Palms of Palmyra

Thank you for all your good wishes for the New Year!
It was so hot passing through Melbourne yesterday so that we did not stop at an art shop as intended, and I didn't buy lino to make a lino-cut of the lamp/recess.

However I have started hand quilting a piece I started awhile ago- before I went to Europe in September- my impression of palms and Palmyra and Syrian silks. Co-incidentally i found some drawings I did about five years ago in one of my journals of very stylised foliage from Assyrian carved reliefs. I wanted to combine those very stylised patterns with some of the palm patterns that were carved on the Roman ruins at Palmyra. I also used some silk in this piece which is modern woven silk using traditional patterns- I will show more images tomorrow.It is of course the worst time of year to be hand quilting with the temperatures soaring in high thirties and forties, celsius ( 100 plus in fahrenheit)- but I like to watch the tennis and hand stitching is something productive to do whilst watching the tennis.Alos the slowness of stitching byhand allows me to contemplate the next pieces I intend to do.