Five Sleeps until France!

As always thank you for your comments! And your thumbs up for my blog! I have been trying to finish work for exhibition at Quilt Expo en Beaujolais as it had to be in the post earlier this week and also finishing of the business plan and financial details...crossing all the t's and dotting i's- it all takes such a long time. But First of all back to Alice Springs. We went to a number of galleries whilst in Alice- all of indigenous art which is of course a great tourist attraction for the town- and there are many different indigenous nations( I say nations because their language is different and their creation stories and their regions) represented by art centres and galleries.

One gallery we visited Talapi Art Centre was in the process of  mounting a new exhibition and allowed me to take photos of exhibition views. There was some wonderful work on display as you can see from the photos.

My favourite artist was Nirvingka Lewis- see photo below- her work was a little different than the more usual dot and stylised motif  paintings- she had actually burnt on the marine ply panelling and then added painting- the motifs were also of everyday life and had a lovely naive charm- I wished my budget would allow me to have bought one- maybe another time.........

 I also wanted to mention my hostesses again- simply because they have the lovely annex cottage available for quilt retreats or quilters visits to Alice Springs at a very reasonable nightly rate. So if you are at all interested you can contact me and I shall send you Barbara's email details so she can provide further information. I have to say that Barbara and her sister Nancy  are incredibly creative and they are  incredibly productive and inventive:

 Nancy is a ceramicists and these meerkats were just so charming ( one came home with me)- ceramics and quilting is not the only thing Barbara and Nancy do- they paint their own wool to knit all sorts of fabulous things and  socks and  slippers that are felted, they felt and Barbara makes beads- their house and studio was a treasure trove of creativity- very inspiring and most certainly anti-minimalist- it made me realise that all these bare and minimal homes give you no idea of what the people are like- not so with Barbara and  Nancy every nook and corner  revealed yet another creative pursuit- a rich and varied life and production and incredibly kind hostesses.Thank you Barbara and Nancy for a wonderful week in Alice Springs!

  Barbara with a challenge quilt she made which had to incorporate the nine patch block and yellow under the tree that inspired the quilt.

Nancy was making these budgerigars for a bird exhibition later this year ( Australian native bird) which were first knitted then the knitted wool is painted and then they are felted- they were just  wonderful and I am not sure how many Nancy was making but as these birds fly in quite large flocks I think a flock may have been the plan!

And Nancy with her  budgies.

And then last but not least- I have  quadrupled my  quilt output this last month- until the beginning of March it stood at one  quilt for the Beneath the Southern Skies exhibit ( though I did start the full time NEIS course in that time and that impacted on available time, and I did make some small stitched pieces) but I wanted my sentintelles to have maximum impact in Beaujolais ( I am still working on one more which I will take with me - a lady of the deep blue southern skies I think) 

So here is the finished blue sentinelles:

 And red sentinelles......

 And a lace sentinelle- it is the  stencil i used to paint all the other sentinelles- too pretty not to use and allowed me to create a lace like piece- which did not want to hang completely straight- but then the  folds and irregularity actually added to the piece- I am nit sure what a quilt crowd will think of her....

All of my work is for sale ( including the other sentinelles except for the Red Earth Sentinelle)- email me to inquire as to price etc.I also have available lots of the small printed panels- they are $15 each including postage- just name your colour- as I will spend the next 3-4 days doing a lot of printing.