A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A HOLIDAY THEY SAY!

Is a change as good as a holiday? I don't know but I thought it was time to update things here on my blog and actually post something, as well as changing the name. We will see how it goes!

I decided to start with changing the name of the blog to The Chartreuse Studio as chartreuse has become my go to colour and I also thought it was time to update things with a new name.

At the beginning of this year I started an online course with the wonderful Hilary Beattie, a UK based textile/paper artist. The course is called 'Make It Personal' and is about finding your personal voice as an artist using fabric and paper, paint and dye, stencils, print blocks and all sorts of surface design techniques. The videos are run live on Facebook - sometimes the timing is not so good for watching in Australia but I can always watch the next day, or any time that suits me as access is ongoing. Here is a link to her Facebook business page - https://www.facebook.com/hilarybshop 

I has been a really intense learning curve but really fun and I have thoroughly enjoyed diving into different techniques as well as the camaraderie of the group. As this has been a difficult year because of the pandemic, it has also been something to focus on each week as I watch the videos and have a go at the techniques.

Things that have kept me busy this year have been numerous as you can see below:

• learning to use Zoom
• watching innumerable YouTube videos (some examples below)
• doing workshops via Zoom - Carole Lyles Shaw, Joe Cunningham and Brenda Gael Smith to name a few
• thinking all day about doing something and not actually doing it!
• sitting in my lovely recliner and drinking tea or coffee
• tidying up my sewing room (haven't gotten very far)

My favourite YouTube channels are

Arne & Carlos - https://www.youtube.com/c/ARNECARLOS/videos

Karen Brown - https://www.youtube.com/c/JustGetitDoneQuilts/videos

Joe Cunningham - https://www.youtube.com/user/Joethequilter/videos

Kate - https://www.youtube.com/c/thelasthomelyhouse/videos and of course

Hilary Beattie - https://www.youtube.com/c/HilaryBOriginalArtDesign/videos

Creative Strength Training

This month I signed up for the Jane Dunnewold course "Creative Strength Training". Jane is an artist in the medium of textiles. She has been making quilts for a long time and ventured into dyeing, painting and manipulating fabric along the way. She has many tips on her processes and has written a few books on the subject - Art Cloth, Complex Cloth and Finding Your Own Visual Language to name a few. I am in awe of her work and when I heard about the course I decided to give it a go.

One of the exercises in a section called Cross Training is to start writing. this is something I have tried to do many times with very little success. I am often thinking of great ideas but never seem to put pen to paper so those ideas float off into nothingness (or as Jane puts it "a lost opportunity").

Today I sat down and started the writing exercise by answering some questions posed by Jane. It was an "ah ha" moment for me as the process of answering these questions opened me up to put down things I hadn't really allowed myself to express. Exploring my inner self was liberating and I am thankful to Jane for setting the exercise.

It was suggested we find a word or words to express our feeling about the course and its potential for opening our creative hearts - I chose "Just Do It" and this really encapsulates where I am at the moment in my creative life. It is really hard for me to actually get down and do something - there are lots of excuses to find to hold me back. The writing process and the questions have helped me to realise that my words are well chosen and that I need to prioritise the creative process or I will never achieve anything.

Thanks Jane for the prompt to get moving!

TIME FLIES

This year has flown by in a flurry of activities - babies, quilts to finish, artwork to make, groups to go to and lovely weekends away.

Last weekend I was able to go with my patchwork group to Kurri Kurri in the Hunter region for four days of sewing, chatting and eating, with a small amount of walking and op shopping thrown in for good measure.

The view from my sewing machine was to a small vineyard and some lovely trees. There are probably kangaroos eating the grass but they are too far away. The place is absolutely beautiful, lots of bush around the perimeter and a large mob of kangaroos wandering around everywhere! The wildlife to be wary of are the Plovers who are very protective of their space.

The morning fog was eerie as I walked to breakfast. It soon cleared to a lovely, warm sunny day, so unusual for this time of year.

