• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Creating with Brenda Gael Smith

  • WEBSITE
  • About
    • Biography
    • Resume
  • Shop
  • Gallery
    • Serendipity Gallery
    • Contemporary Textile Art
    • Monthly Art Project 2019
    • Weekly Art Project
  • Workshops & Programs
    • Workshop Booking Form
    • Overview
    • Workshops Brochure
    • 3 Hour Zoom Workshops
    • Schedule
    • Lectures & Programs
    • Abstraction from Reality
    • Bound to Please
    • Creating with Felt
    • Circular Explorations
    • Improvisation Plus
    • Lines of Beauty
    • Logs & Ladders
    • The Modern X
    • Shibori Serendipity
    • Stacks of Improvisation
    • Strata Various
  • Resources
    • Copyright Resources
    • Tutorials
    • Melody Quiltalong
  • News/Events
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Blog
  • Contact

Vibrance: AQC Challenge 2023 In Full Bloom

10 April 2023 Filed Under: Contemporary Quilts, Exhibitions

This week the Australasian Quilt Convention 2023 opens in Melbourne. I am delighted that my artwork Vibrance: Tip Top Through the Tulips (90x90cm)features as a finalist in the AQC Challenge In Full Bloom.

In 1983, when I was in the full bloom of adolescence, I was an exchange student to Sunnyside, Washington State in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was a profound, life-changing experience. One adventure was a spring break trip to Vancouver Island passing through the tulip fields of the Skagit Valley en route and immersing myself in more tulips in the Butchart Gardens. The vista of colour was imprinted on my brain and endures 40 years later.

Vibrance: Tip Toe Through the Tulips (90x90cm) © Brenda Gael Smith 2023

I made this work in loving memory of my first set of host parents Don and Junes Hughes who welcomed me into their home and hearts. As the eldest of (then) five children, it was a novelty for me to be the only child at home and we made a tight gang heading to mountains and woods at every opportunity, regular brunches at Whistling Jack’s on Naches Pass, rehearsing with the band for the local musical comedy production for Kiss Me Kate, flying kites and generally making our own fun. I expecially remember sitting in our hotel room in Victoria, Vancouver Island reading Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest aloud in hysterics with our exaggerated voices. Years later when I returned for a visit, we took an “ice cream: excursion to Mt Ranier to see the wildflowers in bloom.

My photographs from this pre-digital time are poor – my camera had a light leak which lead to streaky, over-exposed images and sitting in plastic sealed albums hasn’t helped. Nevertheless, when I found this photo from the Butchart Gardens, I was amazed to see that my ski jacket is the same colour green as the background fabric that I chose for my composition.

The AQC Challenge requires works to be a specific size – 90x90cm (36x36in). My approach was to lay cascading rows of linked paper squares on the background fabric, take a photo and then colour in the design using the SketchClub app. The design became less diagonal in the course of construction but still captured the bands of colour so vividlly etched in my memory.

For stitching texutre, I emphasized the square shapes with echo-stitching adding cross-stitch detail in perle thread on the link segments.

The Australasian Quilt Convention runs from Thursday to Sunday 13-16 April 2023 from 10am to 4pm at the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne. I can’t make it in person but look forward to seeing the AQC Challenge on display at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair at Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney Olympic Park (28 June to 1 July 2023) as part of its tour with Expertise Events.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anne says

    10 April 2023 at 3:44 PM

    Beautiful memory and wonderful use of this inspiration. A fabulous quilting outcome. Such vibrant colours and amazing design.

  2. Susan MacLeod says

    10 April 2023 at 8:21 PM

    What a lovely quilt and story!

Primary Sidebar

Blog Posts Straight to Your In Box


Blog Archives

Serendipity Studio Newsletter

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Zig Zag Pizzazz at the Australasian Quilt Convention 2025
  • Glioblastoma: Statistics and Stories
  • Learn with me: 2025 workshops
  • Forza Vitale: Phosphorescence
  • Bodacious Beads at QUILT2024 Summer Camp

Footer

Contact

Brenda Gael Smith
brenda@serendipitypatchwork.com.au

PO Box 131, Avoca Beach
NSW 2251 Australia

Serendipity Studio News

Sign up for periodic updates from my studio - new artwork, workshops, exhibitions and other news

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

New on Instagram

Great New Zealand Quilt Show 2025 I am honoured t Great New Zealand Quilt Show 2025

I am honoured to jury and judge the @aotearoaquilters exhibition with @melissaburdonart We reviewed and discussed each entry together. Here are a couple of the awards:
 
⭐️BEST OF SHOW: Tic Tac Toe @cheriesquiltstudio 
⭐️JUDGE’S CHOICE: On a Wing & a Prayer @racheljratten 

The exhibition continues until Sunday 18 May. Come along and see all of the wonderful work on display.

#greatnewzealandquiltshow2025
#greatnewzealandquiltshow
Last Tuesday I was enjoying the aquarium in the ex Last Tuesday I was enjoying the aquarium in the excellent natural history museum at @ascckw in Kuwait. Today was an open-water, fully immersive encounter with a large pod of dusky dolphins in Kaikoura, New Zealander with my sister D. What a fabulous day! 
🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬
@dolphinencounterkaikoura #duskydolphins #remembering #grieving #celebratinglife

Copyright © 2003–2025 All Rights Reserved · Brenda Gael Smith