The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Kay Murray

What’s going on with this weather? is by Kay Murray of Eastwood, New South Wales and features Botanical gel plate printing.

Kay Murray is a textile practitioner, artist and educator. She has worked with both young people and adults for over 40 years. Her inspiration takes an experiential form, often based on places or events that she has encountered, particularly related to her early life on a working Merino property. Nature and the environment has provided layers of inspiration and lead to a concern with climate change and its effects on all aspects but especially food security and the decline of bees. Having experience with a range of textiles under the guidance of female family generations, and through tertiary studies in textiles, Kay is proficient in, and enjoys, many techniques including embroidery and quilting as means to express her ideas. Cloth colouration through dyeing, gel plate printing and deconstructed screen printing are amongst her preferred methods, often using the actual materials such as foliage to create her designs for printing. These techniques allow her to capture an idea and then enhance it with more traditional techniques with hand and machine embroidery, and quilting being familiar methods of embellishment. Kay is fully immersed her daily textile practice, creating a wide variety of functional and decorative textiles in her well equipped sewing room. She is a member of QuiltNSW, Eastwood Patchwork Quilters and ATASDA (Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association Inc). 

Follow Kay on Instagram: @stitchaday

 

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Alison Muir

Alison Muir of Cremorne, New South Wales created 'disillusion' a protest as a commentary on capitalism and corporate greed. She writes:

The devastating images of Antarctic glaciers collapsing into the sea around the frozen landmass are the inspiration for the work. The pale indigo blue of an expiring vat and the density of cotton sheeting allowed these two materials to further develop the concept into a larger than human scale wall image.

View more of Alison's artwork at: www.muirandmuir.com.au

Follow Alison on Instagram at: @textile_expressions

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

 

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Jill Miglietti

Do you really need this? by Jill Miglietti  of Frankston South, Victoria is made from torn, glued, stitched and stitched privacy envelopes. 

Using an array of fibre and textile techniques, Jill constructs two- and three-dimensional artworks that portray her responses to the physical, external world and her inner, emotional being. Her work expands ideas about memory, identity and the passing of time by manipulating materials and forms into embodied narratives that feel instinctive and familiar. The processes of reduction, abstraction and repetition build surfaces and structures that evoke the essence of place, of lived experience and of memory. Physical and metaphorical layers are assembled from cloth along with found objects, text and other media to expand the dynamic space between two and three dimensions. With work in public and private collections, Miglietti has been exhibiting since completing a Diploma of Textile Art in 2012. Her work has also appeared in Australian and international publications. 

View more of Jill's artwork at: 

• www.jillmiglietti.com
• Facebook artist page
• Instagram: @jillmigliettitextileart 
   

 

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Barbara Mellor

Today we highlight Winter Weeping with Moon by Barbara Mellor of St Helens, Tasmania.

Barbara was educated in Scotland and grew up in the country with a love for people and open spaces. She moved to Australia as a home economics teacher and after a successful career in Secondary education as a school principal, she retired to Tasmania and indulged her love for beautiful textiles.  Tasmania's wonderful landscapes and natural beauty drew her to the Island. Barbara loves the Japanese style and often discovers elements coming through in her quilts. She often uses Japanese silk in her traditional quilts. Barbara’s main work is in art quilting and is often pictorial.  She likes to research how to achieve different effects in textiles using different media. She usually applies paint on fabrics when she works and has recently experimented with the use of paper and loose threads.

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

 

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Suzanne Laird

Truth Decay by Suzanne Laird of Lawson, New South Wales considers some of the tactics used against truth.

