Climate Change

Is it true that cows ,sheep and other ruminating animals are responsible for climate change through the exiting of methane gas into the atmosphere by burping or farting- look at me how could such a sweet little thing as me be responsible for that????

Brown cow in the back ground- eeewww- is that methane I smell????

The view from the side porch of my house- it looks so benign and wonderful in the early morning sun- but in a northerly gale and summer overheat it is full of the possibility of danger.

I have been thinking about my climate change quilt- will I really put cows on it? I recently found that black cow looking into my back double glass doors as I was sitting and quilting- she is very bossy and cheeky!

I am off to Adelaide to teach for four days- so you won't hear from me in that time. Needless to say I haven't got much work done- just ruminating without the methane....

Carvanserai and Other work

You are invited to come and see my work at the Gellibrand Town Hall on Sunday 22 March from 10-4.30. Gold coin donation entry for the Gellibrand Brigade CFA. Please come if you can. Will have books and fabric there as well.

Also if you ar eint he area- pancake brekky at the Gelli Store- apple, blueberry or savoury caponata- all fundraising for bush fire victims. Just oput the door now to go and cook the pancakes.
It's been a busy week!!!

See you tomorrow!

Lino cut Village Scene Done and Printed!

Yes I am a happy little vegemite right at this moment! Never mind that I was meant to be doing other things- I am really happy with the way my linocut turned out as a print, and not only that, it printed happily onto fabric ( sometimes when you have large areas of ink, fabric is not the best material on which to print and you get a certain blotchiness in the printing process).

I am also thinking I would like to make some books using this lino-cut and perhaps making others as well. I rekindled my love for lino-cutting these past two days ( just as well I need to project enthusiasm for the class notes!) I also downloaded an e-book from David Bull's website entitled Japanese Wood-Block Printing by Hiroshi Yoshida. I know lino cuts are a very poor cousin of woodblocks but on the other hand cheapness of material ,ease of carving has a lot going for them! If you do like woodblock prints ( and I have been a lover of Japanese wood block prints for a long long time- and fell in love with Monet's Japanese print decorated room at Giverny in France) please take the time to look over David Bull's extensive and highly informative website. He also has a number of publishing projects under way including traditional Japanes wood cuts, as well as his own work that he has published in a series of books. I have actually added a button to my sidebar taking you directly to the publishing site entitled Mokuhankan, as I believe in preserving this very beautiful art form, in its modern interpretations as well as in its older interpretations.

Village Scene Lino Cut

Obviously I am not yet done with my Caravanserai work regardless of what I may think and what i should be doing. Yesterday the urge to create this lino-cut emerged, it is taking quite some carving and I will be interested to see how it actually prints-it may be different to the way I envisaged it. And yes I am working on devising a lino-cutting course to do as an inernet workshop.

Of course none of this is getting a climate change quilt done, which is what I need to be doing plus putting the thinking cap on to get hanging stands for my quilts this Sunday at Gellibrand- I am hoping to show the My Place quilts as well.

My Place is Finally Here!!!

Elaine Barnard
I Have a Place in Africa

Odette Tolksdorf
You Are Here

It has been a minor nightmare getting the quilts here to my house. They did not arrive in time in Australia to be shown at AQC, much to the disappointment of some fo the Australian participants who had made the trip especially to come and see them- but the quilts arrived in Melbourne on 1 March- a Sunday. I could not pick them up at that stage because the very next day we had to activate our fire plan because of the high alert warnings and so it wasn't until later in the week I could possibly think of going to Melbourne - but by that stage my eldest daughter had come down with a severe case of tonsilitis- which involved us sitting and waiting for appointments in the doctors office because there is such a chronic shortage of doctors in Colac that we couldn't get an appointment until late this week. We were worried i tmight have been glandular fever- she was very tired mixed in with the anxiety to do with the last year of high school and having to do well- that shot my week to pieces. Then it was the long weekend- and I finally received notification from Qantas the quilts had arrived yesterday.

Then to add confusion to the whole process the goods were marked as" spares"- which meant I could not do any of the declarations for customs on their pro-forma forms because the goods and description did not match.

