Post 2016 Textile Trip

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from the SE Asia textile trip. I had arranged a few activities prior to my travel. The activities were of fun things to do, one of which was to visit Australian Quilt Convention, AQC. The Australian quilt show is not as big as the one in Europe or the US, but to me it's big enough! I don't go to many of these shows now, but at this one I wanted to go and say hi to Victoria Findlay Wolfe. When I met her in Seattle last year I told her I would meet her in Melbourne and I've kelp my word. Victoria was teaching, but she spared the time to have a chat with me when I got there. Her workshop was so colourful and lively. I loved what her students were doing with Victoria's modern twist of double wedding ring blocks. 

While I was at AQC I had a good look at the quilt exhibition as well. The ones that caught my eyes were Wartime quilts made mainly by men during the wars. Also the red and white quilts. 

On Sunday my colleagues and I visited the National Gallery of Victoria to see 200 Years of Australian Fashion and I did squeezed in dyeing on Sunday afternoon. Below are photos from many activities in the last two weeks.

The view of AQC from the balcony

Repost this from Victoria's Instagram

Wool quilt, all hand pieced.

Quilt made by men

Image from a magazine article

Simple red and white quilt

Another gorgeous red and white quilt

Victoria Findlay Wolfe's MOD wedding quilt

Some images from 200 Years of Australian Fashion showing at the National Gallery of Victoria. 

Results of the colourful dyed fabric from the dye batch. I've received a lot of inquiries from my Instagram feeds how I get such vivid colours from my dyes? My answer is always the same, time and patience! 

Hanging them out to dry

I also attended a two-day workshop on Seedpods Art with Sophie Munns. Like all workshops, once you get there you always learn something new and become engrossed in whatever comes your way. I can't say I learned how to draw anything complicated. It was a fun workshop and I highly recommend it. 

Sophie's drawing and some seedpods

My attempt at drawings

My colourful painting

The group paintings

Returning from the workshop with leftover seedpods. I had an urge to make ink out of them. I had some Eucalyptus base leftover from dyeing so I added the seedpods and started boiling it for hours.  

Here they are, seedpods ink and walnut ink. 

Well, I'm keeping myself busy with what life throws at me. I don't have long enough time to just sit and finish any project in a hurry. I've come to accept that what make me most happy is when I create! I have many quilts and textile pieces I made, but they stayed hidden in the closet and rarely get used. 

I'm happy to inspire people to create. So if you read my post and have any questions regarding what I do please do not hesitate to leave me comment with your reply-able comment and I will be happy to get back to you with the answer if I can.

Until next time

Nat