Art Quilt Australia 2015

FOREST - UNDERSTORY
©Linda Balding
118x110cm

Price: $850

Statement: My work is inspired by the forest that I live in. Acres of tall trees between the cliff face and the river where, during winter, there is the feeling of being under the forest, with the vines and creepers creating a safe, enfolding canopy.I wanted to capture the feeling that the bush is far more intricate than it first appears. To develop this idea I have layered images and fabric to be looked beneath and seen through.

Materials: Cotton fabric, embroidery thread, cotton batting..

Techniques: Hand painted and silk screen printed fabric layers cut up and reassembled with more layering and hand stitching. Backing machine quilted.

Photographer: Cassandra Balding

THE HILL - DROUGHT
Linda Balding
62x103cm

Price: $350

Statement: This work is based on the beautiful curve of a small hill near my home. It also references Australian Wagga quilts made through necessity of old wool army blankets and patches of fabric squares cobbled together. The colours are those of a parched landscape and the grid structure references paddocks and fencing in the farming communities hard hit by the lack of rain.

Materials: 100% recycled wool blanket, rusted cotton pieces, wool batting, cotton backing, threads, silk strip.

Techniques:
Eco-dyeing and silk screen printing. Hand and machine stitching.

Photographer: Cassandra Balding

REBIRTH: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
© Barbara Bennetts
115x69cm

Price: NFS

Statement: An old blanket, a rusted grate and gum leaves all reborn as a composite whole. Each step requires water as an active ingredient to make the process successful.

Materials: Old blanket rusted over barbeque grate, echo dyed with Eucalyptus & Casuarina leaves.

Techniques: Machine quilting and hand embroidery with silk and rayon thread. Cotton and silk knitting thread edging. Backed with cotton material used in the echo dying process.

Photographer:C S Bennetts

CANOPY #3
© 2015 Anna Brown
96.5x140cm

Price: $2500

Statement: Inspired by the beautiful eucalypts growing near my home, I have been studying the patterns which form when gazing through their canopies.

Materials: Cotton fabric and thread, synthetic batting.

Techniques: Raw edge reverse applique. Machine piecing and hand quilting.

FLORA BUSHBLOOMS #4
©Anna Brown 134x93cm

Price: $2500

Statement: This piece is an abstract interpretation of Australian wildflowers.

Materials: Woollen fabric and quilting thread, cotton thread for piecing and a thin synthetic batting.

Techniques: Raw edge reverse applique, machine piecing and hand quilting.

DEGLUPTA
© 2015 Lucy Carroll
100x145cm

Price: $2900

Statement: Old trees play a huge role in our ecosystems, sheltering the lives of a multitude of living creatures. When we retain them in new building developments, not only do we provide security to these creatures, we give our children the gift of growing up surrounded by old nature.

Materials: Wool, silk, cotton.

Techniques: Raw edge applique, free motion quilting.

FAMILY TIES
©2015 Susan Cunningham
167x150cm

Price: $1050

Statement: Family ties conveys the connectivity between family generations. Images based on a family photo of my young daughters and their grandmother were transferred onto retrieved family linens using needle and thread as it they were a pencil. Demelza Sherwood's work is an influence.

Materials: Salvaged and used family utilitarian linens - hand towels, tea towels and an apron, embroidery thread.

Techniques: Hand quilting and embroidery using running stitches.

Photographer: John Simpkin

THE ART OF RECORD KEEPING
©2015 Lisa Davis
138x150cm

WINNER: Expressions: The Wool Quilt Prize 2015

NFS: Acquired by the National Wool Museum, Geelong

Statement: "The Art of Record Keeping" pays homage to the work of Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and evolutionist from the late 1800's. Raw edge machine applique and intricate quilting combine to create texture and detail reminiscent of Haeckel's illustrations. Including parallel lines in the quilting echoes the idea of documentation.

Materials: 100% wool fabric, silk and synthetic thread, 65%viscose/35% wool batting, synthetic batting.

Techniques: Raw edge machine applique, longarm quilting.

