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

Monday 28 June 2010

Textile Art Fun



I'm Recovering today from my one day whirlwind trip to Brisbane for the Textile Art Festival. I had a really great time and will certainly go again next year. We all agreed that it had been well worth the trip, but I can honestly say I've never felt more tired and pleased to arrive home at the end of what was a really long day.

I was up at 3am after only managing about 2 hours of actual sleep time, (I must have been too worried about sleeping through the alarm to actually sleep), picked up a couple of friends on the way to airport for our 6.30am flight and didn't arrive home until 11pm after dropping everyone off following the long train, plane, bus, car trip home.

Reality really hit for all of us at around 4.30pm when the show closed, at this stage it would have been great to be home without the trouble of getting there. I got through it with a bit of a cat nap at the airport and again on the plane. I was too tired to even look at my wonderful purchases last night, so after a quick look tonight and a bit of planning it's off to bed for an early night.

The photos are of the bags I made for the Down Under Quilts Embellish a Bag Challenge. The challenge was to make a bag to certain specifications using the handles supplied. The bags were on display at the festival and looked great.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

What a great show



I was proud to have been awarded a judges commendation for both of my entries in the Quilters' Guild of NSW annual show at Darling Harbour last week.

Dragonfly Dance has now been added to my workshop list and is one of a series of quilts featuring dragonflys, butterflies and lizards. I've been experimenting with positive negative designs for a year or two now and love them.

The Lizard of Oz is a further exploration of my fascination for reptiles and the colours of Australia. It was designed with the Fibonacci Number Sequence as a design aid and it will also soon be on my workshop list as one of the quilts offered when Fibonacci is requested as the main workshop topic.

I had a wonderful time at the show, buying heaps of felted wool for a future project and a pile of other miscellaneous goodies.

I had to hold back just a little so that I can buy more stuff next Sunday at the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Multi tasking at its best


Hey, I'm a woman so of course I can multi task, but managing to combine mundane daily tasks is not really multi tasking at its best.

This is multi tasking to be proud of.

I play keyboard in our Aussie dance band "The Currawong Bush Band" Last night we played for one of the regular Bush Dances organised by the Bush Music Club, an organisation we've been a significant part of for years. I love playing, but always take something quilt related with me. Last night I had a copy of one of my favourite magazines "Quilting Arts" sitting on my music stand alongside my music. There are always a few minutes here and there inbetween pumping out the music. No one can see the magazine sitting there and if anyone was really looking I'm sure they would just assume I was studying music in the breaks between dances (not as obvious as sitting there piecing blocks).

I also had a copy of the new Aussie magazine "Embellish" with me and by the way eagerly awaiting the second issue of the other new Aussie magazine "Down Under Textiles". I love them both, have you seen them yet?

Never let a chance go by!