The Face of Helensville

This was the start of a small piece to celebrate Helensvilles' 150th anniversary. Helensville is the small town in New Zealand where I live. 150 years ago, European people came and settled here along side the local Maori.

It is now finished. The shape down the centre of the face, joining the European and Maori sides is the line of the river that flows through Helensville. It is stitched using Long and Short stitch in 1 strand of DMC stranded cotton.

The piece will be on show when I am guest artist for the Counties Embroiderers Guild at their exhibition in Nov. The exhibition will be held at the Franklin Art Centre in Pukekohe from the 3rd of November, not sure when it finishes!

Watching

My big quilt has been selected to be part of the Big Quilt show at Northart. The show will be from Nov 3rd - 23rd. I am really pleased as I was not sure if this was the type of thing they were looking for. One of the selectors was from a gallery in Auckland which has really interesting exhibitions so that makes it even more exciting. It will be really interesting to see what the other quilts are like.

Dying in the lounge

When I was having the tidy up in the studio I found some white silk velvet that I had been moving around for many years. A few ladies from the shop I work at have been using silk velvet on some  wool applique they have been doing so I thought I would dye some for them. The problem is where to put it to dry, well the lounge of course!

 

 

I am never sure how my dying will turn out but I was really pleased with the results, some pieces may never make it to the shop!

 

 

 



Window Challenge

The fabric from the last Colour Quarterly was sprays of flowers printed in a diamond pattern.
I had decided to try to do something with diamonds and then I saw this photo that Kit had taken and the idea was set.

After a few weeks of moving the diamonds around I was happy with the design so here is my window.

 

 

Some of the diamonds are pieced and some are just one piece of fabric. The sashing was a challenge so its been good for my brain. 

Space to work

My desk is still pretty full of stuff but at least now I have a bit of space to work!
I seem to need all this stuff on view all the time.

I have finished my big quilt. I will send the images in for selection this week. I will know if it has been selected by 10th October. My quilt is called Watching. It is comment on the the idea of Big Brother watching our every move. It is just over 2 metres square.

Creative order or Chaos

I think my studio is in need of a tidy up!  I like to think this is the result of creativity but I think I have tipped over into Chaos! A job for the weekend maybe.

Carrot Love

The best thing about growing your own carrots is when you find two that are in love. My children think this is just fantastic. These two loving carrots are now not allowed to be eaten and will just sit on our kitchen bench to make us smile.