Dream Weavers

A group of ladies from my quilt group have got together and formed an art quilt group.  We started with six ladies, now have 8, and have had 3 more enquiries.  It is going to be so much fun as we discover new techniques and learn from each other.  We meet once a month.

We decided we would start with something small and would do a little art journal quilt each month approx. 8" x 10".  



















This is my first little quilt.  (October).  I have named it "Dream Weavers",  and it interprets a personal story.   I have decided to do a quilt each month which pertains to what has been happening around and in my life for that month.  Some of the ladies are going with a theme for the whole 12 months.  We have no strictly defined rules and are keeping the format quite casual.  We intend to exhibit our small quilts at our exhibition next September under the title "Discovery"


"Dream Weavers" was inspired by the work of Jude Hall.  Jude recently had an article on fabric weaving in the Quilting Arts magazine and that sparked the idea to do a weaving theme.
I have incorporated a spiders web (made from recycled material - some type of acrylicy stuff which comes sometimes attached to the end of a blot of fabric)  and a bead for a spider.  I have done lots and lots of hand quilting and sewed on some little sheer pieces of georgette ribbon samples given to me by Shirley of Shirley's Twisted Threads.


 
The story behind the quilt is of two friends who are always dreaming of a place where they might pursue their creative side with sheer abandon - away from the mundane.  That would be Shirley and Dianne (me) :-)

Stash Bash - top finished

 
My 'Stash Bash' quilt top is all finished now.  It is only lap size but I managed to herringbone stitch over every single seam in just 2 weeks.  Mind you, there was a little bit of pain in arm and wrist from pushing myself too hard.  Luckily I got away with it and I am now resting my arm for the continuation of quilting on my 'Four Leaf Flower' quilt.

 
Doing the herringbone is very addictive.  Here is a close up section.  I did the stitching in a No 8 pearl variegated thread and intend to tie the quilt with the same thread. 
This one will be gifted to our second daughter who does not yet own one of my quilts.

Late Bloomer

No! - not me - our Jacaranda tree.  All the jacarandas in our region have already bloomed and are dropping their wonderful lavender carpet, but the jacarandas in Toowoomba are just coming into bloom.  Weird!
We have a couple of jacarandas and in the next week they are going to be in splendid colour.
 
On a recent trip to Coffs Harbour we stopped in at the town famous for it's jacaranda festival, Grafton.  The trees were in full bloom and dotted all over the township.  It was a beautiful sight.  Very hard to capture in just one photograph.


Views of Coffs Harbour



























View from the Sawtell lookout back towards Coffs Harbour.  Even the little seagull couldn't resist pausing to look at the amazing vista.

These are the roses from our garden that I gave to my sister-in-law who lives on the beautiful Gold Coast.  We stopped over to visit them on our way to Coffs Harbour.

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.