Tear drops

The printed lozenge/tear drop shape was from quite a number of years ago , for a quilt I made that got into Quilt 2001. I had created a gocco screen ( similar to thermofax) and printed the bright orange fabric. I found some left over ones the other day and of course reminded myself that I love that tear drop/lozenge shape and have played around with ideas for it for quite some time. I liked what happened when i put the butter yellow french knots onto the black dots in the design. I must find the screen i made for this as I want to make some more of these- I like how textural it feels under my hand. I feel like I am finding myself again.

And Miles commented in regard to my previous post:
I just don't see how you make any kind of money at $35 for a beautiful piece of work- unless you are a machine able to crank them out a dozen/hour! Amazing.

Thank you Miles for that comment! I find it difficult to price things. As I have always supported my family from my art/teaching and writing I need to keep things turning over and I would like to put bigger prices on things- on the other hand my price is based on an hourly rate. And because I am now a single parent in rented accommodation I am very mindful and perhaps even a little anxious that I need to keep things ticking along, otherwise I will need to partially abandon what I am doing and go back to regular employment whilst I work out what to do with my piece of land and whether I can make, living in France, in 2010 a reality for at least a year. I would love to hear some views as to how other artists price things. It sometimes feels as if you need to reinvent the wheel each time. Thoughts anyone?

Back on the Pomegranate Wagon

Finally did some machine sewing today after I found a whole pile of pomegranates which I had previously printed and cut out.It really is a bit of a nightmare having things everywhere, but I almost feel as if setting it all up properly would be not working- but in the long run a bit of organisation wouldn't hurt. These pomegranates measure approximately 8 inches square and are for sale for $35 US inclusive of postage.

Someone asked what a Wonga was- well it's just a day at my house and given its called Wonga Flats I thought I would call the day a Wonga day- play days really.

The Lone Wonga

Today was my "Wonga" Day- but I spent it alone- I did not expect anyone to turn up really so shortly before Christmas , but I shall be having another one Sunday 11 January- you can join me in the flesh, by visiting my house or via blogland. I must admit to being glad in the end that no one turned up, though what I thought would be a dreary day ended up being quite enjoyable. As my other two kids spend this weekend with their father I am home alone( not something that has happened often when I have been home- but is often true when I travel)

I decided early on that I would do all things french today- music movies, food and that I would work on a small piece in tear drop shapes. The reason for chosing a shape to work with was inspired by Jude Hill from Spirit Cloth and her post about working with dots or circles. I have to admit being inordinately fond of dots or circles myself and was very tempted to work with dots also but then a thought struck me, if I am going at this with full intent why not try and work away some of my tears and grief of the last two years before the new year, so that I can start fresh. So with that in mind I decided to use the tear drop shape- of course anything to do with the subject of mother/ daughter has to have a pomegranate in it and the little face was one I drew the day after my daughter left home all that time ago. I was expecting this to be a tearful exercise but instead find myself strangely calm and even hopeful- as if the physical act of actually acknowledging what is gnawing away at me is releasing some of the negative energy.

In the all things French category I watched Amelie, what a delightful movie that is, and then Les Choristes ( if you have a penchant for choir music this is a wonderful uplifiting story of a teacher who shares his music with boys in a boys home/school for misfits and creates a choir) and then Manon des Sources the story of Jean De Florette's daughters' revenge for the death of her father- and what revenge it is , and then the final bitter twist at the end. Magnifique! Lunch was a french salad with home made french dressing ( I hate hate hate bottled dressings , and must admit to being really annoyed when a restaurant or cafe serves bottled dressing- it's so easy to make a good dressing and changes the salad) and feta ( I know not quite french but...) and lardons( well not quite as you can't get the nice bacon you get in France, here) .Oh and for the music I have been listening to Renan Luce- I like that I can understand a lot of the words. The link I have given is to a Youtube video of Les Voisines and if you are a Hitchcock fan you will enjoy this take on a Jimmy Stewart classic!

And last but not least , I found this little Japanese prayer book amongst my stuff the other day- it dates from the edo era I believe and is a Bhuddist prayer book- the pages are all hand written ( and they made many of these prayer books) with little red dots here and there marked by the monk who had the book obviously providing accent to important passages and all written on rice paper and hand bound- it's a little treasure in it's own right but what I particularly like about this prayer book is that it has holes in the pages created by some insect /worm many years ago ( I found some casings amongst the pages when I bought it). Anyway the thing that rather appeals to me, is that a prayer book should have holy pages!