In any case I had to do the trip to Melbourne to go and get them ( I live about 2.5 hours from the airport on a good run) . I had a wonderful customs fellow who passed the quilts through customs after I showed him all the documentation explaining what they were and why they were here ( late) but Qantas was less kind- they hit me with storage charges because according to them the goods arrived 1 March and I should have been watching and ready to get them even though they were by then a week late ( never mind I was more worried about getting out of my house and trying to remember everything that was valuable) - they did come to the party a small way but it really was a token effort and they charged me quite a lot for storage.

I have opened the parcel and the quilts are wonderful and you can see them all on the My Place website built by Brenda Gael Smith, but why oh why were they not shipped door to door??? What made the South African organiser think I lived in Melbourne when clearly i do not? Australia is such a big place and going anywhere takes hours

I was supposed to have been home organising my workroom, so it looks like a workroom as I have some students doing textiles in their VCE year coming to visit next week- well that didn't get done and this weekend we are going to my mothers for her birthday as I can't make it on her birthday as I shall be teaching in South Australia.

Another Rosewater jug and teapot

I made some more rosewater jugs and teapots for AQC- it was awhile I had made any and my stock had depleted. This one is for sale for $40US inclusive of airmail postage.

We are having a big fundraising weekend for the bushfire victims in our small township on the weeken of the 21-22 March. On the Sunday I shall be showing my work and all are welcome for a gold coin donation entry at the Gellibrand Town Hall- Hopefully I shall alos have some fabric for sale and some other things. On the saturday I shall be down at the local store cooking breakfasts- but we want to make special breakfast at a set price. I was thinking maybe an Indian breakfast and spanish omelettes as the other breakfast?? Any suggestiosn of what you would consider an interesting other kind of breakfast would be appreciated!

MonoPrinting

I did some monoprinting the other day with some of the Trapsuutjies textile paints. I must get a glass plate on which to print- the thick table plastic I used had a few too many undulations. I am not quite sure what i shall do with these, but it made me set up a printing table on my back verandah. I had my things in a little shed but it was too dark in there- so now there is much more light and things dry more quickly. Then I thought I would do some lino-cutting but I could not find a largish bit of lino, so had to wait until today until I could buy some more.

Ohh and I shall be exhibiting some of my work at the Gellibrand Town Hall on Sunday the 22nd of March- I shall show as much work as I can. It is part of a fundraising weekend our township is doing for the bush fire victims- so there are a number of other activities on as well- of which I will give more information when I have it to hand. I am very tempted to show the My Place quilts as well- just have to think of the logistics fo hanging them as I do not have quilt stands for hanging. Gellibrand is in a really lovely part of the world and is one of the routes to the Great Ocean Road and the twelve ( now seven) apostles.

Finished Palms of Palmyra

I must admit part of the reason for posting little in the past 2 weeks is that I promised myself I would finish all the pieces I had started for my Caravanserai exhibition last year. I had intended to finish them before I went to Europe late in August 2008 but it didn't happen- and then they languished. But I wanted them finished for AQC- and whilst the thought was good, in all reality nothing much was happening on the stitching front at all. The week before AQC I sat up most nights until 2am stitching- trying to get things finished after I got embarassed into doing so- and I got there! The tops were in various stages of preparation but none were ready for quilting, except the Palms piece, photos of small sections which I have shown before- but it needed a lot of hand stitching - a real lot! And then the dilemna became what to do for the binding- I ended up binding it in orange.Unfortunately lutradur does not photograph the best but in the end I am not displeased with the result.

