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I finishing quilts for my yearly showing in the local library.  I like to do this showing because it is where I live and create.  Somehow its important, to belong and have a sense of place and I hope my work reaches out to my local community who visit the library.  I live in a suburb by the bay, cohesiveness of community via knowing everyone is impossible, its not like the country towns I have inhabited in my life's journey.  It lacks the easy going friendliness of a small town  simply because of its size.  I made the top of this quilt using rusted nails and wire.  Was not happy with it so never completed it, something seemed to be missing and yesterday I decided to add the hand dyed fabric and extra wire circle rusted piece on the bottom, loved it the moment I laid the green fabric down.  Sometimes quilts take a very long time, we have an idea and create but we have to wait for the completion till something else presents and  ...

'GATHERINGS' An eco printed fern leaf, then rusted, some Banksia leaves and a background of quilted rusted fabric all formed in one way or another in my back yard.  I do my rusting on my back pergola looking over the garden full of large ferns so I like to gather what grows around me in my own suburban back yard and turn it into textile art.  12 x 12 inches and will be framed under glass.  Beauty of the everyday is becoming my mantra.

This is a small piece 12 x 12 inches and will be framed under glass.  A piece of my very cheap fabric I purchase locally but it rusts like no other fabric in its take up of the rusted object images I use on it.  I think I used an old BBQ plate on this initially, soaked the fabric in vinegar, salted then placed in a plastic wrap with the rusted plate.  I left it for twenty four hours.  The striped piece reminds me of old mattress ticking that was on all the mattresses when I was a child.  I eco printed watercolour paper with gum leaves, soaked them in vinegar, placed the paper and leaves between bathroom tiles and tied them and then steamed them in a steel pot with rusty bits in the water and left it on the stove cooking for about two hours.  Then treated the paper with matte gel medium and sewed it to the already quilted fabric piece.  A little of white gesso on a roller and rolled it over some of the stitching.  I am not a purist and am ha...

Saturday morning is always 'mine' in the house.  The golfer departs early and the morning stretches in front of me with time to quietly create, silence, time to think and dream.  Winter is here now and rain later today will see the fire lit tonight to curl fingers of warmth through the house.  We have short winters here and there are few fireplaces in my neighbourhood except perhaps the one next door.  There is something really lovely about the smell of woodsmoke permeating the air.  The cats of course adore the chance to curl up in front of the fire place. My mother has passed away now.  Little momentos from her house now in mine, the photos she kept on her sideboard, nic nacs, little statues of cats and some of her paintings.  I feel like she is living here now, its just that I cannot talk to her any more which is very sad.  I always rang her on a Saturday morning, she would be doing the washing and sometimes did not take too kindly to me ups...

My mother is leaving, she has terminal cancer.  The saddest part is you suddenly realise that your connection to your distant childhood past is going with her.  Who will you talk to about stories from so long ago.  The night she gathered up the autumn oak leaves from the road in the car headlights, the air bitter and cold.  They magically became a fancy dress piece titled "Autumn" for my school presentation evening.  She has forgotten it now, I tried to tell her the other day it is one of my favourite childhood memories.  I have been working with rusting fabrics and making wall quilts.  My childhood was spent in the country around Armidale and I used to spend hours in my grandfather's wool shed, I can still see the sunlight on the floor there.  The rusted quilts are all created with my memory of shed walls and rusting tractors and tin rooves.  So today I am putting this piece up in honour of my mum.  She may have forgotten a lot now...

Just when you think everything is in place life comes along and bowls you over again.  A back injury and a hip bursa injury lagged on for six months.  The pain drove me crazy and was depressing.  I finally went for back xrays and the picture was not pretty.  Twenty five years spent as a potter over a wheel had wrought a lot of damage on the base of my spine.  It confirmed for me that it was not going to go away and this is to be my new normal.  Getting older really sucks! That is me in the snow in the photo.  I was four years old, a bright future ahead.  I would grow, marry several times, have three children and a career in the arts.  All I felt in that photo back then was how cold it was standing in the snow outside Guyra that day, look at the feet!  And the hands, they are bare.  What was my mother thinking! I have bowed to the inevitable and sold several of my machines.  I cannot treadle them any more.  Some wonde...

I  only looked at the website for sewing lessons with my Janome 11000.  Seeing a Pfaff for sale I got to dreaming of how I had always wanted one, it was a downline machine and affordable once I put my birthday money and the proceeds of a sewing machine sale together.  However, and there is always a 'however' in the best laid plans, the saleswoman put this machine in front of me.  It was instant love, the 9 mm fancy stitches, the automatic foot that rose at the end of a row and the large free arm that would fit the largest quilt.  It was after this I realised this was a much better machine than I had seen online.  My husband came to the rescue and put the rest of the money to the purchase and I proudly brought her home. What a joy she is.  A bit of Christmas joy.  I find Christmas sad this year, the loss of my eldest son last year hangs heavy on my mind.  I keep seeing Christmases past, the children all gathered for Christmas Eve dinner, f...