Pam Holland Designs and Productions

Back online.

The internet was so slow last night and it was impossible to do the blog.

I'm sitting in the Admirals club at LAX waiting for my flight to Alamagordo in an hour or so and catching up on blog news and FB.

Reflecting on the past few days, all I can say is thank you to the ladies who  who made my visit possible.

Friends Glen and Sally, thanks so much for your hospitality, for the visit to the Getty Villa  and the wonderful chats in the kitchen.

Roberta. The pot luck dinner was a great experience.We sure had fun.

AND despite my numerous visits to the USA, this is the first time I've seen a carton of coffee.!!!

It also is the first time I've been asked officially what color I am (orange I think). I leave with wonderful memories.

Related articles

Creating the Mexican Tiles Project.

Its hard to keep grounded.

Mexican Tiles and a gorgeous day.

Share my Inspiration.

The story behind the quilt.

Share my Inspiration.

Its late and I need to retire, but I couldn't go to bed without sharing some of the images I took today.

Friends Sally and Glen took me to visit the Getty Villa.

I had heard it mentioned as a Ranch, but I had never done any research on it. How wrong I was.

Its a stunningly beautiful expression of a Roman Villa. The gardens are just stunning, but I will leave the description to the photos.

Share my inspiration.

 

In 1954, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty opened a gallery adjacent to his home in Pacific Palisades.

Quickly running out of room, he built a second museum, the Getty Villa, on the property down the hill from the original gallery. The villa design was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum and incorporated additional details from several other ancient sites.

It opened in 1974,but was never visited by Getty, who died in 1976. Following his death, the museum inherited $661 million and began planning a much larger campus, the Getty Center, in nearby Brentwood.

Its stunningly beautiful and as we walked from pavilion to pavilian

Related articles

Review: 'Sicily' at Getty Villa looms larger than life

Its hard to keep grounded.

I've just watched a bright Orange sun set over LAX,  its so nice to be back and settled and ready for another exciting tour.

After weeks of preparation, a few heart starting hiccups and lots of work I'm back in my second home but the sad part is, I'm minus  the Bambinos and Grandies.

For that, I have to rely on Face Time.

Then again I have wonderful friends who share my passion for life and textiles and I treasure their company.

I'm a well prepared and cautious traveler. I like to cover all bases and I know how to pace myself. However, travel sometimes has a few hiccups, but it all went smoothly yesterday and I find it really interesting being forced to wind down and be a people watcher.

My seat mate last night was the manager of the Australian Group, Empire of the Sun. He was meeting them in NY for a performance. He said to me, "You'd really like them, they love fabric"

So how could I ignore that statement and of course I looked them up on the net.... and, indeed I do like their taste in costumes.I wonder if their Mum's make them, indeed they could even be  quilters.

 

Time to sleep and I will finish this in the morning.!!!!

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Good morning world.

In the Sydney airport, I duly passed the doughnut stall  and headed for the Qantas club where they have a healthier choice of food but probably not as spectacularly delicious as Krispy Kreme donuts.

I never get sick of the view out the window of the plane, I leave the blind up for as  long as possible, I can't work out why people get on the plane and shutout the light just to watch movies. This photo was captured as I left my home in Adelaide.

I left Australia from Sydney. The views were wonderful, we flew over the iconic Sydney Opera House and the coat-hanger Bridge, down over the suburbs and off out over the ocean headed for LA.

I worked on a video for the 'Quilt Show' for 4 hours then after supper, (when its dark) I joined the grey brigade.

They give you grey jamas made by Morrisey there's a darn big a kangaroo on the bosom to remind you that you're an Australian, they are really comfy. They have mattresses for your seat and warm quilts to sleep under and it seems strange that you are sleeping high above the earth with the rest of the world continuing life below you.

After arrival and settled into my hotel.I generally sleep for an hour or two before venturing out in LA.

A visit to my favorite store Anthropologie was a must. I buy a set of china like this on most of my trips... I use it while traveling and it adds to my eclectic collection at home.

I love these cushions.

Today, I'm off to visit the Getty House with friends and I'll have the stitches out on my face. The bruising makes for an interesting green brown complexion, its taken a while to come out but then again its better than the alternative and its just a week since the surgery.

I have some really exciting things offered to me, tours, trips and career wise. Can't share them yet, but I'm flying high right now.

Its hard to keep grounded.

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The Australian Quilt Convention

A great day.

