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!

Christmas is almost here

This year has been very full! The birth of two new grandchildren has added to the weekly activities with our usual get-togethers on a Tuesday plus a few other baby sitting occasions.

I have entered the world of art, art journaling and sketch booking this year. It has been a very exciting journey, learning all about the myriad forms of journaling that goes on around the world. There are so many blogs about these different forms of journaling that one can spend the whole day looking at them. I have to restrict myself or else another week has gone by and I haven't accomplished anything.

So far this year I have been very slowly working through Betty Edwards "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" which has told me that I can draw, I must needed to learn how to see. I have enrolled in two on-line workshops - one by Design Matters on Sketchbooks and another by Jane LaFazio on Sketching and Watercolour. These courses have been really great and I hope to continue next year with Design Matters and finish their full course.

Learning about watercolours has been really fun. I have always loved the effect of watercolour painting - the lovely washes of subtle colour and the delicacy that can be achieved. There is no doubt that my efforts are very basic at this stage but I will definitely persevere with this particular medium and hope to become quite competent. Below is a Mango that I painted as part of Janes's course.

 It was quite hard to get the colours blending as it was a large area and the paint dried very quickly as the temperature was around 30C that day.

The year had flown with Christmas less than two weeks away. It is time to look forward and see what next year will bring.

I found a journaling group called The Documented Life Project and have decided to join this group and follow along with the weekly prompts to see how my journaling will progress. A side group of this I found is Documented Faith which is a Christian group doing a journal with a Biblical focus. As my word for next year is FOCUS I this would be a great thing to do a well. So a full year ahead with, I hope, a really good Focus to start with. I do pray that my life will be Christ centred this next year and also art focused.

Blessing at Christmas and a Joyful New Year ahead

Pam

MUDGEE RETREAT

I have just spent four wonderful days with some ATASDA friends doing textile related things with the theme of Feast of the Senses? It has been a great time to relax, do something new and become immersed in the atmospher of a bunch of creative people. We did Eco dyeing, drawing, painting, laughing, eating, walking, listening to Jan Irvine-Nealie talk about her art journey - all wonderful things to do. I am energised and revitalised and ready to get some creative work done. Perhaps I may even get back to blogging on a regular basis. Photos to come!

Done at last!

Over the past two months we have been building a garage/workshop/studio and updating the pool area and I have also been preparing for the opening of a pop up shop in Hornsby called The Artists Loft. A group of 15 members of ATASDA have been working hard to put this shop together and last night was or opening. It was a great evening with lots of visitors and a good number of sales.

My little quilt has been a fun adventure in something new for me both in matters of design and machine quilting. I am of two minds whether I want it sold or not. The next month I will be working at the shop once or twice a week an hopefully making more things for sale.

If the shop is a success we hope to do it again in April.

I hope also to spend some time relaxing by the pool in our lovely new area.

Bye for now.

Machine Embroidery

This is a photo of my leaf picture that I made in Meredith Woolnough's workshop. I was very pleased to be able to finish this piece and frame it at the workshop, thanks to Meredith's great teaching and encouragement.

My next workshop is screen printing with Lin Wilson tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this workshop and have possibly too high expectations of what I might achieve. Time will tell!

Life is hectic

Life is hectic! Sometimes I don't know where the time goes! Over the past couple of months we have been doing lots of things, some interesting, some ordinary, some exciting. A new car was the first project involving lots of research, test driving etc. I finally decided on a Ford Focus which I love. It is zippy, slightly sporty and lots of fun - it's great to finally have a reversing camera, sensors and a temperature gauge. After 12 years of driving the Camry, it is quite a change.

We have done some travel as well, going to both Canberra and Newcastle for weekends, and Ballarat for five days. These trips were lovely and we saw some interesting things wherever we went, met some interesting people and generally had a great relaxing time.

The machine quilting has been on the back burner a bit but I have finally finished quilting a quilt for Leah's new baby due in March - just have to bind it now. It was an interesting process as I did a different pattern in each square and Baptist fans in the border. It is by no means perfect but it is ok. There is a pile of quilt tops waiting beside the machine and I will gradually get them done.

A weekend away in Blackheath with my patchwork group was great - a lot was achieved and a lot of inspiration was gained from the work the other ladies were doing. I started to piece together an art quilt which I hope to sell - that is another story!

While this has been going on, I have also started babysitting my granddaughter Rachel while Sarah does a course. This has been a lovely time to bond with Rachel and watch her grow and change.

Our garage has been undergoing a transformation over the last week - or should I say a demolition and rebuild. It will eventually be a place for the tools and lawnmower as well as a studio for felting, dyeing and glass work. It is very exciting watching it progress. A deck around the pool and a pergola will complete the job. Can't wait for it to be finished and christen it with some felting and dyeing.

