Amanda Daly

Amanda Daly
I've been passionately working with fabric for more than 25 years . . . relax with me as you read about my life and my quilts

Thursday 20 August 2009

Jemby Rinjah















Last weekend John and I spent a very pleasant few days in the Blue Mountains. We asked about the meaning of the the name of the Eco Lodge we stayed at and apparently it means "Beautiful Big Colourful Bird". We didn't see any big colourful birds but plenty of smaller birds and this magnificent creature.

The Blue Mountains have a very special place in my heart. In my younger / fitter days I used to lead bushwalking groups. Twice weekly I would lead a dozen or so trusting souls into the bush. We climbed mountains, descended into beautiful valleys communed with nature and explored every corner of the the Bush in the Sydney area.

Visiting the mountains brought a lot of my treasured memories back with great clarity. A very dear lady who has recently passed away, wrote this poem for me when she left the group to move to her central coast retirement dream home and I know this was written from the heart.

Just a few words of thank you
for all the work you've done.

The places you have taken us
through wind and rain and sun.

You've had us climbing mountains
we never thought we could.

You've guided us down tracks
we didn't think we should.

You have taken us through forests
and across the mountain streams.

You have shown us such splendour
and where the Waratahs grow.

Wild flowers in abundance
with names we didn't know.

You have shown us the wild life,
nature at its best
.
The panoramic vistas,
north, south east and west.

You have given us strong bonding,
stay back and help your mate.

Care and understanding,
adventures to relate.

You have brought us home exhausted,
aching from head to toe.

We survived the snakes and leeches,
how? We'll never know!

And so our fearless leader,
I say thank you my dear friend.

You always keep us moving with
"It's just around the bend"

Pat Brookes.

Monday 17 August 2009

My Place Exhibition

The My Place quilt exhibition curated by Dijanne Cevaal will soon be on display in Victoria, at Craftfest in Melbourne from 8th - 11th October and in a newly created gallery space at the Colac Entertainment Cenre, Cnr Gellibrand and Rae Sts, Colac from 30th October to 1st November. This is a brand new exhibition space and the My Place quilt exhibition will be the first to use the venue.
My quilt "Blue Gum Creek" is part of this wonderful exhibition, see a close up photo of a small section of my quilt above.
I recently travelled to the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane in order to see "Blue Gum Creek" hanging with the other 89 fabulous 50cm square quilts and I was very impressed, a very worthwhile trip.
The exhibition has so far travelled to South Africa and New Zealand and in 2010 will be exhibited in France.
All of the quilts can be viewed on line at www.myplacequilts.com There is a link at the bottom of this page.
I'm told that Down Under Quilts will feature some of the quilts in their next issue.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Discharge dyeing




I must say I'd rather fill up my washing line with newly discharged fabric than washing any day. I recently got together with some friends for some play time.

Julie changed some very very ordinary grey fabric into the masterpiece shown in the top photo. Great fun