Culmination

Lots of thoughts were swirling about in my brain as I began working on this piece. I am feeling that my work is a bit predictable lately. I've been using my favorite techniques, motifs and colors as crutches. As I began to work on this piece, I tried to push myself outside of my comfort zone. It felt awful and the work was equally awful.

Since I'm in the midst of moving, house hunting, house selling and generally preparing for a major upheaval in my life, I finally gave myself permission to lean on the crutch of hand stitching and leaf shapes. Ah. What a relief. It was fun to make and I'm pleased with the results. A bumpy start, but a good result.

I hope our move goes as well. Bumps are to be expected, but I am hopeful for the end result. The culmination.

Culmination

There are tiny bits of freshness here. I think my hand embroidery is more energetic than some of my previous work. I like the interesting mix of elements --- fused, painted, stitched. I think I could have gone farther with that. Maybe next time.

Just three different fabrics in this piece. I pulled out lots of purple and yellow from my stash, but these were the only ones that really wanted to play together.

A Botanical Complement

It's remarkable how often the complementary colours of purple and yellow appear in flowers - pansies, iris, crocus and so on. There hasn't been much studio time this past couple of months but this didn't stop me from trying out a few different ideas. This was my design wall yesterday:

The quilt I really want to make is still in my head but I put the finishing touches on this lupin-inspired piece a couple of minutes before 1 July California time.

Kyoto Revisited

With my studio packed up, and being out of the country for two weeks, this piece was a challenge. I knew I need to get a good start on it before we left.  I had a piece of deconstructed screen print that I just loved in purple and yellow, so I used that as a starting point.  Often when you use complementary colors in dye, you end up with mud, but this piece didn't do that, so I lucked out.

I think I was channeling our trip, because I started laying this out and the temples we had seen in Japan on an earlier trip came to mind. Then when I was studying it, the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto popped into my head. So this is my abstracted memory of past travels.

Sunshine & Smiles @ Brisbane

Kirsten and I would like to say THANK YOU to all the textile enthusiasts who stopped by the Twelve by Twelve exhibition and demonstration area at the Textile Art Festival over the weekend. From your comments, we know that many of you have been following the project from the beginning while, for others, this was your first introduction to our work. In both cases, it has been a delight to share the Theme series collection and we hope you will enjoy the current Colorplay series as it emerges. We will be revealing our Complementary (purple and yellow) works right here on this blog on 1 July 2010 (US time).

For me, every time I see the quilts,  I notice new (to me!) details.  Look what I found in the top corner of Francoise's chocolate piece - Love Chocolate & Patchwork: 

With that irresistable encouragement, Kirsty and I are going to channel some Gerrie influence and see what purple and yellow concoction we can pull together in the few days before 1 July.

Textile Art Festival

On Thursday I did my best yak impersonation and transported 30kg  of quilts and demonstration supplies to Brisbane via bus, train and aeroplane. When Kirsty and I arrived at the exhibition centre, we were presented with a blank canvas:

Within in a short time, it looked much more colourful and inviting:

Each day at the Textile Art Festival (25-27 June), Kirsty and I are presenting floor talks about the project (10.30am and 2pm) and demonstrations of a range of techniques (9.30am, 12 noon and 3pm). It is a delight to share our work with textile and fibre enthusiasts.

Reject

I really enjoyed creating this yellow pattern on this purple fabric. I used acrylic paint and a handmade stamp.
I thought it was fun to combine it with a bit of fabric that had been used to clean up paint splotches. I enjoyed the hand stitching. But the overall result... ug. I had to start over.

Finished

This is the back. I did something new, for me. It was fun and a little fussy. I may try the technique for a larger piece.

Twelve by Twelve in the News

Last month, following the Twelve by Twelve exhibition at the Australian Quilt Convention, some of us were interviewed by the Epoch Times. You can read the resulting fun article at: Quilting Twelve by Twelve.

For NSW residents in Australia, the Twelve by Twelve exhibition at Gosford Regional Gallery winds up on the afternoon of Wednesday, 23 June.



Brenda will be packing up the quilts and taking them up to the Textile Art Festival which runs from 25-27 June (Friday- Sunday) at the Brisbane Exhibition Centre. Kirsty will be joining her. Together we will be presenting daily floor talks at 10.30am and 2.00pm and daily demonstrations at 9.30am, 12noon and 3.00pm. Come and say hello!

Working Through a Block

Though I've been focused on another project, I've had "Purple and Yellow" percolating in the back of my mind. One of the first things I thought of, based on Karen's "Opposites Attract" title, was the "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" quilt block. Then I noticed that my Colorplay quilts have been rather quilt block-y. I've since made half a dozen sketches based on simple blocks that are the opposite of each other.



Part of my foot dragging on this piece is that although I liked the opposites concept and I am happy basing it on a traditional quilt block, it wasn't looking arty enough. I finally decided that in order to move on, I needed to actually try the blocks. Less than half way through I knew it just wasn't working. However, making them jarred something loose because I'm now moving right along on a Robbing Peter to Pay Paul-inspired, opposite-y quilt that does look arty.

Purple & Yellow at the Sydney Quilt Show

I've made dismal progress with my official piece for the purple and yellow colour challenge. I've been distracted with preparations for the Sydney Quilt Show 2010 which opens tomorrow. I've just put the finishing touches on the prize winners gallery which will go live in 12 hours or so (around noon Sydney time).

Rose Moderne, one of my alternative Window works is on display in the members' exhibition. I notice that it is mostly purple and yellow but I don't propose to recycle it !

I brought a bundle of Twelve by Twelve postcards with me to the show. I'll be on duty in the Guild area from Wednesday-Friday and again on Sunday so please come and say hello and let me know if you would like to buy a set. Meanwhile, the Twelve by Twelve exhibition continues at Gosford Regional Gallery until Wednesday, 23 June.

Falling in love with purple and yellow

I can just quit, right now.

Distratcted

I've been a bit distracted since Karen announced this challenge. This week, a Violet Crumble has been the closest that I've gotten to purple and yellow.

Hatred overcome...

After bemoaning my revulsion at  yellow I find myself quite taken with the combination with purple and am on my third quilt. (Dennis wants to know if I am going for a series of twelve all by myself.). As promised they even have a happy theme.

However, life is about more than quilting  (Yes, I know that's not true but it makes people think we are sane if we say it from time to time) amd so I decided this week to have saxphone lessons. Researching the varioius makes of alto saxes to buy I found this.

If I use it to play 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Twelve Inch Quilt' can I put in a performance piece for my quilt this time around?

Sharing the Passion

The Twelve by Twelve collection will be on exhibition at the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane, 25-27 June 2010. Kirsten and I will be giving twice-daily floor talks at 10.30am and 2pm.  In addition, we will be giving daily demonstrations of various surface design techniques at 9.30am, 12 noon and 3pm. We hope you can join us!

Lilac and daisies

I looked through my photo files and picked these two as the starting point of a purple and yellow quilt. Both pictures were taken in my garden two or three years ago. The lilac is a grandbaby of a tree which was in my grandmother's garden, so I'm quite sentimental about it.
Today, I started printing my dyed fabrics. (the turquoise is for another quilt)