Scquilters' Retreat

Scquilters (Southern Cross Quilters) is an online quilting group that was formed in 1994. Its members are all Australians or New Zealanders or expats with strong connections to these countries. I have been a member since 1995.

The 2008 Scquilters' Retreat started today. There is one held every year, each time in a different state, sometimes even in a different country (there has been one in New Zealand). The first one was held in 1998, and some of the people present at this one have gone to all of them. This is my second - I went to the other one held in Perth in 2002.

It is being held at the Broadwater Pagoda Resort Hotel. I don't think the staff know what has hit them. There are 126 attendees - all women, and the noise level is pretty high. Most are staying in the hotel or at the associated apartments a couple of hundred metres down the road.

I am sharing with another woman. We had booked one of the cheapest rooms. Annabell registered last night, and because I wasn't coming till this afternoon, offered a bed to someone else whose plans had changed. Turned out that the room wasn't a double with twin beds as requested, but one with a double bed, so a rollout bed had to be brought in. Annabell complained about the messed up booking with the result that she was upgraded.

We now have an apartment with twin beds, a kitchenette, a laundry and a spa bath - all at the original price. It certainly pays to complain if you are dissatisfied!

Piney Lakes

Designing Women, the textile group I belong to, meet at Piney Lakes Environmental Education Centre on the second Saturday of every month. The building is a wonderful venue, set in a bushland reserve, but we are usually so engrossed in textile stuff that we don't look at our surroundings.

This month was set aside as "Piney Lakes" day. We were to take our cameras and/or sketchbooks on a walk to explore the reserve. Of course it rained. However, there was a break and we ventured out. It was magical - everything was freshly washed so the colours were intense. We did the short walk along the board walk through the wetlands section, being a bit wary of further showers. These are paperbarks (melaleucas) which are the dominant vegetation in the swampy part.


There is a longer walk, called the Sculpture Walk because of the art works along its length, which actually passes the lake. I love this other walk and made myself a promise to do it again soon.

One of our members, Loraine, has done a course as a Piney Lakes guide and she spoke to us about the area while we waited for the rain to stop. I think we all found that this added to our appreciation of what we were seeing.

We are supposed to develop a textile piece based on our impressions. I took 40 photographs and will have a problem finding one to focus on. This is one possibility.

Contemporary Quilt Group

I enjoy this group. It is an offshoot of the Western Australian Quilters' Association (WAQA) and meets on the second Friday of every month. This month we had to bring in our A3 size Challenge quilts for display at QuiltWest which starts on the 21st May.

We have been supposed to do one challenge a month - I haven't done any since June last year. So I dug out a piece of fabric that I had shibori folded and discharged with bleach. Some quilting with invisible thread and I had a piece for display. Needed a title. I thought it looked a bit like photos I have seen of neural synapses so it became "Connections?"



Afterwards I went to visit my friend Jean as I try to do every month. There is no doubt that her neural network is still very efficient at the age of 96.

Nuno Felting

Textile Traders has had a huge range of printed silk chiffons over the last few months, so of course I have bought a bit (especially when they have had their "buy two, get one free" sales). My intention has been to use them as a basis for nuno felting. Yesterday I actually did some.

Juliet came round with a big bag of wool tops, one length of chiffon, swimming pool noodles, net and bubblewrap. I collected all my wool tops (a much smaller bag), the felting equipment I had, and the chiffon I had bought. We decided on splitting two lengths in half lengthwise and shared the tasks of laying out the fibres and wetting it out. Then we each had a bundle to roll.

This is my first piece. We laid the fibres in a diagonal pattern and as they felted they gathered up the chiffon.



After lunch, we did another one for me. Juliet's blue piece had had the fibres laid out thinly to cover all the fabric and I decided I wanted a piece like that as well. This time we borrowed Kevin's sander and it really speeded up the task. However, time ran out and Juliet decided she didn't have time to lay out the fibre for her second one before she had to go.

This is my second piece.


I really like them both and now I am thinking of how to finish them off. I think I will make a beaded fringe for the orange one. For the blue one I am thinking of using machine pattern stitches along the diagonals and making a fringe from patterned stitching as well . . .

A day out with fibre included

Trudi had a garage sale yesterday and Juliet and I journeyed up into the hills to attend it. We had a very pleasant morning.

It was not your usual garage sale - not a rusty bike or piece of chipped china in sight. At least not for sale - there are lots of rusty things and broken china that have been used to make installations all around the property. The studio where Trudi was selling is quite separate from the house. Both are nestled amongst trees and have a wonderful view of the Wungong Dam. the studio is built of rough hewn timber and it is almost a house itself, with a large entrance porch, even bigger workroom with a patio, kitchen and toilet and out the back a huge storage and wet area where Trudi does dyeing and screenprinting. I intended to take the camera, but of course forgot it, and while I had my phone the pictures it takes are dreadful. I really wanted closeups of some of the little arrangements that are everywhere.

Trudi was having a clear out. She has been a textile artist for more than 30 years and like most of us has stuff that she will never use. So she decided to sell it. We had a wonderful time and the prices Trudi had put on things were so cheap! So now I have a bit more stuff myself.

