2nd blog of Christmas - honoring Bethli

Yesterday, Christmas Day, Bethli passed away after a long and hard-fought illness.

I did not know her well, but what I did know, personally and professionally, was admirable. She was a person of great energy, intelligence and integrity.

Bethli did not live enough years to express her whole potential, but all the time she had, she made the most of - learning, travelling, working and playing.

I'm grateful to have known her.

1st blog of Christmas

This Christmas is a scrap quilt. 


The background changed several times, and each part of the day brought together partial family groups. 

All unified by the common threads of courtesy, generosity and love. 

Scrap quilts are always the warmest.

Floating cubes comes together...at last

Floating Cubes has had a long slow development.

The cube-top fabric came first - bought at a quilt show in Sydney, perhaps 2006. I knew I would use it for some variation of Stack'n'Whack but I didn't want to just make blocks & a border with it.

Then, I read Quilts of Illusion (again) and saw a most amazing variation of the classic Tumbling Blocks pattern. Immediately I knew I would use the interesting blocks from the special print as the "top" of cubes. I made dozens of these, and enjoyed the process of selecting complementary colours from the scraps stash.

Later came the idea to have a "macro-cube" background for all my little cubes to float above.

I'm still playing with the arrangement of the small cubes, but I'm thinking this current arrangement with a large-to-small layout gives a sense of distance that is very pleasing.

There are more photos of the build of this quilt in this Picasa Gallery and at the foot of this page for a while

Next questions - how to attach the little cubes to the ground, and what sort of quilting?

Advice where you least expect it

Today I talked with an art dealer. About making a living from art.

He was very generous with his advice, and set me the following homework:

1. Have my work professionally photographed
2. Document each work's title, size, media
3. Write my biography in 2-3 paragraphs
4. Make a website to show off my work & myself
5. Produce a printed booklet of a selection of my work to give to dealers
6. Email him when all this is done and he'll critique my efforts

He called this the transition from "crafty" to "fine art", and discussed how this change in level of finish would help me to engage with serious art dealers - and that this was the way to meet the kind of market that could make my work generate an income.

I guess it all comes down to how seriously I take myself and my work, and how much I want to let those finished works out into the world to find a home with someone else.