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.

 

The New Quilt 2024 Preview: Margery Goodall

Future Proof Suite (quartet) by Margery Goodall reflects a traditional formal garden design and is designed to raise awareness of how our consumer choices affect the natural world.

Margery is a prize-winning Western Australian textile artist whose work has been exhibited in selective exhibitions in Australia and internationally since 1999, including the Alice Craft Award, the City of Joondalup Art Prize and the York Botanic Art Prize (2020, 2023). Margery has a longstanding creative practice focusing on stitched cloth, with a more recent addition of assemblages of found objects and waste materials. 

Since 2020 a focus of Margery’s work has been in response to the increasing fragility of the Australian landscape, and the challenges around use of packaging and subsequent disposal of packaging materials. While Margery continues to stitch scraps and discarded fabrics, she currently transforms waste materials, such as plastic bottle lids and plastic packaging, into stitched works which reflect on the web of connections between our relationships with modern living and the natural environment. Follow Margery on Instagram at:  @margery.goodall.about_art

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: Fiona Gavens

 Today we highlight Ghost Blanket IX, the artwork of the second juror/judge Fiona Gavens. This work is made from felted woven alpaca, wool, wool blend yarns, silk and organza.

Fiona Gavens is a textile designer based in Melbourne. She has broad experience developed over a lifetime of involvement with textiles, particularly patchwork, quilting, embroidery, knitting and dressmaking. Her multiple careers include being a freelance quilt artist, exhibitor and teacher for many years; manager of a regional conservatorium; and university and arts administrator. As a self-taught artist she embraced the opportunity to develop formal design skills in her studies of B.A. (Textile Design), RMIT University, graduating in 2018.

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.