Flood #2

Flood #2

This morning I've been playing with free motion rotary cutting - direct from Alison Schwabe's website - click on "blog" and scroll down to her Lines and Edges entry from 3 November 2010 for full instructions.
Instead of using two layers of fabric I started with the piece of practice machine quilting from last week (in readiness for the Civil War Vicksburg quilt) and coloured it in with gold shiva. It was then cut into 3" squares. A piece of complementary fabric was then quilted in long river-like runs and also cut into 3" squares. Using Alison Schwabe's technique different free-motion pieces were cut and restitched. I used a narrow satin stitch to rejoin the squares (which is quite different from the way Alison S instructs on joining fabric pieces). I liked the rawness of the edges and finished these with several rounds of wider satin stitch. I've included a few of the "as it happened" pictures below. A great exercise, a new technique, loads of fun and thanks Alison Schwabe for sharing.


In the beginning ...



Coloured with gold shiva stick

Cut into 3" squares

Complementary 3" squares



The fun part ...



Flood #1

Pieced and pristine

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) wisdom is sent to my inbox every other day and one of the recent posts involving Australian textile and fibre artists Alison Schwabe and Jenny Bowker has become the basis of Flood #1.  They did the thinking. I got to read it and ended up in the studio. The images of dirty brown absorbing everything in its path will stay with many of us for a long time. I can remember the floods of '74 and many of the natural disasters that have occurred across the globe in the years since. I know that eventually this too will also pass.

Shiva silt

I wanted to convey an aerial and expansive view of the very beautiful Lockyer Valley area not so far from where I live - prairie points now mountains, tubes of  railways and bridges; patches of blue for the inexplicably untouched areas and everything else under the spread of mud. Small communities, towns and localities sprinkled across the landscape - represented by the smaller half-square triangles - mostly aligned and then some not.  Images also of soiled things - again the muddy silt. I've played with the quilting lines in my journal -  they are sharp and urgent, swirling around fixed objects but ever so straight and unstoppable. It's one of the great things about being a SAQA member. Thanks to Sue Dennis and her never waning encouragement, SAQA membership has provided me with exposure to many artists and ideas, lively debate, and the opportunity to grow.

Flood update and thanks for your calls / emails / wishes

Just a very quick thank you to everyone who has rung, emailed, sent wishes our way - we are high and mostly dry in the midst of all this devastation. We are feeling very blessed and lucky - and thinking of those nearby who have not been so fortunate. Thanks again for your care and love.
Update: this is where I work - the blue glass building upper right hand side and the flood level earlier this morning @ Limestone Street, Ipswich.