Suzanne made her first quilt in 1978 for her daughter without realizing that this would become the focus of her stitching for years to come. Family, work and career generally took priority, however she didn’t stop sewing, collecting fabric and ideas along the way. Through the 80’s and early 90’s her learning focus was on technique and design rather than replicating given patterns. Her career took over until retirement, when she revisited her awareness of more recent quilting developments, making small quilts to explore possibilities. Engagement with small and large quilt groups were significant in re-energising her passion. Several entries in the annual QuiltNSW Exhibition were well received to her surprise and pleasure. Never one to mince words, nor fail to express an opinion about a personal passion, she has more recently seen the possibilities of quilts in response to societal challenges. Collections of notes, quotes and clippings inspired her first foray into this area, and then led to the sometimes tortuous development of Truth Decay, her entry in The New Quilt. Suzanne’s design process is fluid, each step evolving rather than planned. Colours emerge first from her notes, then design possibilities requiring exploration on a design wall where changes, rejections, and more ideas respond to her intent. Her topical notes and quotes are growing, instigating ideas for more quilts to come. 

 Follow Suzanne on Instagram at: @suzanne.laird

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

 

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Judy Hooworth

Secret Correspondence by Judy Hooworth of Morriset, New South Wales features spidery 'writing' on scribbly gums suggesting a clandestine correspondence.

Judy’s main body of work is influenced and inspired by Dora Creek and the surrounding Lake Macquarie area near her home. Her work encompasses drawing, mono printing, painting, and discharge techniques and is extensively stitched and quilted. Judy has maintained a studio practice for over thirty five years, and has been involved in in quilt textiles as a teacher, lecturer, exhibition organiser and author. She has exhibited and been published widely; her work is held in collections here and overseas, including the Powerhouse Museum, Tamworth Art Gallery, Wangaratta Art Gallery, the Museum of Arts and Design New York USA, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles USA. 

View more of Judy's artwork at:

•  www.ozquiltnetwork.org.au
• @judyhooworth1
  

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Emmanuelle Holmes & Others

On 14 October 2023 Australians voted in the Referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution through a Voice to Parliament. The Voice Quilt was created by Emmanuelle Holmes as a community textile project in the lead up to the election. It embodied the positivity, joy, colour and collaborative nature of working together with a common goal to support a yes vote in the Referendum. Emmanuelle’s work in mental health convinced her that the Voice would support better health outcomes for First Nations People by giving them more say and agency on matters that affect them. The idea grew organically after Emmanuelle, wondering whether she could express her support through her art, put out a call on social media, and to family and friends in July 2023. People were invited to make a quilt block of a certain size, using any textile technique and combination, whether that be piecework, machine or hand applique, fabric printing or dyeing, embroidery or collage. Sewing expertise was not a prerequisite and individual block design was determined by each maker. Emmanuelle received 25 blocks over a couple of months from 14 makers and textile artists living on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The project was time limited so it could be completed by Referendum Day on October 14. Emmanuelle writes: "Despite the heartbreaking referendum outcome, the Voice Quilt stands as a permanent reminder of who we are today."

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.

 

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Lynne Hargreaves

Of cabbages and kings by Lynne Hargreaves of Legana, Tasmania celebrates her father and his veggie patch.

Born in the UK, Lynne worked as a graphic designer moving into design training in 1978. 20yrs in vocational and tertiary education followed. Joining the cultural sector and arts management in 1998 she retired to Tasmania in 2017 from the position of Director of Exhibitions & Collections at the Art Gallery of WA. She has worked in partnership with institutions such as the Louvre, Tate, V&A, St Petersburg State Theatre and most recently the MoMA, New York to present renowned artworks in Perth. Entering a new chapter of her career she now has a focus on her own textile art practice. 

Art quilting draws upon her design background and she is excitedly discovering the wonders of thread and fabric. Her current experiments feature combinations of thread-painted photographs with varying contemporary and traditional piecing techniques. Working from her own or family photographs images are manipulated, printed in large scale then pieced and over worked with machine and hand stitching.

 

Plan an art excursion!  

The New Quilt 2024, on exhibition at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 4 May to 23 June 2024. Official opening and awards ceremony from 6pm on Friday 3 May 2024. RSVP to the gallery. 

Gallery hours: Open 6 days a week Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm. Closed on Tuesday and public holidays.