Coming out of the closet...

Well, no - not really! This is a shot of J9 & I on emerging from the aquatint cupboard during our printmaking class this afternoon. Today was oppressively hot & humid, but then we had to don dustmasks and crowd into the little tiny room which houses the rosin box to learn about making aquatints. Fascinating process, but whew!! It sure was hot and claustrophobic.

This is one of the client quilts I finished this week - I was on a roll yesterday and finished two quilts in one day of concentrated effort. Yay me for being so focussed!!

Our life drawing teacher has taken us right back to basics with drawing the figure. We have drawn boxes and cylinders, done stick drawings of skeletons, but I think all this work is paying off in the improvement of my grasp of mass and proportion, my ability to correctly measure and translate the pose. Watch this space...

Down to Earth

This is an accidental photo from today, which just happens to sum up how I feel about the day. Or maybe Kate took it - now that I think about it, that seems more likely. I drove up to Sydney to Lisa's beautiful home to share lunch with a group of special women who I'm grateful to call friends. As I looked around the group and shared in their various happinesses and heartaches, triumphs and tragedies, I realised how lucky I am to be part of an amazing network of women who both lift me up and help keep my feet on the ground. Thank you to all of you - you know who you are.

Here's a group shot - taken by Lisa's DH Peter, so I can't take responsibility for the closed eyes of some of those pictured.

Since last time we met...

We have celebrated my son Adam's 15th birthday - can you believe he's 15? My parents and my brother Dave with his family came over for a BBQ dinner. 4yo Sidney had a fun time helping his big cousin blow out all those candles.


I have finished as many client quilts as I could, including this one which belongs to Carol. It is her version of my Southerly Change quilt class, and turned out looking great. I couldn't decide which flower from my repertoire would look best, so I used lots of different ones!

I've been working on my art school projects. I want to do well, so have been investing much of my time in the late evenings in finishing drawings and keeping my visual diaries up-to-date with notes and so on. This is one of the wire sculptures I've made - I call it "hide & seek".

I've been teaching my students how to make covered journals. It has proved to be a very successful and entertaining class, with a bit of fabric painting, a bit more free-motion quilting and just a little construction work. The journals and diaries pictured are all mine (cause I forgot to take along my camera) but the variety of work produced in these classes has been wonderful!
I have also been circuit training at the gym at least five times a week for the last month, which is a HUGE effort for me - I am notoriously bad at exercising and keeping up an exercise regime for more than a week or two. I'm in week five now, and have seen some good results (and am feeling much better already).

So now you all know why I've been too busy to blog. I'll try to be better, but I can't make any promises!!

Shoalhaven Quilt Show

This weekend Lisa & I were invited to be the "Featured Artists" at the Shoalhaven Lionesses Quilt & Craft Show. It was a nice country show on the south coast of NSW where we happened to be experiencing some unseasonably hot and humid weather. We set up our displays and spent the weekend demonstrating our work (which was a good chance to get some work done on a new quilt) and networking.

Lisa brought along her beautiful hand-dyed fabrics and kits for sale, and of course a couple of pieces had to come home with me. Although it was hot and exhausting, we had a fun weekend.

Another big quilt finished....

This is the very large client quilt I've been working on for the past week. It belongs to Gay, and features what seem to be her signature colours of teal and green. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, so I've posted some pictures for your perusal.
The large blocks which make up the border feature a fern frond wreath.

The big setting triangles were quilted in a grid pattern, using a "line-dancing" continuous line technique (I love this patterning - reminds me of pressed tin ceiling panels).

I used the same technique for the centre panel of smaller blocks.

Nice, huh??

A Midweek Meme (Yet More Stuff You Never Knew You Wanted To Know)

It’s been a while since I shared some meme nonsense with you, so when I spotted this one on Deb R’s blog I had to pick it up!

What curse words do you use the most?
Bugger mostly, occasionally I'll drop the f-word if really provoked, absolutely detest the c-word - never use that one & hate to hear it.

Do you own an i-pod?
Yep - love my lime green nano

What time is your alarm clock set to?
about 6am - Rob gets up for work after a few hits of the snooze button, and I've been trying to get up early to exercise.

Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture?
I'm not much of a photographer, but when I'm carrying as much excess weight as I am at the moment, I definitely don't want to have my photo taken.

What was the last movie you watched?
"Kenny" hilarious Aussie mockumentary, laughed my arse off.

What cd is currently in your player?
Not sure - been listening mostly to the ipod lately.

Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
Skim milk in coffee or smoothie.

Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Don't think so...

When was the last time you had Starbucks?
When I was in Houston, October before last. I stick to Gloria Jean's when on my own turf.

Can you whistle?
Only for the dogs to come.

What are you looking forward to?
Art school tomorrow.

Did you watch cartoons when you were little?
Oh yes indeed - Warner Bros were my favourites, but also Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion (Japanese, I think) - I could still sing you the theme tunes.

