Exciting exhibition news

Exciting news! "Moon Dance" has been selected for SAQA's upcoming juried exhibition, Dusk to Dawn. A collection of abstract nightscapes, animal portraits, and other nighttime observations, these pieces offer a glimpse of the mysterious world that emerges when darkness arrives.
Dusk to Dawn premieres in 2018 at Quilt Festival Houston featuring quilts by artists from Canada, across the US and around the world. I am thrilled to be in such talented company.

We have a new member

Too much excitement - a new artist and a new member.  She is a South African, living in Durban and Phil approached her with the invitation to join us.  I am delighted to say she has accepted.  I have sent her an invite to register with our blog so she can post things, but in the meantime she has sent this bio:

          My name is Allison Moorcroft and I started quilting in 1993.  After a slow start, I completed a few commissioned quilts and have exhibited my work in England, France, USA, Japan, Taiwan and of course, South Africa.

          Won an Over-locker and later an Embroidery machine entering Bernina Competitions.  Over the years I have gravitated to Fibre Art work away from Traditional quilting.   Besides being a member of one of our local Quilting Guilds, I am also part of a small group called ‘The Arty Farty girls’.

          As we live on a yacht, I simply do not have the luxury of a reasonably sized studio which compels me to create smaller pieces of artwork.  My artist husband is my worst critic [or is it best?].

A picture I found of Allison sewing a commissioned quilt designed by her husband - it is a special kind of sailing spinnaker parachute (2014).

Welcome Allison, good to have you join us.

Hilary

And the next artist is .....

I'm not long back home from my week away with the NW Contemporary Quilt group which was as inspiring and informative as you could imagine.

I haven't had time to catch up on all the recent posts but I was excited to see that it's my turn to choose the next artist.

I've enjoyed meeting new artists, particularly those that have been chosen for their shared nationality and thought that I would do likewise. But I wanted to add another element - here we all are, twelve women working away at our art but so far the chosen artists have been men. I'm far from being a rampant feminist but thought that it was time for a change so I give you .....

Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham

Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham worked in a variety of styles during her life so I'm hoping there will be something for everyone. Enjoy!

Still Life Variations

   I had not heard of Lundstrom before, so it was good to discover another artist who was new to me. I especially like his still lifes with their bright colours, especially the blues and oranges, a favourite combination of mine. I decided set up and draw my own still life, using my favourite blue mug, along with a jug and orange.

   For a while I have been wanting to try a multiple coloured lino print and I thought that the simple shapes of the drawing might work for this. I expected it to be more difficult than it was and was delighted when it worked the first time that I tried it out on paper. After trying various combinations, I spent a couple of days making prints on fabric. I have plenty left over after making the quilt to use to experiment with stitch, and some with just the black outline that I want to try colouring with inktense pencils and other methods. The printing may have been less complicated than I thought, but the simple piecing did not go so well: even though the pieces were the correct size, I couldn't get one row to fit together and gave up , leaving it until after the weekend. Needless to say it went together with no trouble on Monday. I would have finished it yesterday, if I had not almost attached my finger to the quilt! Fortunately I missed putting the sewing machine needle through my nail by 2-3 millimetres, though I have a nice groove in the side of my finger! Needless to say, I am glad to have finished it at last.  

   I am quite pleased with the resulting prints and like the way in which each is a little different. The one thing I would change is to make the black outlines a little thinner. I did not want to cut away any more as I was worried about cutting away too much and having to start again. I must practise cutting thinner lines.

The next person to choose a new artist is..........

..........Linda B!

So looking forward to a new challenge, perhaps I might even start a little earlier this time, three days really isn't enough.