0 to Quilt in 5 Days - Blast Off

5 days gone and I have 2 quilts ready for the Quiltwest exhibition! Today I needle felted the backing fabric onto the front of the piece. As I'm incapable of cutting a straight line the corners were hacked into curves and finished off by needle felting on some more white swirls.

The fish were fused on and then stitched.

The octopus was stitched down with lots of free motion stitch in variegated and metallic threads.

Lastly the silk paper barnacles were attached with stitch in a similar coloured thread.

The forms are in! Come along and see the quilts in May at The Quilt and Craft Fair, Perth Exhibition Centre.

0 to Quilt in 5 Days - T Minus 1

The octopus quilt has come on quite a bit today as you can see above but nothing is stitched down yet. First I added some more colour into the boarder with wool fibres and the needle felting machine. Here is the first layer.

And then more detail with some white wool swirls.

The background was then quilted on top using a swirling free motion pattern.

It's difficult to see in the photograph. Here's the back.

Tomorrow I have to trim the boarder to size and get all the motifs sewn down.

0 to Quilt in 5 Days - T Minus 2

Today I managed to get all the quilting done, the backing attached and even a hanging sleeve on this piece! I used similar colours for the quilting threads to the colours of the fabric as I wanted the focus to be on the fabric rather than the stitch. The smaller vases are a digital print I made from an original Gelli® mono-print. I used echo quilting around them to emphasise the shape. I used a simple maze design found in ancient pottery for the quilting on the orange stripes. From the back you can see the stitching more easily in the picture.

With still 2 days for before the deadline for QuiltWest entries I though I may as well have a go at making another quilt.

I had all the water-soluble glue washed out from my octopus and barnacle pieces so I gathered together some fabrics that I thought would work with them.

The orange behind the octopus wasn't working well so I cut it away. I needle felted some organza scraps in ocean colours onto some blue cotton. The background was a little dark so I added some white wool fibres too. This time I'm planning to bring my backing fabric onto the front of the piece and as I am incapable of cutting a straight line it will have a wavy edge. This should go well with the watery scene.

I'm going to applique on some fish cut from a commercial fabric.

The scene will break out of the border and I'll use the silk paper barnacles to add some great texture.

Tomorrow I'll needle felt some more colour into the boarder and start getting the motifs sewn down.

Gelli® Landscapes

Hi guys. My latest tutorial and video is out over on the Gelli Arts® blog. Check it out!

Things I like - Melbourne Architecture

We didn't have nearly enough time to look around at the amazing variety of architecture and public art in Melbourne. Our drive across town to the airport showed we'd need at least a week to take a really good look. Melbourne seems to have artworks on every street corner and many of the buildings are artworks in themselves. The styles are very diverse ranging from the old fashioned Flinders Street Station (below) to the crazy jagged patterns found around Federation Square (above).

Many of the buildings have cut-outs, holes and huge windows so you can see the architecture beyond.

The overhead tram wires dissect the view even more.

The old (like the Royal Exhibition Building below) sits against the new. Every opportunity seems to have been taken to make the architecture as crazy and eye catching as possible.

That's it for my trip to Melbourne. I'd love to come back another day for a longer look around.

0 to Quilt in 5 Days - T Minus 3

Today I've quilted the main panel of my mono-printed quilt. I've used similar coloured thread to the background and colours in the print so the print remains the focus of the piece. On the main amphorae I didn't want a conflicting pattern to confuse with the busyness in the print so I decided to quilt in uneven lines reminiscent of cracks in the old vase.  It's hard to see what I've done in the photo so here is a picture of the back so you can see the stitching lines.

As you can see I've not put a backing on yet. I'm going to use the envelope style which is really quick and has the advantage of hiding any mess or mistakes that appear on the back. Tomorrow I hope to have the whole top quilted.

0 to Quilt in 5 Days - T Minus 4

I've been so busy getting my pieces ready for the 84 Group exhibition in June that I haven't had time to think about Quiltwest. With the deadline for entries coming up in 4 days time I thought I'd better get started!

Casting my eye around the room I settled on the "images to be sewn" drawer which contains tons of my prints and digital images on fabric. Rummaging through I picked this vase Gelli® mono-print and this digital print which was also created from a Gelli design. I wanted to add some more fabrics so I chose these batik prints in oranges. I used jelly-roll strips to save cutting time.

I've used the quilt-n-flip method to assemble the top. This is really quick and great if you can't sew straight stitch-in-the-ditch because the top is both pieced and quilted at the same time. Seeing as I hate doing edges and time is short I'll probably put an envelope style backing on this piece so I've just quilted straight onto wading for now with no backing fabric as yet.

Here's how it's looking so far:

Whilst searching about the room for something half started I also came across this tie-dyed fabric piece to which I have added mono-print on top.

Also hanging around were these barnacle type designs and an octopus on water-soluble fabric. They are made with silk paper and free motion stitch. I've washed out the fabric and they are now drying ready to see if I can combine them in some way tomorrow. 

Things I like - Gallery Display

Sometimes the setting really makes an artwork or artworks more interesting than they would otherwise be. Take this sculpture and painting above. Not so interesting on their own but great when viewed together. I like seeing contrasting things placed together like the colourful pyramid sculptures and grey building I showed in a previous post. Other times similar artworks grouped together look great like in this Aboriginal painting display at the NGV.

These ladies in their outrageous frocks and the over-the-top light seemed comical to me displayed against very traditional paintings.

I took this picture because it's not often you see a quilt in an art gallery! I like the method of display which makes the hanging rod visible and a part of the artwork. I like the idea of using eyelets and not having to hand sew on a hanging sleeve! I think I will be trying something similar.

These huge sails were on display in the Melbourne Museum where they really made a statement hanging from the ceiling.

The museum also had many clever displays where objects were embedded between glass panels and could be viewed from both sides.

I think it's important to consider where an artwork will be shown before making it. I'd like to try making art to be displayed in unusual specific locations like ruins, forests, airports or rivers.