I SEE SKIES OF BLUE
© Ruth de Vos
118x110cm

Price: $2300

Statement: Gardens and sunshine and rain drops and bubbles and creatures and blossoms; it is a wonderful world!

Materials: Procion fabric dye, cotton homespun, textile paint, cotton batting.

Techniques: Hand-dyed, screen-printed, machine pieceing, machine and hand quilting.

TANGLED
©2015 Sue Dennis
141x91.5cm

Price: $3000

Statement: Tangled thoughts like tangled weeds grow in the garden of the mind; reflections on age dementia and how it is affecting my Mother.

Materials: Hand dyed cotton, batting, thread, textile ink.

Techniques: Hand printed with the actual plants, machine quilting.

Photographer: Bob Dennis

BACKYARD BLUEPRINT
©2015 Sue Dennis
101x72.5cm

Price: $700

Statement:Summertime weeds in my yard provided the raw materials for botanical prints reminding me of plan blueprints. Roots and seed heads are reproduced in the print.

Materials:Hand dyed and commercial cotton, batting, thread, textile ink.

Techniques:Hand printed with the actual plant, machine piecing, machine quilting.

Photographer:Bob Dennis

FLORA
©DIanne Firth
137x59cm

Price: $3000

Statement: Plants colonise space to take advantage of sun and air. Their roots spread in a similar way in their search for water and nutrients. These ideas are referenced in the transparency of the work and the flowing lines of stitching.

Materials: Cotton, cotton thread, 80/20 cotton/poly batting, acrylic paint.

Techniques: Discharge, painting, piecing, machine quilting.

Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

RED HILLS
© DIanne Firth
146x75cm

Price: NFS

Statement: This quilt is an abstraction of the rolling hills of the high country of eastern Australia.

Materials: Wool felt, wool/cotton fabric, wool batting, wool backing, polyester thread.

Techniques: Torn-strip applique, machine quilting.

Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

KIMBERLEY REDS & TEXTURES
©Pat Forster
130x130cm

Price: NFS

Statement: Red sands and sandstones of the Kimberley, like the red squares, vary in intensity and hue, from sun-bleached at mid-day to fiery at sunset. The landscape textures, quilted here, include spinifex, palm fronds, rippling water, freshwater snails, mangrove shoots, gum leaves, pebbles, sandstone cliffs, and windblown desert sand.

Materials: Fabric, thread, batting.

Techniques: Machine piecing, machine and hand quilting.

LEAFY SEA DRAGON
©Pat Forster
182x134cm

Price: NFS

Statement: The inspiration for the green ‘Leafy Sea Dragon’ was the classic dragon fractal as portrayed at fractalcurves.com. The curve was adapted to suit patchwork and, as in the wild, the sea dragon is surrounded by varied sea-life, which on the quilt are scientifically named.

Materials: Fabric, batting, machine and embroidery threads.

Techniques: Machine piecing, machine and hand quilting, machine and hand embroidery, painting.

Photographer: Jim Forster

LIT FROM THE LEFT: MONUMENTS AND STAIRS
©2015 Pat Forster
183x76cm

HIGHLY COMMENDED:Artist Development Award

Price: NFS

Statement: The monument and stair figures each exhibit a repeating pattern in different scales, so are fractals. I designed them on a hexagon grid, each within a same sized large hexagon - parts of these appear to be bases of the figures. The design reflects my mathematics background and traditional patchwork methods.

Materials: Fabric, thread, batting.

Techniques: Machine and hand piecing, hand applique, machine and hand quilting, hand embroidery.

EAGLE SOARING
©2015 Helen Godden
110x100cm

Price: NFS

Statement: The quilt was inspired by the dynamic colour and flowing movement of the eagle as he soars high in the sky towards the hot setting sun, his glossy feathers glowing in the warm light. 

Materials: Wool and arcylic yarn on stabiliser with woollen batting and cotton backing.

Techniques: The entire surface is machine couched with a specialised couching foot designed for Handi Quilter Sweet 16 by the artist.

LYRE, LYRE
©2014 Helen Godden
120x135cm

Price: NFS

Statement: Surrounded by the rich colours of the waratah, bottle brush and ferns, the Lyre bird nonchalantly displays his elegant, delicate tail.