The best part about going away is not having to think about or shop for food and then not having to cook and clean up afterwards.

The staff at the Hunter Academy were wonderful and cheery, the morning and afternoon teas yummy, and the dinners were terrific. Those who had special diets were really well looked after.





Last light was glorious as well. All in all
a wonderful time away.

My small group from ATASDA - Frayed - is planning an exhibition in August next year. We are trying to motivate one of our members to take part and we have challenged her to make a black and white scarf. We are all taking part in the challenge and I hope we are able to come up with a few more challenges to make the exhibition interesting.

Here is my first black and white scarf, which I have given away. It is wet felted with circles of light grey (not really white) on both sides. Now I have to make

another one - it shouldn't be too hard as I have lots of ideas going round in my brain!

Sydney Quilt Show

The Sydney Quilt Show is about to start and the preparation behind the scenes is enormous. Last Saturday was the Judging Day and a team of very excited volunteers arrived in the rain to set up and get the ball rolling. Quilts were everywhere and people were unpacking, laying out, repacking and getting the next lot ready for judging. It is a fun but exhausting day and there is lots of excitement as quilts are chosen and photographed.

Tomorrow is set up day at Glebe Island and there will be many more volunteers on hand to hang the quilts and make sure everything is ship shape for Wednesday.

I have two quilts in the show this year and am looking forward to seeing them hung.

Deconstructed screen printing

Last weekend I attended an ATASDA workshop with Lin Wilson teaching us deconstructed screen printing.

It was a fun day with lots of really interesting screens being made and that wow factor when the print was pulled. It is amazing the different effects that can be achieved with such ordinary things - placemats, string, rubber bands, a shirt! (This was a really fantastic result).

Today I have been washing out and rinsing the fabric after batching in the sun for the last couple of days. They are now hanging on the line drying:

   

I really enjoyed this workshop and am very happy with the results. I can see a couple of pieces being used for a future challenge entitled "Nature's Trail" with my group "Frayed".

I still have a screen ready to put into fabric but I think it will have to wait until after our holiday.

Lesley Rippon Retrospective

Today I went to Lesley Rippon's exhibition at the Royal Art Society's gallery at North Sydney, together with members of my ATASDA group Frayed. We have been meeting together for three months now and decided an excursion would be a great idea - an opportunity to get out and about and also to get to know each other a little better.

Lesley's exhibition was a wonderful display of her art work and how she has developed and changed over the years. Her early work was from the 1970's and her pieces progressed through to the present day.

There were watercolours, oils, mixed media, textile pieces and combinations of all of these. Her work is still developing even though she is 79! It would seem that Lesley sees no boundaries as far as art is concerned. She uses old and new techniques and is constantly experimenting with new products, thanks to contacts she has made throughout her art career.

It was a refreshing exhibition and also encouraged me to look further into using different techniques in the one piece. It was also great to be able to get up close and look at the finer detail of her work and she the different techniques used.

After our visit we walked up to Blues Point Road and found a lovely cafe for lunch. All in all a great way to spend a day with friends.

Sydney Quilt Show

SYDNEY QUILT SHOW

I was very surprised and excited to receive two awards at the Sydney Quilt Show for my quilt Red Sherbet. This year the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc had a special category for Red & White quilts. I received 2nd Prize in the Red & White Category, Contemporary/Art. This was truly amazing to me, but even better than that was the Excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting Award! This award covers the machine quilted quilts for the whole show. It was really hard for me to accept that the judges thought my quilt was good enough for this award. Even harder when I looked at the other quilts at the show. I am now settling in to the idea that it's ok for ME to receive this award - I worked hard to quilt it and enjoyed the process immensely.

Red Sherbet

The quilt was designed by Cheryl Arkison and was in her book "A Month of Sundays". Cheryl was excited about my award and I thank her for giving me permission to exhibit the quilt.

Now to think about what to enter in next year's show - it seems like a good time to tackle some of the UFO's I have in my cupboard!