At Last- A house

After almost six years of house sitting, couch surfing and shed living, it seems that all things going well I have purchased a house in Morwell in the Latrobe valley. There were a number of criteria that influenced my choice amongst which was ready access to a rail line- for after last years scare of not being able to walk and drive for a period of three months, you can't be stuck on a bush block without any services, being closer to my mother rather than the 4.5 hour trek I had to do when I went to visit her from Gellibrand, and good access to Melbourne and medical care. It became readily apparent that most places with good access to rail services were beyond my means,  but there was a glimmer of hope for Morwell- so I have been searching since January in this locality (viewing houses was made a bit difficult by being away so much) and surprisingly when the housing market in most of Australia is experiencing a downturn- this does not appear to be the case in Morwell- and this is probably caused by the fact that houses are fairly cheap compared to elsewhere. So this week I took the plunge- I visited some awful awful places, I don't think my mother would keep her chooks in there, some pretty dreadful places and some not too bad ( most of these were outside my means) I eventually narrowed it down to three places, made offers, was accepted on one, but then the power of attorney overrode the owner and wanted more money, at which point I wasn't in the mood for dealing with legal shenanigans, so it came down to two. The house for which my offer was accepted had been in the one family since it was built in the sixties, and it pretty much in original condition including the axminster carpet, so pretty retro , but it looks like it was well cared for, it even has a pretty nice garden with a few fruit trees and lots of possibility- it has a garage hereafter to be called the print room, and three bedrooms, so I can have a spare room and work room- so all in all I am happy with this place and feel even happier that finally all my things will be in one space and that I will have a dedicated space to work, plus I have a pretty nice garden- greenery is a necessary part of my life  given I can't look at the bush anymore since leaving Gellibrand.

So I am trying to gather together some money to help cover the cost of stamp duty and conveyancing, so I am putting some of my work up for sale. Last year and the latter half of 2017, were devoted to creating the Traveller's Blanket exhibition- which took an enormous amount of work, but as they were committed to exhibition I was unable to sell any of them and I had no real time to make other work for sale. The Traveller's blanket series is entirely stitched by hand on hand dyed and printed fabric- and I can tell you they took a whole year and some months of my life to make- so this is reflected in the price they are- what would you want to earn for a whole years work?? Some of the Traveller's Blankets are still on tour in Canada and not sure what their next stop is- it's part of the Crossing Oceans Exhibit. I am discounting pieces but they also  need to seel at fair compensation for my time and effort and the originality of the pieces.

The work created by machine is cheaper as the time it takes to free motion stitch is a lot less than stitching by hand! However all farbics are hand dyed and or hand printed- using various techniques. Descriptions of the pieces and prices are underneath the photos of each piece.

The Blue Traveller's Blanket - measures 92 cm x 140 cms ( approx)- and is densely stitched. This blanket was inspired by a journey through my surface design techniques since I commenced hand dyeing fabric early in 1992. It contains pieces of fabrics that have been dyed, printed with linocuts and print gocco, breakdown printing- anything I have tried over the years really! For Sale $2,750AUS

The Waste Not Want Not Traveller's blanket- has been stitched on two layers of dhoti fabric and scraps  from the Stitching Project in India. All fabrics have been indigo dyed or resist printed and have been heavily hand stitched in a warm colour pallette. This piece measures 120 cm x 120 cm ( approx) It is for sale for $3000 AUS

Discovering Australia. At university I studied Australian history and was shocked how little attention was paid to the indigenous history of Australia- and indeed when you  look at the journeys of discovery it was apparent that the explorers were intent on claiming Australia as a Terra nullius- very rarely was local knowledge sought and some of the only times that  indigenous people were of help was to rescue these reckless explorers who thought they could conquer a continent. Each of the circles represents indigenous knowledge and cultural practices- using very simple stitches and the tracks around the circles represent the white explorers who skirted around that knowledge. it measures 47 cm x 90 cm  and is for sale for  $850 AUS

Machine Stitched Pieces

This piece is inspired by olive trees and has been stitched by machine and hand. It measures 57 cm x 28 cm and is for sale for $150.00 AUS  SOLD

                             

Homage to Raoul Dufy and Paris. Raoul Dufy was commissioned at one point to create a cityscape of Paris for a tapestry. I thought it was an amazing project to have undertaken, and of course I love Paris. So I drew the cityscape back to front on papers and transferred it onto Lutradur, and then embellished the whole scene with stitch. I included this quilt in Musing in textile- as maps can take on all sorts of shapes. It measures  79 cm x 86 cm and is for sale for $550 AUS  SOLD

I love tree shapes and am also enamoured of the way foliage was represented in late medieval and early rennaissance times- often trees are given very stylised shapes. This piece is both applique and reverse applique and has been heavily machine stitched. it measures  62 cm x 100 cm and is for sale for $450 AUS

Banksias- my ongoing love of banksias emerges from time to time in a textile piece. This was made for Quilter's Companion Great Australian Quilts 2017  from memory. It is hand printed and appliqued and measures 72 cm x 126 cms and is for sale  $650 AUS

If any of these pieces interests you please email me on dcevaal@gmail.com


I am also teaching some in the flesh workshops at Open Drawer in Camberwell . On the 5th of July I am teaching form and variation. This is a workshop  in which we do hand stitching and look at all sorts of ways for working with circles ( or squares or triangles- whatever your penchant is )

 On the 6th of July it is Transfer Printing which is a lot of fun. You paint papers with shapes/motifs or even resists and once the papers are dry the  colours are heat transferred onto lutradur , and then we will stitch. You will be able to paint  quite a lot of papers that you can take home and work with later. The Homage to Dufy and Paris quilt above was made in this way.


I will also be teaching the Traveller's Blanket class over a number of sessions so that you can create  your own textile tales and Linocutting and printing in September.