Materials: Wool base with hand dyed wool felt and hand dyed wool couching.

Techniques: Couched appliqué and free-motion quilting.

MY PLACE
© Helen Gray
72x130cm

Price: NFS

Statement: The immediate environment provides inspiration for daily sketches and materials for plant dyeing cloth. The resulting imperfections stimulate mark making with paint and stitch.

Materials: Cotton, paint, various threads.

Techniques: Dyed, painted, stitching

Photographer: Billy Rushton

WINNER: Ozquilt Network Newsletter 25th Anniversary Award of Excellence

ABOREOUS:
EDICARA SUITE 2015
©2015Alvena Hall
62x129cm

Price: NFS

Statement: A found wornout silk scarf sketches the Ediacara hills where 600mya "Arboreus" fossils are found. Like today's seapens, Arborea sway beofre a ghostly future-landscape. Catastrophic floods and mud-slides smashed these fragile creatures.Thus it's rare to ever find complete specimens. By about 550mya the beautiful, elegant Arboreus had vanished from the oceans.

Materials: Cotton, silks, embroidery.

Techniques: Quilted layered fabrics with pre-emboidered elements applied.

WOMAN OF THE WAGGA
©2015 Ronda Hazell
120x57cm

WINNER: Artist Development Award

Price: $850

Statement: The woman of the Wagga is a dreamer, an artist and cat lover. She is a lover of colourful cloth and is seen here wearing her favourite vintage wool challis dress. The Wagga symbolises her ability to warm those she loves.

Materials: Wool

Techniques: Piecing, appliqué, hand stitching, free motion quilting.

CREEK DRAWING #11...
AUTUMN
©2014 Judy Hooworth
120x167cm

Price: $3500

Statement: My quilts are about place, in particular Dora Creek which flows near my home. Walking along the creek is part of my routine, integral to my life and artistic practice. I document each walk with photographs and drawings. I’m interested in patterns.... light on water, trees and branches, grasses and leaves; and the changing colours and moods created by variations in the weather day by day……

Materials: Cotton, cotton thread, 80/20 cotton/poly batting, acrylic paint.

Techniques: Discharge, painting, piecing, machine quilting.

RAINY DAY DORA CREEK #11
© Judy Hooworth
124x124cm

Price: $3500

Statement: My quilts are about place, in particular Dora Creek which flows near my home. Walking along the creek is part of my routine, integral to my life and artistic practice. I document each walk with photographs and drawings. I’m interested in patterns.... light on water, trees and branches, grasses and leaves; and the changing colours and moods created by variations in the weather day by day……

Materials: Cottons, cotton thread, 80/20 cotton/poly batting, acrylic paint, gesso, oil stick, crayon.

Techniques: Hand painted, mono printed, piecing, machine quilting.

Photographer: Garrick Muntz

NEVER ENDING
@2015 Cathy Jack Coupland
153x39cm

Price: $2200

Statement: A circle is a simple, never ending line. Add a myriad colours and this also becomes never ending. Where to stop?

Materials: Acrylic felt and rayon thread.

Techniques: Free machine embroidery

Photographer: Julie G Photography

ODE TO THE SHEARER
© Yvonne Line
95x76cm

HIGHLY COMMENDED:
Expressions: The Wool Quilt Prize 2015

Price: $3050

Statement: The shearers’ bunk house was made from planks and unlined. Holes had been filled with scraps of material and newspaper to stop the drafts. Some roughly made waggas hung between the beds for privacy. Bedding was often roughly sewn and well worn.

Materials: 95% pure wool, 5% blends, black and white wool sourced from small holdings around Victoria and NSW, natural vegetable and plant dyes, home spun wool yarn, commercial wool yarn, 100% wool batting.

Techniques: Wool and some wool/blend on wool blanket with embellishing machine, hand knitted wool samplers using home spun wool and one commercial spun sampler, hand stitched edging. Home dyed with natural plant dyes or left in their natural state.