Things I found Yesterday

This is a piece of hand dyed shiboried muslin ( the lovely lightweight muslin that I used for the Travellers' Blanket) It measures 1 metre by 1 .2 metres and is for sale for $35 US inclusive of postage.

This is a small piece I found yesterday when we emptied out the tent where a lot of my things had been stored to make way for the slab in the shed etc etc. Only one item was water damged thank goodness. It took quite some work to get it all into the shed. We have decided that my little car , a Nissan Micra, should be renamed the Tardus! Anyway this is one of the smaller Hellfire pieces I used to make- this one is not yet quilted, I think I may do so tomorrow.

Thank you one and all for your very thoughtful replies to my post yesterday- sometimes the writing and reading the responses is a big help in itself- to know that other people have had this dreadful experience , to know how they have dealt with it, and to try and find the best in it, lightened my mood somewhat ( still no work produced however- spent most of the day preparing parcels for shipping on my new book)

And don't forget my new book is available- see the side bar for details of cost etc. Books I shipped last Friday to North America have already arrived there- which is good to know!

Travellers'Medallion Finished

I finished the Traveller's Medallion but must admit to suffering a bit of a crisis of confidence whilst making it and I still have not resolved what I think. The thought struck me, as I was stitching last night; that this is nothing but a flaming potholder- what am I doing here??Yes I enjoyed the stitching and dit did start to speak to me more as I stitched- giving some sense of the traveller who might have worn this medallion. The medallion is for sale- it measures approximately 10 inches square si entirely hand stitched and is made form my own hand dyed and printed fabrics. The price is $130 US inclusive of postage.

I think my crisis was exacerbated by another crisis of confidence in my personal life. Last week we had a "care" meeting regarding my middle daughter, who after our travels in Europe decided when we returned home, that she did not want to live at home- she disappeared two weekends running after we were back without telling me where, although we have a fair inkling where she was. The meeting got a bit contested because my intuition says there is something more at play than sheer wilful teenage behaviour and I actually voiced it out loud after my daughter alleged that my sanity should be examined and after it was suggested that my daughter should self determine whether the counselling she had been having should continue without reference to the gp who is prescribing anti-depressant medication (because the counselling agency involved cuts out when the child turns 16). Things progressed downhill from there and I walked out of the meeting because I was suffering such a severe anxiety attack that at one stage I thought it was something else. I walked out saying I had three children and I loved each of them. But I am tired of two years of hell that there is still this rankling in the air. I have tried , and it is wearing me down, and I have to let go. It is a strange kind of grief to let go of a living child who for whatever reason refuses to be a part of the family that I had hoped to raise- who refuses her siblings . The bureaucracy says I "favour" the other two children but in all reality all I am trying to do is keep a bit of an even keel and right now they need their mother back .

All of this takes up so much space that I am finding it very diffcult to work at all- though I have to put one slow foot forward and start.

Traveller's Medallion

I have been trying to work but progress has been impeded by various things and we had a little housewarming gathering last night. I have been working on the little travellers medallion, it's about 10 inches square .Obviously there is still quite some stitching to go.

Poppies, Travellers Medallions and Wongas

I am working on creating small traveller pieces- which I shall call traveller medallions. It was once a practice for travellers in a group on carvanas to wear a medallion to identify to which group they belonged. Caravans were often big for purposes of safety and protection , so the medallions helped not only identify groups but also fellow travellers.

I am delighted to have both traditional poppies and flanders poppies in a small section of the garden here at Wonga Flats. I have always adored Flanders poppies, associating them with a childhood where I used to roam the fields on the small farm where my father worked in the Netherlands and where I would "hollow"out a small hole in the wheat and day dream. The wheat was always laced with flanders poppies and the holes served to protect me from the very strong wind in the North of Holland

And I have decided I am going to have "Wongas" once a month- these will be art and textile days and anybody will be welcome to come and visit at my house ( My house is much bigger these days with more space). The idea is to enthuse and inspire each other. If you want to attend just email me and let me know beforehand.It was once upon a time more common for artists to work and sometimes live together to inspire each other with ideas and methods of working- that is of course not entirely possible here, but I would like to foster this kind of collaboration and inspiration. There will be a small cost ( $5 to cover tea/coffee and a light lunch) and the idea will be to foster creativity. My first one will be Sunday week on 14 December- I know this is close to Christmas, but hey if I don't start it will never happen! The Otways is a lovely region and the house where I live has it's own unique little environment which is sure to offer some inspiration- each day still brings pleasant surprises.

Don't forget I now have my Seventy Two More Ways book available for sale- see my previous blogpsot for prices.

