I learned a lot from the previous new work I posted, including that it is best to do the burning for what I have in mind when the sheer is actually attached to the underlying layers.

Also I learned that despite all care, occasionally a bit of burnt nylon is spotted onto the underlying fabric, but these lettle dots can be flicked off with the point of a needle once they harden.

In this small section of a current work I just had to do a few quilting lines and some of poking about with the wood burning tool and get a pic up, partly for my own record but also partly to try out a new camera I obtained by cashing a large number of customer reward points at our local supermarket – better even than duty free wouldn’t you say? With several more megapixels than my previous one, and more bells and whistles, I think we’re going to get along just fine; one thing I like is a feature that compensates for a shaking hand – I don’t think this is aimed just at seniors – I think it is a great feature most of us could do with from time to time especially if taking a snap from a moving vehicle, stuff like that. My camera needs are not very sophisticated, I just need to be able to take people pics, occasional touristy ‘been there’ pics, pics of textures anywhere that grab my attention, and pics of interesting textiles incuding close-ups of fine detail. I do have major pieces photographed professionally, rather than cart lighting and other props around in my peripatetic life, however.

This new work brings together several things I want to tackle – like unbound or very non-traditional edges , as I feel that in a way my love of a finely bound or faced edge has in fact been limiting what I am prepared to consider inside the shape,there is no point behaving freely inside a tight, neat box. Perhaps that is a principle I could examine further out in practical parts of Life, like wearing purple etc 🙂 but I digress.

I had been fiddling around with making holes in sheers, feeling I wanted to work more with them – the ephemeral quality having great potential for expressing thoughts on decay, just as punched leather does. In combination I think they are very interesting.

I have called the work this detail comes from “Strata” .
I am happy to announce this quilt has been selected to appear in the first SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Oceania Quilt Textiles exhibition to be held in Brisbane in October, and will appear in other Australian exhibitions scheduled into next year. I will put up a full view of this quilt once it has been seen in public.

It’s not the first time I have called a work ‘Strata’ but the other was a project article piece in a magazine a few years back so I don’t think it counts, really. (QNM, Nov, 2004) Interestingly in a current magazine “Quilting Arts” there is a roughly similar article by an author who has used several ‘Strata’ quilts from her series of them, to illustrate the article. Wavy lines do suggest rock strata to many people I guess.

This detail shows free machine quilting with metallc thread the same colour as the metallic gold leather applied in a design over this hand dyed fabric of Janet Jo Smith’s – I don’t dye myself – just buy it, mostly hers and Dijanne Cevaal’s.

Which brings me to several other quilting matters: A couple of weeks ago up in Longmont Colorado, I taught a workshop on “Quilting With an Attitude” to a very receptive and hard working bunch of quilters, arranged by The Front Range Contemporary Quilters of CO. They were a joy to teach, and a very stimulating group.

And also while I was up there I met with Jan and Steve Rondeau of Quilted Expressions, Johnstown CO, http://www.quiltedexpressions.net/ who are going to take care of DD and SIL’s kingsize bedquilt, plus a couple more large ones I have been sitting on a while – one I fell out of love with immediately I tea died it and a few of the patches grabbed up much more colour than the other 95% !!! But now, since it has served it’s two year cupboard sentence, I find I love it and feel sure the longarm pattern and thread chosen will enhance this unique quilt. The third one WAS going to be the back for the young newlyweds’ quilt, but for various good reasons isn’t going to be after all, and it’s coming into our home instead as a quilt in its own right. It’s interesting that after all these years of making quilts of various sizes including bedquilts for other people, we will soon have two of mine living here as bed coverings. Of course, there is still the hexagon quilt to finish off……as I will, one day…. no rush, since deciding the quilting pattern for that one will take some time, anyway ….

I said a little while back I would like to do something more with sheer fabrics, and here are two samples I have done this week to trap some ideas before they fade from the first flash of inspiration….

