Journal Covers

These pictures show the front and back of a lovely journal cover made by my friend Michelle Steele during my recent class in Brisbane. She made it for her lovely friend Carolyn, who is returning to the UK later this month. There are subtle (or maybe not so subtle) reminders of their time working together, in the clever quilting designs.

The Holidays are here...

At last my busy school year is over and I only have three more workshops to teach before I can have a bit of a break from those too. The end-of-year assessment process was a little bit stressful (but really only as stressful as I chose to make it). I have somewhat high expectations of myself, and will not allow myself to put forward work that is less than the best I can do. Perfectionism reigns. I will not know my results for a few weeks, but at least I am satisfied with my own efforts (my closer friends will have some idea of how significant a thing that is for me to state). Progress has been made this year, on many fronts.

Now that assessment is over, it is time to review, to clear the decks, to decide what to keep and what to cull. More importantly, it is time to clean out the studio (and the rest of the house, where bits and pieces have escaped the confines of the workroom and are at large) and make room for new work.

I spent quite some time on the weekend putting up the best work on my Etsy store - not only will this assist with storage issues, but if some work sells it will supplement next year's fees. Although I am pleased to have a bit of a break, I am very excited about what comes next. The picture above is a linocut "Pretty Beach" which is available for sale if you are interested.

Scatterday T

Another week has flown by and this one was brought to us by the letter T, with categories of Clothing, Purple and Hot Things.

The first pic is clothing (and definitely NOT hot things ;-))) - this is the top I wore today, my current favourite. You can also see my other fave thing right now, my turquoise pendant (not strictly clothing, but I am wearing it).


Hot things - well of course I had to dig the bottle of Tabasco out of the cupboard, it's your ultimate in hot sauces. I balanced it on the bannister in front of another T thing - my first Touchstone quilt, which happens to be purple.

Which brings us to our last category - purple. Here is one of the more purple blocks of my latest Touchstones quilt.

Next week's letter is M and the categories of Textures, Weapons & Hobby have already got me thinking.

Scatterday H

This Scatterday is brought to you by the letter H and our categories are Human, Soft and Toys.


Here fulfilling my Human category is Helen, who attended my class today. It was the final of the current six-part contemporary techniques series with Illawarra Quilters and we all had a lovely day. It was great to see all the ladies put their own twist on my designs and make them their own.

After class this afternoon I headed over to my sister's house for a sewing evening (glutton for punishment, yes I am). And look who joined me - this is Humphrey and I can assure you that he is very soft (and also a toy).

But of course I thought would be cheating to only have one pic covering the two categories. so I chased Cooper (who was being particularly uncooperative cause he is not well, poor kid) to get a picture of his Hippo which is also a toy. I couldn't quite get him to demonstrate how the Hippo picks up the blocks but you probably get the idea.

Next week the Letter is T and the categories are Clothing, Purple and Hot Things. I hope to resume some sort of more regular blog activity as soon as my Art School assessment this week is out of the way and I get my life back. Wish me luck!!

Blog Makeover & Button Code

My blog has had a mini makeover by Brenda of Serendipity & the Art of the Quilt and incorporates the logo developed by Design91. Here is my new button code that you can cut and paste into your blog or website:

<p><a href="http://nicquiltz.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://tinyurl.com/39d4xs" alt="quiltzandpieces" title"quiltzandpieces"/></a></p>

Scatterday O

This Scatterday brought to you by the letter O...

My Breakfast item was going to be Orange Juice. Unfortunately in this house, it's the quick or the dead when it comes to Orange Juice - and I'm just not quick enough to beat my family to it. Consequently, you have a watercolour Orange from the same page of my sketchbook as last week's apple. We'd better not need a Banana next - I really don't like to draw them (cause they always tend to look somewhat phallic).

My quest for something Shiny led me straight to my studio - I looovve shiny things and shiny fabric more than most things. Here is a small selection from my extensive collection of Organza - silk or polyester I'm a sucker for that shimmer.

While in the studio, I managed to find this O-Ring which seemed to fit the bill for our third category this week - Little Things. It is a spare one for my Gammill's bobbin-winder, and let me tell you this little thing causes no end of stress when it gets a flat spot or some other issue which stops it from performing it's very important job.

Next week's letter is going to be H and the categories are Human, Toys and Soft (yay - no bananas required!!!).

Scatterday A

This week was brought to us by the letter A!

Our first category is Round Things - I ummmed and ahhhhed over this, but Emma just looked at me and said "Apples of course" like her mother was only slightly brighter than an Amoeba (which may well be round, come to think of it - I'm too brain-drained to go searching right now). So here we have a watercolour Apple from my sketchbook.

Next we have Something I Like the Smell Of - Acrylic paints. I love the smell of Acrylics, though Archival oil paints are even better!

And lastly, Vegetables. I'm sure the girl in the fruitmarket thought I was crackers, judging by the strange looks she gave me as I photographed this stack of Artichokes. The things we do!!

Next week we will visit the letter O, and the categories will be Breakfast, Shiny and Little Things. Hmmmm.

2007 Journal Quilt

Cellular

Creative Quilting techniques used: layered sheer fabrics (p. 11); stamped imagery (p. 67); close machine quilting (p. 247)

2007 has been all about creativity for me. I have made more art this year than ever before, learned many new techniques, developed personal imagery and had an absolute ball doing it. I was given Creative Quilting – the Journal Quilt Project for my birthday early in the year and found a wealth of inspiration in its pages. In planning my journal quilt, I thought about my year of creativity. It feels like I have been developing my art and creativity at a cellular level, deep within my being. Art is bubbling just beneath the surface and bursts forth at every opportunity. My journal quilt features a painted sheer fabric, framed by stamped and dyed fabrics. The piece was heavily quilted, with some sections of the sheer fabric burnt away to reveal the sub-strata.