Stormy skies

No time to stitch or draw as our family comes to terms with the long term consequences of a stroke on an elderly parent. Much turbulence for everyone.

Inspirational weekend - sculpture and stitching

I have been away to the Contemporary Quilt Group Winter School at Alston Hall.  What a treat.
On the way, I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the work of Ai Weiwei , Ursula von Rydingsvard and James Turrell.  Wow, on all counts.  The works by Ai Weiwei are as thought provoking as ever, the scale of Ursula von Rydingsvard's work is astonishing and the Skyspace is a mesmerising experience.  The Yorkshire countryside was at its autumnal best, so the sculptures were seen in glorious light.  This park is on such a scale, it is worth planning a weekend around it.

Iron tree, Ai Weiwei

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Skyspace
Nature provided its own shapes and colours

Blue and orange

Toadstool - thanks to my brother, now identified as a shaggy inkcap.

Toadstool
Then on to meet over 30 textile-obsessed women, all there to learn.  Seventeen of us crammed in to  a rather small room, with voluminous quantities of equipment, to learn about machine trapunto with Philippa Naylor.  Philippa is a generous, encouraging and inspirational teacher, so if you ever get the opportunity to do a workshop with her, grab it immediately.  Her new book , Appliqué Mastery, is full of tips, as well as a full size pattern for her award-winning quilt.
The view from my bedroom was inspiration in itself, changing as the light of the day changed.





The trapunto was a surprisingly straightforward technique, and I managed a whole weekend without breaking a single size 60 needle - Philippa's recommendation.  This needle made a huge difference to the quality and density of the machine quilting I could achieve on my machine.

I have of course come away from  the weekend with another object to finish, so the "unfinished list" has just got longer.

City adventures - sculpture, fashion, froth, textiles, wildlife large and small

The past few days have been full of art and more wildlife encounters.  First of all a walk around Sydney finding urban sculpture. 

"Youngster: by Caroline Rothwell on George Street.

Forgotten Songs by Michael Thomas Hill, which is a sculptural and aural installation that changes between night and day.

I loved the shapes of the bottom of the cages against the grid of the building.

Next to the Powerhouse Museum, to see the costumes from the film of Strictly Ballroom, and to whet my appetite for the musical that we are going to see in 10 days.  These costumes were even more over the top than I had expected.

At the same museum, there were examples of some of the work of the final year fashion students from Sydney colleges.  Instead of sketchbooks, they had inspiration boxes in front of their creations, which was a good way to demonstrate the breadth of their influences.  First Emma Macgregor's gorgeous, ethereal dresses

Then the wonderful sculptural creations of Yousef Akbar

Finally, on the way to an early dinner at Movida, ( smoked tomato sorbet, anyone?) an unexpected encounter with two young dancers in Kimber Lane, where there is another of the public art installations.

The next day started early with a train to Newcastle to visit a long-term friend.  When
I am in a culture wher eno English is spoken , I am less struck by the oddities of that culture than when I am in other English-speaking country.  One of these oddities was the train notceboard, showing that an empty train would be passing - blurry as I didn't have my camera set up correctly.

This was my first morning of rain during my visit, and the journey through the Hawkesbury river area was full of misty valleys and dark reflections on the water.

I did do some stitching on the 2h journey - as i was going up to see some textiles, I felt the need to to do.

The key visual experience of the trip was to visit an exhibition at Timeless Textiles, an intriguing textile gallery.  This was a beautiful space, and the key exhibition was of pieces by Omila Bir,  ( who doesn't seem to have a website) shibori fabrics, dyed using natural dyes.

I was particularly intrigued by the pieces with very regular squares and rectangles of resist.

A beautiful large piece had wonderful patterns

The owner of the gallery is a felter, and attracts teachers who are internationally famous, such as Kerr Grabowski, known for her work with deconstructed screen printing.  One of Kerr's scarves was for sale in the shop.

New to me was the name of Meredith Woolnough, whose machine stitched pictures / sculptures / installations were breathtaking.

Next to the Art Gallery of Newcastle, whose policy on photography is directly in opposition to that of all other galleries I have visited on this trip, in that no photography is allowed.  As this is a public collection, that seems very inconsistent to me.  Lots of native Australian artists, and some wonderful cut paper by Kylie Stillman.
 

Lastly, a walk along Bar Beach, to see where my sister did a triathlon, and thrill of thrills, two whales playing in the bay about 500m offshore.  Fins, backs and spouts, but no tails, still an incredible thing for a Brit to see.

Lots more to come, but I'm now probably out of blogging opportunities for 10 days, as we are off to here, and then to here.

PS the small wildlife encounter, was at a yoga class at a city gym, when in the middle of the warrior poses, and the supposedly calm breathing, a huge cockroach made its way down the length of the gym.  The instructor took a very non-yogic action to get rid of it.

24h of inspiration

A great London 24h again, starting off with a performance of Dracula in dance at Wilton's Music Hall, a very atmospheric venue for this production.  The focus on this photo was affected by the clouds of dry ice vapour.

b

The dancing was really inventive, and the experience was enhanced by sitting next to 2 young men who attended the performance dressed up as Dracula.

Next day, a tortuous journey up to Alexandra Palace, to the Knitting and Stitching Show.  

Blue moon in the sky?

Well worth the trip,especially to see: the quilted coracle; several of the  winners from Festival of Quilts; quietly embroideries from Tilleke Schwarz; the paintings, embroideries and quilt from the collaborative work of Nicola Jarvis and May Morris.  The 3D embroidered pieces of anatomy by Sally Hewett were intriguing and uncomfortable at the same time.

With my thread supplies replenished, finished off with an hour in the National Portrait Gallery to see the exhibition of portraits by Laura Knight, and wonderful contemporary portraits by Jonathan Yeo and Dean Marsh.

Late summer, orange

Suburban sunset

Seen in Lower Marsh, part of the Yard Sale Project exhibition.

Still stitching the surprise, so only glimpses here

Kaleidoscope kontinuing

At least the rain has meant plenty of time for composing the kaleidoscope top.  I am really enjoying this, although there were some nerve wracking moments with the last round when the strip-pieced block turned out to be too narrow, and I had to insert another strip in to the middle of the block.

Kaleidoscope , round 4, with some of my blue / brown hand-dyed fabrics

Round 4 , detail

Round 5
Next is stitching together each wedge, hoping that my cutting has been accurate throughout. Fingers crossed.

My return to work yesterday was eased by driving alongside a beautiful sunrise.  Still can't sort out this formatting issue, but I am remaining calm.

Easter at the Gower

The Gower peninsula, a favourite place.


Stitching inspiration


Quilting in the sand


How come boys always make their presence felt?


Peaceful sunsets




There was some stitching done, but my camera has thrown a wobbly, so that will need to wait.