Sketchbook Fun

 I have hardly done any sewing for the last couple of months. I am the Convenor of the Victorian Quilters Showcase which is usually held in July but it was cancelled twice and now it is finally going ahead as a virtual show. Instead of sewing, I have been on the computer with my head in spreadsheets.

I actually find it quite overwhelming at times and when I have a break I cannot concentrate on any sewing. I have gone back to the sketchbook that I was playing around with last year and adding to the pages. I had made the sketchbook a few years ago and finally started filling it in during lockdown 2020.

I wasn't happy with some of the pages and didn't know how to fix them. I had started this page with some yellow and orange paint and added some collage paper to the edge.

I decided to try and emulate the collage paper with some green ovals in paint. I wasn't happy with that so I tried to add detail with a felt tip pen.

I didn't like that and so I left it that way for nearly 12 months. I have been on so many Zoom meetings or have watched so many on-line interviews that I felt I must do something else as I listened. I reached for the sketchbook and thought I would try again, I had nothing to lose.

I found that I really loved adding the detail and that page looked so good, I thought I would add to the next page as well.

I can't believe the difference that it made, now I love it and it was so much fun to do.

Here is another failed page.

I didn't like what I had done, so I had painted over it and finally added a stencil. That didn't improve it and so there it sat for 12 months.

Last week, I covered it with some collage paper, added some circles and painted around them.

Probably not as successful as the first page but still a vast improvement.

Here are another couple of pages that I've done, I did them as little 30 minute classes on-line.

So much fun. At least it's something arty to do when you are a bit stressed and pressed for time.

I am looking forward to doing some sewing again though.

Bye for now,

Linda

Intersecting Lines

 Our last topic for the Waverley Art Quilters this year was Intersecting Lines. It's hard to be motivated when you're locked down and cannot meet so I decided to use one of my new Tim Holtz fabrics as a background. I've been using solids for a while now and it was fun to use a patterned fabric.

Intersecting Lines

I chose 3 plain fabrics that coordinated with the background and cut and pieced until I was happy. It probably looks easy but some of it was difficult and I even had to unpick and re-sew a couple of seams.

I decided to add a border for a change because I think it sometimes acts as a frame for a contemporary quilt.

The small quilt measures 12inches wide and 16inches high. I also tried to resist going into too much detail with the quilting and quilted with mainly straight lines.

Next month is our last meeting for the year and at the moment the plan is for us to be out of lockdown!!

We cannot get to the One Step Further exhibition at the moment and so they have put it online.

Please click this link, if you are interested. I hope it works.

Bye for now,

Linda

Hanging by Threads

 Last year I made a Coral Reef quilt for the Victorian Quilters Inc. biennial art quilt prize, One Step Further. It is open to everyone in Australia and New Zealand. I don't need to remind anyone what 2020 was like, so of course the exhibition could not go ahead.

Fast forward twelve months later and we are still in lockdown. Luckily, the exhibition is on Kyabram which is in the regional area and their gallery is open and the exhibition is on at last.

Hanging by Threads©2020 Linda Steele

My quilt is called Hanging by Threads and it is mostly made of wool, with just the upper blue area in fabric.

I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make a coral reef out of wool. I made most of the coral using hand embroidery and then hand needle-felted some wool around the edges to attach it to the wool background.

Preparing the coral.

I also experimented with making coral a bit differently and did some big knots and straight stitches in wool and ribbon and then needle-felted it down to embed it into the fabric.

Making coral

Here is a couple of photos of the top section of the quilt, a healthy Coral Reef.

Then there is the middle panel, where the coral is just starting to deteriorate.

Finally, the bottom panel where the coral has bleached and there is no home for the fish.

Making a Coral Reef out of wool was a challenge, but I really enjoyed making it. I can't even remember why I thought of the idea now!

The exhibition opened last Friday and unfortunately, I missed out on a prize, but I hope to go and see the exhibition and prize winners before the exhibition closes on November 30th. 

Restrictions are supposed to start to ease on October 26th when the shops and hairdressers can open and from November 5th, we are allowed to see 10 family members at home if we are all vaccinated.   Melbourne has the unenviable reputation as the most locked down city in the world! 

Bye for now,

Linda

Surface Design

 I have been very busy receiving and processing the entries for the Victorian Quilters Showcase. We are still in the middle of harsh lockdown restrictions and so an in-person show is very unlikely to happen this year.  We have decided to judge in person (when we are allowed to meet) and then have a virtual quilt show. So, I still have many emails to write, many files to print and many things to organise for November. But, the entries we have received are absolutely wonderful.

In between doing all this working and planning and phone calls, I have been doing some surface design.

I started with printing on some PFD (Prepared for Dyeing) fabric with some screen printing ink and stencils.

Then I added some Sun Dyes paint in Opal (blue), Tan Bark (brown) and Lorikeet (green) colours and put them outside to dry.

The weather was a bit rainy after that so I had to wait a couple of weeks before I added the second layer of paint. This time I over painted with Opal, Kangaroo Paw (red) and Opal. I didn't like the yellow green of the Lorikeet but it looks good when mixed with other colours.

Here is the result, that second layer of paint really makes a difference.

It was an experiment to see what the paint looks like with stencils underneath. I am planning on cutting this fabric up, not using it as it is, but I really like the result.

I over painted some commercial fabric with text on it as well.

