Tag: Australia

  • A blast of creativity and fun in my workshops with Unique Stitching

    A blast of creativity and fun in my workshops with Unique Stitching

    The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind. I taught 2 classes with Unique Stitching, 3 classes at the Creative textiles show in Canberra, flew home from Australia on May 5th then drove to Fresno on May 8th, where I gave a lecture and taught a painting class. I’m just now catching my breath and able to…

  • Colorful Australia

    Colorful Australia

    I flew out of San Francisco last Tuesday night and landed in Sydney at 6:30 Thursday morning. It’s always strange to lose a whole day when traveling, I’m usually confused about what day it is for almost a week. Cecile Whatman, of Unique Stitching, picked me up at the airport and we scooted off to…

  • My bags are packed and I’m almost ready to go…

    I’m off to Australia for two weeks to teach 2 painting classes with Cecile Whatman of Unique Stitching and teach 3 workshops and demo techniques at The Creative Textile Show  2-4 May in Canberra. With Cecile, I’ll be teaching one of my favorite two day classes 10 Techniques with Acrylic Inks, 26-27 April. These are a few finished pieces I made from…

  • You never know the potential of something you thought was going nowhere…

    You never know the potential of something you thought was going nowhere…

    When teaching classes, I make a lot of samples, some go well, some not so good. While in Brisbane, I made several samples for creating textured backgrounds. These all went outside to dry on plastic through out the day. Later in the afternoon, someone brought in one of my painted pieces that I had forgotten…

  • Inspired by Seed Pods, Gum Leaves and Banksia

    Inspired by Seed Pods, Gum Leaves and Banksia

    This is another sample from one of my acrylic ink workshops in Australia. The pods, leaves and flowers were stamped on top of a colorful textured background, reminiscent of dappled light and leafy trees, using hand carved rubber stamps. I carved the leaf stamp on both sides, so I could get the leaves to hang…

  • Inspired by Gum Leaves

    Inspired by Gum Leaves

    While teaching in Australia I had several opportunities  to teach classes and give demos using acrylic inks that resulted in a series painted fabrics that were inspired by the leaves, flowers and pods I saw.   Gum Leaves finished size 11 1/2″ x 13 1/2″   Gum nuts, leaves and pods finished size 8″ x…

  • Highlights of the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair

    Highlights of the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair

    What a great show! It was really wonderful to be at the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair the week following teaching in the Sunshine Coast and the 2 day workshop for the Queensland Quilters, because it felt like a steady stream of friends kept stopping by to say hi. Sue Duffy and Brenda Wood were…

  • Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair

    Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair

    I ended my five week trip to Australia by teaching pop up classes in the Unique Stitching booth and demoing various techniques as a guest artist at the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair.  my exhibit and work space as guest artist   This is fellow guest artist Loani Prior, the queen of exotic knitted tea cozies. Her booth was…

  • Beautiful Brisbane and its many bridges

    Beautiful Brisbane and its many bridges

    On my day off in Brisbane my wonderful host, Janet, from the Queensland Quilt Guild took me out for a day in the city. We took the train downtown, stopped to get a much needed massage, then had lunch at a lovely tea shop where I stocked up on a few wonderful teas. Then we…

  • A trip to the Gold Coast

    A trip to the Gold Coast

      Cecile and I took a day trip south of Brisbane to visit the beautiful beaches of the Gold Coast A common beach side plant known as Pigs Eye in Australia and Ice Plant in California. Next we drove up to Tamborine mountain and stopped for a delicious lunch at the MT Brewery    Then we…

  • Mountains and beaches on the Sunshine Coast

    Mountains and beaches on the Sunshine Coast

    After leaving Peachester, Cecile and I drove through several small towns nestled up in the hills of the sunshine coast, stopping for a fantastic lunch, I had a delicious arugula (rocket) and lettuce salad with artisan blue cheese, walnuts and figs with a balsamic dressing. YUM! The rolling green hills we drove through were lovely,…

  • Floral Inspiration in Glass House Country

    Floral Inspiration in Glass House Country

    Peachester is located near the Glass Mountains, you can see them in the distance of this photo. The country side has lovely green rolling hills dotted with cows.  x Alwin was my host for my overnight stay in the Peachester area. Alwyn and her husband have a beautiful 2 acre property with gorgeous flower and…

  • Teaching Tsukineko inks in Peachester, Australia

    Teaching Tsukineko inks in Peachester, Australia

    This is the very talented and lovely Bernadine Hine, a well known Aussie art quilter and she is the one I have to thank for the opportunity to teach in the town of Peachester (population 452) up in the mountains an hours drive north of Brisbane. This 125 year old town hall was the location of…

  • On to Brisbane to Meet the Queensland Quilters

    On to Brisbane to Meet the Queensland Quilters

    My first day in Brisbane began with a visit to the Queensland Quilt Guild to give two lectures. What made the day even more fun was to have my good friend Sue Dennis show up at the meeting and offer to take me out to see the sights between lectures.   Sue took me to Mt Coot, the…

  • Charters Towers final resting spots

    Charters Towers final resting spots

    If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know I really like visiting graveyards, like these ones in Vermont and Maine as well as this quilt. Charters Towers has two historic cemeteries. Sadly many of the graves are in very bad shape and there are piles of broken decorative rusty fence parts just laying around.…

  • Road trip to historic gold mining town Charters Towers

    Road trip to historic gold mining town Charters Towers

    Before leaving Townsville, Cecile and I drove 85 miles inland to Charters Towers, past croc infested waters on long stretches of road littered with a significant amount of kangaroo and wallaby road kill (which I didn’t photograph) past fields and cow pastures strewn with large termite mounds before we arrived at the 140 year old…

  • STATE of the ART quilt 13

    I was so lucky to have a great view of this exhibit from my booth at the Townsville Stitches and Craft Show and then to meet several of the artists while on my trip in Brisbane. It was really a fantastic exhibit, here are a few of the wonderful quilts that were on view. x…

  • Townsville Stitches and Craft Show

    Townsville Stitches and Craft Show

    Cecile and I drove 215 miles from Cairns to Townsville to set up for the Stitches and Craft show. There were signs for Emu’s and Koala’s every now and then. Much of the drive looked like this with small towns every so often and a lot of land in between. Australia also has a thing for…