My Australasian Quilt and Travel

It's not the best photo, but here is my quilt, Australasian, hanging in the Quilts Across Queensland exhibition curated at the Brisbane Ekka (for those of you not familiar with that term, its the Brisbane RNA Show). It was entered in the professional pieced quilt category and won third prize. You can see me standing with it below, and I do apologise for the quality of these photos taken with my iPhone. This was a quilt inspired by Leesa Chandler's Under the Australian Sun fabrics, which I mentioned in early blog posts.

It was really quite a thrill to win the prize as it's been a few years since I've won anything, or even entered a quilt in a show. Starting the business and keeping up with all the admin and online activity, not to mention being in the shop 6 days a week, packing eBay items to send, marketing, teaching, sewing and trying to design and follow through projects, as well as housework and parenting doesn't leave much time to produce show quality quilts - let alone shop sample quilts. However, I'm pleased the quilt has had it's moment in the sun... in fact it was sold at the show so I'm not sure how I'm going to teach it/publish it now. Is that an excuse, do you think? I'm planning another one, not quite so complicated in terms of quilting, perhaps in modern fabrics....

This is another quilt I'm working on now, in progress. I have actually finished the top now and am planning the quilting. I made it with a Hoffman Rainbows pack, Rainforest.

The most exciting thing that's happened since I last blogged, is our Japanese trip. It was truly a dream come true for me. I've included a few photos, not in any particular order, of our holiday.

There's a couple of fabric ones,

taupes from Diamaru - I don't know why , but I spent ages selecting this small bundle when I should have just grabbed a piece of the whole selection! It's always like that in retrospect...

and rolls of kimono fabric

The amazing stone wall at Osaka Castle,

A couple of food ones - a green tea ice cream sundae, a Japanese MacDonald's meal,

and a very Japanese night time scene,

It was all so very beautiful, exciting and fun! It was also a great experience to share with my teenage daughter. Who knows if we will go again, but I definitely would like to explore the fabric in a little more depth, especially retro and vintage kimono, and we really only touched the tip of the iceberg as far as food was concerned!

Till next time,

♥ Ann

batik of java : poetics & politics

Last weekend I went to the opening of a beautiful textile and painting exhibition, batik of java : poetics and politics, at the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery.
I lived in Indonesia for two years in the mid 90's and fell in love with the many varied textiles produced there and was inspired by the creativity of the crafts people (many of them women and weavers) and artists.
I wanted to share some images of details in some of the exquisite, hand made Batik Sarongs hanging in the exhibition. The fine details and dots created by the hand poured wax and dyes is incredible.
The Batiks belong to the collection of Ian Reed and Greg Roberts and were collected from the Javanese North Coast region.
Many of the Batiks featured motifs taken from nature, including butterflies,

these traditional Chinese style clouds
flowers and birds.

But some of the most interesting and appealing to me were those depicting strange and quirky interpretations of sea creatures and fishy crustaceans (the batiks originating from the coastal areas remember) like the ones below.

The one above was my absolute favourite and has now become my phone background!
(Speaking of which, I took all the photos with my iPhone because I've lost my camera, so sorry if the quality is lacking.)
If you're in the area, the exhibition is well worth a visit to feed your inspiration, and it's on till 14 August.

xo xo Ann

Quiltopia!Design African Squares.

(I've had to post this story it two posts because I can't seem to be able to load on more than 3 or 4 photos. Is that the same for everyone?)

I make packs of 52 , 5 1/2" squares for my African Quilt. They can be used to make the African Quillow too - and just about anything else you have in mind.
Recently, I reached the end of my supply - somethingI dread in many ways ( but am very happy that I've sold them all!)
So it's time to cut some more...
Here is the pile of fabrics ready to start.





From the pile of fabrics, I cut up to three, 5 1/2" strips across whatever width there is.
Every time I cut squares, I finish some precious fabric. This time I finished several of my very first, original fabrics purchased in Pretoria and Cape Town four years ago, and also some my mother (who is not a quilter) purchases at a Zimbabwean market.
At the time my sister was living in South Africa and we had the good fortune to visit her.











The stacked up pile of about 70 different fabrics!
Love the way it looks...
I especially love this hot pink one with coffee cups, the orange with shoes underneath it, and all the Da Gama Madiba range featuring Nelson Mandela's head. I found out recently that this range is no longer in production - but watch out for it in my products in the future.






The final stage in the cutting process involves cutting each fabric strip into 5 1/2" squares and organising them in rows ready to dole out into piles of 52. I try to make charm packs, but sometimes it's just not possible.

Phoenix Mandala

This is my latest finished quilt. I started it end of last year, then got busy with other projects for classes and commissions. I did the studio clean up and then got back to this one. I've had the lovely Asian inspired fabrics for a couple of years now, generously given to me by friend and former student, Cherie. I always had a rail fence/ mandala style design in mind but wanted to work out a different construction method.
I made this using a quilt as you go technique with large blocks, quilted simply in the ditch on my domestic sewing machine. The central medallion was free motion quilted around the phoenix and there's a quarter inch peeper as a fine border around it too.
I used my favourite environmentally friendly 100% bamboo wadding of course.
I'm happy with the result even though I lost interest during the making!










The back was made from left overs and compatible pieces to the front. You can see some of the joining strips. I attached the quilt by machine, but then hand sewed down the joining strips so there were no stitching lines other than quilting on the top.
Finally, the quilt was bound using a quick machine attachment method and a bias tape maker. I always feel a bit guilty about this as it doesn't give the lovely finish of the hand finished binding for shows... but I still feel "quilty" because it's contemporary, really smooth and goes on all in one line of machine stitching!
I will be teaching classes in this quilt.

Hope you like it.