One of the really nice things that happened at AQC ( apart from enthusiastic students) was that Jane Sassaman ,who was one of the international tutors, and whose work I have always admired, made a special effort to stop by my class room to tell me how much she had enjoyed the work in Carvanserai. I have met Jane before and she is very quiet, unassuming even ,despite her very great talent, so I was thrilled that she did- one of the things she said she liked about my work was its simplicity, and its reliance on the stitch for expression, that the work felt uncluttered and expressive of the idea it was trying to communicate- I don't think I could have asked for better comment and it came unsolicited- so has given me food for thought and some fresh enthusiasm. I am considering the fabric steel as an object of memory akin to the traveller's blanket. I have always loved hand made books, have always wanted to make them, have made some, but I kind of feel making a steel of prints I have made on fabric might be something worth pursuing....maybe

And I have to make a quilt for a Climate Change Exhibition which I am a part of that will be shown at Minerva Gallery in New Zealand later this year- Pock Marks in the Ozone is the working idea title. Once upon a time holes in the ozone layer were a big topic- you barely hear it mentioned anymore per se though it is part of the bigger climate change picture and they certainly have not gone away- anyway there are thoughts and ideas floating around- lutradur is demanding to be used because of its layering ability.

Then the Rain Came!

It is with some joy that I tell you the rain came on tuesday- what welcome relief it has been for everyone in this bone dry state. We had activated our fire plan on Monday and had gone to Melbourne, after the dire weather warnings- and the winds were indeed horrible, but fortunately they came with real rain on its tail.

AQC was busy busy busy- as we also had to activate our fire plan on last Friday- as they cancelled school busesI had to rely on friends to help get the kids out to a safer place as well as the cat- most of this had to be arranged by telephone as I was in melbourne teaching.

Another issue was the fact that the My Place quilts did not arrive from South Africa in time to be hung for AQC- and I am still waiting on them as I write- I still have not heard exactly why they are late- it seems they are no doing me the honour of replying to my emails. I certainly hope they turn up soon as they have to go to New Zealand in early April.

Have I told you how relieved I am that the rain came??? Life can get back to some normality. The photo is of the negative pomegranate tree of life tifaifai which I finished just before AQC so it could be hung with its positive partner which you can see here if you scroll down a little. Hard to believe the red fabric is the same colour in both pieces!

Daytime Village Scene

I have been stitching stitching and stitching ,finishing the work I had started for Caravanserai some time ago but did not finish. I am taking a break as my back is sore from all that stitching. This was the day time village scene that I painted awhile ago and had not heat set the textile ink enough so that when I dyed the cloth the textile ink blotched in some places. At the time I was really disgusted with it, but some months later and I found that I thought I could resurrect it. I will be covering the moon with ochre coloured fabric as it bothers my daughter to have a moon in a daytime scene. But the rest has all been stitched and colour added with iridescent Shiva paint stickes. The round rocks at the bottom will be coloured in too. The colour of the binding will be tricky- I want to think on it overnight.

It sounds as if we are gearing up for another shocking day on Friday. The forecast for tomorrow is bad but for Friday they are saying 45 degrees celsius and a south westerly change with winds up to 50 kms. We all have our valauables packed ( i shall be packing the last of them tonight as well as backing up the back up hard drive)/ I am able to pump water from the river but I don't think the house can be defended on a shocking day .However meanwhile I am trying to green everything as much as possible and really soak stuff good and well. At least all my quilts or nearly all will be in Melbourne at AQC!

Never Say Never

I know some time ago I said I would not be making any more forest/view from my window quilts? Wrong. I had to make another one as I had put it in for the Tutors exhibition at AQC ( which I must admit had slipped my mind) when I sold the piece earlier this year. Moving house was an expensive exercise and so I was very glad when someone wanted to buy it, but it also left me with a dilemna which I discovered afterwards that I had entered it elsewhere. So I contacted AQC and they allowed me to substitute a piece so I made another View from My Window piece- simply because the view from my window is still of trees, and the afternoon sun does set behind the trees.Oh and there is still three places available in my Tifaifai class at AQC in case anyone is interested. Just follow the link for AQC.

I have been working hard - actually I got embarassed into working hard- there were several pieces I did not finish last year for my Caravanserai exhibition. They languished as so much stuff was going on in my personal life and that's what kept happening. I would think I must and then something else would happen and they simply did not get made.But last week AQC rang me up to say they had managed to snare an article in the Herlad Sun- this is one of our big daily newspapers- which is good publicity for AQC and for me. So now I had to live up to my promise.... The photographer came out yesterday and he was knocked out by the nature in my surroundings and the cat did her best to win him over- so he took lots of photos of my quilts , myself and a lovely large old gum tree in the background and with the cat who behaved like a movie actress ( and yes she is a tart!) I really dislike being photographed but it certainly was more fun knowing i was showcasing some of our fabulous scenery.

