Wednesday, January 13, 2010

What's On In Castlemaine

My friend Sylvia Reeve and I spent this morning hanging a few of our pieces in the Phee Broadway Theatre / Castlemaine Library foyer

It was quite possibly the easiest 'hanging' I've ever been a party to.
No recalcitrant quilt stands that wait until you get a whole row organised and then collapse.
No hanging system designed by the Spanish Inquisition.
Just nice sensible gallery tracking that does what it says on the box, and an equally nice, shiny, new District Arts Officer who was prepared to stay and help us. Granted, part of his willingness to stay was because he'd never hung a show using this system and so was curious to try it out, but hey... I don't question a guy's motives.
He was willing to help AND more importantly, he had a much longer reach than either of us AND didn't need to be asked to move the ladder!


you can probably see that tracking over Sylvia's head. Each length of clear nylon - think 'fishing line' but much thicker - has a little metal jigger at one end that fits neatly into the track and those little silver things [ with hanging hook attached ] that you can see just above the quilts move up or down the line and then are screw tightened into place. Just brilliant.
I know a couple of people who have invested in similar systems for hanging their art / quilts in their homes and if I ever won the lottery I think I'd join their number
... but as I never buy Lotto tickets ... well ...'t'aint gonna happen anytime soon :]

Anyway, we hung three quilts each - none of them new - and these three quilts are my contributions

Winter's Song:
hand dyed, painted, printed and stencilled fabric, machine pieced and quilted

Floating World:

shibori dyed fabric, machine pieced, hand applique, hand and machine quilted

and

Peace:
[ so called because that's what the Japanese kanji symbol is ]


machine pieced, hand applique, reverse applique, shibori and hand dyed fabric, hand quilted


the final result:

If you happen to be in Castlemaine between now and Feb 10, you can see them in the flesh so to speak
and don't forget to stick your head in the door of the Library and check out the wonderful [ huge ] bookshelf quilt made a few years ago by the Friends Of The Castlemaine Library [ F.O.C.A.L. ] under the enthusiastic guidance of the inimitable Jappa

8 comments:

ozjane said...

Yummy mummy......lovely stuff..
Saw the Daylesford exit road today.
Thought of you.....

Donna Lee said...

What a beautiful, light space. It looks like the quilts are a perfect fit there.

Anne-Marie said...

Those are all really nice, and look especially good all together

Anonymous said...

Susan, I am just speechless. I mean it, absolutely speechless. I don't know what to say . . . words are not adequate.

GORGEOUS with all capital letters. (Still speechless.)

Liz said...

They look great, I might have to have a little amble over to have a better look.
Lizzie
XXX

Lynne said...

Don't they brighten up that foyer? Well done.

Marcie said...

Bout time we had some quilts in the library, I'll have a good look tomorrow. Looks good so far!

Val said...

Paid our usual visit to the library on the weekend but were distracted by the lovely quilts hanging in the foyer. I immediately thought "I wonder if they're Susan's?" Mel and I both admired them very much. Well done to you and your colleague!