Making the Australian Quilt

This week a friend and I visited the NGV exhibition, Making the Australian Quilt, 1800-1950.
I am very happy that we got to this exhibition. I tend to leave ones that are on for a long time till the last minute and then have to rush. But we have been and seen it in plenty of time.

There were some amazing quilts there. Some were sent back to England, some were sent to the person for whom they were made. It is amazing that descendants have kept them and then been able to see the value and donate them to relevant museums.

It was also very liberating to see some that have been treasured over generations and realise that perfection in making the quilt is not essential. Quite a few were obviously made for practical reasons and the makers didn't stress over exact measurements, etc. They were wonderful to see.

This was an appliqué cut from fabric. 

An amazing hexagonal quilt, made of tiny hexagons.

Some of the quilts were worn away, showing the back fabric, with no batting in between. 

Log cabin, using some rather gorgeous silks. 

This was shown as a bag! Gorgeous. 

Wagga, using all sorts of fabrics. Very utilitarian,

I have 'almost' been inspired to get out some unfinished quilts and see about actually getting them done. There were some examples of unfinished quilts, not finished for various reasons. But it was great to see that they had still been treasured by the families.

Still Learning

This will probably be ho hum for many, many people. But I have finally mounted one of my embroideries onto a canvas board thingy.

I did the embroidery a while ago, experimenting with hand sewn fabric collage. It was based on a picture I took while visiting some friends last year, in early autumn in Saugerties, upstate New York. Not quite a year ago, how time flies.

It has been on my pinboard, looking at me, telling me I should do something with it.

Finally I realised that I could buy a frame covered with canvas and maybe sew the piece onto it. It is about the right size.

So now it is painted with acrylic to mute the background, I have sewn it on and put on the D-hooks.
I am chuffed.

I keep making these little embroideries which are odd sizes, partly because they shrink and I never know how to get them exactly the size I want, partly because I don't think about that at all when I start, I am just having fun playing around. So I am going to have to learn to do some creative framing. Or start making traditional-frame-sized embroideries.

But this is a start.

Leaving it till the last minute

The Embroiderers Guild, Victoria (EGV) is having its receiving day tomorrow and Saturday for the upcoming A Secret Garden exhibition.
I  have had this idea lurking in the back of my mind for a few weeks but didn't get around to trying it out properly till yesterday.

I sewed the foreground and knew what I wanted for the background. I thought.

The foreground is some free motion sewing of a garden. It is done freehand on some dissolvable fabric.

Because I didn't want it to shrink too much, I pinned it to a cork board and then painted water onto the fabric. It took a while to dry but turned out ok. I hadn't sewn it all that exactly to size, so it isn't square. (I was aiming for 15cm x 15cm but it did shrink a bit more than that.)

I had found an image on 123RF that has an eye looking through a keyhole and thought to use that in the background. 

I really intended to have it in a box frame with the foreground well away from the background but didn't leave myself enough time to make the frame, or find one. 

So I have decided not to worry about it, I may give it a go another time or I may not. It was an interesting idea and I enjoyed playing with it - right up until I thought I needed to have it ready for tomorrow. Next time, I will try to plan a bit better. 

Secret Garden continured

Ok, the date 6/9/12 deserves a post!  (Oops, got excited about the numbers, forgot that it is now 2016.)

I have been working on my Secret Garden idea. I had done the background.

Then I did a free motion piece on soluble fabric. I thought I had made it the right size but when I dissolved the fabric it shrank. I seem to make this mistake often. But … it was the right size in one direction.

We had a day learning about Tyvek at the Embroiderers Guild play day recently, so I used that inspiration to try making a wall.  I knew I had a pack of it somewhere, I bought it at least 5 years ago but hadn't even opened the packet. After some wondering where it could be now that I have tidied my studio and knew I hadn't seen it while doing that, I remembered where it was.

So, Tyvek painted, some rough free motion sewing, a bit of heat from the iron and voila - a wall.

Contemporary Textile Exhibition Buda

I went to see the exhibition at Buda Historic Homestead during the week. As I had a piece in it, I was asked to sit the gallery for half a day.

It is set up in a lovely, airy room. All sorts of art was around me and I had a very relaxing time there.

This was my favourite piece, Rabbits, by Jo Maxwell.

My work had been mounted in a most creative way - I loved it. It was set in a freestanding frame and hung in the space inside the frame. You could see straight through the frame so my piece looked as if it was suspended in midair. I will have to think about doing something similar when I get it back.

The Slipstitch exhibition was also in Castlemaine, at the Art Gallery.
It was also very enjoyable to visit. Quite different from the Buda exhibition.