Do you own any band t-shirts?
Yes. Whose? Hunters & Collector's (80's Aussie rock), Springsteen, Chris Isaak, Meatloaf. What does that tell you all about me - that I'm a bit tragic, I guess...

What will you be doing in an hour?
Cooking dinner

What was the last song you heard?
Don't know.

Last time you cried?
Couldn't say.

Desktop or laptop?
I use the laptop most of the time now.

Desiring any new ink?
I'm not sure what this question refers to - printer cartridge? books? tattoos?

What’s the weather like?
Hot & muggy - bleah.

What were you doing an hour ago?
Working on a client quilt in the studio.

How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
I try to get 6-7. Rob can manage on about 5 or even less, but not me.

Do you eat breakfast daily?
I can't do anything much before I eat breakfast, except my morning walk or gym & shower. I feel ill if I try to skip brekky.

What did you do last night?
Worked on a design for a wholecloth quilt while watching CSI.

Do you use sarcasm?
Never!!!

Do you like mustard?
Oh yes, a steak is not complete without a dollop of wholegrain mustard.

Do you sleep on your side/back/stomach?
My side usually.

Do you watch the news?
I try to watch the ABC news at 7pm, but don't always manage it.

How did you get one of your scars?
I have a pair of scars on my right forearm where I was bitten by a dog, when I was 7. It was a kelpie, and although I love dogs I'm still scared of kelpies and blue cattle dogs.

There you have it. If anybody wants to pick this one up, please let me know so I can find out what I don't know I want to know about you ;-)))

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

All the best to you for the year of the pig!!! We joined the crowds today at the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple which is very close to where we live. It was a hot summer day, perfect weather for the New Year festivities and the many people who flocked to the temple to enjoy the day. Nan Tien is the biggest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, and is a beautiful facility.
We arrived in time to enjoy the Lion Dance and Martial Arts demonstrations by the dancers.

Also on show were exhibitions of Chinese Calligraphy and beautiful carved sculptures. Many visitors enjoyed a vegetarian lunch at the temple.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours with the family, besides being interesting and educational. I have been fascinated with Buddhism for ages, so I plan to go back to the temple on a quieter day to investigate further.

Art School Progress

I have been somewhat remiss in keeping you all up-to-date with my busy doings at art school (and the rest of my life too, I guess). So I thought I'd see if I can do something about bringing you up to speed.

Life drawing class - but not drawing from real life just yet. We started out with some plaster heads, which made the job a little easier as plaster heads don't keep moving while you sketch. I've named the guy on the right Elvis the Centaur - his hairdo would do any rockstar proud ;-))

In Design class we worked on these abstracted line designs, blocking out shapes in black and white on one set and adding tone and texture to the other.

Sculpture class is lots of fun, although I don't know how successful I will be at it. I love getting my hands dirty playing with the clay, and I guess these little models aren't too awful.

I'm having so much fun!!!

This & that from my busy week...

On Sunday morning last, Rob & I rose before dawn and headed to the airport for the breakfast flight to Melbourne. Once we arrived, we found a taxi and headed into the city to the Sofitel, a lovely & luxurious 5 star hotel where we were to stay that night. This is the view from our window... We were picked up at noon and taken to lunch at swish restaurant by David, who is a national manager (I think) with the company who invited us on this jaunt. It was all set up by Rob's employer, who appreciates just how hard Rob works and what an asset he is.

Following our yummy meal, it was off to the MCG to take in a day/night cricket match between Australia and New Zealand. We had an excellent view of the whole proceedings from the corporate box, and were plied with more edibles and drinkables than I care to mention. It my first time at the cricket, and how wonderful it was to do it in such classy style!

We returned to Sydney following a leisurely breakfast on Monday morning, and after collecting the dogs and locating the children, it was all systems go in preparation for a flat-out week.

Tuesday was my first day at TAFE for the year - I'm so happy to be back there attending art classes, I'm grinning from ear to ear. We had Life Drawing in the morning and Colour & Design after lunch - both were just amazingly inspirational. I love the art school environment!

I taught a class on Wednesday, foundation piecing and many of the class were more or less beginners. Whew!! A fun day, but quite taxing - I had no voice by the end!

Today was back at TAFE for Sculpture in the morning and Printmaking in the afternoon. It was my first taste of both of these subjects, and I can tell I'm going to love them both. Pictured are a couple of sketches from the Design class and Printmaking class. I particularly like the little drawing of the stack of stones (mirror reversed in preparation for etching next week).

Tomorrow I'll be hard at work at the quilting machine - must get some work done to support this seemingly extravagant lifestyle!!!

New Class for 2007 - Postcards

Today saw the resumption (for me at least) of classes for the new year. The first of these was a fun lesson in making fabric postcards, designed to re-awaken the creativity of participants and get the ideas flowing. Above are some photos of my class samples, which utilise simple design ideas as inspiration.

And here is a shot of what was achieved by today's class - pretty good huh?

Can you pick which ones were made by my daughter Emma (the budding quilt artiste)??