SAQA Acceptances

 I've had good news recently, two of my quilts have been accepted into SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibitions. 

The first was a regional exhibition for Australia and New Zealand called Distance and Diversity, my quilt will be travelling around to various shows and galleries for a couple of years. The first exhibition isn't open yet and so we are not allowed to show the entire quilt until after the opening. I am allowed to show a detail photo though.

Reef Revelations detail

Can you tell that the girl reading the book is my granddaughter, Savannah? I actually painted her skin and appliqued the hair and clothes. It was a very nerve-wracking day painting that face, but I was happy in the end.

 SAQA have a conference every year and this year it is a virtual conference and the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand) are the hosts. They are having a virtual quilt exhibition as well and the theme was Impressions of Oceania from Around the World. The quilt did not have to be a new quilt and people from all over the world entered, I was thrilled to have my quilt Firelight accepted.

Firelight by Linda Steele

This quilt is made from wool and it was a very different technique for me. I must get around to trying it again!

Here is a detail photo.

Firelight detail

I think that might be my last acceptance for a while unless I get onto some new work. I am still busy playing around with paint and portraits. I am learning a lot and hopefully it will eventually translate to some new quilts.

We have recently heard that AQC (Australasian Quilt Convention is going to be held in August instead of April and the Victorian Quilt Show that I coordinate has been changed from July to November. So, I have some time to get some more quilts done.

Bye for now,

Linda

New Improv Quilt

 I've been busy working on a new improv quilt but it takes so long to sew that I have to take lots of breaks. Sometimes, I don't sew anything for a couple of weeks then I get it down off the design wall and do a bit more.

Here's how I started.

Beginning my Improv

I haven't done a lot of improv so I am probably really slow compared to people who have done a lot of it. There is no pattern or plan, I just cut some fabric and then cut another piece next to it and sew it together.  I stare at the quilt and decide what to sew next.

Adding leaf shape.

Because I am using red, orange and brown fabrics, I decided to sew a leaf shape, then I have to work out how to add it to the quilt in a pleasing way.

The next photo shows the leaf sewn onto the quilt.

leaf added

Here's what the quilt top looks like now after many, many hours.

Improv quilt.

At the moment, I am thinking that this is the top left quarter of the quilt. That means there is a long way to go. I hope all this work is worth the effort. At least I'll be a lot better at piecing by the end of it.

I suppose I am slow at it because I am also busy with the portrait quilts, plus I am doing a colour course which is time consuming and I am doing some on-line painting classes.

I don't know why am doing these painting classes because I am not very good, but I am totally addicted to them. It's supposed to be good to learn new skills and keep your brain exercised! It will probably help with surface design in future quilts. Most of the classes I am doing are abstract and I am learning a lot about paint and mixing colour.

I am still planning to do another two weeks of classes with Nancy Crow next year. Who knows if that will go ahead. I suppose it depends on the Covid Vaccine and how well it works. The vaccine  has arrived in Australia this week but health care and aged care workers are getting it first, then people over 70. I'll probably get it in the third stage later in the year.

Anyway, that's what is keeping me busy these days.

Bye for now,

Linda

Fresh Fish-SAQA

 Last year, SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) put out a call for fish or fish quilts for an exhibition in Florida USA. It was actually more than textile fish, they also wanted poets to explore underwater life. It sounded like a perfect challenge for me, so I made a thread painted fish. 

My fish

I put him or her on a fabric to photograph but it is actually free standing not attached to a background.

You can read about it here.

A selected number of artists and poets were included in a book called Fresh Fish and I was thrilled to be accepted. My copy of the book has arrived.

Fresh Fish Book

Here is my fish on page 72.

My fish on page 72.

My fish is with a poem called Longshore Workers by Phyllis Wax from Wisconsin.

I received another book in the mail; every year I publish my blog posts from the previous year. It's actually a really handy resource for me as I often look up my blog books to remember how I did something or where a quilt was exhibited. 

