Visit to GOMA

 
We had a lovely day out today to Brisbane GOMA to see the Valentino Garavani exhibition.  There are really no superlatives to describe his couture.  Many of the gowns were jaw droppingly beautiful and the work in them is totally unbelievable.  Rave, rave, rave.  ( Understandably, no photography was allowed).
It finishes on Sunday, so it was very very busy.  This did not spoil the outing though as we four friends always have so much fun together wherever we go.  The space was also fairly reasonable to get around in and was lovely and cool on rather a hot day.
The memories of this exhibition will stay with me for a long time.

Visiting Local Galleries

Last Saturday a friend and I set off to a small township about 20 minutes away called, Goombungee and we visited their lovely Rosalie Gallery.
A group of textile artists who call themselves WOTE have put on a most fantastic exhibition.  WOTE stands for Women on the Edge - love it!!
The exhibition is entitled 'Elements of Red' and explores the use of the primary colour RED.

It is amazing, so if you live in the Toowoomba district - do not miss it.  It is on until 7 November, so not much time.

 

I am not sure who this work belongs to as it is not on the brochure and I didn't take a note.  The participating artists are Jean Constantine, Jan Scudamore, Joan Ellard, Tessa Wright, Joan Mundy, Dorothy Cottee, Toni O'Leary, Diana Symes, Carol Oyston, Gail Grunske and Barbara Scott.

Well done ladies!! 

When we got back to Toowoomba it was time for a bite to eat and a longed for cup of coffee.  Then we took a short stroll from the coffee shop to the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.

Here we saw some more lovely textile art and a couple of local textile artists known to us were juried into this show too.

It is called "Progression" and is the 6th Juried Art Quilt Exhibition.  It is also on til 7 November.  Well worth a visit.

 
This image is part of an art quilt by a local textile artist, Jen Luck.
We are very lucky to have these two intimate galleries available to our artists in the local region, and it is good to see textile art becoming more recognized.

Scrap Bash

 
This is my 'Scrap Bash' quilt top finished.  I am quite pleased with it and looking forward now to doing the herringbone embroidery on it and completing it.  The colours are great and I think it is the wonderful Kaffe Fassett scraps I have used that give it some zip.  It was so much fun to make and I'm sure I would have enough to do another one.
Do scraps ever finish????  I guess not as long as we keep making quilts!!
I have decided to give this one to number 2 daughter who hasn't yet got one of my lap quilts.  She lives in Brisbane where she won't need it a lot, but during winter, it will be just the right weight to keep the chills away.

The herringbone embroidery will be done on the seams in a perle cotton.  A good summer project.

Sights and Smells of Summer

Summer is fast approaching and some of these sights and smells are filling my senses.  This beautiful peach coloured rose which usually buds about 4 to the stem.  Looks and smells wonderful.














One of our magnificent star jasmine creepers.  This smell always reminds me that the Melbourne Cup is just around the corner.  It also evokes memories of when our children were small as we had it growing over our balcony in our very first house.

 










This is where it grows and my silly husband who had to get in on the photo.


This is where I depicted the star jasmine at our first home on my crazy quilt entitled "My Crazy Life - So Far".


The seasons first peaches and nectarines.  They are on the kitchen bench and the aroma is filling the kitchen.  Mmmmmm.

 
Around the garden.  The recent rain has done much to improve the floral show this year.  Our bottle brush bushes are absolutely full of blossoms this year and we love the way they attract the birds.

Summer - bring it on.

Time Flies

Time flies when you're having fun.  This month has been quite a fun month around here, starting with the quilt retreat in early October.  I will tell you a bit of what I've been up to since then.

Firstly came a decision to start yet another quilt.  This time it is all about 'stash busting'.  I am now half way through making the top of this quilt, and  there are plenty of scraps still to go.  For as long as I have been quilting I have cut left over bits of fabric into strips.  I love the randomness of this - just picking up any old strips and joining them up where they fit.  It is a lot of fun.

Once I have all the top put together I intend to hand stitch the seams.  Possibly with herringbone stitch.  That should keep me out of mischief!!

