I was bowled over my the number of awards I took away at the 2024 Australian Quilt Show. In total I got 5! My proudest moment, was the award of Runner Up to Best in Show. It is no shame to be beaten to Best in Show by Gloria Loughman.
Mexican Hats
Mexican Hats, a bold dynamic piece, also won 1st in the Modern Quilt category; Best Domestic Machine Quilting; a Judges choice
The Silk Road
The Silk Road, a 100% silk quilt made from hand dyed wedding dress silk scrap, was awarded 1st place in the Recycled/Repurposed category
These quilts will now tour Australia with the Australian Quilt Show until later in 2024. However, they are for sale (see Art quilts/wallhanging tab) and if you would like to buy one or both of them, please contact me to reserve them.
I was very excited to hear this morning that both the quilts that I submitted to the Australian Quilt Show have been accepted as finalists and will tour with Expertise Events this year. The even better news is that one of them has been awarded a prize! Which one….
Sneak peek of Mexican Hats
Mexican Hats, a BIG quilt entered in the Modern Quilts category or….
Sneek peek of The Silk Road
The Silk Road, a quilt made from self dyed silk wedding dress scraps, entered in the Recycled and Restyled Category.
Why not come to Australasian Quilt Convention held from 11th – 14th April at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne to see my quilts in their full splendour and find out. I have been attending this event for many years and is well worth a visit for anyone who appreciates textiles, quilts and art. The event will be a magnificent showcase of quilting art, providing colourful, first-class works, expert workshops and unique retailers, all under the breathtaking dome of Melbourne’s iconic Royal Exhibition Building.
Some features of the event include:
The Australian Quilt Show – Finalists’ work from the 2024 Australian Quilt Show Challenge will premiere at AQC. This is a national competition for Australian quilters, running for the third year. The total prize pool is worth $31,797, including $19,800 in cash.
Best of QuiltCon – A travelling exhibition of new works from the world’s premier modern quilting event, QuiltCon 2024, which will be held in North Carolina, USA. This exhibition comes to Australia directly from the QuiltCon event – the first stop on its global tour.
RED by SAQA – The colour red has played a major role in art, rituals and spirituality. The use of red can evoke excitement, danger, anger or love. It is associated with purity in India and, in China, it traditionally symbolises luck. Thirty-nine works from makers from the USA, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Italy and Australia are featured in this creative collection – a Studio Art Quilt Associates global exhibition.
20 Perspectives – Windows, Doors and Portals is the theme of the 20 Perspectives exhibition. This group of international textile artists are united by their love of textiles and the desire to share their art with others. This will be the first exhibition of this collection.
I have been experimenting with Chat GPT to write artist statements for my quilts. I find composing statements difficult for some of my abstract quilts. Below are a couple of quilts and their artist statements which I have prepared using the freely accessed software as a basis.
Ember Enchantment
This striking quilted wall hanging, inspired by Rosalie Dace, features bold red, orange, and black hues. It incorporates intricate embellishments of beading, hand embroidery and stencilling with paint to enhance texture and visual interest. Its misshapen form and quirky details invite viewers to explore the whimsical world.
A Complementary Contrast
This vibrant abstract quilt studies the use of direct complementary colours from the colour wheel. The hues of red, blue-green and yellow-green are combined to produce a stimulating composition with dynamic contrast. Through an improvised geometric arrangement, a sense of harmony and energy is captured.
AI doesn’t do the whole job for you but it can certainly provide a start!
It’s been a long time since I updated my website. This is because I have been making my pieces for the stitched and bound and Australian Quilt Show juried exhibitions. I don’t share pieces made for exhibitions until they go on show since there is often a rule that they are not shown in public before the exhibition. Anyway I entered 2 works for each exhibition and hope that they get selected for inclusion.
I have also been on holiday! As something fairly easy to tackle following all this, I have completed the above quilt ‘Doodles’ which comprises the blocks of the month I made from Jenny Haynes and Lucy Engels patterns. Some of the piecing was more complicated/tricky than it looks – but it was a good discipline for me. I’m generally an improvisational quilter which doesn’t require such accuracy! I used a stash of mainly Marcia Derse fabric which I love.
