Catch Up Time - Darwin

I have been away - very away - as my last trip was a bizarre route of Alice Springs, Darwin then Luxembourg. As you can imagine, the combination of having too much fun and sporadic internet access meant no blogging although I did try and keep some of you up to date with my Facebook page. I know not all of you like Facebook but I love it's immediate gratification aspect and find I use it more all the time.

We had some time before the workshop so went to the Crocodylus Crocodile farm.

It was great fun getting up close and personal to the crocs.

The local newspaper had really dramatic headlines everyday.

 

Lots of really interesting fabrics were created on the first day of our Textured Treasures Workshop.

I was so thrilled when Barbara went home after the first day with some of her fabrics and came back the next day with this gorgeous frog lilypad.

 Of course I was there to work and the Darwin Patchwork and Quilters have a great venue where they have their own office and storeroom with lockers and a great big room for the workshop. There was plenty of space for all the students and a big lawn outside for for our fabric to dry and create great sunprints with our wonderful Sun Dyes.

Here are some of my happy students and their quilts - they look terrific and we all had a great time.

 

Wonderful Lifestyle

 

I am very envious of my hostess Barbara and her lifestyle in Alice Springs. She and her sister Nancy have created an alladin's cave of creativity. They both knit and felt and Barb quilts and Nan is a potter. 

A luscious garden is full of little surprises

 

This tree is nicknamed the giraffe tree due to its weird growth pattern. Probably caused by bugs but really interesting

A small section of their living room/studio

 

I just loved the little budgies. Made from knitted then felted wool.

 Nan in her pottery studio making another meerkat. I have a set on their way to my home now. So cute.

 

It was wonderful to see two contented woman living such a creative and peaceful life.

They have a small house on the property which we stayed in while we were there and is able to sleep a small group who might want to have a retreat in Alice Springs. There is even the option of a car to use to sightsee. So if you are looking for an interesting venue in the middle of Australia - let me know and I can put you in touch

Alice Springs

I have spent the last few days teaching in Alice Springs which, for those who aren't familiar with Australian geography, is right in the middle.

It is an amazing place with lots of incredible scenery due to the Macdonnell Ranges which surround it.

This is Emily Gap - the Gaps are so called as they are gaps in the ranges which would have allowed travellers to pass through.

 One of the waterholes. Freezing cold water.

 The views go on forever

 Colour is everywhere

 Aboriginal carvings of the Three Caterpillars

 Amazing textures in the bark of trees

 

 Ochre Pits - the grooves are from hundreds of years of scraping out the ochre

 The contrast of the rock formations against the sky are beautiful and seem to go on forever

We didn't have time to go to Uluru but there is enough beauty here in Alice and surrounding areas to really get the taste of the Australian outback.

Tomorrow we are off to Darwin - more adventures.

Beneath the Southern Sky Interviews

When I was at the AQC I met Luana Rubin who is the owner of equilter.com. She interviewed me along with Brenda Smith in front of the Beneath the Southern Sky Exhibition.
This is Brenda's interview 

and this is mine

Have a look at all the quilts at the Beneath the Southern Sky Gallery Page.

Where I Create

Welcome to my studio.

I live in Sydney Australia where we have lots of sunshine and warm weather. It doesn't snow here so we can work outside all year round.

My studio is where I spend most of my creative time as it contains most of my toys and stuff and I just love being in it. It has a great feeling just being in there.

My studio was originally two bedrooms but when my kids left home we decided to knock down the wall between them and turn it into a studio for me.  It is about 7m x 3.5m. How lucky am I?

It has two skylights, two windows and track lighting with 12 spotlights. It also has 24 power outlets. Too many I know but we put two double outlets in 6 different places in the room. Unfortunately not many are where they actually need to be so there are still cables running all over the place.

I also fill all the orders for Dyed and Gone to Heaven here so this corner is dedicated to admin stuff.

The two fireplaces have been converted into tables. They do fold down flush to the wall but it never happens.

The other fold down table  is my ironing board which is a piece of mdf covered in towels/wadding/cotton top. Sometimes it doubles as a printing table but I usually do that ourside.

Underneath are 3 sets of wire baskets which are full of different types of fabrics like silks/satins/yarns/wool rovings/printed fabrics.

These built in shelves were custom built and were designed for those under the bed type tubs but i just fill them with other stuff. TV with cable is an added bonus. 

I have a design wall running the length of one wall (about 6m) which is made of caneite (1/2" thick board made from recycled sugar cane waste I think) with a length of wide flannel pinned over the whole area. Extra height was created by cutting up and extra board and they are all screwed to the wall. It also doubles as a pin board for inspiration as well as works in progress.

