I was at the exhibition of ozquiltnetwork quilts last Saturday.  The brilliant floor talk was given by Marjory Goodall and I got SOOOO inspired!

Basically a series of small 40cm x 40cm quilts were presented in a gallery setting and so successfully!  Quilts as legitimate art in a mainstream gallery!!

Returning home, I  wanted to create something. As luck would have it, I’d borrowed a book from my sister .  Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art by C June Barnes is not new (published in 2008) but the time has to be right, doesn’t it?  The time was suddenly right for me.

I decided to embark on June Barnes’ exercises.  Her work is wonderful but it’s not what grabbed my attention.  I could see that her way of preparing small quilts and dyeing them would be a great way of creating a background for further embellishment.  Plus, with a new sewing machine (Pfaff Quilt Expressions 4.0), I needed to practise free motion quilting.

Essentially, Barnes pieces a small quilt from a range of natural fabrics (at least eight different ones) and then dyes them.

Here are my results:

Strips of varying widths in different weights of silk and cotton fabric

Sixteen log cabin blocks, randomly pieced

Whole piece with backing and backing

Quilted (free motion)

Procion dyed with green. Interesting effect!!