Page Preview

I thought I would show you a page preview of a page in my new book. And yes I know Xanthereas is spelled with an X and not a Z- I am hoping I opened an older saved version before we did the final edits- otherwise the word is pronounced as if it has a Z.

Pricing is as follows:
Our postage costs seem to be ever increasing - there has been two rises since the beginning of 2007 particularly for print/parcel post overseas. The prices do include airmail shipping which is the fastest method apart from courier of getting the book to you and takes between 7-10 days.
Book: $25.00 AUS
$28.00 US
22 Euros
15 GB
CD: $20.00AUS
$17.00US
12Euros
9GBP

Book is at the Printer!

It is done! Hoorah. The book is at the printer and the books will be ready on Wednesday morning. My daughter helped with the layout so it looks fine apart from the fact that some of my squares weren't perfectly square! We also added directional drawings to give you some idea of how to start each motif. I liked the way the directional drawings looked for the french version of the first book- it balanced the page more nicely.Books can be ordered directly from me.

Anyway it's a relief to have it done and to be working again. I have bought an old ddesk which will hopefully solve my sewing table problem, as the table I worked on for this one was just not big enough and caused me to break a lot of needles because of the drag of the quilt.

Tomorrow I hope to show you some colour- maybe even somethign dyed! I need to paint some silk to prepare for a commission piece.

72 MORE Ways!

Well it's done- all I have to do is the satin stitch overlay grid and the quilt is done. I struggled finding motifs for the last row, and just as I thought I couldn't possibly think of anything more, all of a sudden a few more popped into my head with the end result I ended up having some extras. The book will be available next wednesday or cd- whichever you prefer. Prices are in my previous blog post. And Picasa now allows you to put print on an image, so I will have to fiddle with that some more. I wished I had done a few motifs better, but as I always keep telling people when we look at drawings of artists we are looking for their individual impint of what they are seeing- and so it is with machine quilting! And some forms are easier to do than others.Not everyone has to do everything exactly the same as their neighbour! And as Gertrude Stein once said : "The problem with having a good idea is that someone else always comes along and does it better." However that shouldn't stop you from having ideas should it?

Now I can get on with life and new things. I am inclined to begin another traveller's blanket, as there is still a lot to tell and to interpret- I was very taken by the dilapidated cathedral at Jumieux in Normandy, perhaps I could use the window shapes to embroider this time- views of the world. I spoke to Fiona Wright of Creative Arts Safaris the other day and she was very taken with the whole idea of the traveller's blanket as a way of journalling and recording travels- so it will be feature probably in her next newsletter.

A little Doll Installation

I have made a little installation of the dolls I have been given, won and made.The first doll was made by Veronique Douillet, and the third one along is made by Belinda Schneider from Bel's Nook. The woven baskets are from New Zealand- one is a harakiki made by Maori women and the other is made by Tongan women- I love baskets! It's so nice to be able to display them in my home. I think I want to build a little altar out of recycled wood as well to display some other things I have collected over time.

Work is progressing on the book- I will be able to ship any books ordered on Wednesday arvo or Thursday morning. The cost of the book is $28 US, or 22 euros, 14 GBP ( and the prices include airmail shipping) and within Australia $25 inclusive of surface postage. I can be paid via Paypal- just email me. If you order now they will arrive in time for Christmas. I will blog the cover sometime this weekend.

Imagine my surprise this morning as I turned into our drive to ba faced with a wallaby! Unfortunately I did not have my camera- but it seems he is resident here because I also saw him one night ( or maybe it's a her) I will try and get a photo- they are so sweet. And then my daughter walking home from the school bus saw a koala walking along the road- you rarely see koalas in this area- and several other people have reported seeing them so perhaps they have moved in. I will try and make sure I don't go out without my camera- just in case I can get a photo for others to see.

And I think Ildi must be my 200.00th visitor ( so email me Ildi so I can get your address and send you something- and I rememebered I have forgotten to send my 175,000th visitor the promised present- life must have intervened, so something will be heading your way before Christmas as well)

Muslin Fabric

I am getting coy now- no more pictures of the progress on 72 MORE Ways- you shall have to wait for the book! But whilst I haven't progressed as fast as I had planned- it will be available in book form next week!