We had a community fire meeting on Thursday night as we are in a community where the risk of fire is great - there was some ok information, but most of us knew a lot of the information, but I was a bit shocked by the lack of co-ordination between say our shire and the emergency services , powercorp and the police. The shire guy talked about recovery- and yes it is good to know they have a plan- but we are more concerned about what if a fire hits here- what will we do? There is no community safe area because none of the governmental/bureaucratic bodies want to take legal responsibility for that- we were told we must wait for the police- we don't have a police officer stationed here- the nearest one is 22 kms away in Colac- the fire is likely to come from the north west- which would cut us off from Colac- and there is only one road in and one road out- which means the police are unlikely to be able to get through for a certain time in case of fire.

Then the discussion turned to closing certain roads on extreme fire danger days- but we were told by the shire that everybody was too worrried about the loss of tourist dollars so they couldn't do this. Excuse me this seems to me to show a certain lack of clear thinking......( and I am talking about extreme fire days of which we get maybe a weeks worth a year- some years more some years less)- but the tourists are more important than the communities???? And if a fire does strike there will be no more buildings part of which constitute community. And the tourists I encountered on the sunday after that fateful Saturday which was also a total fire ban day, with open fires , shows that they had a total lack of respect for the conditions or for the communities where they were visitors.

I think it is time that everyone also realised when the CFA and media forecast extreme conditions like February the 7th and a total fire ban - and the warnings were out- then that risk applies to everyone who lives in the state- not just the communities at greatest risk- stay home if you don't live in high risk areas, and if you are at risk and can't see yourself saving your house get out as early as you can before even a hint of a fire.

Also communication is a really big issue for us. Most of us with modern phones would lose the ability to phone due to power shut down which is done for safety reasons. Only old style phones would enable you to get through ( anyone have a spare one ?) we are also in a mobile blackout area because Telstra does not consider it commercially lucrative enough to put in a tower ( yet they could put in a mobile tower when the great bike ride went through a few years ago)- it was mooted and Telstra would also put in a tv repeater which the community would have to pay for ,as we also have very bad tv reception- what seems to be a basic right in much of Australia- is not possible here- even 774 ABC has dodgy reception here even with a battery operated radio.I think big companies which are supposed to provide services to a community ( for which we pay) should actually deliver those services as a matter of equity not of commercial expediency. Having to post ever bigger profits for ever greedier shareholders is not a good premise on which to deliver equitable and fair services to all communities.

There I am off my soap box.

Triplet Falls in The Otway Ranges

I have been hand stitching and hand stitching on my Palms of Palmyra piece ,so not a lot to show. I decided I could not possibly finish the second travellers blanket before AQC- I won't mention all the other things I have still to make. I really should have done a lot more work these past two months but it just didn't happen. Anyway now it is a matter of urgency.

And on Friday when I went to order my dye and printing supplies for AQC ( with some trepidation i might add as I knew they were located in the area badly affected by bushfires) I found out that KraftKolour had indeed been burnt down. The owners did get out alive thank goodness .and they have stated they will rebuild their business and have asked people for patience and loyalty as they try and rebuild in the aftermath.I have been able to source some supplies elsewhere but they can count on my loyalty for the future!

This morning my youngest daughter and I went for a walk to Triplet Falls which is about 20 kms from where I live. It has long been a favourite spot but it's been too long since we were there. It was beautiful despite the smoke haze which lay over the Otways from the bushfires more than 2 hours away. And when we got right down to the river level the strangest sweetest smell emanated- it smelt like pure oxygen to me- with all that forest and tree fern growth. ( the small photo on the top left is the view from my work room window and the bottom left photo is of a flowering gum on my block of land)

Traveller's Blanket

I have finally managed to put on all the squares of the traveller's blanket for Zenobia. However not all of the squares have been embroidered yet , not even two thirds- still a long way to stitch and then there is the quilting to do. But I wanted to do all the squares before I started on anything else. I still have a lot of things to make before AQC at the end of February.