The first, top, you can see I am thinking waving edges and wandering lines between solid areas of fabric. I did think of finishing off 12″ square of it for SAQA, but it didn’t develop enough zing for me to be inspired to continue.

The second, below, is all glitter and sheer – handling is not easy even in a little sample size piece like this, and so the BIG ideas I have probably won’t be quilte like this, either.
But – a scattering of things like this onto a black background … or v.v, gold in black sheer onto a cream background which I am about to try – well that could be something.

I brought a big cone of gold thread back from Aus on my last visit last year, so I have plenty to play with, even to also do the 1000 invitations to an exhibition which Petra and I hope will be soon (see the posts for late november, 2007 for one of those invites)

If we are accepted at the fabulous place we saw yesterday and are today submitting for, I will launch into something new and large along these lines, and Petra hopes to launch herself over to Peru to study something she has always wanted to learn more about with goldsmiths there who have mastered ancient Inca techniques.

So back to the drawing board to follow a couple of ideas that have come to mind as I wrote this.

This is another work from way way back, last century in fact. In 1994 about 3,500 artisans and craftsmen around the USA, (we were living there at the time) – were invited to submit an original and totally hand made Christmas tree ornament to go on the trees in the White House to celebrate the year of American Craft which also happened to be the Clintons’ first Christmas in residence.

I have been meaning to put this pic up for some time, as beading is so popular in textile crafts at the moment – several friends of mine are making bead jewellery and doing quite well selling it. Beading is everywhere on all kinds of womens’ clothing; beads and other ’embellishments’ have been appearing on quilts in the past few years, although for perhaps the past 15 years at least several prominent contemporary quilters such as Jane Birch Cochoran and Terri Mangat among others have applied beads as an integral part of their artistic voice in their quilted works.

I guess my invitation to submit an ornament came as having been a Quilt National exhibitor in 1993 and at the time being resident in Denver CO. The specifications were few, as I recall to be no larger than 15″ across and weigh no more than 12oz, any technique or material could be used. Coming as I did from a long embroidery background and adoring sparkle and glitter, I envisaged something that would catch the undoubted downlights and glow and glitter over there in the White House. So, it didn’t take me too long to settle on a silk poinsettia with beaded petals and other flower parts. Those who know me know that I jump in boots and all and then find I really have a challenge on my hands once I get down to basics – so of course, with no pattern around for anything like this I had to work it out for myself. The leaves are double sided, and on the underlayer I sewed in a couple of lines of covered florist wire so that I could shape the leaves once they were sewn. The stamen thingies up the middle were challenging – rolls of green silk with beaded ends turned out reasonably well I thought. Then all the leaves and stamen bits were gathered in a bundle and sewn together by hand and finished off tidily. I don’t recall whether I had not resolved the hanging mode at the time of this pic or whether the photographer and I agreed not to show it – anyway it was a lovely gold cord loop long enough to go over any reasonable size branch. The final dimensions were about 10″ across, and about 4″ depth taking into account the splayed leaves and including approx. 1″ deep bundle of stems unit. When I began the project I thought I’d make one for them and one for us – but by the completion of this one, I can assure you I had decided it was to be unique.

The blurbs that came with the paperwork included the information that after the christmas period the ornaments would go to the Smithsonian . I suppose they did….and wonder if they are still there. A couple of years back I tried to enquire but my phone calls, letters and emails went unanswered. I lost interest. If any reader either saw the christmas decorations in the White House that year or has since heard or knows of their ‘fate’ I’d be interested in hearing from you. I also contributed the Colorado panel to a tree skirt under the tree in the Blue room. That was used, at least once – going by the full colour large photo I and other contributors received. That one tree was positively bristling with ornaments, with barely a spruce needle showing. I did read somewhere of 7,500 odd ornaments turning up !!.. and it was probably almost too much for the 15 large trees traditionally placed in the house. it just occurred to me – I could email Hillary’s campaign to see if they can find me the information ….