Artful Machining

Machine Embroidery Workshop: 1990

I managed to find a space on a machine embroidery workshop in Armidale (Jul 12-14 1990) with Wendy Wright ADVA which was quite exciting – and rather liberating as well.  I learned to push my old (even then!) Elna to its limits.  Of course everyone else seemed to have a fancy Bernina, but it was still fun and came in good stead a few years later in Dover Heights.   I produced a few interesting samples but saw opportunities to use this artistic technique mostly on garments rather than quilts.  However I didn’t really have much time to follow it up.  We sadly missed out on having the subject offered at TAFE (during my time there) and I made a decision that it wasn’t really my area of interest at the time given all the other tempting options available.  What the course did offer me was confidence in using my machine as a means of artistic expression.  Fast forward to lessons on domestic machine quilting in Randwick a few years later and I could really push that technique much further!   

Hard at work in my downstairs studio

Well, that about wraps up my couple of years in Tamworth “going academic”.  I didn’t actually produce terribly much in the way of quilts, but I did learn a lot in terms of skills, knowledge and experience.  My TAFE teachers were fantastic, knowledgeable and very supportive.  Importantly, we were encouraged to see beyond our current passion for craftwork, to use it as a framework to support other (perhaps more profitable) ventures.  So with my mind bursting with ideas, we packed up our happy home (including my burgeoning craft collection) and moved back to the bright lights of Sydney.

(A repeat photo I'm sorry to say, but photos of that time are just so few and far between.)