Journal Quilts & Other Work 2020
Journal Quilts 2020; 23cm x 23cm (9” square), to include something recycled.
My ‘recycled’ is going to be the sari silks, lace and so on, wool laminated for surface texture.
A Year in my Garden, Geographe Bay, Western Australia. So much to learn. I have Ponytail palms, a Mango tree, a Curry tree, Peppermint Eucalypts, Ferns, staghorn and Yukka. A mandarin tree, a lemon tree, Strelitzia , Kangaroo paw and numerous plants I can’t identify. Some kind of pumpkin, tomatoes, Thai basil and coriander, which I could never grow in the UK.
And a fish pond with mature Koi.
|
|
Shoreline, Geographe Bay 36 x 28cm |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
January
Garden composter.
The star of the back yard. Rusted and weathered, I have tried to capture the textures using my hoard of silks and other natural fibres including a piece of my wedding dress. Dyed grey, it has added raised texture. Machine quilted with a muslin backing.
|
|
|
 |
February
The Fish Pond
A continually moving gallery of glorious colour and pattern. Do they ever sleep? Painted silk, Inktense pencil. Recycled sari scrap for the plant pot. |
|
|
 |
March
Kangaroo Paw.
Iconic native Australian plant, added to the garden. Now dying back, it’s Autumn here. Striped net curtain, image painted with inktense pencils after quilting. Additional quilting on stripes in wool thread. |
|
|
 |
April
Mangoes.
Mangoes ripening on our tree, such gorgeous colours as they develop. Soft and delicious to eat. Wool and silk fibres for mangoes, applied to cotton/silk cloth, quilting on wool wadding. |
|
|
 |
May
Log Pile.
Richly coloured Jarrah wood, a feature of our forests here in the far South of WA. In the C19th exported to the England for railway sleepers and wooden cobbles for the City of London. A log burner is our only source of heat as we go into Winter here. Moving and stacking the logs is a work of art. Daily in my view from my studio. Dyed ribbed cloth, pieced over papers, recycled dress fabric for background. |
|
|
 |
June
Willie Wagtails.
Frequent visitors to my garden, begging for food on the doorstep. I don’t feed them although it’s tempting. They wag their tails in such an inquisitive, comical and friendly way. Painted with screen inks after quilting outlines. Further machine quilting, hand stipple and glass beads. |
|
|
|
July
Strelizia.
These elegant flowers have come into bloom again in mid- Winter. One of many surprises in my WA garden. The splashy print border fabric from the remnant box at the Marimekko factory, Helsinki, 1979. |
|
|
 |
August
Rain.
Dramatic Winter rains and storms renew and refresh the garden; the fish might escape their infinity pool! Wool, margilan and paj silks, metallic paint. Fabrics collaged and felted with wool. |
| |
|
 |
September
Honey Eater.
Nesting in our garden, busy collecting nectar, loves the native kangaroo paw and blueberry. Painting after quilting on a Marimekko shop sample print. |
|
|
 |
October
Little Pig Face.
The correct name for the flowers depicted for ‘a year in my garden’ is Mesembryanthemum which is a bit of a mouthful. The flowers open with the sun just like the native Pig Face common around our shorelines. They tolerate dry poor soils, sandy and even salty, so that’s us! More Marimekko sample cloth, flowers from wool and silk felted textures and lots of knots to finish |
|
|
 |
November
Citrus.
Added to my garden in January. Loves the sun as do I. The fruit ripened and hung on through gale force winds. Amazing. Now flowering and laden with tiny lemons.
Wool, silk fibres, thread scraps. |
|
|
 |
December
Blue-tongue lizard.
There is one living in our garden, who meanders around at leisure, along the shed, in the succulent border, and today found feasting on the blueberries. I had a lot of fun with fabric scraps in the broderie perse style, a joyous end to a year in my Aussie garden. |
|
|
