Panic

I had hopes of sorting through my hand dyed fabrics and putting them into 1 kg lots of mixed colours and selling them ( 1 kg of fabric is about 3.5 metres of fabric ) for $25 plus postage- but is it worth the effort and trouble as panic has set in???If you are interested let me know please I think i can manage to make up some packs on request!

I have to go and get rid of the last bits of rubbish as they take away the skip- I have been ruthless with clothes- not a scerrick left of anything I am not going to take with me- what's the point of holding onto bits and pieces that will never fit again . I know memories memories, but I am determined to look forward and not back.

Silk Tie Dye

I tied and dyed another piece of silk- this time bigger- the full width of the silk and 150 cm long- I really like this piece and had been thinking of machine quilting it- but I think it's screaming hand stitch hand stitch. Whilst I liked the piece I showed in the blog post before last, this one says more about dwindling waterways and the heat and drought that is the cause for the dwindling waterway- and the colours are very suggestive of the Australian outback.

If anyone would like to buy  a piece of silk done in a similar manner and of this size, the price is $200 US- and obviously I don't have much time left to make one. It takes ages to tie the rocks into the fabric and then to undo it all- and yet to use rocks seems somehow right for these pieces.

The book images are of a hand made book I made a couple of years ago and which  I found whilst doing more packing- the cover is made with Lutradur and momogami paper- it has 22 pages of rice paper used in Japanese calligraphy ( not too expertly cut!) and page one has a lino print of a unfurling fern frond  which isn't quite straight ( it was a lino cut I made but now I can't find it- don't know what happened to it) Anyway if anyone is interested the book is  for sale for $60 US - it measures 11 inches square  ( about 27cm square) The book is SOLD

And I still have a few packs of the threads  left ( see my previous post)

And for those of you who have asked whether I will continue to blog when I am in France- the answer is a most emphatic Yes!! Blogging has become a way fo life for me and has become a part of my creative process- I love the feedback I get and it takes away some of the isolation  you feel at times. I am hoping that once I have my Southern Lands quilts done, I will explore my french experience- I am not sure how yet ,but in the back of my mind  I am thinking about old textiles( with modern interpretations) and traditions maybe some woad???

Packing, Packing and Threads for Sale

I am trying to be organised in my packing so that things will be easy to find, and also to rationalise things a bit. Over the years I have gotten rayon threads for my hand stitching from England- they are used for weaving, and as I am ordering blind I have found I have ended up with quite a lot of double even triple colours , or ones that are very close in  colour. I am taking some of the threads with me so I continue muy Travellers Blanket and finish it and also hand stitch several Southern Lands pieces, but I also had a lot of thread left over.

So I have parcelled them up into bakers dozens and they are for sale. I am not sure how much thread is on each "cigar- which is what the spools of thread are called- but I have entirley hand quilted several quilts with one cigar ( the quilts measured 40 x  55 inches)- so there is a lot of stitching on each cigar! I also find the threads lovely to stitch with and use an embroidery needle for my hand stitching and quilting. I have mixed up the colours to try and give a good selection of colour and dark and light.  The packs contain 13 cigasr and are for sale for $45 plus postage ( postage to Europe or  the US will be about $30 and within Australia $10.00). I am quoting in Australina dollars as our currency seems to be fluctuating  a lot on the currency market. I have 10 packs for sale ( 4 packs have already sold so there are 6 packs left)

Fabric

Finally did some packing and also some dyeing. I am still trying to get pieces just right for my waterways series. This piece of  silk has been tie dyed with stones- but looking at it I want it to be larger I think, though I love the colours- I love the turquoise contrast with the earthy orange. So this piece is for sale if you are interested. It measures 55 cm wide by 137 cm long ( 22 inches x 45 inches) The silk is 12 mm which is the silk I use in all my silk pieces and it stitches beautifully. The price for this piece is $95 US inclusive of shipping.Silk is SOLD

