About this site
I have made so many quilts, wall hangings, embroideries and other items over the last few years that it seemed preferable to display them on a web site, rather than emailing photos of each new one to my friends. It also serves as an extra backup for images of my work.
I owe many thanks to my stepson, Geoff, who advised me on appropriate software for the task and set it up for me.
About me
For most of my life my strengths, qualifications and interests have been in the areas of Maths, Physics and English (not necessarily in that order). No surprises, then, that I taught those subjects in high schools, and ended up as a statistical analyst and report writer in the Australian Public Service. My only experience in ‘the arts’ was the piano, having been taught from a very early age by my mother, a wonderful pianist and piano teacher. (My mother was also an accomplished trombonist, and was a member of the very first Sydney Women’s Brass Band – she was the youngest of the band, at 14 years old.) I also love beautiful gardens, and have enjoyed designing and planting my own, focussing on native plants. I owe this interest to my father, who was a passionate and very experienced gardener.
In my younger years I held no interest at all in sewing or other domestic pursuits (particularly cooking), preferring to run around with a racquet and ball – and I do lay claim to being a mean squash player in my mid-20s. I had no talent for drawing or painting, and that remains the case. I was, however, attracted to certain objects or images that I thought beautiful and/or interesting, and didn’t realise until many years later that those items consistently fell into certain categories or themes. I now know that I prefer art works that have a reason for their creation, that I like certain colour combinations and that I crave structure. I like ‘shiny things’, too. In particular, I am drawn to the simple, elegant lines from the best of the Art Deco period.
During a period when I was a bit short of cash I decided to make some of my own clothes and those of my children. I came to enjoy the task and continued to make clothes even after my financial circumstances improved. The leftover fabrics piled up, and along with other materials I had kept, I decided to use them up in my very first quilt – a ‘memory’ quilt. It was not very professional, especially the quilting – and I didn’t even know how to bind it. Nevertheless it looked quite good and served as an extra bit of warmth on a small bed on very cold nights. I still have it.
Since then, I ‘discovered’ programmable sewing machines that would enable me to design my own fancy stitches, and not long after that the first embroidery machines were available. I bought one. It turned out to be a lemon and caused a lot of trouble, but by then I was hooked.
I made some simple quilts with embroidered squares (often of Australian native flowers), then ventured into more complex ones. After a while I felt emboldened to try some even more difficult ones (with mixed outcomes). At first I worked from patterns published in magazines, then I found I could make modifications either to make the project easier, or increasingly, more interesting. More recently I have designed my own quilts and have been fairly pleased with the results. I have also made some free-standing embroidered flowers and baskets.
Making no claim to be an expert quilter, I now feel at least accomplished enough to fully appreciate and admire those made by really talented people.
I am indebted to my friends Kerry and Pam, and my sister, Rhonda for their encouragement – and to my ‘advisory team’ of fearless friends and family members (Margaret, Jean, Hella, my daughters Bec & Viv and, not least, my husband Stuart) for their critical views and suggestions.
Since first writing this, I decided to add two more pages, then a third (this web site seems to be growing and spreading like oxalis):
- one to showcase a couple of formal dresses I made for my daughters 20-25 years ago and a party dress my mother made for me some 50 years ago;
- the second to store some photos of my garden in case I lose them all from my computer at any stage. You are welcome to view them, but they are primarily here as a backup; and
- to keep recordings of some of my piano pieces, for the same reason.