a peaceful garden

I have had a busy few weeks since I last posted, with many xmas get togethers, finishing up Art school for the year and making a quilt in a hurry for my sister to send to her best friend in USA but unfortunately we don't think now it will get to her in time.
This week I got my results and got credits for my 2 sculptures units, so that's great news.
I'm also in the throws of doing a major excavation (archival dig) in my studio which has been ignored for way to long, can you tell I'm procrastinating by blogging and putting off going back out to my shed to keep sorting and digging

so I thought I'd calm myself with the last of my travel photos of some wonderful sculptures and tree textures from my cousins garden in Perth






ahhh now I feel better

just in

This is Caitlin Grace,
my sister Glenice's partner's newest grand daughter that I made the quilt for and delivered when I was in Perth, isn't she gorgeous

and big sister Elise wanted to share it with her to,
aren't they two cuties

I've just come back from dropping Mackenzie at his year 10 formal,
doesn't he look dashing, he even put grandads top hat on for the photo

how did my baby get so grown up

it was so lovely to sit and watch all of the guys and girls walk by in all their finery, they had been having their photos taken at the lighthouse then walking down to the function centre on the beach, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy and proud

more travel pics

While in Perth I spent the day with a lovely lady, Julie Williams,
Julie was very generous with her felting knowledge, I only new Julie from an Internet felting group, this was our first meeting and we talked as if we'd known each other for years and we spent many hours going through all of her supplies/suppliers and all of her amazing pieces and being educated about different techniques along the way, I even came away with one of her fab scarves.
Julie lives not to far from Mandurah one of the special places from my childhood, so off we headed for lunch on the beach, I had salt & pepper calamari, yummmmo and this beautiful view was so enticing we had to walk out along the jetty, this is looking back to the restaurant


the water is so blue - I wanted to jump in

these mussel shells were under this grate on the jetty

I wanted to see how close I could get to them and still keep them in focus

did I succeed

happy travels

Here are some more photos from my travels

While staying with my cousin Geoff who has a wonderful house on a few acres not to far out of town we were amazed on our first evening where this Bandicoot came to visit looking for some bread, I had never seen one before and this little thing was oblivious to us all and just fossicking around our feet looking for crumbs, I was even able to hand feed it.
It comes to visit morning and night, even the cat was nonchalant about it.

but look at those teeth

while staying at my sisters place I found this little gecko sun baking on the side of the herb garden, he was only about 4-5 inches long, look closely - can you see him?

My sister Glenice lives in a little sleepy fishing village 60ks above Perth and every evening we had to stop for the last few moments of the sunset over the ocean

this photo should have been in the last post,
this is my friend Elle and her daughter Rachel with the quilt I gave her for her 50th, just a couple of years late

my travels

I have been away from here far to long,
the past 6 months have been very hectic but I don't go away again till next February and ART School has finished for the year with my assessment next week, so maybe I can spend some quality time at home at the sewing machine and keep on track here.
Over the past 6 weeks I have been to Brisbane to work/teach at The Craft & Quilt Fair, home for a few days to wash and repack then off to Adelaide to work/teach at the Quilt Fair there also.
In both places I stayed with quilters who I only new from an on line group and was very pleased when these 2 ladies put their hands up and offered me a bed as these were towns I had no family or friends I could call on for a bed, so thanks Di and Maxine for your wonderful hospitality, it was much appreciated.
I headed up the coast to Caloundra from Brisbane to spend a few days prior to working the show with a special friend Elle, we used to flat together, who I have only seen once since she was my matron of honour, many many years ago at my wedding and surprised her with a quilt that was a few years late for her 50th.
From Adelaide I continued onto Perth, well I was half way there already, to see my mother and sister and catch up with family and old friends, long time friends are special and treasured, you can slot in around the dinner table and it was like you were only there last week not 6 months ago, these are the special friends.
Also The Leaping Loonies were on tour in the West so I was able to catch up with my husband Tim and oldest son Callan.

One of the main reasons I wanted to be in Perth (besides seeing family) was the guys were going to do a show at my old primary school that I wanted to be at, it was a bit surreal being there almost 50 years after I started there in 1960, it hadn't changed much, there was a new admin building where I used to play softball and a new covered area where the guys did the show.
The memories were there, in the foyer they had all of the old sports shields up around the wall and my dad, who was a jeweler engraved all of the names on them from the 60's through to the 80's.
The best bit was with all of the new play equipment they had left the old monkey bar, now that to me was special


Callan discovered an Ocarina at Glenice's

This is my sister Glenice and her partner Mick with the quilt I made for Mick's latest grand daughter.

The guys did a show for my mum and fellow residents at her care facility, here I am with mum, Tim and Callan, she's looking the best she's looked for a long time.

I think I've raved on enough for today, more later

more soapstone

I finished off another soapstone series this week at Art School,
I really like these 3 pieces




one of my favorite sculptors is Robert Klippel, the cover of his book has all little coloured pieces on it and when I found some of these things at the Op Shop I knew what I had to do with them

Art School

life has been busy these past few weeks as my family (husband and no 1 son) came home from Europe where they had been for 4 months touring around performing shows on the summer festival circuit, so I've been busy being wife and mother.

