things I made in 2019
I’ve got a ridiculous amount of photos on my phone. Don’t tell me you don’t too! And I realised that some have never been shared, and what’s the use of having a creative making blog if I don’t share the things I make here. I used to do that lots on my old blog, in the olden days on blogging and internet (and pre-Instagram). So - here’s some things I made this year.
Things I made or ‘did’ in 2019
My book was published! While I wrote it in 2018, it didn’t come out until Sept 2019.
My landscape Fearless Quilt as a project for myself
This giant weaving as a commission for a church in Newcastle, NSW
My first solo exhibition in my home town of Murwillumbah
and a few other things as well….. read on to see them.
I’ve only included finished works in this blog post, because let’s be honest I could fill a whole book with half made items. And this year I really focussed on getting things made, finished and usable. Which is why I worked on making quilts; turning my little stitched pieces into something useful and beautiful, rather than a folded scrap of lovely fabric that sits in my baskets.
The biggest weaving I’ve ever made, a custom work for a church in Newcastle. I dyed all the yarn (mostly beautiful Australian & New Zealand wool, and some silk fabric) using natural and botanical dyes. All up this was approx 150-200 hours of work. Sam made me a special super big weaving loom, and I sat in our bedroom while family life happened around me.
Detail of weaving - with open warp strings and silk fabric. Lots of texture.
Some of the yarn I dyed for the weaving - using local colour from my garden and landscape.
I made this bag primarily as a show piece for a workshop I was teaching, so that my students could make their own versions. But in the process I grew to love this piece, and it became a symbol of how each stitch-by-stitch-by-stitch is a representation of our life. I was working on it around the time my Grandma Tessy died in August, and when I shared it on Instagram with this quote you all gave me such beautiful heartwarming support.
“The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of a rainbow that I have clutched” ~ Henry David Thoreau⠀
This quilt, which I love more than almost anything I’ve ever made, took me un-counted hours of dyeing the linen. From colours in my garden and landscape in late Summer (early 2019). I then spent about 3-4 whole days cutting and sewing the pieces together. Machine pieced. And then hand quilting it.
This one doesn’t have a name, but it’s a landscape quilt - of sorts. It feels like layers of rock cut through, or fields from an aerial view.
I love this piece “Sitting in the dark listening to the stars sing”. It sat in multiple pieces, in various stages of worked on over the year. And then, it "became”, just in time for my exhibition. Another of those moments when the fabric muse sings to me and the pieces of textile just knew what to do. This is my ode to seed stitch, which looks also a lot like constellations and forever more shall be called ‘constellation stitch’ as named by someone at one of my workshops
I made this quilt “How to be together the way that we are” for my exhibition. I hand pieced and hand stitched the whole quilt, and it took me much less time than I’d anticipated. When the muse sings, she is eager to play and wants lots of attention. This was a few extra-long days (and evenings) at my studio. I particularly loved stitching the in-set circles.
This weaving was a commission for an online friend, who I’ve known since the olden days of blogging (before IG). It was such a privilege to create this for Amy and her family living in Alaska. While weaving it I was sending the watery ocean and rivers from our land to her land.
I made these little fabric needle cases for my Fearless Quilt kits that I sent out this year. These were so lovely to make, thinking of the people who would use them and how they’d love having something handmade especially for them. Simple, small, useful, yet so special.
And this piece, which isn’t yet finished, but I needed to include it as I very much love this piece - and maybe sharing it here will inspire me to keep working on it. Each piece of fabric is a special one, that came from my dye pots and has such unique patterns and markings. I machine pieced these, and taught myself how to sew inset circles.
*note it’s much easier to hand sew inset circles, than machine stitched. See the little creases.