The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Jarvis' holiday was adopted by other countries and it is now celebrated all over the world. In this tradition, each person offers a gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers, grandmothers, and/ or maternal figure on mother's day.

The second Sunday in May is Mothers day in over 50 countries.

Our Girls are all Mothers and I wanted to photograph them all, but I was busy running round after the babies.

We had a  bonfire and some folk just rested on their laurels (I mean shovels)

My boys chatted,

The little people 'created'

Oliver played the piano

Oscar enjoyed the day but wasn't too keen on my sausage rolls but shared apple pie with Papa.

Miss Jaya enjoyed herself and entered into the conversation.

Oldest Granddaughter Chi is just wonderful with the little ones. Love her.

We ate sausage rolls, pea soup and home made apple pie.

It was a lovely day thank you bambinos

Related articles

The Founder of Mother's Day Later Fought to Have It Abolished

Its a darn hard way to have a face lift.

I've been a little sedate this week, but working my butt off to take my mind off less pleasant things.

My 6 monthly visit to the skin specialist last week left me with stitches in my back and shoulder and biopsy on a spot on my face.

 I awaited the results... "Tuesday I will ring you" said my specialist.

Work hard and finish another quilt.

Tuesday came and went with no phone call and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Work hard and finish another quilt.

Wednesday the same.

Thursday afternoon the call came. "We need to get that spot off, its safe but it can't be left till you get back"

Hasty arrangements were made with the plastic surgeon and I was in his surgery on Friday morning.

Results.....XXXXX its a darn hard way to have a face lift.

Then again, now I can get the other side done on health funds because it has to match this darn sore side.!!!

I've watched a bit of TV in the past 24 hours, I had to sleep in the chair and will do again tonight...I finished the chocolate I bought last week

but.. its all good and tomorrow is Mothers Day.

We're having a bonfire over at my sons house. We're going to have Jaffles, sausage rolls, pea soup, potato bake and other illicit stuff like apple pie.!!!!!

Thank you dear friend Patsy for sending me Mexican Mothers Day wishes... same to you my friend.

 

 

Finishing the quilts.

I've been a bit slow with the blog over the past few days.

But I have finally put the finishing touches to 2 quilts and proceeding with the 3rd.

The last quilt, the 3rd in line, has been waiting patiently  for work to be done on it, the inspiration is there but the hands haven't acted.

The quilted part of this piece, the woman's face, is a small quilt appliqued onto a vintage piece of African Textile which forms a border for the featured quilt. Its hand woven, dyed, applied and beaded. It was made in the 1950's/1960's

 

I've appliqued the thread painted quilt onto the background textile with an applique reflecting the design on the original piece.

The two Cheesecloth portraits are completed as well.

They are quilted heavily in straight lines to counter balance the intricate thread illustration and flowing lines of the portrait.

From a handcranked machine to a computerized marvel in 40 years.

My Mum was a dressmaker, she used to sew for a living when we were  young.

We had very little money and Mum made all of our clothes.

My favorite was the dress she made me from curtain material it had black and white pandas all over it.!!

She set her old singer up on the laminex table in the kitchen. I can still see the white lace curtains moving in the breeze as the sun shone through the windows.

Mum sewed on that darn machine day in and day out and I swore I would never touch one in my life.

From the time I was about 9 years old mum made me stay in the kitchen while she sewed. She showed me how to draft patterns from the Enid Gilchrist books. From then on, that was my job.

Pretty sneaky I think. She hated drafting them.

Now those darn books are in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Needless to say, I never learned to sew.

I never wanted to sew,

I never had the inclination to sew.

.......Until our first child was born.

Oh, I think it was that nesting, care for your chick thing and I decided I needed to make him something.

We had no money for a machine so my Mother in Law gave me her 1920's hand cranked and I used that.

Yes I still have it... I thought I was so darn clever. I made Jamie a little suit.

I even made shirts for myself.

I couldn't do a button hole so I took them to the sewing lady down the street. She was so surprised I used a hand cranked machine that she showed the garments to all her customers... so she made the buttonholes for free.

I had a burning desire to have a machine that did buttonholes, that's all I needed in life.... Oh, and a lusted after a yellow typewriter.

When I was 26, Keith bought me a Lemair Helvetia that did button holes and it had a foot pedal... it even went backward and forwards and did a zig zag!!!! I just couldn't believe it.

I just kept touching it, I was the luckiest woman in the world and indeed I made buttonhole after buttonhole just because I could.

Heaven, I was in Heaven.