I have been busy though at Art School and have become obsessed with carving soap stone, this one was influenced by Henry Moore, whose work I just lurvvv



and this piece I just let the stone and colours dictate what I did to it, the pinks and greens in this piece are just stunning


in between I've had a play with slicing up this wooden African mask

Simple pleasures

I have just come home from running errands in town, there are 2 exits off the freeway, even thought the second exit is my street I take the first one as it takes me past a couple of properties that I enjoy, one has 4 donkeys and the other has ponies, then around the lake to my house.
As I drove past the paddock with the donkeys they were all at the fence and a father and young daughter were there talking to them and it made me smile and started thinking about the simple things that make your day just right.
Here in Australia it is the first day of Spring and it is a glorious sunny day, it almost made me want to stop and talk to the donkeys as well.

Another simple thing that I discovered last week was the pleasure a new vegetable peeler brought me, my old faithful has disappeared and I'd been battling with the odd collection of supposed "better" peelers that the other cooks in the house had bought over time but I preferred my $2 shop one BUT IT VANISHED..........
I went searching for another like it and couldn't find one and resorted to this one from the supermarket but joy oh joy it glides over the potatoes and almost makes it a pleasure to peel the spuds


and for anyone that knows me well - knows I hate to cook

Talking of cooking, my boys (husband and son) will be home tomorrow from a 4 month tour of Europe and will be home for 3 weeks - and guess what I WON'T HAVE TO COOK YEAHHHH, Tim my husband does all the cooking when he's home and boy am I looking forward to some of his specials

Lovely day out

had a lovely day out yesterday with my friend Nic and her mother Joan,
Nic picked me up and we headed down to Nowra, about 80k's down the coast to the opening of the Moroogal Woman's Art Prize as Nic had a piece in the exhibition.
Meroogal is a historic homestead in the region and has been owned by many generations of women and is now a museum, the exhibition is on at the Nowra Art Gallery and there were some amazing pieces from a vast range of mediums, unfortunately Nic didn't win a prize but her piece called "Nexus" was very impressive on the deep rich blue wall.
We stopped in Berry on the way back for lunch and a bit of a wander, I wanted to go into the shoe shop there as they sell Crocs and I wanted some adornments for my latest hot pink crocs, now that was a mistake as I not only came out with some sparkling jewels I found a new pair of boots, more on these another time.

here she is with her piece


and I got a late birthday present from Nic

a fab book "Masters Art Quilts" lots and lots of inspiration in here

and to round off the day nicely my footy team "The Sydney Swans" had a good win which I watched in the comfort of my comfy chair in front of the telly and the heater

Miss October

I got a copy in the mail this week so I can finally show you
Colour My World that was accepted for the Down Under Quilts 2009 Calendar,
if you want to order a copy go to http://www.creativelivingmedia.com.au/store/magazines/down_under_quilts/down_under_quilts_2009_calendar.html


the smaller sparkly pieces are silk paper that I've made and the larger pieces are Lisa Walton's wonderful hand dyed fabrics.
I've quilted it to death with 2 of my favorite thread drawing designs.

finished ACT's

here's a few of the ATC's (Artist Trading Cards),
I was so surprised that from 2 fat quarters of fabric I was able to get 75 ATC's, I've turned one over so you can see the tulle pocket on the back that I slipped my business card into.

ATC's

You may remember that I've talked about my niece Tani's shop Blue Attic http://blueattic.com.au/ before, well her first birthday is coming up and she is having a party on the 29th, she is making up goodie bags for the party and was asking for business cards etc from the artists to go in them so on the spur of the moment I decided that if I was going to promote myself and my wares in the shop why not make some Artist Trading Cards so they can all get a little piece of art, so over the past 2 days I quilted up a couple of fat quarters.

here is the first one it was a fun one to do, all of the strips came out of my scrap bag, it was almost a shame to cut it up.

the quilting on the back doesn't show up very well here

This piece of fabric already had silver glitter on it, I vlisofixed some silk paper leftovers down and couched down a fancy yarn then proceeded to quilt it to death

the quilting shows up better on the back of this one

I have cut them all up and almost finished zig zagging around the edges, I have put a piece of tulle on the back to create a little pocket to slip my business card into.
Hopefully I'll show you the finished cards tomorrow.

this week

Sunday Mackenzie and I headed 100k's down the coast to Tomerong where our friends live as it was Kerry's 50th birthday party.

I whipped him up a quilt and here he is with it.


We had yummy food and mmmmmmm chocolate cake

I've decided I don't have enough "rubbish" for my recycled sculpture so Ive decided to detour via the big Op Shop on the way home from art school each week as we finish early on a Wednesday.
My boot is full of old frames, a wooden tray and lots of wooden stuff ready for me to cut up and do some fun things with.
Yesterday I found this little glass bowl, most of you wouldn't know that I have a huge collection of depression green glass and I had stopped myself from collecting more but this little bowl was all alone and half price so I couldn't leave it there now could I.....

and these 2 great bags had to come home with me also, don't you just love the handles on the pink one

Travels with Gladys

A lot of people have been asking what Gladys has been up to lately, so here are a few of her adventures


Gladys can't help herself and has to help my students in the class and thought this was the best machine to hang around

Gladys came to help out at the Dapto Art and Craft Show recently and thought she should have taken some of these necklaces home with her

She also thinks she needs to be in charge and supervise the quilting machine

and here she is just hanging around in my backpack on our travels listening to the Ipod........