Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Pozible Fund Raising

I want to thank the supporters of our Pozible fund raiser so far. I will fully acknowledge you on my blog at the end of the  fundraiser which is in 32 days time. Our goal for today is to get  1/20th of the way in raising the fundraising goal  to self publish  our book.  The money you have pledged for the rewards only has to be paid if the target is reached . So I hope dear readers that you will see fit to support this project which has been a long time in the making.

The book will be about translating things encountered in travel in france into work and will have a beautiful layout quite different to normal craft books ( all the technique information will be on the dvd accompanying the book) . And now it is well and truly in writing stage!

There are still medieval lady panels for sale. This is part of the new project called the Medieval project which will showcase the work of many hands like the sentinelle project and for which I have already secured some venues. Each panels measures aproximately 8" x 18" or  20cm x 45 cm and you can embroider or stitch it any way you like as long as when it is finished it is not wider than 50 cm  or longer than 70 cm. Each panel costs $15 plus postage which is $3. I can be paid via Paypal just
 email me for details.

I have also been playing around with some ice dyeing which seems appropriate for the gloomy cold weather we have been experiencing- my daughter has snaffled this piece.


And  I found this La Semain de Suzette with a cover by maggie Salcedo. I love her illustration style and am really sorry I missed an exhibition of her work late last year. Maybe they will mount it another time.


Monday, July 28, 2014

Pozible launch




I have been talking of writing a book about France since my return in 2010 after nearly a year living in France and the time has come. I have done quite a lot of writing and research and even made a Blurb book to try out my photos and just the idea, but now its come so far, as to try something serious- a beautiful art house style book with an accompanying dvd which will contain videos and pdf text of the techniques used in my work. The book itself will hopefully inspire and make you want to transform journeys into art. The book will contain much of how I think and work and will be in English and French.

I have previously pitched the idea to a well known publisher even going so far as to write a sample chapter etc but it was decided that the market for the idea was limited ( they off course publish a greater number of books than a self publisher would). Anyway every time I go to France I discover more  and it only gets better and it has started to infuse my work.

To create the book  I am working with my daughter Celeste Galtry  who is a final year Visual Communication and design student at RMIT and we are calling ourselves the Musing in Textile team, because if we can get this book funded the intention is to make more books.A friend in france will do the translation. We are excited about working together, and we hope th ebook will be a beautiful object in itself and a little different to what is normally out in the textile market place.




We have offered some really good rewards for the Pozible fundraiser  including the book at discount and some one off experiences and artworks.  You can see the rewards , our idea and video ( and yes I do have an Aussie accent) here http://www.pozible.com/project/184577. We hope you will be excited enough to support this project and of course any pledges will only be paid if we reach the targetted fundraising amount of $20,000.

Already Shirley Goodwin (NZ), Shirley Jacobs ( NL) and Marie-Thérèse Persoon-Klingelhefer (Ger) have my heartfelt thanks in starting things rolling.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Musings in Textile: France

Yes ! It is finally happening getting things together for a Pozible fundraiser so hopefully I can self publish my book Musings in Textile: France, so watch this space for details as I am hoping we will raise enough funds to  self publish and hopefully some of you will see fit to support the project. My daughter  Celeste Galtry will design the book and we started shooting photographs and styling photographs and putting in some serious miles to plan and decide on the style, type layout

Life is going to get hectic, because I have lagged in the writing- lots of ideas, written down but not in order, ideas floating around, but now it's time to pull it all together- it's been three years in the talking and preparing and doing.I have been working in the studio of a friend in Richmond and will continue to have the space until mid August- at least I can have a lot of my things out again

I want my book to be beautiful and full of inspiration and translation of inspiration. There will be a how to dvd in the back to explain techniques I have used but I don't want the how to  images to clutter the book.

so here goes....


And there is still time to join the Travellers' Blanket on-line class- where  you will fabricate and tell stories in fabric of your very own! The class starts on 28 July. Email me if you would like to join!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Time, time , time

I just don't know where the time flies to and I am getting a td frustrated that my  work things seem to be everywhere, and I can't remember which box I packed things in, so it's search and search find one thing but not another.It's frustrating because I have simply said "yes" to every invitation that has come my way and I need to be stitching like a whirlwind- or a dervish perhaps?

Last year came the invitation to submit  work for a special exhibit of the European Patchwork Meeting's 20 th anniversary at Ste Marie aux Mines. All past winners of the concours were invited and many took  up the invitation including moi. The brief was to exhibit the work with which you had won the prize ( I can't because it sold some years ago) and to make a work more reflective of current work. So I made another forest quilt- after saying I would never make another. It took a lot of stitching and a lot of Aurifil thread ( thank you Aurfil! and Victorian Textiles for your continued sponsorship of thread and batting) So here is a forest quilt- the colours are a bit different than the ones I used to make and that added extra challenge as i worried there might not be enough contrast in the dyed fabric- but I am quite pleased with it the thread really works hard!





There is still time to join the Travellers' Blanket On-line class- just email me and I shall send you imformation. The present weather is certainly great for stitching ( it's winter here in Australia! bbrr)

Thursday, July 03, 2014

Together the Sentinelles Shine

What can I say?? A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined the project , thank you for putting your heart and soul into the pieces- their atmosphere is palpable and joyous! Everyone who saw them at  The Craft and Quilt Fair at the  Exhibition Centre ( Jeff's shed)  in Melbourne last Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were effusive with their compliments for the wonderful work and creativeness of each and every piece!









The new medieval project was also embraced with many people wanting to join or at least to make a panel. I will write more about this project in the upcoming weeks. I have printed some more panels as the ones I had printed for Melbourne sold out. If you would like to buy a panel please email me. The price is $15 Aus plus $3 postage for one panel.I will  make a dedicated page for the Medieval project with information etc. later this week or early next weekend.


It was a busy  week this week gone by- I had to install the sentinelles on Wednesday and on Thursday install the works for CrossXPollination in Colac. This event will run for another  one and half weekends. There is some wonderful work on display!

One of my traveller blanket travellers from the Wrapt in Rocky textile event form two years ago, Glenice dropped by to show me her finished blanket- talk about drool- it's truly wonderful- it simply glows!


And I have had a number of people ask whether I would run the on-line course again. I have an information sheet I can send and the cost is $60 AUS. The course involves the delivery of pdf files with instructions for dyeing and ideas for stitching and stories. Most blankets that have been finished do contain all sorts of stories and that adds to their charm. There is an awful lot of hand stitching, but as I am not an embroiderer the stitches are very simple. I also set up a Facebook group to share progress etc- these blankets are not made in a hurry and part of the joy of them is the process, the  meditative stitch! Email me if you would like to join!