There was also some of Trudi's daughter's stuff for sale as well. Helena has gone to live in Singapore and left behind lots of things for her mother to sell. There were lots of clothes - nothing to fit me, of course, but I grabbed a rose coloured tiedyed embroidered dress. Surely I'll find a use for the fabric in this . .

After we left Trudi's we decided to try to find a gallery which we thought also was a cafe. We did a long trip through new residential developments and eventually found the gallery. No cafe though. Waterways is a wonderful space with lots of light and a mezzanine floor. The art on display was mediocre - a shame. Juliet thought it would be a wonderful place to hold a folk concert.

Excuses

We have been a bit busy since Tuesday. Son Martin was admitted to Fremantle Hospital as an emergency patient Tuesday morning, and we have been tied up with hospital visiting and trying to keep him there until they found out what was wrong. The treatment they gave him relieved his symptoms very quickly. He decided that meant he was AOK and has been champing at the bit to get out of hospital, but the doctors wanted to know what caused the original condition. They still don't know - all the tests have come back clear. So today he was discharged and I picked him up and took him back to his unit. He has been told that if the symptoms reoccur he is to run, not walk to the nearest emergency ward.

Yesterday I got the letter from Stitched and Bound - my piece was not selected. Disappointed - I would really like more feedback - but at least I don't have to make a new piece for the Melville Art Awards. Here is a detail:



Today I went to Dale's and spent my $100 gift voucher - plus! I plan to play tomorrow with one of the Ezi-Carve blocks I bought. I think I will save the other for Jane Dunnewold's workshop at Bunbury in October.

Some fiddlings

In the last 5 days:

I have cast on 210 stitches for a Moebius scarf at least four times and pulled them out again. Now I am trying to work out how to do Cat Bordhi's method. She SAYS in her book that it is so easy she can do it holding the needles behind her back!! I can't even get one stitch on the needle - all thumbs.

I have unpicked and felted Helen's woollen jacket. Though the label said 100% Pure Wool, the yarn used for the front facings and neck and as a pocket backing was not - or perhaps it was a machine washable yarn. Very uneven results. I think it is going to be a large tote bag. I will use some leather from the skirt she gave me to make handles.

I have finished altering her jacket - I think successfully - and have started unpicking the devore velvet skirt. Boring job.

I have digitised a couple of cross stitch designs. Haven't stitched them yet, but they look OK on the computer screen.

I have made some stamps from erasers. Eight erasers for $2 from Crazy Clarks. I am planning a stamping session tomorrow.

And I have visited my BiL in hospital, attended a breakfast for an aunt's 80th birthday and spent a half day at the Craft Fair on Sunday. Plus I have read 3 books. Been quite busy really.

Various bits finished and started

The first textile group I ever joined met today as we do on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. When we started (nearly 20 years ago) we were all quilters. Now we bring all sorts of things along to our fortnightly gatherings. Today there were some hexagon balls being made by Fairlie and Helen, a beautiful William Morris inspired quilt being hand quilted by Sheila, Lois knitting a sock from yarn she had spun herself, Marianne doing intricate cross stitch and me signing siggy squares for the Scquilters Retreat which happens in May. The other members were unable to attend for various reasons - mostly to do with travelling or family demands.

I finished the squares and was given a round of applause. I had constructed 80 (there are supposedly 78 swappers). I messed up one today and tried to wash out the error. The pen I was using proved to be indelible, but the stamped images disappeared. I need to heat set at least one square and test again. I don't think there will be many people who will wash the squares or the quilt they make from them, but it is always a possibility. So, apart from that, siggy squares finished.

Lois gave me a magazine with a knitted Moebius scarf featuring buttonholes. Time to revisit this technique. I bought a 120cm long circular needle last year in Portland. Tonight I have cast on 210 stitches ready for the difficult first row. I will tackle that tomorrow.

Books bound in fabric

When I commented on the binding for India Flint's new book the other day, I had a sense of deja vu. Surely I had written about fabric book bindings before? So I spend a LOT of time searching my past posts with no success. Then I remembered that I do write occasionally in a journal. I had intended to make THAT a regular occurrence: lots of sketches, colours, interesting ephemera . . . I have much more writing than drawing, very little colour and ephemera and irregular entries. But I found what I had written on the 6th of February and it is now quoted verbatim.

A New Trend? - Fabric Bindings for Books
* I thought "Stitch" (NZ textile artists) was incredible - bought it basically for the fabric cover :) contents are AOK
* Maggie Beer's new cookbook has embroidery as well - pity it is so expensive $125 :( NB watch for remainders on this one!
* An Encyclopaedia of Needlework (pub pre 1890) also has fabric binding (moire silk) Checked this one out on the Internet - found a copy (different publisher/?incomplete) for 150 pounds. Need to follow up

The last mentioned book was part of the chattels we acquired when we bought the Bicton house as a deceased estate in 1975. I think the Murray sisters would be quite happy that another textile fanatic is cherishing their needlework possessions.

Eco Colour

This is a wonderful book, published just last month, by India Flint. I have only dipped into it, but I love the colours in the photos. The little text I have read is fascinating, and I think this will become one of my favourite textile books.

I met India in New Zealand last year. She was one of the tutors at the Fibre Forum and the work her students turned out was fabulous. She is another of Australia's great textile artists.

An interesting point about the book is its binding. It's fabric, with leaves printed on it and the dust jacket is a partial one. Very intriguing.