Red door
Well ... what an amazing few weeks I've had throughout most of April and May!!!

It started in Amsterdam, down to Paris and across to London. Then we drove around south and west of England and Wales, visiting friends and places I'd lived and worked in the 70s.

We also found the houses where both of our fathers and my grandparents had lived before coming to Australia - in London, Penzance, Edinburgh and Dublin!

We spent 4 days on a narrowboat in north Wales, trained up to Scotland and back across to the coast for the ferry to Dublin.

Our last 8 days were spent driving around the hills and west coast of Ireland and I took wayyyyy too many photos of buildings, cottages, hilltops, quirky signs, backroads, clouds, trees and sheep.

And lots of water! We stayed on a houseboat in Amsterdam, the narrowboat in Wales and made 3 ferry crossings. I found bits of rock and beach glass in France and Cornwall ... but we only travelled with wheely backpacks, so no space to bring too many treasures home!

Now I'm inspired to do some paintings and here is the first one. This was from a photo taken on the way to Connemara, not long before we headed home.

Red door

20 x 20 cm

Acrylic

Thanks for visiting!

cheers

Cait

AQC Pawtrait Challenge

This small mixed media quilt was fun to make for the challenge at this year's Australasian Quilt Convention! I had a pic of Dusty, our beautiful (rescue) Tonkinese - so he was the inspiration.

He loves to drape over his favourite green cushion on the spare bed and sneaks in there when he thinks I'm not looking. His tail is tucked under the cushion, but if I'd tried to move it he would have stood up - and the moment would be lost.

I printed the pic onto fabric - added the batik fabric at the bottom and light card behind him - with paper music glued and stitched on top. I've used acrylic paint to highlight his eyes and fur.

He's always purring and most of my quilts have a song title, so this one is called One Purrrfect Day ...

10 " x 10"

 

 

detail

With this quilt and the one below - I'm very excited to have two pieces in different challenges at the AQC this year! Pity I can't get over to Melbourne to see them ... definitely next year.

Thanks for visiting.

nest eggs update

This little quilt is off to Melbourne for the Australasian Quilt Convention's annual exhibition in April!

It will be part of an exhibition of 21 art quilts by Australia & New Zealand Art Quilters, celebrating our 10th Anniversary as an online group. Most of us have never met but we produce some beautiful work when we put our minds to it, lol.

Very excited to see it HERE today!!!

Since that pic was taken I've added some darker leaves and stitching to give it more depth (below).

nest eggs

10 x 10 inches

Acrylic paint, stitch and textile work on canvas

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting

cheers

Cait

 

it's been a while

The last few weeks have been rather hectic but I haven't been idle!

We had our painting class end of year lunch last month and swapped a little painted and framed gift. I found a pic of these beautiful cups on Pinterest - begging to be painted! 

colourful cups

6 x 8 inches

 

 

started with this ...

 

 

Finished today.

300 x 600 mm

 

And a gorgeous vinyl I found in an op shop

 

Flight

450 x 450 mm

 

This one was inspired by a painting by Australian artist, FRED WILLIAMS.

The image I had was very blurred and I didn't know it was Fred's work

until a friend pointed it out to me. See previous post below.

I have added the birds.

Our final tea party lunch was held this month and although I forgot to take a pic of the actual hearts, I made a couple more of these for our swap gift.

fabric hearts

looking for Christmas gifts???

 ... have a look HERE at LYNDENDALE GALLERY in the Ferguson Valley, near Dardanup, Western Australia via Facebook.

There's lots of beautiful work by south west artists only - including paintings, linocuts, textiles, art to wear, felted pieces, silk scarves, jewellery, glass works, wood and timber pieces and garden art ... plus lots more, in a tranquil farmland setting!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Cait

new things

We're recently back from a few days in Esperance, way down in the great southern region of WA. Lots of driving and lots of canola fields ...

  

and a funny road mail box - celebrating a wedding and new home???

  

 

 

 

One of the dozen or so wind mills(?) from the wind farm.

Not as 'ugly' as our strange and erratic PM seems to think, IMHO ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lots of water gorgeousness ... and a dangerous spot in the Cape Le Grand National Park ...

 

 

 

 The beautiful whale sculpture on the foreshore, near the port ...

 

 

close up - the glass mosaic work is magnificent

(click to enlarge)

 

 

 

I love an old stone building ...

 

 

 

with adjoining shearing shed

 scarf

While we were in Esperance, Himself asked me to knit him a new colourful scarf, so we chose the colours together.

paintings

I started a diptych a few weeks ago, but it's not going too well. I needed to get my head around something new (again, lol), so I started a new painting.

The pic below is the inspiration for my painting at the bottom. It's only the first pass - lots more layers and detail to come yet, but happy with it so far : )

 

inspiration

 

 

 

 

the first layers for Earth Colours 

The strange thing about painting is, the more I learn, the worse I seem to be doing! How weird is that??? Or maybe my perception of my work has changed with discovery of new skills. It's all a bit confusing ...

sewing retreat
It was our annual quilting retreat last weekend. Each year, 8 of us stay in a huge holiday house somewhere on the South West Australian coast from Augusta to Yallingup. We bring 6 gifts to swap - 3 are sewing related and 3 are 'anything'. Throughout the weekend we interrupt sewing, eating, drinking, laughing, eating, drinking ... to choose a wrapped mystery gift and it adds to the fun!

Well ... this year I couldn't think of anything to make that was sewing related. We've all been sewing for DECADES and have most fabric and notions that we need, or want. I nearly didn't go in the swap ... then I thought of this idea ...

Three little paintings of quilts! What else??? They are about 20-25 cm square/rectangular.

I think the recipients liked them and if they didn't, they have permission to 'gift on'!

raggedy stripes

Amish bars with stencilling

ribbed stripes

The quilts were inspired by quilts in two books (top and bottom), Art Quilts - A Celebration and (centre), Amish - The art of the Quilt. I really enjoyed painting them! The 'quilting stitches' were drawn with black and white acrylic pens.

 

nest eggs
This year we also had a challenge and the theme was Circles. 

And it happened to be the 10 year anniversary of an online group I'm in, called Australia New Zealand Art Quilters, so we were asked to make a small quilt in recognition. Our only 'rule' was that the quilt had to be 10 inches square - to reflect the 10 years. I've been in the group for about 7 years.

Well, why not combine two themes???

So ... I created the quilt on 10 inch canvas, painted and stencilled the leaves, free-machine stitched around them and added some hand stitching. The nest and eggs were painted and I stitched circles around and around to create the base of the nest.

Different threads and bits of piping I'd made earlier were layered inside two pieces of Solvy and stitched to death to create more texture. It was all hand stitched in place. There is no visible binding - it is bound with facings, turned to the back.

Very happy with the result. I hope you like it too!

Nest eggs, 10 x 10 inches

Thanks for visiting!

pink tree

 

This one was finished yesterday.

Inspired by a pic I found online, it was originally going to be

recreated on painted and stitched silk, in the style of ALISON HOLT.

But I needed to start a new painting at class a couple of weeks ago

and this canvas was already in my bag ...

 

Pink Tree

25 x 20 cm on canvas

Moulding paste underneath the paint adds texture.

My art teacher CHRIS SKEGGS says it should be framed,

so I think it's a keeper.

 

 

Thanks for visiting!