My blog book for 2020 is here, I am amazed I wrote many blog posts at all because after my solo exhibition on March, we were locked down for most of the year. Somehow, I managed to carry on and keep busy though.

Blog Book 2020

Bye for now,

Linda

Portraits in Fabric

 I have been doing an on-line class via Zoom with Phyllis Cullen from America. The class is all about creating portraits in fabric.

I wanted to work on portraits last year but I got too involved with my circle series and never got the time for portraits. When the opportunity for a class with Phyllis came up, I jumped at the chance. The advantage of signing up for a class is that it makes you actually do the work instead of thinking about it.

There are only 6 of us in the class so we can be free to ask lots of questions and she doesn't mind us contacting her at all.

This is the first portrait I made from the class pattern. We all made this one first. All the portraits I have done are A4 or 8" x 11"

Class pattern

We used four fabric values and I used batik fabrics.

Next, we had to use our own photo and Phyllis checked the pattern that we made to make sure it was ok.

I used blue batiks this time for my portrait of Adam, my oldest son.

Adam

It looks like him and I thought it was pretty good for a start.

Then I found a photo of one of my daughters to use.

Bec in Fabric

It does look like her but I used ordinary quilting cotton and it was much harder to get the fine detail, there are little bits of fayed fabric on her face. She wasn't very impressed because she thought she looked fat! I must admit she was 6 months pregnant, but it is really hard to get a photo to use. My family do not appreciate me coming up to them with a camera, snapping photos.

Next, I tried my grandson Jack and went back to using batik fabrics.

Jack in Fabric

I tried something different his time, I used coloured variegated thread for his hair. Once again, it does look like him but I am starting to understand faces and portraits better now and I know there is room for improvement.

Phyllis thought I was being too safe with my fabric choices and encouraged me to be more adventurous. She suggested that we do a pet portrait because pets don't complain about what colour we make them.

I couldn't find a photo of our cat so I had to take one. Poor Misty is 16 years old and has kidney disease and not really feeling her best these days, but she let me take a photo.

Misty the cat

Here is Misty's portrait and I think I was very adventurous with the colour.

Misty in Fabric

I am really enjoying making the portraits, we only have one lesson to go and we are going to learn a collage technique next, it's where you use lots of different fabrics instead of 4 or 5.

So, I have decided to continue making portraits this year and see where it takes me!

Bye for now,

Linda

Merry Christmas 2020

 Christmas is finally here and what a year it has been. I think back to the start of the year and how we had no idea of what was about to happen.

In Melbourne, we had some of the toughest restrictions in the world. From March to November, we could hardly leave our house except for supermarket shopping. We weren't allowed to drive or walk more than 5k from our home and were not allowed to be out after 8pm at night. I remember how quiet it was with no traffic noise.

Luckily, those tough restrictions worked and we have been zero cases for 6 weeks now. After what we have been through, most people have been talking about what a great Christmas they want. The shops have been really busy. We went shopping on the first weekend that they were allowed to open and we couldn't believe how full of toys all the shelves were. When I went shopping last week, there was row after row of empty shelves, people have been shopping!

Christmas is at our place this year and so I bought some new decorations to add to our collection.

I bought a white Santa, trees and reindeers to stand out against the brown wood.

I got out all my nutcrackers.

I went shopping last week with my daughter, Alison and Savannah, who is 6 years old now. She is such a good girl and never complains.

We had to have a photo with Santa, even though it was a socially distanced one. My other daughter, Bec was in the photo this year.

So, Christmas is here and I know that we are very lucky compared to other countries who are in winter and that virus keeps spreading. Stay safe everyone. 

Thank you to the people who read my blog, I don't expect anyone to read it but I do enjoy it when I get some comments.

Merry Christmas,

Bye for now,

Linda

The Sketchbook Challenge

 A couple of months ago as the UK went into lockdown, Laura Kemshall from Design Matters TV announced that she was teaching an on-line sketchbook challenge that would go for 8 lessons.