Progress has been impeded due to the fact that I have had to move things from my studio/shed as a certain person disconnected the power that used to run from the old house ( and for which I was willing to pay- it kind of blew the wind out of my sails ). The matter is complicated by the fact that the table at which I work is very heavy ( stops the machine vibrating) but there is no way it will fit in my Micra, and I have to admit it is amazing what I can actually fit in the Micra- and so I have had to resort to a small computer desk- and that is really uncomfortable to sew at. MY ability to dye has also become complicated- I will think on it in the next week or so when I have finished 72 MORE Ways.

So the photo is of some of the muslin fabric I have dyed it the past. This is true muslin- light weight and delightful to sew. It is what I used for my Travellers' Blanket. It is for sale at $35US a piece ( including shipping)- the width is 40 inches by 45 inches long except the orange and black piece which is a bit smaller but has had an extra process applied to it.

Ohhh and during the night my 200.000th visitor attended my blog- the reader is from Budapest in Hungary, please make yourself known to me and I shall send you a little surprise. Thank you one and all to my faithful readers- I have been despairing the last month because I haven't been able to write as much as I normally do when I am not travelling, but life got in the way and the lack of internet connection didn't help!

What did I begin?

Work is progressing on Seventy Two MORE Ways- little did I realise the real challenge this would present when I so sunnily announced I would be doing this book. My goodness coming up with 72 more continuous line motifs has been hard work! I have done the drawings first because I needed to see whether some of the designs would lend themselves to a continuous line- so now they need to be sewn. My machine ( a Husqvarna Designer II) is still being temperamental- yesterday it was fine but today it is not a happy little vegemite- maybe its the driver? But the sewing will be done Tuesday all things going well- and it is the type of book that writes itself- so I should have it printed by the weeks end.So place your orders now so that you will get the book in time for Christmas. I can be paid via Paypal for those that are overseas.

The bottom photo is of a grevillea- this one is in the garden at the new house- birds love it! It has been interesting getting used to the morning sounds here- no crowing roosters for one- but a lone owl who welcomes the early dawn with hoots which sets off the magpies and kookaburras in unison

Finally Making Some Progress

I must admit to feeling rather flat these last few weeks and haven't achieved anything I set out to do. So today I made a determined effort to do something as I find that usually gets the ball rolling.I have also been thinking I would love to work with someone else around to help push through barriers- but there is no one really near where I live who is involved in the kind of stuff I do. I could do with some brainstorming and enthusiasm!

I did teach at Bairnsdale on the weekend and that was fun-we used the community house to do the workshops and this was the community house vegie patch which was enclosed in netting. This is because the birds are numerous and destroy almost any food crops. I would love to have a vegie garden under cover like this one. I did manage to put in all my vegies- it's only a small patch, but everything has been planted and mulched with pea straw- so hopefully things will grow!

Have made a little progress on 72 More Ways- my machine is not in a co-operative mood and I can't work out why- maybe when she realises it's on for earnest now she will think differently of it!
Oh and I keep forgetting but all the My Place quilts are now on the website ( The quilts are from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). They will be coming back to Australia soon for exhibition at the Australian Quilt Convention - where i am also teaching in late February.

Whne you are Not Looking

It's amazing what you find when you move house. I have been trying to find these tifaifai's I made some time ago for a couple of years now, but do you think I could find them? And then when you are not looking they reappear- I am sure they planned it! I am still thinking of writing another tifaifai book as my other one has gone out of print. And of course they had to be pomegranates as well- Demeter is sending strong signals - I am finding pomegranate things everywhere- or maybe I have just made lots of pomegrante things!

I am making progress on 72 More Ways- it's quite a challenge finding 72 new things for machine quilting- in fact I have run out of ideas for the day- I hope some new ones arrive during the night! This weekend I have to go and teach at Bairnsdale.I have also been thinking about doing an on-line workshop on lino-cutting and printing with lino on fabric , when I work out how exactly I am going to do that!

Finally Things Are Coming Together

Hoorah- finally we are connected to the internet and I can get back to a bit more regular blogging- I have missed it, as it seems to make me do the work so I have something to blog about- not a bad thing! I have been doing line drawings to explore more textures for quilting and could not resist a pomegranate one. The pomegranate/Persephone metaphor seems to be a recurring theme in my life- and so it is again, almost unconsciously- this time it is a new start!

And whilst moving stuff I found the above quilt which I made as the coloured version of my 72 Ways Quilt for the French book-alas I had made it the wrong size and so had to make another exactly the same as the white and black version. I am not sure what I was thinking. Anyway it is for sale in case anyone is interested . It measures 34 inches by 39 inches and is heavily stitched with lots of different free machine motifs. It is yours for $450US inclusive of shipping.

