Of to AQC

Just a quick hello and to actually say goodbye for the week, in a couple of hours I fly down to Melbourne to work at the Australian Quilt Convention.
I'm working on the Unique Stitching and Design stand - come and say hello and let me know you're out there.
As I said when I went to Perth a month ago, start singing - My bags are packed etc etc..........

Yesterday morning I had to leave the house a lot earlier than normal to drive down to Berry to work in the shop as I had to drop Tim (DH) at the train station, I always detour through Gerroa instead of going down the highway as I can't get enough of the view of Seven Mile Beach as you come up over the hill, it's breath taking, so, yesterday I decided to turn down towards the beach to take a closer look and do a little exploring.
I thought there were just a handful of houses there, but there is a whole village with a lovely mix of old and new houses, some really quaint beach houses - I fell in love.......
Found a fabulous little corner coffee shop, so armed with a cappuccino I walked back to the beach and spent some relaxing quiet time watching the water and a group of youngsters learning to surf.
Where I was sitting the river snaked around in front of me and there were a lot of big fish jumping keeping me entertained.
But unfortunately my time was limited and I had to head off to work, but it was a wonderful way to start my day.
I know where I'd love to live if I won the lottery.......

Another string of beads

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon with friends.
We met for lunch in a Chinese restaurant then adjourned next door to the bead shop for an enjoyable afternoon of friendship, laughter and of course some jewelery making of varying kinds.
The 5 of us are all in the quilting/art world, amongst us we all wear many hats, there was a shop owner, long arm quilters, teacher/designer/artists, so in amongst the frivolity there was also a lot of info sharing.
Also one of the ladies is having a beach wedding next week so we all had input into her pearl and crystal accessories that she was making, she will look lovely.
So here is my effort for the day, I didn't want anything with too much brain power needed so I just randomly took a few hand fulls from one of the glorious mix's and added a string of turquoise fresh water pearls and I'm very happy with the results - still can't get away from the greens can I.

What I did in class today

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, life got a little hectic and TAFE has been exhausting, great but exhausting.
Today we had Sculpture in the morning and here is what I did today, we had to take reference photos of figures moving, so these are my interpretations of some acrobats I know!.......... no matter how much I tried - they still all look like Gumby.
Our afternoon class is Printmaking and we have started with etching, today we transfered our image onto the zinc plate and etched it ready for printing, which unfortunately I'll have to wait till the following week, as I'm off to Melbourne to work at the Australian Quilt Convention next Wednesday.

Rainy Days

Feeling very BLAHHHH as I've had a very hectic week with TAFE and teaching and yesterday working in my friends shop in Berry, went to Tai Chi this morning but was only there in body my head felt like it was full of cotton wool.
Having trouble getting organised, so I thought I'd look through my reference photo's and find something nice to look at, we have been having heavy rain on and off for the past few days, rain is desperately needed and luckily this lot has been falling into the catchment area.
This was taken from my front lawn looking down the street a few weeks ago, a bit different than what's outside my door at the moment, the rain is so heavy it looks as though someone has pinched the escarpment.

Yellow Lili

Look at this glorious yellow lili that greeted me this morning when I went out to my studio, this area outside my studio door is where we have a huge frog pond with many frogs and many many more tadpoles.
Our pond is an old bath and yes there are taddies in the toilet as well....
We must have created the right balance in our little swamp because we had water skinks move in straight away and they can often be found sunning themselves when I step out of my shed, oops I mean studio
I'ts so lovely listening to the frogs while I work.

Green Hair

Was travelling home yesterday after teaching in Sydney when I was accosted on the train by a strange looking teenage boy with long green hair demanding money - luckily he was my son Callan...........
This photo was taken when he went to Korea with school recently in a traditional costume, because of his looks he was treated like a rock star by all the younger girls, which I don't think he'd complain about.

Upside Down Miss Jane

This piece is called "Upside Down Miss Jane" the Aussies will get the joke with the title, if you really want to know drop me a line.
The shapes are bonded and held in place with thread drawing and beads.
One of the pieces I showed yesterday has some of the negative shapes from when these shapes were cut out.
Having trouble stringing 3 words together to write this, as I've had a full-on day at TAFE today, started off the day with Sculpture, got nice and messy with clay then in the afternoon we started with an etching project in the Printmaking class but first we had to draw what we wanted to print, and this evening after dinner I've had to update notes for a class I'm teaching tomorrow........I need sleeeeeep

Hanging by a Thread and Fiddle Sticks

I've decided that as I'm not producing very much at the moment and this blog is to show more work than just boring day to day stuff I thought I'd start to show some of my work from the past 6 months that I'm presently collating to update my website.
Both pieces are 10" x 14" and were experimental pieces to try a few new techniques and showcase to the gallery owner back in September, to give her an idea of my style.
The first piece, Hanging by a Thread, is raw edge applique with thread drawing, the orange pieces are the negative bits from another piece, I'll show that one tomorrow.
The second piece, Fiddle Sticks, also is raw edge applique, including organza over the blue strip, orange coconut fibre, embelished with beads and thread drawing.