Whether I will get them done is another thing.

Not a Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday and I won't remember it as a very good one , not because I didn't get any presents or anything like that ( and my girls made the cards and bought me the delightfully colourful footstool), but because I am shocked by the magnitude of the devastation and death toll of the bush fires last Saturday some of which are still continuing to burn. I shall be digging deep to send money and will also donate a quilt to the raffle which will be run by Vic Quilters for the duration of AQC to help raise further funds. Please dig deep if you can afford to- it will take an enormous amount of money to help the people who have lost everything to re-establish themselves, if that is in any way possible given that so many have lost family and friends and their townships.

And if you cannot help in any other way think of doing a rain dance- although Queensland which has had terrible floods would be crying no no - but we desperately need rain here.It keeps on looking as if it might rain but nothing happens.

Also spare a thought to the volunteer firemen, DSE officers and police and their families who have had the dreadful task of dealing with the fires, and then with the clean up- it must be one of the most gruesome and heartbreaking tasks that they will ever deal with, and all the other volunteers who have come to help in any way possible. We are a lucky country that we have people willing to give so much of themselves to help others.I hope that this selflessness will create the fabric for reconstruction with the input of much needed money

Still Here

Just a quick update and will post some more this evening.

The Otways were spared on Saturday - the weather conditions were horrendous and it could have wreaked the tragedy anywhere, there were tree limbs the size of trees flying around the house as the mini tornadoes eddied around the front of the cooler front moving in.It is with horror that I watch the tragedy unfold- so many people, so much devastation.

My heart and sincerest condolences to all those who have lost so much.

And then on Sunday morning early, my youngest daughter and I went to photograph the river which has a bush camping ground near it and to my complete and utter horror found two lots of campers with open fires- I was aghast and came home and reported them. It was a day of total fire ban- the Otways are still tinder dry, the winds were still strong- what kind of idiocy makes people think they can flaunt the common rules for community, especially after the worst day ever for Victoria and Australia?

Slow Progress

I am making slow and steady progress on my travellers blanket for Zenobia.It's been hard work in the heat wave we have been experiencing . The temperatures soared to 44 degrees celsius last week ( that's about 113 fahrenheit) and even with aircon the heat was almost unbearable. Then the whole electricity grid for the state broke down- fortunately they fixed that quick smart. It was the hottest three day period on record and temperatures are starting to build again. I hold my breath in this kind of weather as we live in a high fire risk zone and there is always some malevolent idiot out there ,who lights fires as happened in the east of the state last week. It was also the week thatI had to do loads of running around for school things as my children started school this week after the long summer holidays. Finally I have my days back!

And I have a load of work to do- so sitting and stitching by hand seems and feels like a decadent luxury- it doesn't feel like work, and makes me feel a bit guilty- i don't know why because in all reality it is work. I sit and watch movies and just stitch and stitch. Current favourite movie is the Painted Veil and Miss Potter- both have me sitting in tears as I work, and yet the tears make me feel better, it's like they are the unshed tears of the last few years- both are about ordinary humans with their human foibles yet also humans who do quite remarkable things - so uplifting inthat sense- maybe I am just an old softie! I am using domette as my batting/inbetween layer which makes stitching easier and gives a lovely suppleness to the whole.

Pattern and Decoration and the Heat

Tha catalogue for an exhibition entitled Pattern and Decoration arrived today after I finally tracked it down at the website of the Hudson River Museum. I talked about some of the thoughts expressed by Anne Schwartz in this post, and it is so much more edifying to see the images as well as the text. I am looking forward to giving it a closer reading, but feel that my way of work does rather fit in with the philosophy and working methods of the artists involved.
It also gives me food for thought as I contemplate work for the future- as I have been invited to possibly exhibit in Egypt with work inspired by my travels there, which would be a brilliant opportunity . I am not so much thinking Pharaonic as everyone seems to do that but the decoration aspect of many things Egyptian- so many surfaces are decorated, tiled, beautified. So many beautiful, quaint scenes- how to gell this into an interpretation worthy of exhibition and of interest to an audience who live with this every day??? I took literally dozens of photos of chairs when in Cairo ( and cats)- and I am thinking a chair may be a worthy vehicle for some of the ideas I want to express- the invitation to sit , to take tea is all about taking the time to share a small portion of the day.