Last weekend I attended a workshop with Meredith Woolnough who taught us machine embroidery and resin with a view to embed some work in resin and some framed. It was a great workshop and Meredith is a great tutor. I will try to add a photo of the finished products soon (something I'm not good at doing). I am keen to use some pieces to add texture to both felt pieces and quilts.

My next task is to be disciplined enough to set up the studio well and get working on some pieces for sale at The Artists Loft at Hornsby, a pop up shop run by a group from ATASDA. We have the shop for a month from 25 October. There will be lots of interesting things for sale, the members of the group have many and varied talents from jewellery to clothing, scarves, painting, mixed media works etc. Check out the Facebook page to see what's happening - The Artists Loft NSW.

So, life has indeed been hectic. I look forward to some creative time and a bit of quiet relaxation at home once the building work is finished. Perhaps I will even get to post more regularly!

Holidays!

Relaxing in Mollymook, looking out over the ocean as it gets darker and darker. The surf has been filled with board riders this afternoon - a bit too cold for my liking.

Yesterday I attended a paper making workshop at Primrose Paper. It was great fun, although I'm not sure I will take up this hobby!

This was embossed with a doiley! I thought it was lively though possibly hard to write on.

We are off to dinner soon - out into the cold and wet but I'm sure the food will be good.

Fun times ahead

I think my life has finally quietened down enough that I can spend some time relearning blogging and post something interesting perhaps.

Today I took delivery of an HQ Sweet Sixteen to do some free motion quilting on a pile of quilt tops waiting to be finished. I attended a class at AQC in Melbourne with US quilter Debby Brown higheredhands.blogspot.com. She was an inspiration and a very giving teacher. We used the Sweet Sixteen in class and I was hooked. There was a great deal going so the machine I used was put on layby and we picked it up today. I am looking forward to becoming more confident and learning new designs and putting them to use in my quilts.



This quilt, Easy Street, was the mystery quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter that I started in November last year and finished ready for Eastwood Patchwork Quilters exhibition in April. It was then, of course, ready for the Sydney Quilt show at Darling Harbour, pictured above. It was quilted on an HQ Avanti 18 Long Arm Machine at Hobbysew Top Ryde. I learnt how to use the machine before going to AQC so that I could compare the two machines before purchasing. Needless to say I chose the Sweet Sixteen.  I just hope I have plenty of time to get to know the machine well and produce some quality quilting.

 

 

 

A Photo at Last!

My first photo upload! thanks to my dear IT expert.

This is a Sudoko quilt I made with fabric purchased in Millthorpe when I attended the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc. Away Meeting in Orange. It was a great weekend away and this is a great memento of that time.

All I have to do now is quilt it! I am waiting to do a class with Debby Brown, a quilter from the US, who is coming to AQC in April. I am really looking forward to this class and am hoping to learn heaps before I think about purchasing a Sweet Sixteen.

I think I have had enough playing with the computer for tonight - time for bed.

Busy Busy!

Life has been hectic over the last few weeks. Christmas has come and gone in a rush. I have been participating in Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt - what a great thing and fun to boot. A new instruction was added each week for 7 weeks and a large number of people all over the world have been busy stitching strips, squares, triangles to make the bits that make up the quilt. All of my bits are sewn and about 2/3 of the blocks are now done. I have not finished it yet as we have had other things happening.

Last Saturday we had a baby shower for my daughter Sarah, organised by her very capable sister, Leah. It was a great afternoon despite the rain. Leah spent a lot of time making signs and bunting and generally being the hostess with the mostest.

We all thought that Sarah had at least 3 weeks to go before the birth of her child but the baby wasn't having any of that - Sunday morning and Sarah's waters broke and Monday morning she was induced. Lovely Rachel arrived at 4.38 on Monday afternoon. They are both well and seem to be settling in well together. Rachel is a real cutie and we are very proud of our daughter. Our next adventure is the learning to be grandparents.

I also spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday doing a workshop making a book in a box thanks to the expert tutor Peter Stanford. It was a really fun time and I enjoyed book making - not that I need another hobby to add to the list.

Now all I need to do with my time is work out to add photos to my blog! Maybe tomorrow.

After attending the North Shore Craft Group's Christmas sale last weekend I have been involved in a huge discussion about options for selling one's wares. As a member of ATASDA that has been the forum for the discussion. The NSCG's sale was awe inspiring - absolutely beautiful items ranging from various textiles, to paper, jewellery, glass, ceramics. A very talented group of people. This led to the discussion about opportunities for selling - pop up shops, 2 or 3 day sales etc. We have a long way to go before something actually happens under the umbrella of ATASDA but it is great to have this discussion and share ideas, brainstorm, get excited and do something. That is what I love about ATASDA - the myriad of ideas that get bounced around.

Now I just have to go into my cave and get producing instead of spending time on the computer!

Well, here I go into the world of blogging! I dearly hope that I can write about some interesting things - a huge learning curve is about to begin.