DUUHHHH

please ignore the bit under this, I was trying to set up links to my friends blogs but I can't work it out, Nic's name wasn't meant to come up here, will try again tomorrow when I can think more clearly.

Links

Nic Bridges

A new Direction

Well, I just discovered what happens when you try and do a post when your head and hands aren't in sync, push the wrong button and the photos go off without any text on them - ggrrrrr
These are some of the trees I took while in Perth, I'm slowly building up my library of reference photos as I've started a tree series and plan to make a few more.
Aren't they great, maybe I should post the pieces that I have already done.

Today was the first day in the next phase of my life, I started part time with my friend Nic Bridges, doing my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at T.A.F.E., for those overseas TAFE is like college/University.
Today we started with Drawing from the Human Figure and in the afternoon, Colour Theory and Design Principles for Artists, my head is spinning - brain overload, and on Thursday we do Sculpture followed by Printmaking.

Time to put my feet up with a cuppa and watch the end of the cricket.

Look what my darling husband Tim bought home today, it's a massage pad and it sit's nicely in my computer chair - it's heaven.........
I like to think he bought it home just for me but I suspect he hope's to use it occasionaly too, and this is Mackenzie our youngest son having his back pumeled.
Had a busy day today, no creating but went back to Tai Chi this morning and spent the afternoon with our web designer making a start on the web site for our acrobatic troupe "The Leaping Loonies" and she also helped me tweek a few things on my blog too.

Isn't he cute!

Isn't he cute, had a loverly afternoon yesterday with my face to face group of Illawwarra ladies (Wollongong area and surounds) of the internet group Southern Cross Quilters (or SCQuilters as we call it) and this water skink kept everyone entertained sunning himself throughout the afternoon.
Some of the ladies had left and a couple of us were just finishing off our cups of tea when the little devil crept up unnoticed and bit me on the toe - well, I said a few choice words, cup of tea went flying and we all promptly picked up our bags off the ground and put them on the chairs, as I didn't want any surprises while driving back to Dapto.
Apart from this we had a loverly afternoon of food, company and shown 'n tell.

Floyd

I'd like to introduce you to "Floyd" the newest member of our family.
He doesn't live with us but on a goat farm in SA owned by a fellow quilter, our family like a lot of other quilters are all helping with the drought situation by adopting a goat and paying for their food and upkeep.
Leesa tells me he is quiet special as there are not a lot of brown goats and especially with a white patch, he comes from a long line of award winning milkers so when he's old enough he will be very valuable (and popular with the ladies) for breeding.
So I'm very happy to have saved his life and help take the burden off Leesa with the farm.
For more info on the goats go to http://adoptagoat.blogspot.com/ you too could help save a life and our farming industry during this long drought.

Calm before the storm

These are photos of a quiet corner on my sister in laws balcony, I stayed with her in Sydney the night before I flew to Perth, I thought I'd start the day of with some calming photos as I'm about to attack the kaos in my studio, unless I can find something else to distract me.
Though the cricket starts in 3 hours, so if I have second breakfast now, work for 3 hours then I can allow myself some time infront of the telly with lunch - have I convinced myself yet............

Lunch with a friend

While home in Perth I caught up with my childhool best friend, we grew up next door to each other but lost touch in our twenties when our marriages took us to different countries and parts of Aust.
Jenny lost a son a couple of years ago and this is the healing hearts quilt I had made for her and her family. I had gone into hospital not long after to get my first new hip so this was what I organised to take in as my hand work, so 2 new hips later and lots of recovery time and lots of blanket stitch this is what emerged, she was very touched.
We had a cuppa with my mum so they could catch up on family stuff then we went for lunch at a fabulous restaurant on the beach at Cottesloe and isn't the view breathtaking, I didn't want to go home but had rello's and friends coming for afternoon tea so couldn't linger with the view any longer but did bring home a snow dome from the beach to add to my new collection.
I just love the water.