The photo of the King Parrot is not clear- the poor creature was sitting atop one of the cupboards outside, very distressed- because of the extreme heat today ( over 100 degrees fahrenheit or 42 clesius). We did put some water near it- but it flew off a little way only to come back.I didn't want to distress it any more by getting closer to it- but aren't the colours stunning? I hope it realises the water was put there for its benefit. I would love to have a bird bath, but we have a cat ......

Traveller's Blanket for Zenobia

I have been making slow but steady progress on the travellers' blanket for Zenobia.It is a completely different mindset to work on the blue fabric, particularly in chosing the colours of the threads. I do like the quilting stitches in red, though as I look at the image on my screen it does seem to have the effect of purpling the blue. I always love the way the colour of thread interacts with the fabric it is placed on.Anyway there is still a lot more stitching to do, and more squares to be appliqued.

I have been trying to think of ideas for the on-line lino-cut and printing course I want to devise. So much of lino-cutting is about thinking in reverse- and thinking about the textures that can be created with the carving tools, which of course become interesting when stitched- so it isn't simply about creating an image but also about how the textures of the image can be stitched to make them more interesting.

Today is Australia Day , and an indigenous Australian ,Professor Mick Dodson from the ANU, was named Australian of the year.Mick Dodson has been a tireless advocate for his people in a society that often has a very racist and patriarchal attitude to indigenous people and a nation that until one year ago refused to acknowledge that there was indeed stolen generations of indigenous people ( how they could deny it is beyond me as I went to school with several children who were exactly in that situation). Mick Dodson has suggested that Australia day should be held on a different day as his people view it as the day their nation was taken away. Initially i thought that it was not a good idea but as I have been sitting and stitching I think it is the only way to achieve reconciliation- to acknowledge that the creation of the Australian nation was at the cost of taking away anothers' right to their nationhood and shifting it to a more positive mode. That we have to go forward together goes without saying and I think that joint decision should be marked by a national celebration which includes all of our people embracing equal rights and freedom.I think Australia day should not embody the past, but instead should focus on the future- what we might achieve as a brilliantly diverse community. And what better time than now when there seems to be optimism of an uplifting kind with the inauguration of Barack Obama- when Martin Luther King's words have some meaning again, when the Inaugural Poet, Elizabeth Alexander points to the power of words. Not cliches but the beauty of words and language- love , liefde, amour,amore, love for our fellow human beings.
Tell me your words for love in your langauge- make it your daily mantra.

Sari Silk

My friend Fiona Wright from Creative Arts Safaris sent me some lovely sari silks that she is recycling - aren't the colours luscious. I am not quite sure what I shall do with them yet, but they may well find themselves worked into some kind of traveller's blanket in the future. Maybe I shall call it my "wish" blanket as I would love to visit Fiona in India one day .

Ohh and on another note I will be visiting New Zealand in April with my kids for 11 days.We are really looking forward to it. My eldest daughter and I had some air points due to expire at the end of February so we thought we had better use them- we had enough to get to New Zealand easily. We had thought about Singapore but hotel rates seem to have sky rocketed there. So we shall be delivering the My Place quilts to Quilt Symposium in Wellington and wending our way back to Auckland.
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The metallic medallions are tea lights cut and pressed with a biro- I quite like them but not quite sure what i shall do with them.

Holiday

Photo courtesy of Celeste Galtry 2009

Photo courtesy of Celeste Galtry 2009

We have been away the last few days and nights camping at Skenes Creek near Apollo Bay. The weather was hot and whilst I am not a very keen beach person ( all that sand...) I do like walks along the beach and rockpools. My eldest daughter loves the beach so that was part of the reason for going as it is school holidays here. We had a lovely time clambering among the rockpools- they are like little worlds of their own , teeming with interesting texture and life.We are so very fortunate to have such a pristine sea so close to our home, though the black dirt in the camping ground was a bit diabolical!

I want you to guess what the top photo is?