The top image is of the muslin which I dye and which I used in my Travellers' Blankets- it is lovely and soft and has a nice even weave which makes it good for stitching by hand and machine ( I often use it as backing because it allows greater drapiness). I bought two new bolts  of the muslin a couple of months ago thinking I would dye them, but I have simply run out of time and I don't have enough room in my luggage to take it with me. So I am hoping to sell them . Each bolt is 50 metres and the fabric is 146 cm wide ( 57 inches wide). I am quoting Australian dollar prices as I imagine shipping costs would make it too expensive for overseas unless you were buying 10 metre lots. If you buy the whole bolt the cost will be $3 per metre ( $150 for the whole bolt)  plus postage. I am willing to sell 10 metre lots at a cost of $3.50 per metre ( $35 dollars for the 10 metres ) plus postage ( tthese prices are pretty close to wholesale prices) All the Muslin is SOLD

Count down

Some textiles I found today in a sort of tidy up-  iridescent pink orange and turquoise sari organza and indigo dyed sateen cloth from I think it was Mali- all to be  put away fro awhile- such a pity! Aren't they beautiful.

We are int he final  final count down- still not much packing done but we will get there I hope.

I am teaching near Paris on December 3-4 (  printing and painting fabric day one and  inspiration infabrication on day 2) and again on 11 December -  free machine quilting at Best of Quilting. If you are interested please follow the links on the website as class space is limited.

I also have a friend at St Pierre d'Albigny who has set up an internet business selling  procion dyes and trasnsfer dyes in France as well as other surface design needs at Teinture Textile. This sort of product is hard to buy in france so it's great to know that these supplies can now be purcahsed in France. She will be dooing tradeshows int he coming year as well so keep your eye out ofr a Kiwi in France!

New Zealand Quilter

The other day  I had to kill some time whilst waiting for my eldest daughter to finish her exams- it wasn't worth going home and  I forgot to take my travellers blanket to stitch. So how do you kill 2.5 hours of time- I leafed through various magzines in the newsagents and had a look at New Zealand Quilter which always has a good selection of different quilts articles. Imagine my surprise as I flipped through, to find my Climate Chane quilt taking up a whole half page lenghtwise- you can even read the writing! The two other quilts on the page are left to right; Gloria Loughman and Jenny Bowker. More images of the exhibition can be seen here, as well as statements and resumes for each of the quilters involved.

Thank you all for your kind wishes for our impending travels- I am trying to reply to you all individually, but my week has been taken up by mundane chores- taxes have to be done before I go so that everything is in order and I don't have to worry about it whilst I am away ( I hate hate hate doing taxes and always put it off until the absolute last minute, so I am feeling quite virtuous having them done before Christmas- another task off the list )

And then finally the sun has come out- and it's almost instantaneously summer- very welcome after all the rain!

Moments of Farewell

I think when I moved to this house at about this time last year i wasn't actually expecting to be moving in less than a months time ( 26 November we fly to France)and that I would be throwing my hat into the wind and setting off for France. So on the upside it is a dream coming true- to test my toes in the sands of France- so there is much to look forward to , but there has also been much to say goodbye and farewell to- things that were dreams of the past.

I don't think I will ever again live in Gellibrand or its surrounds. The bush and the Otways are beautiful, but it is not my place anymore; it's seen the shattering of family, the end of a marriage, and the fear of bushfires.It has been incredibly hard on my children- a harshness from which I had wished to protect them but which I ultimately couldn't and so it's time to move on. It has also been a time of loneliness- there were days where I felt I could not face the world, where I could not work, where I couldn't even find a grain of inpsiration and the rain never seemed to stop- but as with all things ,those things pass too. However I don't think I will ever lose my love for unfurling fern fronds- there is something very primal about them- you both want to cup and hold them and yet the curiousity to see the unfurling fronds delivers constant surprises.

So last weekend was the last time I gave a workshop in Australia for quite some time- I haven't set myself time lines- those will emerge as we settle into a new life. Now the question becomes what will i take??

Is anyone out there flying to Europe from Melbourne in late in November or early December who could help carry the My Place quilts to Europe? I was rather horrified at the cost of shipping them and as they weigh 20 kgs which is all my luggage allowance - and I do need some clothes and things to work with!

And anyone wishing to purchase my 72 Ways not to Stipple or Meander or 72 MORE Ways not to Stipple or Meander I suggsest you do so soon- as I am not sure  when I shall have them available again -  not until at least February next 2010.