Last Thursday a friend and I caught a bus down to Brisbane and went to the Queensland Quilt show.  The quilt I showed you here after our exhibition, Silk purses and crazy bags, by Robyn Ginn, won Best of Show.  You can see all the winners here on the Qld Quilters web site.http://www.qldquilters.com/

I enjoyed looking at the art quilts, but time was limited and I had to do a very quick whizz around the display.  

I loved this quilt by Denise Griffiths called "Waratahs and Wildflowers for Dad". 

 I thought this quilt by Lorraine Carthew was very spectacular.  "Memorable Women".

There were a lot of fantastic quilts on show and it was huge.  We spent a lot of time looking at all the merchant stalls and going to a couple of demos.

A lovely day out.

Quilter's Retreat

We had our club's quilt retreat on the weekend in bushland surroundings at Perseverance Dam. Poor old Perseverance Dam is a little on the low side, and even though some areas of Queensland have had torrential rain, it has missed the dam completely.  Our cabins are surrounded by beautiful Aussie flora and fauna.  We were advised to keep our cabins closed or one of the resident possums may come in and help themselves to any food we have in our cabin!!
 
I took this quilt along to retreat to begin hand quilting it.  I did get a little done in between cups of tea, coffee and meals.  Then there was lots of chatter too - catching up with old and new friends.  It was such a happy weekend, and the perfect overcast cool weather for staying inside, keeping warm and sewing.  The funny thing is we moved our retreat from August to October so it would be warmer!
 
This is the main hall and all the ladies getting stuck into it.

My friend, Marleen, always gives me a gift for driving her out to the venue and this year she gave me this gorgeous wall hanging.  I have it hanging from a drawer handle on my old singer treadle machine.  Thank you Marleen.  

"I'm just a Girl that can't Say NO"

That is why I haven't been able to blog for so long.
I have been blogging -  but over on the quilt club site.  It has been a busy few weeks with our annual exhiibtion and my not being able to say no.  I am passionate about our quilt group and have made many wonderful friends, enjoyed the company of some interesting quilters and shared ideas and dreams.  It has come time now that I must say NO.
Currently, I am newsletter editor (once a month but taking two days to do it - on a weekend),Vice President and maintaining the blog.  In addition to this, I maintain membership and email lists and co-ordinate the sales table at our exhibition. 
"Yes" - I can come to that meeting, "Yes" - I can help with the raffle, "Yes" -  I can shuffle equipment from one place to the next, "Yes" I can post that to a new member and so on. 
 At the same time I am a partner in my husband's business and a housekeeper, mother and grandmother.  
NOoooooooooooooo
Now, I am not blaming the quilt group, it is entirely my own fault and, in 2011, I am intending to take a giant step back for my own sanity and so that I may enjoy what I really joined a quilt group for, yep, quilting, sewing and crafting.

To soften this blog post I will now post some pictures of my favourite quilts at the show.
 
I have always loved the Storm at Sea pattern and vow I will make one one day!  This one was done by a friend, Vicky, and she has used a beautiful variegated red fabric with the cream.
 
My friend Robyn Ginn has made this spectacular quilt using silks and she has used the traditional crazy fan design, and made them into little silk purses.  This quilt is all done by hand apart from sewing the blocks and borders together - amazing.  The entire outside border is hand embroidered.  I am in love with this quilt!
 
Close up of some of the purses WOW WOW WOW
 
Lynn did this one which was a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt.  I love it because it is full of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I am a sucker for star quilts.
One of my darling girlfriends, Yvonne, did this beauty.  It is called "Daniel's Pineapple Farm" and was made for her nephew's 21st birthday.  Daniel always wanted to work on a pineapple farm when he was little.  I just love circles.
 
Another Robyn Ginn quilt.  "Hearts for Hannah".  Robyn made this for her granddaughter.  Whilst Robyn was making this quilt, Hannah was involved in a very bad car accident.  She was seriously injured but is now fully recovered.  This quilt has many loving thoughts sewn into it.
Close up of Hannahs heart - all hand embroidered.  All Robyn's quilts are hand quilted as well.

I so admire the patience it would have taken for Dorothy C to make this confetti style quilt entitled "Murphy".
Imagine cutting up all those tinsey bits of fabric and fibres.  He is so cute.

There were so many quilts I loved at the exhibition, but if you would like to view more, I have put some up at www.toowoombaquiltersclub.blogspot.com