inspiration

yesterday my sister and i went to see the sense of place exhibition at samson hill vineyard in kangaroo ground. dijanne cevaal curated the exhibition and there are works by some of Australia's best art quilters. the exhibition has been installed in the restaruant/tasting area of the vineyard - it's on top of a hill and has the most amazing views across to mt macedon and the city. so on one side you have a fabulous view over vineyards into the blue and then you turn around and are blown away by the colours and textures of the quilts.

I have admired Fiona Wright's work for a long time but it was the first time I have seen her work in the flesh and it is just mesmerising - layers of saturated colour in reds, oranges and deep pinks and purples - you can understand why I would like it :)

Beth Miller's bogong moths quilt was fascinating too - layers of embroidery including big seed stitches in a thick yarn - and done on corduroy too which would have been a real pain

My sister's favourite was by Dianne Firth - curving parallel lines done in olive greens and browns with a curve of deep purple through the middle.

Dijanne Cevaal had an intricate banksia quilt in great acid yellows, sharp greens and deep purples and had a some lovely things for sale - I bought this





pomegranate postcard sized quilt as I really would like the persephone's rug quilt that's on dijanne's picturetrail site but will make do with the little one
my camera can't capture the intense colours in this work but they just glow :)

i also bought this stunning card by robina summers
and this afternoon i was inspired to make this journal quilt reflecting some of the techniques i admired yesterday. it's still a work in progress but it's the first time i had tried the circular quilting and really enjoyed the freedom of being able to go over the lines (sticks tongue out at quilt police). one of my goals is to improve my free motion quilting and this was a great boost to my confidence.

i discharge dyed and painted the fabrics last year - there's corduroy, muslin, cheesecloth, a textured cotton and a piece of felted and dyed blanketing in there. the line down the middle of a piece of jute string couched down with gold thread. i had planned to couch 2 more pieces of string and do some more linear quilting on the right hand side but i think i will let it sit for a while before i decide how to finish it.

go to the exhibition - it's fabulous