The quilt is for sale – click on tab above if you are interested.
I am delighted to have won 3 prizes at Quiltwest which was held at Claremont Showgrounds last week.
Crop Circles
This quilt won best modern quilt (professional) and best use of colour – I was over the moon. It is made from 100% silk, most of which is wedding dress scraps which I have hand dyed.
My Sketch Book
This took out first prize in small quilts (professional) and it was sold at the exhibition. For me it was an experimental piece. I dribbled paint from a syringe onto fabric, smudging some areas, cut up the fabric and pieced it into an attractive arrangement. I added the left hand black strip and suddenly it looked like a spiral bound sketchbook! The dense combination of machine and hand quilting added texture to the piece. I loved it and obviously others did to.
Due to the increasing costs of fabric/batting and my interest in focusing on quilts made for my own pleasure, I am no longer making quilts to commission.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not making quilts and there will continue to be many quilts and wallhangings on this site for sale. If you are looking for a quilt, please have a browse at what I have to offer – I can of course still personalise an item with the addition of a label.
Linear Optimisation – a fun improvisational quilt – see quilts for sale
stitched and bound, the contemporary biennial juried quilting exhibition, which myself and Marilyn Clark-Murphy are co-convening, opened at Midland Junction Arts Centre on 9th September and will be on display until 5th November. The exhibition is amazing and full of very varied pieces. I was thrilled to get one of my pieces, All That Jazz, accepted. It is intended to be a fun piece with high impact incorporating musical symbols in the improvisational piecing and the quilting.
All That JazzDetail of the quilting
This piece, War, was not accepted. It was very much a statement piece made out of 2 layers of silk organza which I had dyed and printed and constructed using various traditional quilting techniques.
Marilyn Clark-Murphy and I moved into the Veranda Studio at Midland Junction Arts Centre yesterday. We will be there Wednesday – Friday 10am – 5pm and Saturday 11am – 3pm from 24th August until 3rd September. We may be there at other times – the signs will be out.
You can see us both working and view previous works on the walls. I will have quilts and bits and bobs for sale. Do pop in for a sticky beak and and chat – you will be most welcome.
Myself and Marilyn Clark-Murphy are the convenors of the biennial contemporary quilt exhibition stitched and bound which is presented by the West Australian Quilters Association.
This will be the thirteenth stitched and bound exhibition, the first of which took place in 1995. For each exhibition, the works are selected by a panel of 3 independent jurors. This year the jurors were Leanne Bray, Janet Holmes à Court, and Lisa Walton, and 45 works by 38 artists were selected. I was lucky enough to have one of the two pieces I submitted chosen. The exhibition will be showcased at Midland Junction Arts Centre from 10 September before embarking on a tour of 5 regional galleries across Western Australia.
Before and during the exhibition, twelve talented textile artists will undertake residencies at Midland Junction Arts Centre, one of whom is me! My residency is from 23 August – 5 September. Do drop in and see what I am doing/have a chat/look for what I have for sale. Full details of the whole program can be found at Studio Program
I was thrilled to receive 2 prizes at the inaugural Australian Quilt Show in Sydney. This wallhanging received the Best Use of Colour prize. I was given some silk scraps from wedding dresses by a friend. She had got them from her dressmaker. They comprised all different types of silk and most were triangular pieces cut on the bias. I dyed them all in Procyon dyes and became instantly inspired by the vibrant colours. Before I could use them, I had to back them all with a stabiliser to make them easier to work with. Designing as I went, I made this improvisational work. I love it!
Filtered Sunrise
This second wallhanging received the runner-up prize in the Modern Quilt category. Another improvisational piece which was inspired by Irene Roderick’s work. Improvisational piecing, whilst avoiding the necessary accuracy of traditional piecing, presents constructional challenges and is unexpectedly time consuming!
Horology
The Australian Quilt Show will be in Melbourne next week and then move onto Canberra and Brisbane. A nice little holiday for my quilts.
Quirky Quilts 