We were actually just coming out of lockdown as we had no more virus cases and all the shops were opening, but I decided to sign up anyway, just for fun. Laura suggested that we don't use a sketchbook that was spiral bound and of course all mine had that except for one that I had made years ago and had never used.

I had made this sketchbook out of good watercolour paper, so it was perfect for the project.

Week by week, she went through many ideas and examples of what we could do. What a perfect chance to get out my paints, pencils, stamps, stencils and bits and pieces and play around. Laura suggested that we try lots of things and all different media, to discover what we really like to do. Not to worry if something doesn't work out, you just paint over it and try again.

On one page I glued in a magazine picture of some apples.

Apples

Then I painted the background green, added some text with some stamps and did some drawing with a black felt tip pen.

Apple page 

I wasn't happy with a page that I had painted orange and black, but I was trying not to be too pretty!

So, I drew some jugs on some white paper and glued them in and added another drawing on the other page.

Jugs and bottles page

Not perfect but I liked it a lot better than before. 

I glued another magazine photo of a rabbit.

I didn't know what I was going to do with this page, so I tried doing some painting around it.

I still wasn't happy, it was far too messy for my taste. When we got up to the text lesson, I tried again.

Time page

I like it better now, but I am just experimenting and trying things out.

I had painted a photocopy of a dead agapanthus flower a few years ago and so I glued that picture down.

I decided to paint blue onto the rest of the paper and then draw some agapanthus flowers in various stages as they were just coming into flower in our garden.

Agapanthus page

I had a mono-printed vase on one page and then drew another on the facing page.

Vase page

I had glued down a photocopy of some red leaves and painted around it. 

Once again, I tried stamping some text and added my own drawings to finish it off.

Leaf page

I'll just show one more page, I had some spare copies of a photo of two of my grandchildren, cousins Jack and Savannah hand in hand doing some Christmas shopping last year.

Laura had taught us to paint some gesso over the outside of the photo so it could accept paint. Then I drew some Christmas pictures around it.

Christmas page

It was a lot of fun to do. Drawing with a felt tip pen can be scary but you just have to be brave and put up with drawings not being perfect.

I guess it is pretty decorative and not really art but it's my book and my chance to play around.

I've done lots of other pages and still have 4 or 5 blank pages to do. I love doing this so much more than I thought I would. The pages can be quite time consuming and I could probably just keep going and do nothing else. 

I think I will make another sketchbook and keep doing some pages every so often next year and see where it takes me.

I already know that I like neat rather than messy, so surprise there! I love text and love drawing with a black pen.

I haven't had a lot of practice mixing paint colours, so I would like to improve on that. I'll have to spend some time doing that.

Bye for now,

Linda

Crazy Quilted Christmas Ornaments

 I belong to an on-line group of Australian Crazy Quilters called the Southern Cross Crazies. This year they decided to have a Christmas ornament swap.

I made my three ornaments and sent them off to 3 different people. I had never made anything like that before and so I made mine double sided, but apparently, they didn't have to be!

My ornaments arrived in the last couple of weeks but we couldn't open them.

This morning we all got together via Zoom and opened them one at a time. It was lovely to meet the other members. Most of them had met before at retreats but I had never met them before.

I received 3 beautiful Christmas ornaments.

The first one was from Alison; she made a Christmas Pear and added a stumpwork leaf.

Ornament from Alison

The middle ornament was from Florence, she did some lovely ribbon work flowers and added a gorgeous lace swag at the bottom

Ornament from Florence

The third ornament was from Patti, in beautiful rich colours of purple, green and gold.

Ornament from Patti

All of them are absolutely beautiful and I feel very lucky to have received them.

I don't do very much crazy quilting these days but because of everything being closed and I was between projects, I decided to participate.

Bye for now,

Linda