I have also been watching some You Tube videos on Collage with paper and decided to try some techniques.

One of the videos said that you don't need to buy special collage paper, just paint over magazine papers with paint and stencils. So, I did.

Then I painted over some pages from an old paperback novel.

I admit that they don't look very special and I was disappointed. But when I tore them apart and just used little bits of them in collage, they were fantastic. The added bonus was that the paint gave them strength and they didn't wrinkle when I glued them down with matte medium. They gave such a painterly quality to the collage.

I haven't actually taken any photos with them in a collage, I'll have to do that though.

I also managed to buy some more fabric on-line. I added some black Kona cotton to the order so I could qualify for half price shipping!

Everyone is getting very sick of our lockdown restrictions and unfortunately the number of cases is going up, not down because people are breaking the rules and seeing family and friends.

We even had the drama of an earthquake last week, it was 5.9, the highest ever recorded here. At least it gave us something to talk about.

Bye for now,

Linda

Drawing and Collage in Lockdown

Seeing as we are still in lockdown, I treated myself to an on-line purchase, some Tim Holtz fabrics.

I have decided to work a bit more on collage as I love the layered look that you get with paint but it is harder to achieve with fabric. So, I thought I would make myself another sketchbook and do some more on paper first. I find the sketchbooks that you buy with the spiral binding annoying when trying to draw, if you are using both sides of the paper.

I used some large watercolour paper folded in half and made a cover with some really heavy interfacing. I went looking for some fabric to fuse onto the cover and decided to use some of my new Tim Holtz fabric.

Usually, people hand sew the pages into the book, but I did it with a large stitch on the sewing machine. I've done it that way before and had no trouble.

So, now I have a lovely new sketchbook to use.

I have also been doing some mono-printing with some eucalyptus leaves, I think they were too big and I don't know if I'll ever use them. In fact, I am much happier with my sun-printing results.

I might see what one or two look like with some stitching on them.

I have also been trying to draw everyday, just a little pen drawing in the concertina sketchbook I made.

That is a benefit of staying at home all the time, you get to play around with this and that.

I've also been quilting my latest improv quilt that I finally finished piecing together.

I have been busy and luckily we are locked down because I haven't done my art quilters homework. That's on my to-do list along with lots of other stuff.

Bye for now,

Linda

Wonder of Eyes

 Last week the curator of the Wonder of Eyes quilt swap Brenda Gael Smith organised a fun Zoom event to distribute the quilts. 

This exhibition was supposed to be displayed at the Australasian Quilt Convention last year, but of course that was cancelled. Sadly, this year's event will probably not take place after being postponed twice, so it was time to distribute the quilts.

Brenda is very clever with all things computer and she arranged a wheel with photos of all the quilts on the outside. Whenever the wheel stopped the next entrant on her list got the quilt. Only once did a person get her own quilt and the wheel had to spin again.

 

It was fun to watch and good to see some familiar quilting faces again even though it was only on-line.

My Peacock quilt went to Cindy who lives in the USA.

I won a quilt named Reflection by Catherine McDonald from New Zealand.

Reflection by Catherine McDonald

On the back she wrote, 'Sometimes reflecting back on events your memory is blurred regarding details. I have tried to show the reflection in the eyes being a bit blurred rather than crisp'.

The other news is that 2 of my grandchildren had their birthdays, Jack turned 5 and Anna turned 3. Just like last year we are in lockdown and their parties were cancelled. We bought a little bike for Anna and left it at their door. Apparently, she absolutely loves it. We bought some Lego and a transformer toy for Jack but I didn't get a photo of them, but he was just as thrilled. Hopefully, they can have a party next year!!

Bye for now,

Linda

Exhibition news

 There is not much happening exhibition wise in Australia, here in Melbourne we are currently in our 6th lockdown, where there are only 4 reasons to leave within 5k of your home. Everyone is getting pretty sick of it.

However, exhibitions overseas are starting to open up.

There is a travelling exhibition curated by Brenda Gael Smith called Open Borders, they are travel inspired quilts from Australian artists. We cannot travel but our quilts can!

There was a lovely advertisement featuring my quilt, Magical Coral Reef.

The exhibition will travel with the Mancuso shows this year.

The World Quilt Show is currently an on-line exhibition and that is on at the moment.

The quilts will be on show in person at

The Pennsylvania National Quilt Exhibition 16th - 19th September

Pacific International Quilt Festival 14th -17th October

Quilt and Sewing Festival of New Jersey 17th - 20th November

There is also going to be a Portrait exhibition at the same shows and my quilt was selected to be in that too. This exhibition was curated by Phyllis Cullen, I did a on-line portrait class with Phyllis and we continue to meet monthly via zoom for a critique session, which really helps to keep everyone motivated. 

My quilt of my grandson Jack climbing a tree will be in that exhibition.

Jack 

Another exhibition called the Wonder of Eyes was supposed to be on show all over Australia in 2020, then all shows got postponed to 2021. Unfortunately, now most of the shows have been cancelled this year as well. The little quilts are going to be returned to us. I did a peacock and there was a lovely post on Instagram showing some of the postcards and my peacock was in the front.

We are still wondering if the Australasian Quilt Convention will go ahead in December and our Victorian Quilt Show in November, but it is starting to seem unlikely.

Bye for now,

Linda