Update

We still have no internet connection at our new home- very frustrating in this technological age to have a three week delay before phone and internet are working... Hence no photos.

We are now settled into our new house and getting into the rhythm of being there which means I can get back to what I really need to do- which is work work work. I am working on a new book entitled Seventy Two MORE Ways not to Stipple or Meander- and you guessed it , it is 72 more ideas for free machine stitching. My schedule is to finish it by the end of next week so I can get it printed. Any pre-orders will be welcome ( as then I can determine how many I will print the first print run). I will do it in the same black and white format of my previous book and I will also add directional drawings . If you are interested please send me an email first.
The cost of the book inclusive of shipping will be as follows:
$28 US Dollars
22 Euros
$25 Australian

Around Our New House

Part of the reason I did not want to move far away from my former marital home is that I love the nature in this region ( and it allows the kids easy access to their father). The house we have rented is just outside the village we have lived in for the last 10 years- Gellibrand in the Otway Ranges of Victoria. I was delighted when we found this house we are now renting as the views are as good if not better than in our old house and best of all we have a little grove of tree ferns out the back door. We also pump water from a small creek for household water ( which is the first image). I love tree ferns and especially the uncurling fronds. I have in the past made a quilt with this subject matter- still no quilting/textile work done.

If anyone is interested ,another box of Across Australia caralogues emerged ( we had thought them all gone) - this was the exhibition which I curated that travelled to the Middle East in 2006/2007. If you are interested ( 28 quilts in full colour catalogue) the cost is $20US inclusive of postage and you can email me by clicking on my profile.

I have also had several people email me recently to ask me whether Tifaifai Remaissance is available anywhere as it is out of print. Alas the answer is no as far as I know, and I only have two copies myself which I use for teaching. I suppose the only solution is to write another and put it on cd?

We Have Moved!

I loved this wall of plants , which is a project by Patrick Blanc at the Musee Quai Branly- wouldn't it be fabulous if all houses had walls like these?

We also visited Lembach Haus in Munich and were delighted to find many of Vassily Kandinsky's early works ( he was masterfeul in the use of a powder blue/corn flowery blue sort of colour) and some work by Paul Klee. This painting took my fancy because of the way it has been framed- obviously Klee wanted the "intrinsic" quality of the canvas on which he painted to be part of the whole ambience of the painting.

We have moved house- no phone or internet yet- but almost all of our stuff is there. We decided not to take the cats with us last night as we were still moving too much stuff around and then this morning on my walk with my friend we found Celeste's cat Izzy in the gutter- she had been run over. My daughter will be heart broken, she was a very sweet and affectionate cat.

Have to write an article on my forest quilts for Magic Patch by Wedensday, and then I go to NSW to teach at the Entrance Retreat for three days.Not much work done ont he textile front unfortunately - so much for my itching hands!

The Week That was and the One to Face

The above little piece I started whilst travelling in Europe when we did some felting at the gite in France- it was machine felted and then I started to stitch it. There is a lot of stitching to still go in, but as I have done no other work it is soemthing to show.

The last week has been another roller coaster- we did get the house to rent- hoorah- but there are so many things going on it has been a tedious process moving in and it won't really happen till the weekend. Tonight I have to take my daughter for an MRI scan of a tumour in her left thigh - which has previously been looked at and is benign- but is presently causing her a lot of pain. Then we see the specialist tomorrow.

Then I had a small car accident ( well it was not really an accident more of a minor scratch really) in the car I hired to get home from the aiport- talk about a scratched bumper bar being expensive- there was a $3000 insurance excess and that has gobbled up a lot of my hard earned dollars. ( since when is a plastic bumper bar a 10th of the value of a whole car???) I don't think I will ever hire a car in Australia again- all of my experiences with the car hire companies have not been good.

And we are in the process of trying to arrange a student exchange for my middle daughter int he Netherlands- as she has not been living at home there is a lot of bureaucracy to deal with- though they are supportive of the idea and plan- meanwhile paperwork to do and t's to cross and i's to dot. So not much work is getting done

Home Again

Some Parisian icons for you and a mummified cat in the Louvre Museum. The cat dates from around 3000BC- how interesting that even then they knew how to make log cabin blocks! Of course they wove in narrow strips hence the joining of the strips to make a larger whole.

I am home again after 8 weeks of travelling- it was wonderful seeing my children again. I have swept the shed in preparation for some serious sewing which needs to be done! I have the itch in my fingers to get going on some work and to write another book. I have applied to rent a house not far from here- so I can still use my shed/studio- keep your fingers crossed for me, it would be a good solution for the time being!