Playing with the Q20 Bernina

My second and last day in Florence I spent visiting the Battista near the Duomo, which has long been closed for restoration. Part of the entry ticket also included entry to the Museo di Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the climb of the  Duomo itself (but given the queues I decided to leave it for another day). The Battista itself was a treat, the inclination to lie on my back and just stare up into the spectacular mosaics was almost overwhelming, and the tiled floor was spectacular.

 Then onto the Museo itself, where to my great delight they had on display the embroideries designed by Antonio del Pollauiono (also hidden from view for awhile). The embroideries were made with a technique no longer used as far as I know- which involved laying gold thread and then stitching through and over with silk thread. The embroideries themselves were executed by various embroiderers it is thought and were once part of vestments.They were difficult to photograph as they were placed in specially lit and mounted glass display cases and unfortunately there was no book. The best I could do was to get a detail shot.

After Florence I went to visit some family friends who live near Desanzano. Our parents were friends and Ada , who is also an artist and I have become friends over the years. It is always a delight spending some time with them and experiencing Italian life, they also  have a small Bed and Breakfast called Il Martino. Ada Melegari has made some beautiful fresco style paintings and we have found we share a love of images with angels. Two of Ada's artworks are below.

Whilst there i was also in pomegranate heaven, as they have a large number of the trees in their garden, and one morning the light was just beautiful so that the  colour of the fruit against the yellowing foliage was stunning.

Whilst  travelling i did do some hand stitching- embroidering a small linocut print of a coffee pot- I am also sharing an image of  the back of this little embroidery as slowly with time the backs of my embroideries seem to be improving. I use very simple stitches.

Then back to Le Triadou where the last remaining grapes after the vendange offer a few sweet mouthfulls on morning walks. It has been incredibly dry in the south of France and then apparently there was a very bad hail storm in August resulting in a much diminished grape harvest.

And then it was onto Toulouse to demonstrate on the Bernina Q20 for Quilts and Patch. I had a lot of fun on the machine and really just went a bit mad with ideas even though I only had variegated thread available to use ( i had forgotten to take some of my own threads). I also got to meet  Alfonsina Uriburu who is very creative with the Bernina Q24 and caught up with my friend Christine Escanes, who trains many of the Bernina dealers in France and elsewhere and who has more technical know how on Bernina machines and feet than anyone I know. If you want to know how to optimise use of your machine she is the person to ask for a workshop!

 Just a little sample of some of the things I stitched up on the Q20;

  I have finally finished the large linocut tree print quilt I started just before I left France in July. I didn't take it back to Oz with me so  I finished it whilst demonstrating in Ste Marie aux Mines. The large tree linocut is available from me( and i will be dyeing up fabric and printing more this week)

 The photo on the right was  on a morning walk near the village of Moux. I was struck by how similar the detail shot of the  quilt and the scene were apart form the smashing blue of the sky in the photo.

I will be creating the Aussie Bush Project page in the next few days- it will tour in 2017 and 2018.If you are interested please contact me.