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.

Another invitation

I am very pleased that a piece I have made has been accepted into the Buda Historic House's Contemporary Textiles exhibition.

My piece uses some of the fossil  pieces I experimented with recently. I won't put a picture up until the exhibition opens.

Today an invitation came, so I am sharing it around.

Hmm, that could have been bigger.
Here is the relevant information:
Contemporary Textiles Exhibition, opening event is Sunday August 28th, 2.00pm.

The exhibition is open daily, 10am - 4 pm, from Saturday August 27th till September 10th.

There is another exhibition on at the same time in Castlemaine, at the Art Gallery and Museum. Slipstitch.
So you could have a lovely textile day out.


I will be sitting the gallery one morning, so hope to get to see the other textile exhibition that day also. Looking forward to it!!

Applique Quilt exhibition.

While I was up Kyneton way on the weekend, I ventured further to Castlemaine, to a quilt exhibition that a friend was going to. It was put on by the Castlemaine Applique Quilt group.

We had a lovely time together.  The exhibition was of quilts that had some appliqué on them. Many of them had a LOT of intricate appliqué but there were others that were a combination of piecing and appliqué.

You could go in a raffle to win this one - it was amazing!

Most were hand done, a very few sewn by machine. Quite a few were professionally machine quilted - well worth the money too.

Merryn Menjivar

Sue Jones

These two made me keen to get back to my doodling, to see if I could come up with some good free motion patterns.

Very few of the quilts were small - quite a few were HUGE.

Vanda Bowers

One made me laugh, the maker commented that she started off making a small quilt  and then she would add to it, trying out new patterns and ideas. It was suitable for a big double (if not king-size) bed. (I don't have a photo of that one but it wasn't small!)

Sue Jones - I think!

There was some interesting use of patterned fabric too, including Broderie  Perse techniques. 

I loved the look of them all.  It is great to be able to enjoy a skill that you have absolutely no patience for doing yourself, so you don't spend all your time working out how it was done, how you would do it, etc. It is sooo not my thing to do. But they were beautiful.

Joanne Lawrence

This one included some kaleidoscope fussy cutting too. 

I was also inspired by some that had quite dark backgrounds, or relatively busy backgrounds, but worked well.

Meghan Leslie

Deb King

A Busy Week

As I was looking back at the week this morning - I was putting off getting up and facing the cold - I realised that I have had a busy week.  A friend and I went to Castlemaine (it was freezing!! our first blast of winter this year) and visited the art gallery.  It was between shows, so we got to see the permanent collection free.  It is an interesting collection and we might not have taken as long to look at it if the special exhibition had been on.

The new show is Geoffrey Stocks Survey and the works were all standing along the floor, waiting to be hung.  We had a peep in and it looks worth a visit.  It starts today.

After lunch, we visited the historic house Buda.  The guide there told us an interesting story about the house and it's founder and his family.  It was built by a Hungarian silver smith who came to Australia in the gold rush.  He had six unmarried daughters who live in the house for many years.  They did a lot of art and craft work including silverwork, wood carving, ceramics, cloisonne, embroidery and rug making.  I am sure there were other arts and crafts included, I have probably forgotten something.  It sounds like it was a very creative family.
There is a textile exhibition coming up in 2012 that you can start working for now.

Then, the next day, I visited Bundoora Homestead with another friend and her friends from the Box Hill textiles course.  We saw the tea cosy exhibition that is in support of the Cancer Council.  There was a very large number of tea cosies - most were knitted or crocheted but there were a few other techniques included also.  I especially liked the series of chickens.

I occasionally revisit The Artist's Way and the journalling in which you reflect on the artist's treats you have given yourself during the week.  I have done very well this week.