Photographer: Camden Photographics

COLOURS OF PARADISE
©2015 Suzanne Lyle
109x93cm

Price: $1600

Statement: Colours of Paradise is based on a stylized drawing of a Strelitzia.

Materials: Eco dyed wool and silk dyed from local plants, recycled wool blanket, wool yarn, wool felt, cotton.

Techniques: Piecing, wool applique, wool couching

Photographer: Ed Dunen

CONTESTED GROUND
©2015 Peggy Lyon
133x108.5cm

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ozquilt Network Newsletter 25th Anniversary Award of Excellence

Price: $1350

Statement: A compressed, dead native plant leaves its mark on a worn damask tablecloth; as the water evaporates over time a residue is left behind.

Materials: Old Damask tablecloth, cotton cloth, polycotton thread, small amounts mixed media (eg felt, fibreglass flywire, acrylic printing ink), Atelier Carbon Black Ink (Waterproof, lightfast ASTM1).

Techniques: Staining of cloth using residue dyeing technique, reverse applique, hand stitching and quilting.

Techniques: Eva Fernandez

AFTERMATH
©2015 Kathleen (Kate) Martin
182x92cm

Price: $2000

Statement: From the soaring heat, the forks of lightning, dense smoke and burning debris, roar of the fire, fear; to the aftermath acres and acres of burnt landscape, trauma, heartbreak, dead and injured animals, ruination of the man made and the destruction of the bush.

Materials: Two recycled Wool Blankets, wool batting, merino wool gaberdine, cashmere lino printed, Spoonflower digital print using waterbased pigment inks and dyes on cotton fabric, recycled satin blanket ribbon, hand spun wool yarn, silk, cotton, acrylic threads.

Techniques: Rusted eco-dyed blanket backing, Spoonflower digital print from cropped photo on cotton, eco-dyed iron mordant blanket and ribbon, hand and machined stitching,

CELEBRATION
©Susan Mathews
103.5x157cm

Price: $2800

Statement: Part of a large and ongoing series of work expressing my fascination with the forms of Australian native plants, particularly banksias and more recently, kangaroo paws. Lino prints in mainly neutral tones with collograph accents allow the brightly coloured silk screened kangaroo paws to dance on the surface.

Materials: Cotton fabric, water soluble fabric printing ink, polyester and rayon threads.

Techniques: Lino printing; silk screen printing; machine quilting using a domestic sewing machine.

CONSTRUCTION 2
©Susan Mathews
94.5x164cm

Price: $2500

Statement: I love old French buildings built using the colombage (half- timbered) technique. Infills of narrow bricks forming patterns; peeling paint revealing history; texture and patina; wear and repair; make-do and mend; shuttered windows. Lino printing on an old cotton sheet from France produced textures evocative of those ancient worn surfaces.

Materials: Cotton fabric, water soluble fabric printing ink, polyester and rayon threads.

Techniques: Lino printing; free motion machine stitching.

IF EVERY STITCH WERE A STEP
©2015 Janie Matthews
156x93cm

Price: $1950

Statement: If every stitch were a step I would have walked over 394 kilometres and I'm still not sure where I'm am, where I'm going, or where I've been.

Materials: Cotton fabric, water soluble fabric printing ink, polyester and rayon threads.

Techniques: Shibori dyed, hand stitching.

CREMORNE
©Alison Muir
91x131cm

Price: NFS

Statement: In 2010 we moved after 22 years in the 1 home. I explored my new home by watching the seasons change. 'Cremorne' encapsulates garden plants and cut flowers with dollar notes and experiments in natural dyeing that has taken 3 years to complete and visually records my new home.

Materials: Silk

Techniques: Hapa zome plants, bundled flora dyed in banksia, heat set images, machine and hand quilting, hand embroidery.

Photographer: Andy Payne

FEATHERING THE NEST #1-
OF HOPE & GLORY
©2015 Jan Mullen
182x179cm

Price: $3000

Statement: My two volumes of Weldon’s Practical Needlework from the late19th century contain suberb illustrations of stitches, techniques and finished items. These were times of hope chests and glory boxes, when spare time was spent stitching for the future - preparing for a love nest of one’s own.

