Festival of quilts

I am overwhelmed that another of my quilts has been accepted into the Houston quilt show. It is in the Festival Of Quilts, this years theme is Tradition.  My title is "Breaking Tradition" and I worked around the theme of my spiritual journey from being bought up catholic and how my pathways went in different directions - some good and some not so good, to come to where I am today on the path of life.
I have memories of my grandfather who was a bit fanatical about going to church every Sunday and we were lined up and off we would go rain, hail or shine.  Although he was good to me and my siblings he had a funny way of saying what you should and shouldn't do and then he would be caught out doing something he had said you shouldn't do.  Although born in Australia he had a strong Irish heritage and loved to sing and play the accordion.
 The main colours are lime green and red violet. I dyed most of the fabric to go in it. I think there was only one piece of commercial fabric in it.  In this section it is judged around the first week of September.  It is one of 22 quilts in this section and will tour through the USA for two years.  I will post some photos when the judging is over.

Tactile Architecture

City Ink
My entry into the Tactile Architecture section at Houston International Quilt Show has been accepted.  I was thrilled to get the email on Thursday.  The images were photos I took from South Bank in Brisbane, I distorted the view then photo shopped the images to give an ink outline. I had Fiona Jackson from Fiona Jackson Designs print the finished images on her amazing printer.   I wanted to keep the monochromatic style with the background so I mono printed and stenciled the grey, black and silver paint.  I quilted the images and the background is small squares and rectangles.  I used pink square and rectangle sequins to enhance the windows and the water in the foreground.  I love the way the mirror windows in some of the buildings reflect and I used this as my inspiration to make this quilt. 

Mixed media backgrounds

Thought I would share with you some of the techniques I have been exploring. I have been playing with water colour paper and using gesso to cover the paper. Use an old store card to spread it.  While it is wet press some stencils into the gesso. I also used cotton reels, mesh, scribbled with an old pen outer, scrunched up glad wrap and anything you think makes a mark.  When it is dry, you can use a wash of colour in a light buff or similar. When it is nearly dry use another colour and on a scrap piece of paper and swipe random strips of paint and scribble or put in some finger marks and place onto your background and remove. Continue until there is no paint left.  Repeat. You can use the mesh again to make marks with paint.
I also use water solvable crayons to highlight the marks made previously. Scrape off any areas with your card or damp cloth. This will work well on canvas also. I continue then with college and use inks to enhance areas for shadow.

Ariadne

 
















Sent away my small art quilt "Ariadne" to Cincinnati show. It has been selected for the "celebrate spring" exhibition which will tour through until Houston at the end of the year.
When I'm not doing quilts I have been doing some college and mixed media. I will post some photos when I work how to upload from my ipad.

Quilters newsletter

I was pretty excited to see my copy arrive in the mail.  My quilt is on page 21 with fifteen other quilts from Houston.  I also received an email to say my spring quilt "Ariadne"has been selected for the Cincinnati show which is in June and it might travel with the other shows. I just got it posted today.

Quilters newsletter

Got really excited to hear that Quilters Newsletter are going to put my quilt into the February/March issue 2013. So I can't wait to see it.

51 Shades of Blue

I finished and entered this quilt into the victorian quilt guild for the small art quilt section but it didn't make it. I was really happy with the way it turned out and I like the order and chaos that I was wanting to create. Mum is in a rehab place where she is getting help with balance and motor skills. She is happy and looks forward to going out. She has a few more weeks in here.