Lesley Goddard

I have always loved colour with its varying shades and the textures of materials. I find it difficult not to rub my hand across a piece of wood, a stone or glassware. Extremely difficult when visiting a gallery and I tend to walk with my hands in my pockets.

I love nature – animals, trees both the shapes and the movement of them in the breeze. The changing colours in the sky and the moods of the sea, the rocks with the water racing over them and the rugged faces of the rock faces are all things which add to my delight in a day.

While teaching in the infant grades I tried to enthuse the children by demonstrating and talking about these things so that they learnt to walk with their eyes open to the world around them and we looked at books to see how the illustrators had drawn a cat for example. I loved each new theme as I could cover my blackboard in chalk drawings and encouraged the children to use crayons and pencils so that they could blend their colours rather than use the flat texta colours. At this stage I would also make a windcheater and paint or sew a picture according to the current theme. Needless to say I ended up with a lot of windcheaters which eventually became a quilt of Australian animals.

Since retiring from teaching I have been able to indulge a wish to make a quilt after seeing one which was a palette of such vivid colours that you wanted to wrap yourself in it. I took myself of to classes; followed directions faithfully, branched out tried another; began my vivid quilt and I was hooked. I became part of a small group who enthused one another but I wanted more than just sewing other peoples designs. I wanted to add my own stamp on them by adding texture and using a variety of materials.

To accomplish this I attended workshops in Melbourne, Geelong, Horsham, Beaufort and our own groups within Warrnambool. In one group that I belong to we meet once a month and challenge ourselves to try to learn a new skill or use a new material. We often rely on magazines or books to do this.

At the moment I am attending TAFE and doing a second year of Machine Embroidery which is helping me to gain new techniques and confidence.

Alaska

Blue cotton material; photos of Alaska printed onto calico; hand pieced diamond shapes into long lines. Colour washed the quilt from light to dark representing sky to the depths of the ocean. Machine stitched the photos as if they were the diamond pieces and then machine embroidered the photos to add texture to the glaciers, seals. After discussion, regarding the designs to represent water, snowflakes and the sea, Yvonne McCrae machine quilted it for me.

136 x 211 cm

Began in October 2010 - finished 2011

While travelling I enjoy visiting patchwork and craft shops.  Most of the blue material was bought while travelling up the east coast and others were swapped with friends.  I completed a family history quilt but still had a lot of blue material.  

I had learnt about glaciers while studying geography in Form 6 and had always been keen to visit Alaska and so, on retirement, Alaska was included in a trip overseas.  I did not see a polar bear but I was inspired to try and make a quilt using some photos.

It took me several years before I started and a need to acquire some turquoise blues.  The size of the pieces and the decision to hand piece was because my husband had to go into hospital and I needed some handwork that I could do while I was with him.  The photos needed to remain as whole photos otherwise I lost too much of the photo when I cut them into diamond shapes - hence the stitching to make it look similar in design.  I enjoy machine embroidery so decided to add some texture to the photos.  My decision to have this quilt machine quilted by Yvonne was two-fold.  One, I had hand pieced it and secondly my machine needed servicing and I appreciated the discussion about the design and the completed job.

I am never completely sure how a quilt will look as I have an overall picture in my mind but as I do not work from a pattern, I depend upon the look of it as I lay it out and allow the colours and the design to influence my decisions.

Detail Alaska

LESLEY’S VERSION OF ‘DEAR JANE’

Red cotton material; calico - seed muslin. Machine stitched, hand stitched and appliqued blocks. Colour washed.

159 x 159 cm

Began in approximately 2005 - Restarted in 2011 Finished in 2012

 A "Dear Jane"Quilt has 225 patterns which date back to 1863 from the Jane A Stickie Quilt.  Her quilt has inspired countless people by the story behind the quilt and others by the mathematiacal geometric designs.  I decided to begin a quilt based on her idea hoping to improve my techniques and to become more precise in cutting and piecing.  Initiallly, a started with a friend and we used blocks from a book called "501 Quilt Blocks".  After many interruptions, I joined a group of women whe met once a month to wowrk on the various blocks from the Dear Jane book.  We would work on one or two blocks that night at the quilt shop and endeavour to make a few more before we met the following month.  Group participation led to much talking, and a further block quilt purely because we enjoyed the process and the social contact.   

   I had originally decided to make the blocks in red plus the calico and continued this when I joined the group.  I kept a sketch book of my blocks plus a detailed plaln of placement plus a chart of the pieces of material used in each block.  

 Rather than waste the original blocks I made, even though they were smaller, I added them to my design arouond the edges and colour washed the quilt.

This quilt is not an exact copy of a "Dear Jane"quilt nor is it as precise as quilter may wish but it was an achievement on my part and I learnt a lot in the process and met many new friends.

   

Dear Jane detail

Dont forget to check "older posts" below right for Robina Summers, Toni Warrell, Olga Walters, Anne Sushames and Fiona Wright.