Swaps and sewing

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been doing some secret Christmas sewing, for the Santa Sack Swap.  Cheryll from Stitching Cubbyhole blog organises this every year.  My partner this year was Lyn in New Zealand and we had 6 months to get know each other and make 5 gifts plus a stocking, tote or sack.  Lyn and I both decided we wanted a tote.  We were both running late with our gifts - Lyn had lots of report writing to finish and I had dengue fever, so we agreed we'd give ourselves an extra week.  Today was the day we opened our gifts and I received these wonderful gifts.

Beautifully wrapped


Cute NZ card

Tote bag.  Already in use with my latest project! 

Little wall hanging

Christmas tree napkins.....such a clever idea and beautifully folded ...too pretty to wipe the gravy off my chin with.....and  a sewing purse, here it is open.  It has 4 pockets for keeping all my sewing needs together

Thread catcher...I need this, I end up with snipped threads all over the place, fabric with NZ birds...a pukeko I think...on it and the sewing purse closed.  A purple theme happening here.....it's my favourite colour, Lyn did a good job stalking my blog :)

Beautifully stitched Christmas cushion...oh and there were chocolates too..hmm wonder where they went?

For some reason, probably trying to get everything packed up to send, I didn't take photos of the gifts I made for Lyn, but I made some very nice things.  Hopefully Lyn will take photos and I can borrow them from her blog Stitches from the Mainland.
Thanks to Cheryll for organising this swap.  Swaps like this make blogging and the internet a fun and positive place, "meeting" new people far and near, people I might never meet but still connect with.  And the gifts are a special bonus, Lyn and I were commenting that we plan and organise, choose colours and projects we think, hope our partner will like, then stitch away making our gifts , forgetting that someone else is doing the same, so it's wonderful when that parcel arrives, with thoughtfully chosen presents.  Thanks Lyn for being my partner.

'til next time

Gutter Gold

I joined a couple of friends at the Tweed River Art Gallery yesterday.  The Gallery alone is worth a visit.  It sits on a high parcel of land overlooking the Tweed River, green and rolling pastureland and with spectacular views to Mt Warning and the Caldera rim to the north. 

Source: Art Gallery Website

 

While we did enjoy fun and laughter and a delicious lunch out on the balcony, the real purpose of the visit was to see an exhibition by Adrienne Kenafake, a Gold Coast artist who says of her work......"my works focus on the immediate environment by investigating the flotsam and jetsam of daily life.  All the artworks are made from found and recycled materials, my sculptures have become a visual record of the unwanted items we carelessly discard on a daily basis"

 

 'Rare as Hen's Teeth' . Source antheapolsonart.com.au

 

Silly me, I left my camera in the car, so these photos are from various art galleries, with credit to these sources. Not all of these were in the exhibition, but were on a similar theme, so you get the idea
.

Adrienne's work is stunning and confronting.  As well as using fabric she colours with windfallen leaves and barks from local plants in the style of India Flint,  Adrienne uses tiny bones from road killed animals, mostly wallabies, rat vertebrae, fish scales, human hair  and the fabric segments are roadside discards or from council clean-ups.

Her titles and imagery are telling too.......this is called 'Introduced Species".  Sorry, the pics are a bit blurry, but you get the idea.  She also made the little wagon from recycled materials as well.

 

'Introduced Species'.  Source antheapolsonart.com.au

This next one was on show at the gallery, and was my favourite.  It's so iconically Australian, the sad sight of stiffened road kill all along our country roads.  You can't see it on this picture, but this one has an injured tummy, with big blowflies sitting on it, made with fabric, and fish scale wings....so very lifelike.  It's claws, if you look closely, are wallaby bones, and it's made from plant dyed silk.

                             Flyblown'.   Source artguide.com.au

 

 

                                      'Wanderlust'.  Source antheapolsonart.com.au

                                                

 

                 'Stay Together'.....that's human hair on their heads!   Source barebonesartspace.com.au

 

This was a great exhibition, asome amazing, very detailed, thoughtful work from a very talented artist with some clear messages.  In her own words .....broken, busted, forgotten, lost, flyblown, shiny new, here in the gutter lie the treasure of the suburbs........golden traces of existence waiting to tell their stories.  If you find yourself in northern NSW, or hear that this exhibition is coming to a gallery near you, give yourself a treat and go along and see it.

 

We also checked out the new Margaret Olley Centre, a space dedicated to her paintings, sketches, education and workshop spaces and an amazing recreation of her studio and over 20,000 items collected in her lifetime.  More on that though in another post.

 

.............til next time