Solomon Islands

We've been to the Solomon Islands!

It was truly a tropical getaway with beautiful beaches, incredible water and colours, lots of fun and family. I didn't even look at fabric... I tell a lie! I did buy some cute rickrack and a couple of pieces of SI printed fabrics in shades of blue.

We went to the largest ocean lagoon on earth and you can see what the water was like. Coral, fish, WWII plane wrecks, wonderful carving and amazing rainforest right down to beaches.

This village is on a volcanic island with bubbling hot springs, friendly local people and dolphins swimming close to shore. When we arrived, we were greeted with fresh young coconuts to drink and eat the flesh of when we'd finished. Cut open, I thought it looked a bit like a bustier.

Unfortunately, my camera broke while we were there so I don't have any uploads for posts on my latest work. I'm making a new quilt and feel very refreshed a inspired after our break.
I want to add some more photos to this so stay tuned.

xo xo Ann.

Memories of my Feelings of Place Exhibition in Port Moresby.

I have just put a link in the side bar to my Feelings of Place Exhibition, hung earlier this year in Port Moresby. It was a wonderful experience for me, very busy over the four days meeting people through workshops I held, family and the exhibition event and sales. There have been other photos in older posts but I thought I'd just post a couple more here too. My sister and her family have just been in Maleny visiting for my birthday. They left yesterday and we miss them!

The PNG family: Eva, Walla, Yvonne, Ellie, Thompson and Susan.

A stack of quilts for the exhibition.

At Boroko Market with the billum sellers. This is one of the places I buy my billums for my online store.(I've just got a new shipment but have not listed them yet - so come back to look if you're interested!) The little girl is Ellie, my step -niece.

Just check out the amazing variety of colour and pattern in these uniquely hand woven items of beauty and use!

Tigger the kitten, curled up on a traditional woven mat.

A folded flower in the Bird of Paradise Quilt for the workshop.

The Bird of Paradise Workshop in the lovely Ela Beach Hotel venue.

Quilt admiring staff at the hotel...

Quilts by the Port Moresby Quilt Society.Participants from villages around Port Moresby, in the hand hexagon workshop.

I was presented with a magnificent basket by the Head Lady of one of the villages. I was interested to know that many of the women make quilts and sell them in their villages.Myself, Dame Carol Kidu, Marilyn Ward and Susan at the official opening, by the Dame, of the hexagon workshop.To finish, my little niece Eva enjoying the sunset light playing on my Fire Within Quilt (Part of the exhibition).

Port Moresby, PNG

Finally, some photos and a post from my adventure in Port Moresby. The photos are are all a bit mixed up and contained in two posts.
I had a wonderful time and met some wonderful people in my two workshops and Quilt Exhibition, Feelings of Place. It was lovely to visit my family up there; my sister, her husband , his two girls and my new niece. the weather was clear and not too hot, and the city looked fresh after the rains. The Bird of Paradise Workshop and exhibition were held at the very comfortable Ela Beach Hotel. The workshop group was a mixture of members of the Port Moresby Quilt and Craft Groups as well as people who had been sponsored by community members and leaders. You can see the group below, all holding up there works in progress. There was a mix of hand and machine workers and everyone achieved some skills and hopefully some inspiration.

The workshop I ran for a group of Village women, proved extremely popular and instead of sitting and sewing under palm trees in a village we were all accommodated in the spacious conference rooms above a restaurant , kindly donated too us for the event. All the 35 women from various villages made their way to the venue and learnt how to hand sew quilt as you go hexagons. I provided a small kit for each participant and they all sewed away, enthusiastically planning what they would take back to their villages and how they could apply their new skills to benefit themselves and their communities. It was really inspirational for me and I felt there were many more opportunities for community development in my small way. The women are holding up their work in the photo below.

Below are some of the Bird of Paradise participants with a view of the Ela Beach venue.

I had to take this shot of a pile of the quilts I SOLD at the exhibition. They're stacked on a chair awaiting collection by their new owner. I have an empty sort of feeling, now that I've sold so many of my African quilts... but it's a good feeling too!

Port Moresby Adventure

A few more potos of Port Moresby, people and places...
Below is a Billum stall at the Boroko Market. I bought some hand woven billums here to add to my online store. The variety of colours and patterns is incrdible and each design has its own name/s like traditional quilt blocks do! they are constantly adding new ones with names like "power lines", "computer".

Myself, Dame Carol Kidu who opened the Exibition and Village Workshop, Marilyn Ward and my sister, Susan poseing in front of my Pacific Stained Glass quilt commissioned by Susan last year. Dame Carol had just given a welcome speech to the partucipants at the worksop. She is a strong advocate (as is my sister ) for the rights and opportunities of Papua New Guinean women.

The entrance to the exhibition, Feelings of Place, was opened with the Bird of Paradise quilt I made for the workshop. You can see some of my quilts to the left, and some of the lovely works of the Port moresby Quilt Group to the right.

Leanne holds up her version of the quilt from the workshop. She machine appliqued a palm tree image she had worked on, after sketching and planning, instead of the Bird of Paradise, then added the borders and folded flowers from the original quilt. Very creative and effective.

Down Under Quilts Profile and PNG Exhibition

Read about me in the February 2009 issue of Down under Quilts! This is what the cover of the magazine looks like . I was really flattered and excited when they invited me to be a profiled quilter.. Thank you DU Quilts!















This is the opening page of the article, featuring my daughter Amelia's sampler quilt and one of my Australian Indigenous inspired quilts, "The Fire Within". I've decided to include that one in my PNG exhibition, "Feelings of Place" featuring my African and ethnic inspired quilts. Most will be for sale, some are from private collections, and commissions are welcome.
The exhibition will be at the Ela Beach Hotel on 3rd and 4th April 2009. Tickets for the opening event on Friday night will be available. I will continue posting information as it comes to light.
To see these two quilts, and many of my others, visit my website and click on Quilts.