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.