All of my siblings and I enjoy taking photos. Here are just a handful from Chantel’s and my visit to the rock platform below Norah Head Lighthouse (all clickable):
OK - the flower shot was taken at a nearby beach but I thought you might like the colour!
My sister Chantel is over from New Zealand and staying with us for a few days. Today we ventured out for a hike and picnic in nearby Bouddi National Park. A pair of sea eagles put on a majestic soaring display for us but, sorry, I don’t have any photos. (I carried my camera but the memory card was still at home. Duh!) Instead, here are some pictures from an earlier hike to the same bay:
Mount Bouddi Lookout
Maitland Bay
As Exhibition Secretary for the Quilters’ Guild of New South Wales, I am very busy at this time of year in the lead up to our annual members’ exhibition in June. My role cuts into my personal creative time but I passionately believe that such exhibitions are a vital part of the quilting universe providing an opportunity for guild members, whatever their level, to share their quilts. Not everyone is a star quiltmaker but this is part of the charm as it presents patchwork and quilting as an accessible creative activity.
By contrast, juried and select exhibitions can be intimidating. Just this week I received an e-mail from a would-be/could-be quilter friend who remarked on the recent Australasian Quilting Convention in Melbourne: I actually went to the quilting convention while it was on and strangely enough I found it all a bit overwhelming rather than inspiring. The quality was so incredible and I know I could not possibly have the patience to create anything remotely like that.
Anyway, come 26 June to 1 July at the Sydney Quilt Show, you will find me wearing these with pride:
Note to self, really MUST start quilting the quilt that I entered!
Once upon a time, in what seems like a very long time ago, I belonged to a handful of fabric clubs. Every few weeks I would receive a squishy package in the mail containing a bundle of five inch charm squares featuring the latest fabric ranges available in Australia. Consequently, I now have a modest collection of fabric squares calling to be made into scrap quilts.
I have at least three books bursting with great scrap quilt suggestions. The first two are written by Australian quiltmakers & designers and the third is even appropriately subtitled “Great Designs from 5 inch Scraps”:
However, all of these designs involve cutting the squares into smaller pieces and I would rather direct my energy to more contemporary projects. Accordingly, in the spirit of stash reducing, here is the latest quilt on my design wall - squares rule!
Today in Washington DC, the Australian Embassy is hosting a reception for Australian war brides and their families as part of their commemorations for ANZAC Day. It is a remarkable human interest story as between 1943 and 1950, more than 15,000 Australian women (the largest permanent migration from Australia ever) undertook a long sea voyage to the United States to be with their husbands or fiances and to start a new life.
Many New Zealand women made a similar journey but my grandmother was not among them. My grandfather was an American serviceman on R&R in New Zealand during World War II. He befriended my grandmother’s family and enjoyed spending time on the family farm. Here is a photo of my grandparents at the farm in 1944:
Grandpa gave me this photo when I met him for the first time, in Florida, in 1993 soon after my mother (who was adopted) traced her birth parents. I am so glad that he saved this photo for nearly 50 years. Reading this link, History 1980-2000 has disappeared into the ether. Sorry, makes me wonder whether today’s digital emphera will be so durable.
For those of you who live in the Central Coast area, you may be interested in joining me for:
Quilt & Book Talk with Brenda Smith
Kincumber Branch, Gosford City Library
10.30am, Tuesday, 22 May 2007
All Welcome!
Tel (02) 4363 2815 for further information
I’ll be presenting a selection of my quilts (perhaps including some not seen on this blog or my website!) and highlighting some of the wonderful inspiration and resources available in quilting and design books such as:
My mystery trip took me to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Autumn colours were not as pronounced as I expected they might be but a meander in the cool climate Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens was rewarding:
To celebrate our wedding anniversary, David is whisking me away to places unknown but I will be back tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I leave you with this image of Lisa Hart’s pistachio, orange and chocolate concoction that she calls Wrapsody:
Lisa was a student at one of my Colour Rhapsody workshops in Canberra last year. If you would like to learn how to make your own Colour Rhapsody creation, contact me to book your place for my workshop at Terrigal (Central Coast NSW), 9.30am-4pm Tuesday 5 June 2007.
Further to my post earlier this week about designer rugs , I thought you might enjoy these links to other talented local textile designers:
Recalcitrant to the end, this quilt refuses to be 100cm square. I’ve done the quilting now and am marking the trimming lines before doing anything irreversible with the rotary cutter. Now I may suffer a spatial intelligence deficit BUT I was always pretty good at maths and know that four sides of equal length at right angles form a square inside. Why then is one of the sides of my “square” quilt longer than the others when all my corners are at right angles?
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©2006-2008 Brenda Gael Smith trading as Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting.
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