Haven Catalogue

 I received a lovely surprise in the mail today. SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) sent me the catalogue for the Haven Exhibition.

I was thrilled to be accepted for such a prestigious exhibition because I know that people try for years  and can never get accepted. The downside for getting accepted is that the quilt is on tour for three years and so it's a while before you see the quilt again.

I found my page in the catalogue.

I clearly remember taking that photo of my daughter, Rebecca last year. I had the idea for a quilt and tried taking a photo of myself but I didn't like them at all. I asked if I could take a photo of her in a mask and she agreed. It was a cold, wintery day and I took a few photos but only the final photo was the right one. I asked her to look down and try to look sad.

This is actually the second time that I have been accepted, my quilt called Grief was accepted into the SAQA Connections Exhibition.

Grief by Linda Steele

The first outing for the Haven exhibition will be at the Houston Quilt Show later this year. I am not going but I would love to see it. 

Bye for now,

Linda

Playing with paint and Collage

 The time is flying by and although I am busy all the time, it's hard to remember what I have been doing. I might have to start keeping a record or a diary!

I have recently finished an improv quilt but it cannot be revealed yet, but here is me putting on the binding. Although binding is not my favourite part of making a quilt, at least it means that it is nearly finished.

I have also been playing around with collage, paint and paper. I really enjoy it and hope that I will eventually do something that I love. At the moment I am allowing myself to experiment.

I bought an online class (actually I have bought a lot of online classes during and since lockdowns) with a French artist named Laly Mille. The class is called Soulful Abstracts and she asked us lots of questions about the things we like and we had to quickly answer them and then find a picture on Pinterest that looks like the answer to each question. We weren't supposed to take much time, just go quickly and then take a screen shot of the pictures that we collected.

I was so surprised to see them and how the colours went together. Apparently that is a colour palette that we should try and work with. I printed out the photos and pasted them into my sketchbook.

I was shocked to see all those blues, dark pinks and golds. Then I remembered a photo that I took a few months ago of a scene from a TV show because I liked the colours and it happened to be the same colours.

The next step was to just paint a page of those colours.

Now I have  to try and use those colours and prompts from the photos to see what happens. I still haven't done that, it's on my do-do list.

I did do some little abstracts using some other colours.

I wasn't that happy, so I added some mark making and I liked them better.

I hope I will be able to translate these ideas to fabric eventually.

One of my daughters wanted to make some cushions for her new house, so she asked me to teach her how to make them. We had a lovely afternoon making them. She sent me a photo with my granddaughter Anna admiring them.

The world has had the sad news of Queen Elizabeth passing away, I feel a bit flat and sad about it. I remember lining up in the city to see her drive by on one of her visits to Melbourne. I think it was in the 1970's.

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

Quilting Arts magazine- Issue 114

 I was thrilled to have one of my quilts featured in a Quilting Arts Magazine article about Contemporary Quilts in the Oceania region. I have been buying this magazine since issue one and have always looked forward to receiving them in the mail.

Quilting Arts Magazine issue 114

My quilt Grief was used as the title page of the article.

Here are some of the other pages in the article.

I know or have met most of the artists in the article and they are all so talented, it is lovely to be featured amongst them.

A couple of my quilts are in touring exhibitions at the moment. Reef Revelations is in Kyabram with the SAQA Oceania Distance and Diversity Exhibition.

Reef Revelations

My Ocean Dance quilt was selected for the Oz Quilt Network- Australia Wide 8 exhibition and is currently on display at the Warrick Gallery in Queensland. If you click on the Oz Quilt Network link there is a You tube video of all the quilts in the exhibition.

Ocean Dance

I suppose that I had better start making some more quilts.

Bye for now,

Linda

 

Victorian Quilters Showcase 2022

 At the end of July we had the Victorian Quilters Showcase and it was very successful. After being cancelled in 2020 and a virtual show in 2021, everyone loved having a normal show again this year. As usual it was held at the  Exhibition and Convention Centre in the city and it was very well attended. We weren't sure whether people would come or not but attendances were back to about four years ago and the shops did really well, so everyone was happy.

We had the award presentation on the first day and here we are setting up the rosettes.

Best of Show went to Robyn Coots for her beautiful applique quilt called Dresden Dancing.

Dresden Dancing by Robyn Coots

I didn't take a lot of photos but here are some that I liked, although the standard was so high this year.

Fuego by Ramona Resurreccion

Fuego is Spanish for Fire.

Nirvana Nouveau by Jan Frazer

William the Echidna by Karen McGregor

The next quilt was a tiny miniature. 

