee for having me back in Cohuna again and to the enthusiastic students who booked into my class. We had a fun time and it was lovely to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones.

Now that I am home I have to prepare for my 5 days of teaching at the Ballarat Quilt at the Winter School. I am also behind with my Waverley Art Quilters homework!! There is always plenty to do.

Bye for now,
Linda

Teaching

I have been very busy lately with my teaching. Last month I taught my Beyond Beginners Quilting class at Wonga Park Community House and we were so busy that I forgot to take any photos but they were a lovely group of ladies that I first met last year in  my beginners class. They had obviously been practising because they did some lovely work in the class.

On the Mother's Day weekend I taught at the Phillip Island Patches Weekend. This time I taught a two day Crazy about Australia class. The Phillip Island Retreat is very famous for being a friendly and fun time and this year was no exception. It was an extra special year because they have been going for 25 years! They had a silver theme to celebrate the 25 years and there were a few extra treats added to the weekend to celebrate.

At the Saturday night dinner people were encouraged to dress up in silver and here is a photo of myself and some friends in silver.

All the tutors had to pick some favourite outfits and so here is a photo of the winners and the tutors.

My Crazy about Australia class all worked very hard and did some beautiful stitching. The one thing about sewing by hand is that it is slow and so I provided a kit for the crazy piecing this time so we could have more time for doing the embroidery.

Crazy about Australia Class
 

We had a lovely time and the weather was very warm for May. We were well fed with delicious meals and snacks, the committee had worked very hard to make sure that everyone had a wonderful time.

Tutors and Committee

At the special Mother's Day breakfast we were all given a silver pen with a little torch on the end with Phillip Island Retreat printed on it.

We were also given a bag full of fabric, thread, ribbon and sewing accessories, unfortunately I can't show you a photo because I was being too efficient when I arrived home and packed everything away before I could take a photo.

Thank you to the wonderful committee, tutors and students for making my time at Phillip Island so enjoyable.

Last weekend I taught at the Cohuna retreat but this post is long enough, so I'll write about that tomorrow.

Bye for now,
Linda

Reflections

I belong to the Waverley Art Quilters and every month we study a different artist or technique. Last month our topic was Reflections.

I could do an entire series on reflections. I am fascinated by them and there are so many ways to put a reflection on a quilt. If I had more time I would do little samples of all the ways I could think of the make a reflection.

Shades of fabric
Paint
Pencils
Tulle
Organza
Raw edge
Applique
Piecing

I think that I will put this idea on my to-do list. Maybe after my latest quilt is finished!

Anyway, as usual I was pressed for time and had to make a decision quickly and sew it up in time for our meeting. I went through my photos and found one of a pelican. It is amazing how many times I have taken a photo in the past and focused on the bird or landscape and cut off the reflection!!

My photography is definitely improving but I was coming from a very low standard!

Reflections © 2013 Linda Steele

I used the fusible raw edge method and it was actually more time consuming than it might look. I printed out the photo on the computer and drew up the main shapes and then blew up the drawing to A3 size and printed it out. I am lucky enough to have an A3 printer at home.

I thought I had a good range of batik fabrics at home but I found that I was lacking the very lights and a lot of my batiks are plain and I think that a small pattern gives a bit more texture and interest.

It looks as if I have to do a bit more shopping!

The hardest part was trying to get the proper value change to make the reflection look realistic.

Reflection detail

I could have taken a lot more time and trouble with this quilt. In fact it was taking so long to choose the fabrics and cut out the pieces I ended up simplifying my original drawing.

I used a metallic thread to quilt the water and reflection but it doesn't seem to show up in the photo.
At least I managed to get it done in time for our meeting.

Bye for now,
Linda

Charmed-Heart Block

Every two months I receive a little charm for my charm bracelet and a matching block pattern and fabric from the ladies at Quilted Crow.

The latest charm was a little heart. It's hard to believe that the charm is actually made using real fabric; I wouldn't want to sew one that small.

Heart Charm

It didn't take long to sew up the matching block this time especially using foundation piecing which I love doing.

Heart Block

The fabrics that they sent me this time were exactly the same fabrics that were in the charm.
I don't do a lot of traditional patchwork these days. I am mainly sewing crazy quilts or art quilts and so I am really enjoying participating in this charmed mail out.


Bye for now,
Linda

Round Robin is complete!

I was very excited when a parcel arrived at my house a couple of weeks ago because I knew it was my Round Robin block finally coming home to me.

I had never participated in a Round Robin before because I had heard some bad stories in the past about quilt round robins and how people had been let down by others by not getting their work finished on time and some substandard work. That was not the case in the Southern Cross Crazies group. They are all very good embroiderer's.

Can you remember what my block looked like when I sent it off last year?

Round Robin base block

Prepare to be amazed!! I feel so lucky!!

Round Robin finished block

There is so much beautiful embroidery on the block, I have to show you the detail photos.

Stump work beetle in centre

Bottom left corner

Bottom right corner

Top left corner

Top right corner

Beaded Spider

Hedgehog

It's a beautiful block isn't it? I feel quite humbled that these wonderful women took the time to do such beautiful embroidery on my block.

So there was no need for me to feel worried about participating in the Round Robin. I got to know some wonderful women on line who have the same interests as me and who knows we might even meet in person one day. The other advantage was that I got to work on different blocks and different colours from my usual ones and it wasn't very demanding on my time.

By the way, the Southern Cross Crazies is a Yahoo group who always welcomes new members, so join in the fun if you are interested.

Bye for now,
Linda