Materials: Linen, silk, hemp & cotton fabrics, cotton batting, various threads.

Techniques: Photo transfer (photography), digital manipulation, digital print on linen, piecing, quilting, handstitching.

Photographer: Bewley Shaylor

VIGNETTES
©2015 Beth & Trevor Reid
118x118cm

Price: $1200

Statement: A small quilt that provides a setting for 64 understated line drawings of birds. These drawings based on an Oyster Catcher, a sea bird found in coastal areas of Australia, are an exercise in conveying the sense and movement of the bird without delivering a detailed execution.

Materials: Wool, wool gabardine, wool/poly batting, cotton thread.

Techniques: Hand dyed wool gabardine, machine piecing and quilting, hand drawing and painting.

Photographer: David Paterson (Dorian Photographics)

WARMTH
© Frances Schifferli
200x136cm

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ozquilt Network Newsletter 25th Anniversary Award of Excellence

Price: $350 SOLD

Statement: Bordering the National Anzac Centre, Albany, overlooking King George Sound, a tar-patched trail stretches like thousands of army blankets, end to end. In this quilt, the trail morphs into a hastily vacated bunk, which today provides warmth not for soldiers but the camouflaged King's Skinks baking on its sun-drenched surface.

Materials: Wool blanket, woollen applique, wool yarn, cotton backing and interfacing, leather.

Techniques: Needle punch felting, hand embroidery and applique, hand quilting and tie knotting, fabric printing.

WILD LUPINS #2
©2015 Brenda Gael Smith
100x70cm

Price: $1500

Statement: The ancient progenitors of lupins appeared in the Cretaceous period and the species has been evolving ever since. My lupin series also shows evolution. This work involves a change of scale and the challenge of working with a new (to me) material - felt.

Materials: Wool blend and acrylic felt, poly-wool batting, cotton backing, Perle cotton threads.

Techniques: Machine applique. Hand stitching.

FLYING COLOURS: GALAH GALA
©2015 Brenda Gael Smith
75x75cm

Price: $1750

Statement: Inspired by the colour and movement of Australian parrots.

Materials: Cottons hand-dyed by the artist. Wool-poly batting.

Techniques: Freeform piecing. Machine quilting.

DISTANT
©2015 Carolyn Sullivan
101x116cm

Price: $5000

Statement: Travelling as a tourist, I saw the Central Australian desert from the road where there had been a lot of runoff. The flowers along the roadside were beautiful and varied. When I stopped being a tourist and just sat and looked I was able to feel the impact of the desert.

Materials: Wool (nun's veil), wool thread, cotton thread.

Techniques: Plant dyed, needle felting, hand and machine stitching.

Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

SNOWY RIVER LANDFORM- TAKE TWO
©2015 Margaret Wallace
102x63cm

Price: NFS

Statement: Wonderful impressions from my first visit to, and swim in, the mighty Snowy River prior to the dam being built have stayed with me over the years. This work presents a microcosm of images stored in my memory.

Materials: Recycled blanket, cotton, satin, many different threads, wool batting.

Techniques: Freehand machine stitching and quilting. Hand embroidery.

Photographer: Andrew Brown

SILVER LININGS
©2015 Louise Wells
142x87cm

Price: $1500

Statement: Difficult times lead to better days; Dark clouds are just blocking the sun. "There’s a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it" - Katty Macane in Mrs S Hall’s 'Marian', 1840.

Materials: Silks and polyesters.

Techniques: Dyed, printed, stitched, cut away, transfer printing.

Photographer: Josh Wells

URBAN
Alison Withers
158x129cm

Price: $1750 SOLD

Statement: High density residential development has arrived. The concrete grows while the green retreats contemplating its next move, trying to accommodate its desire to permeate the vibrant centre. Tensions mount between development and the ecosystem. Will we be able to maintain our status of the most liveable city?

Materials: Woollen fabric, hand dyed wool felt, pure wool industrial felt, cotton fabric, polyester thread, wool yarn.

Techniques: Free machine embroidery on industrial and hand dyed wool felt, hand stitching with wool yarn.