Latest Work

This is my latest quilt but I can't show it completely as it is for a magazine. I haven't done any sewing for weeks so I am enjoying my time in the studio. It is a simple design and although being intensely quilted - it is just straight parallel lines so easy to do using the walking foot edge and the blocks as guides. Be interesting to see how much thread it takes to quilt it.

END OF AN ERA

Well for me anyway. For those of you who don't/didn't know - I actually had a real job with a steady income and great perks - like cheap travel.

Today marks the end of that security - I have resigned and as of tomorrow I will just be a self employed struggling artist. Wish me luck - it has been a long time coming but I think it is the right decision.

What have I done!!!!

Beautiful Braidwood

We have just returned from Braidwood which is near our capital city Canberra and about 3 hours drive from home. Every year there is a Hanging of the Quilts weekend where they decorate the main street with quilts and have a quilt show as well as the monthly market which coincides with the festival as well. Braidwood is a classic Australian country town which is unfortunately fading away with many empty stores but once a year blossoms.

The weather was kind to us this year. The week leading up to today has been very wet there which was needed but today the sun rose on a cloudy cool day with no wind. Perfect for the quilts and the market. Here is the main street at 5am when we set out to the park to lay claim to our spot for a stand. Bit quiet here but it gets very busy later.

We are very adaptable and once we established our position we used the framework to hang some quilts. Luckily the sun didn't peek through the clouds too often as this year we were out in the open instead of under the trees. There were over 90 stalls so it all got much busier later.

Next to us was a couple who have set up an animal refuge for orphan wildlife. They were selling a calendar full of wombat photos and brought along this orphaned kangaroo to attract attention which it certainly did.


We had a great day, caught up with lots of friends, students and lovers of hand dyes.

Why isn't is raining on my house?

We have had heavy rain for the last few days complete with thunder and lightning. Great news when we are in the middle of a drought but for some reason it keeps missing my house. I love following the radar but for the last two days it is like there is a resist (dyeing term here) over our area.

Fingers crossed that we will eventually get some of it to top up my rainwater tanks.

More Sculpture

Continuing on from the last post and thanks for all the nice emails showing appreciation

There is an Audio Tour on the Scultpture by the Sea website if you are interested and a lovely calendar using last years images which was pretty stunning too.

This is actually a hermits home overlooking beautiful Bondi Beach. Love the sign

Tim Kyle - i-sea

Adzuki & Szulgit - fossil

Chi Phan - lift, plonk - this won People's Choice prize and was really lovely

Dillon McEwan - car cutter

Irene Hoppenberg - Lemon Tree - what a wonderful use of a Hills Hoist





Finally some shots of the famous sandstone which is truely a wonderous sculpture in itself.

Sculpture by the Sea 2007

My first ever blog entry was two years ago when I was blown away by the Annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Bondi in Sydney. Here are some of my favourites from this years exhibition.

Frank Malerba - bondi fashion accessory

Robert Juniper - Deep Sea Angler Fish

Marguerite Derriourt - aboretum (with Peter under the trees)


Note to Self - don't assume weekdays will be quieter than weekends! Word had got around that this is a wonderfeul excursion for school children of all ages. Most were well behaved but there were a few I wouldn't have minded watching them fall over the edge (just joking of course).

A perfect Sydney Summer day - blue sky, brilliant sea and a gentle breeze to help you along the way.

I will post some more photos later as I took heaps.

Stephen Toro - Watering Forms

Tim Ferrier - anenome

Jane Gillings - Wreath - made out of recycled products, discarded plastics etc

Anna Gunnarsdottir - sea shells - wonderful felted pieces

Greg James - Bella - this is the back view but her shape was suspiciously like mine...

Tomas Misura - twisted reality

Rockpools into Goldfields

I recently posted Yvettes unquilted version of Breaking the Drought which definitely had the feel of rockpools complete with starfish. However now that it is (brilliantly) quilted, she has decided that it has more of a feel of goldfields. She said 'After a million circles I think I am getting the hang of free machine quilting! We have renamed it 'gold pannning' - we decided it reminded us of gold panning, all the pebbles in the creek'


Look at the wonderful quilting.

Adelaide Beaches

I have been remiss as time got away from me but I did manage to spend some relaxing time over the last week or so in Adelaide.

This is beautiful Aldinga Beach at sunset - what a wonderful way to end a day.





Also spent some time at Goolwa which had more of a surf