Winter Wonderland by Carole Bosna

The next quilt won Runner Up in the pieced section as well as Best use of Colour. It was called Waves around the Atlantic because Shirley hand pieced the quilt while she was on a holiday cruise.

Waves around the Atlantic

I didn't have a quilt in the competition this year but we also had prize winners from last year's virtual show so my Connections quilt was on display.

Connections-The Teenage Years by Linda Steele

The Profile a Quilters this year was Annette Packett, who had at least 20 quilts on display.

Annette Packett

Annette had such a variety of quilts on display but I especially loved her art quilts featuring trees.

Art Quilts by Annette Packett

I have been the Convenor of the show for a few years now and it is a huge job, one lunch time I had a walk outside the venue for some fresh air and took a few photos. It was a lovely sunny winter's day and I loved the reflections on the Yarra River by the Seafarer's Bridge.

The Seafarer's Bridge

Our beautiful raffle quilt Amethyst Star by Mariya Waters and Desley Maisano was won by a Victorian Quilters member.

Amethyst Star by Mariya Waters and Desley Maisano

I have had such a busy year and not really had much time for sewing or art making that I have decided to step down from being Showcase Convenor. I have enjoyed the experience but I really want my life back where I can be creative again and not be sitting in front of computer spreadsheets.

Bye for now,

Linda

Waverley Patchworker's Meeting

 Last week, I was called upon to run the Waverley Patchworkers monthly meeting because the President was away on holidays and the Vice President was injured after a fall. 

It was a very eventful meeting. Not only were the President and Vice President unavailable, the guest speaker had to pull out because she was unwell!

I haven't been President for a few years and I felt a bit rusty but then I had to be guest speaker as well! What a night.

When we arrived at the meeting we found that the area around the hall was packed with people and  there was no parking anywhere because the Emerge Lantern Festival was on.

I took a few photos because I started to think that the meeting wouldn't be able to go ahead because of the parking situation.

It was a cold night but luckily it wasn't raining.

By some miracle, members started trickling in after finding parks in the side streets.

Most of my Art Quilts are hanging in the Kyabram Exhibition so I did my talk on my Crazy Quilts. I hadn't been guest speaker there for quite a few years and so people seemed to enjoy hearing about my quilts.

Here is the last crazy quilt that I ever made, A Time for all Seasons.

A Time for all Seasons by Linda Steele

I'll be back in Kyabram on Wednesday and that will be the last time that I can attend because I will be very busy running the Victorian Quilters Showcase. Our first in-person show since 2019.

Bye for now,

Linda

Backgrounds and Textures

 On the spur of the moment, I signed up for Jane Dunnewold's Backgrounds and Textures on-line class. I know, I am too busy and have enough to do, but a friend signed up and I did too!

I have some of Jane's books and have watched her on You-Tube and she is a very thorough and encouraging teacher. I have actually done most of the techniques before but the course is reminding me of the techniques and it is something I have wanted to do more of lately.

We made our own stamps using cardboard at first, she is encouraging us to use what we have rather than spend more money on supplies.

Some of them worked better than others but I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of making more and more stamps, I'd rather see what works and then make some that suits what I want to do in my work. We were painting and stamping onto the gelli plate first and then taking prints from there.

The stamps go really well on paper., but I was happy with the results on fabric as well. On fabric, you have to be sure to get the right amount of paint. I was also experimenting with textile paint compared to normal acrylic with fabric medium added to it. I think that the stiffness of the fabric was only slight with both. I'll have to try sewing on them to see what the real difference is.

I made some more collage paper using deli paper, because I discovered when doing some collage recently that I really like thin, transparent papers.

They don't look very good as big pieces but they come alive when cut or torn into smaller bits. I've also done prints using normal printer paper, I love the different textures.

We also learnt how to draw an image onto the Gelli plate using acrylic paint pens and then printing the image. Here is my little butterfly on the Gel plate.

Here is the butterfly printed onto paper with a background as well.

You can see that the gel plate resisted the paint pen a bit but I could now paint another layer the butterfly. I am not sure if I'd use this technique though. I could have just drawn the butterfly onto the paper in the first place, but maybe it would give a different look. I suppose that means you would have to do further tests and compare the results.

I decided to try the same technique on fabric, I forgot to take progress photos but here is the dragonfly printed on fabric and I have thread painted over the top.

The background is paint, I don't think that I'd like to quilt it, but I'll try.

The reason I have experimented with butterflies and dragonflies is that the topic this month in the Waverley Art Quilters is Insects.

That's what I've been up to, as well as driving to Kyabram for the exhibition, I'll be back in Kyabram this Thursday as well. 

Bye for now,

Linda