Blackwork has got in

My blackwork piece has been selected to go to the USA. I was pretty excited about that, I love blackwork and you can do so much with it, so hopefully lots of people will see it and be inspired. It will be interesting to see what the other pieces are like.

I find it funny that I will have two pieces of work in the USA at the same time but so radically different, one being my Kiss quilt which is big and colourful and now a blackwork skull which is small with only two colours. I wonder if anyone will see both and connect the two pieces to the same person.

look at this colour

I planted anemone bulbs earlier in the year and waited to see if they would come up. It was a mixed bag of bulbs so I had no idea what colours they would be. This one is just amazing. A friend of mine thought I had put a plastic flower in the garden!

 

 

I wonder if bees only collect purple pollen they make purple honey? wouldn't that be cool.

Winning piece

I thought it was about time I posted an image of my winning piece. "Welcome to the ipad 10"
This piece was awarded 1st in the open section and over all winner at the embroiderers conference in Christchurch last month.
I had forgotten to take a photo of it before I sent it away so I was lucky to track down an image as it was sold during the exhibition.
The title of the exhibition was Creating Change, so this piece is about the fast speed that technology is changing, soon we will be the computers! lets hope not.

Punk Quilt

I have started to quilt my big quilt. It is a huge face. Goodness knows how I will photograph it for the exhibition entry but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I need to get it quilted first.

Because it is so big I have used the safety pin method of holding the layers together while I quilt. It still took ages but nothing like tacking. Now it looks like a punk quilt. I really like the safety pins. I may do a smaller quilt and leave the pins in! I quilted the nose last night and the pins worked really well.

the first carrots

The first carrots of the year, the colour was great, flavour not bad either! I now feel the need to find bright orange and green fabric to create something.

Blackwork skull

This is the finished blackwork piece. I love it. I even like the teeth which I aways have trouble with.

I now have to send a CD of images to the USA to see if I will be selected for the contemporary blackwork exhibition. Not sure if it is contemporary enough as it is still black, but I really don't like coloured blackwork.



Back from Christchurch

I have just had a fantastic week in Christchurch teaching at the Embroiderers conference.

On the 2nd day there I had a big walk into the city to see how things are after the earthquakes.

There was a feeling of energy everywhere, either broken buildings coming down or new ones starting to go up. The metal from inside the walls and floors just looked like threads hanging down.

Lots of really interesting views, a few quilt ideas popping into my head as  I walked around.

I have left 12 ladies to finish pieces of Blackwork, all different and all will look fantastic when they are completed. I really enjoyed teaching a 4 day class so I plan to submit another one for the next conference.

In the mean time back to the studio to finish the Blackwork skull for the states and a big quilt for a show at the end of the year.