September..Where did you go??

Teaching at CuciService , Oderzo this coming weekend 3-4 Ocotber. Entirely new classes especially designed for this weekend. Trees inspired by  the tree in  the the field outside Fiona’s house in India and the beautiful stylized trees at  Pallazo Davantzani in Florence- which I  drew and painted back on my earlier trip to Florence. Trees come with such a lot of meaning culturally and spiritually and each time you make one it feels so different. It is a workshop to help you draw your own tree and then embellish it with stitch. It is also a method that allows you to make a positive and negative image, and the two images depending on background fabric used can look completely different.

Another workshop we will be doing is embellishing the linoprinted images of the Queen of King from Chartres Cathedral- using the decorations from cathedrals to inspire the stitching.

My youngest daughter has been travelling with me these last  2 weeks or so. She also came to Ste Marie aux Mines where I was invited artist by Bernina France and I got to sew on a wonderful flightship of a machine. I took advantage by quilting up my new class samples and really putting the machine through its paces, so one of those machines is now on my wish/dream on list. The Mettler stand was directly opposite and they were very generous with threads for me to use in exchange for some freehand embroidery to brighten up one of their cloths. I was in a kind of quilting heaven really and as a consequence did not get to see any of the exhibitions, though I could have. I quilted instead. And in looking back it had been some time that I had sat and quilted for four da.ys in a row and got so much work done

 Technology seems to have been my Achilles heel this year and it still continues. The place we are staying at has no wifi, I should have checked more closely when booking but it is a tad unusual to have no wifi available for a holiday rental. The upside is we have found this great little café around the corner that does have free wifi and the coffee is good too and the cornettas con crema a bit wicked

My travels may seem exotic and exciting at times, but there are times when they are anything but. Last Friday after travelling to Milano and encountering the nightmare of Milano Centrale which seems to be even busier than normal because of the Expo we decided to keep going to Bologna. I think it was Robert Dessaix who said in Night Letters that the precinct around Bologna station was dead and boring (I seem to remember he was talking about Bologna station though it may have been some other station ) and he could not be more right. We arrived after 10.30 pm, all the hotels were 200 euros plus and our train to the next destination left at 6.00am. There was nothing to do but sit and wait it out in the waiting room which was filled with the flotsam of humanity who have to wait for trains at all the odd hours of the morning. I think I saw only one person in a suit. The waiting room was also cleared out every hour and half by police for a cleaning team to come through thereby making the Bologna Centrale  the cleanest waiting room I have encountered- it also meant you were exposed to the cold night air on a regular basis enabling you to brace yourself for a bit of nod eye sleep on the incredibly uncomfortable seats which people somehow found ways to stretch over in an attempt  to find themselves in a slightly horizontal position…It was the once occasion  when my activity as a quitter seemed entirely useful as  I had some larger quilts with me which not only provided warmth but a modicum of cushioning.

Upcoming events 
Toulouse from 8-11 October in Toulouse at Tendances Creatives. Part of the Sentinelle project will be shown ( I could not fit all the sentinelles into my suitcase and actual exhibition space was also a consideration as I was also invited to exhibit some of my own work) So I made a selection that tried to include as many pieces as possible

Exhibition in Paris from 13-29 Octoberat offices of Ethiea Gestion of my own work from  which will include much of the work in my book ( though I will have no books available at the exhibition as shipping by air  has become too expensive and we will be sea shipping in future)- and it will include some of my new banksia work. The vernissage will be on Thursday 15 October and if you are in Paris and would like to come please let me know. Also to my many french friends invitations will be sent soon but due to my  aforesaid wifi issues it may happen tomorrow or the day after.

Medieval Project update, (more updates to come in the next day) but on the weekend 7-11 October it will be shown at the  Quilt & Craft Fair in Brisbane. See many wonderful and inventive interpretations of the lino prints I created and which many people improved beautifully! It looks quite different to the Sentinelle project and if anything is even more creative and inventive- truly a tribute to the work of many hands creating something beautiful!

I will also be updating some information about woodblocks I will have available through the Stitching Project aka Fiona Wright and  indigo dyed shibori handloomed cloth in 2 metre lenghts- but more on that in my next post which I promise will be soon! We are also plotting some nudging and changing projects.