My Bernina 820 is a wonderful machine and is set into an Sew Ezy table and then butted up to an Ikea reject office table. Ikea is also responsible for all the sets of drawers (Alex) and bookshelves (billy).

I also have a Handiquilter Sweet 16 which I love as it allows me to quilt any size quilt with ease. I move it around where I need to use it with the side flaps open but when I am not quilting it is tucked into a corner.

I have obscene amount of threads and beads and lots of drawers holding other art supplies.

I do writing and painting etc at this desk but get distracted easily by looking out the window so had to change my original machine position from here.

Most of my stash is just 'borrowed' from the 'sweatshop' next door (used to be the kids living room) where Peter does most of the cutting and packing of all our handyes. I usually just ask him to dye fabric specifically for projects and it just magically appears.

 

I do most of my wet type work in the garden and have a great table (made of industrial hoarding which is waterproof and doesn't buckle) and we both spend a lot of time here creating fabrics.

I know I am very fortunate to be able to follow my passion and have dedicated creative spaces.

Great Quilts

I love it when students and customers send me pictures of quilts they have made with our fabrics or my patterns. Here are some of the latest I received. Claire made the quilt above from one of our Rainbow Bold Packs of 12 FQS.

Heather has made a brilliant Aurora

  love the beading


Here is her version of Fantasia.

SAQA OCEANIA STUDIO BLOG HOP

I am the Co-Rep for SAQA Oceania which is the region of Studio Art Quilts Associates (SAQA) which covers Australia, New Zealand and everywhere else in the Pacific Ocean. We also have expats who live in Italy and Uruguay.

I love looking at other artist studios and so thought about having a look at some of the studios of my fellow SAQA Oceania members. I put out a call and was thrilled to get so many responses so we have decided to post a different studio every second day though May. Some people don't have blogs yet so their posts will be hosted on other blogs but here is the list.

NAME	DATE	BLOG ADDRESS
Mel Forrest	1st may	http://mixedmediabymelforrest.blogspot.com.au/
Sue Dennis	3rd May	http://www.suedennisartquilts.blogspot.com
Lisa Walton	5th  May	http://fibreinspirations.blogspot.com.
Linda Robertus	7th May	http://lindarobertus.blogspot.com/
Dale Rollerson	9th May	http://downunderdale.blogspot.com.au/
Averil Stuart-Head	11th May	http://www.avesrave.blogspot.com
Beth Miller	13th May	http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/
Sally Westcott	15th May	http://www.sallydunn.blogspot.com/
Ali George	17th May	http://www.aliquilts.blogspot.com/
Pam Holland	19th May	http://www.pamhollanddesigns.typepad.com/
Felicity Clake	21st May	http://bearlytherecreations.blogspot.com.au
Brenda Gael Smith	23rd May	http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/
Alison Lawrence	25th May	http://fibreinspirations.blogspot.com
Jenny Bowker	27th May	http://www.jennybowker.com/postcards/
Sue Domeney	29th may	http://quiltstodyefor.wordpress.com

 So starting May 1 (Australian Time)  you can visit our studios - warts and all (although some of us did tidy up). We hope you enjoy visiting us and would love you to consider joining SAQA as well. Please spread the word too.

Sun Dyes for all Ages

I was blown away to get this email today from Kerry who bought some of my great Sun Dyes recently.

Hi Lisa.
My 4 yo grand daughter used the sun dyes today and made her first printed square of fabric.
We had no sun, so used the infra red lamp.
She chose the colours, poured them on and chose the shapes and placed them. You may recognise some. She also used quite a bit of salt.
She wasn't patient, and the shapes came off before it was dry, but the end result was great.
She told me we have to make more so I can make her a pretty quilt.
I have attached a photo of the end result. I hope you like her work ;-)
Cheers.
Kerry

Check out the special price on the whole set on the website.

Opulence Paint

Just took delivery of some more Sun Dye Paints and added some Opulence Inks to the order too. Just got some of the Isis Gold (yellow gold) Aurum Gold (whitish gold) and Argent Silver.

So used a stamp I'd made from Wet & Grow Sponge and dipped it in some diluted
Isis Opulence and then stamped it on a piece of hand dye.

I love the random texture caused by the sponge.

 

Also used one of the Cathedral series stencils with diluted paint. I tried to use a piece of cardboard as a scraper through the stencil but it didn't really work. So I just squished up the sponge from the previous sample and dabbed that in the diluted paint and onto the stencil.

 

Think I will try it again with a makeup sponge next time to get a sharper image but not bad for a hotel room job I think. Will be nice quilted I think.

 

I will put the Opulence up on the website as soon as I get home.