Australia Wide Two

The Q is a performing arts and exhibition space in Queanbeyan.  I had no idea that art quilts - the Australia Wide Two exhibition - were on display here.  Seeing them in real life was amazing.  I took photos, but honestly, you are better off seeing the professional shots here.  They are going to be at Bunbury next, then Griffith NSW.  The image on all the publicity material is "Yellow and White" by Sue Dennis.

Sewing Flowers

During our Broadstrokes get together someone mentioned this technique that I knew I wanted to try.  I put the flower head between clear contact

then sewed and cut around it.

The sewing is a bit rough because it caught a bit on the machine, but overall I'm really happy and have a project in mind...

SAQA Piece

The art quilt I bought at the SAQA Benefit Auction ("White on Black") arrived here quite quickly - it's even nicer in real life!  The maker is Linda McLaughlin of Linda M Designs - check out her quilt gallery here.

Here are some detail shots

 

The fabric has a soft sheen to it.
Believe it or not, I received a postcard from the maker thanking me for buying her quilt - how awesome is that?

Threads Exhibition

The Gallery of Modern Art currently has a small exhibition about contemporary textiles and the social fabric.  There are a few representative pieces from different forms of textile creations - quilts, clothes, tapa...and the idea behind the exhibition is an interesting one - how threads and what they create carry personal and cultural narratives.  The stitching on some embroider pieces is so fine

Photography was allowed, which I appreciate, even though I end up buying the catalogue anyway.  This piece had holes ritualistically punched into the canvas by the artist's father, and she then drew the "threads".

Road Trip - Part 2

After leaving Warwick, it wasn't long before we were in Stanthorpe.  ANOTHER quilt show here as well as Gardenfest.  We had come for a particular exhibit, though, at the local art gallery.

 It was an amazing collection of textile art/quilts from some of the best in Australia.  There was also work by artist Judy Wilford, depicting the Australian landscape using layered dyed and stitched silk - amazing work.  The official opening was at 4, but we gave our apologies - I think they struggled on without us...

Lunch was at The Regal Cafe - doesn't that bring back memories of country milk bars?  Well, the burger certainly did.  As a thoughtful touch it was freshly killed.  Mine was the works with no pineapple.

 

No comment needed:

These chookies all looked happy enough chatting amongst themselves, but I think the one I chose will feel right at home in my garden.

SAQA Benefit Auction

I've had a crappy few days travelling (will fill you in when I've calmed down).  The work part was great - getting to and from and staying in Darwin, not good.

So it was FABULOUS to arrive home and find that one of my favourite pieces in this year's SAQA Benefit Auction was still available - and without thinking too much about it, lashed out and bought it.  Simple, simple, simple, and beautiful.  Check it out here.

There are still plenty more pieces on offer.  You might be able to add to your collection, or just browse and enjoy all the talent!!  Here's the link.

Annamaria Mays-Vermeer

Annamaria joined the Broad Strokes ladies on Sunday at Mel's and brought her amazing felted pieces, drawings and paintings, and talked about her art.  I felt as though I was in another dimension- her vision is so creative and different.  She uses materials that others discard, and comes up with fresh ideas.  This is large scale french knitting stuffed with wool, which she is going to coil into a mat

The colours she puts together are just lovely

She drew on wood someone was going to throw away - this piece came home with me

as did this postcard of one of her paintings.

Creativity Cues

I saw this piece is by Tricia Smout at the Undercurrents exhibition and I loved the colour and the text and the inspiration

Cherilyn Martin

Cherilyn is a well-known artist based in Holland and she was on a flying visit to Brisbane when she met a small group of us for lunch on Friday.  It was a fabulous day weather-wise and Southbank was abuzz.  We went to Poppy's and chatted and had some show and tell.  Ali is getting ready for an exhibition at the art factory.   Linda, as ever, had heaps of her work on hand.  Cherilyn brought some postcards.  She used to work a lot more in fabrics and is now working with paper.

This piece was a "mistake" that turned out great.  She'd painted leaves and vliesofixed them down, but then the leaf came away - leaving a perfect impression of the leaf in the paint - it looks so good

Lots of texture and stitching

Undercurrents Exhibition

The opening for the exhibition was on Saturday afternoon.  Lots of congratulations to the artists Mel Forrest, Felicity Clarke and Tricia Smout.  Here they all are prior to saying a few words -

 Such a huge amount of creativity and work - very interesting and well done!!!

Broad Strokes Reveal

At the May QQ meeting, five sixths of the Broad Strokes lasses were in attendance to show and talk about what we have created during the 18 months since we've been together. Seeing everything in one place was special -
Suzanne did a marvellous job of providing context and inviting us to say a few words about various pieces -

Broadstrokes

It was get together and sharing time last Saturday morning.  We met at Salt in Rosalie so that we could inject some funds into the area that had been so affected by the flood in January.  I highly recommend this place for a stick to your ribs, but far from ordinary, breakfast on a weekend.  The waiters were very attentive and on the banter/positive interaction with customers scale they were pretty close to a 10.  I ordered 2 sausages on a bed of white bean mash with 2 eggs on the side.

 Yummy, yummy, yummy.  Way too much for an ordinary female mortal, but still, I made a valiant effort at demolishing everything on the plate.

I shared my ATCs and some gallery catalogues.  Kathryn had her Valentino pieces.  I loved this book she put together.  She had fun with it and it showed...

2QAQ February Meeting

The first 2QAQ meeting for the year, and my first for a while.  Such friendliness and fun.  Here are some interesting pieces in response to a challenge fabric given out last year.
Jane's journal cover

Lyn's pincushion

Suzanne's cute little somethings

Mareanna's exquisite piece

The leaves outside were in harmony with the colour theme - I love the blockiness of the variegation....

Stella Star

The original 2QAQ Committee met at Stella Star in Coorparoo for lunch on February 13 to officially thank Sue for her work, to catch up, have lunch etc etc and hand over the art pieces.

I have eaten at Stella Star when it was in Lota (actually, the restaurant is still there, but the chef has moved to Coorparoo).  There was no doubt that the food is the star here -

Jan's entree as main

Suzanne and I had the boar in a puff pastry parcel

Jane's creme brulee

My tiramisu

There were other meals of course but I didn't want to sprint around to everyone and photograph each dish - some people don't understand and actually want to EAT what's in front of them without any distraction!!
Then came the presentation following a few words from Suzanne

Sue was genuinely surprised and pleased, and we all wanted to see th epieces too as we didn't know what the others had done.  Here are the 8 from the others (the ninth was to be done by Sue to make a 3 X 3 grid of canvases - Suzanne generously made an extra one so Sue could take her time making the 9th).

Here they all are together