AND a year later I got my yellow electric typewriter. It clacked away at an alarming speed but I never did much with it.

When I turned 36, I decided to become a fashion designer.

So I did.

I set up a business with a friend and we were able to buy the first computerized Janome Memory Craft.

By then I was a fully fledged designer, we were successful and our clothes went all over the world and I designed them all on the Janome.

We upgraded and upgraded, so I think I've almost had every model that came out.

I gave the old ones to my friends.

14 years ago, and a few winning quilts later Janome offered to give me a machine to sew on. Can you imagine, I was in awe and absolutely thrilled.

I was so embarrassed, but I said 'thank you' and it helped me win more awards and I sang its praises.

So here we are many years later and today I set up the latest most delicious, fancy Janome machine. The Horizon Memory Craft 8900.

Thank you Janome. You're the best. I only want to use the Horizon in class and I'm very lucky that most places do that for me.

This machine does everything but cry. You need to try it.

Many of you have seen the fine quilting I can achieve and its all due to this machine. The Bayeux is sewn on this beauty and there are many more to come.

 

'Conversations in Thread'

I've finished 3 quilts in the past couple of days.

2 journal quilts... called 'conversations in thread' and a Woven Watercolor portrait.

What was the inspiration?

Well for this first quilt, I came upon these ladies, deep in conversation at the QAGoMA , Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane.

I wonder what they were talking about?

I wonder what they think about the corrugated iron installation as an art piece.?

I printed this image of iron onto fabric. It wasn't anything fancy, I just used my inkjet printer and the fabric was muslin (calico in Australia).

Its not a fancy quilt.. Its capturing the moment.

The ladies are silhouetted in raw edge applique. The corrugated iron is quilted to add texture.

The small photo images are conversation bubbles. I've written the dialogue on the back of them.

The fabric is hemmed white linen strips from Ikea, so its quite irregular. I used black 50 weigh thread on the top and in the bobbin so you get a sketched effect on the back.

I was there with two of my special friends Di and Carolyn.

We had a wonderful  lunch in the Japanese restaurant and we talked a million miles an hour catching up on all the news of the past year.

The phone rang, it was my daughter who was worried I might be in the city. "There's a gunman loose" she said. Indeed we looked out of the window to see the police had cordoned of the road and the reports were that some guy had gone troppo in the mall just walking distance from us.

Carolyn and Di feigned fear, but then their phones began ringing, with concerned friends and relatives telling the same story.

We had an amazing vantage point, we were quite safe, it was serious, but our demeanor as friends doesn't allow that sort of distraction and we continued our conversation and meal.

I used the same white Ikea linen panels for this quilt.

Sometimes I get a bit embarrassed about these quilts. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and these are a little out of my comfort zone.

However, I need to expand and do more 'free' pieces of textile art.

So here they are for what its worth.

I achieved the desired effect.

There we go.

The weekend is almost over and  a very busy weekend it was.

I did finish the portrait of my lady. I just need to quilt the background now and the sample is done.

I'm happy with it. Its not pretty, but graphic. I achieved the desired effect. I want a sketched effect, the softness of the cheesecloth underneath the stitching adds a wonderful textural effect.

It was not without its problems because I had a helper who needed to hold the quilt while I was sewing and when you're only two years old your Bamma needs to keep her eyes on the needle!!!

I managed to distract him with my old thread stash which took pressure off the  finger watching.!!!

Friday was a finishing day and when Grandie Kaiden went home,friend Kay came over to the studio and we worked on creating a hand with the same technique. It looked great.

My next project will be to find some wonderful old hands to photograph.

Saturday I was up early and working on finishing projects once again.

I had a photo shoot in the morning, it went well and I will write another note on the blog about the wonderful ladies of the SAlt group and their quilts.

Wonderful quilts.

I raced off the Bowerbird Craft fair for an hour and then off for my 6 monthly check up at the skin specialist.

The Dr was an hour late, I almost fell asleep in the waiting room and tried to keep the eyes open by working on the ipad.

I had to have two spots removed one from my shoulder and one from my back and a biopsy on one on my face that had previously been diagnosed as an age spot.!!!

Wooow. That was a shock.

It was painful and I tried to disguise the pain by buying an illicit block of chocolate... but it didn't work. It was hard to sleep last night.

This morning I finished two journal quilts... and another is well on the way.

I'll feature them on the blog tomorrow.

Well, its Autumn here in the Adelaide Hills, there is a chill in the air, the smoke of wood fires reminds us of the cold weather to come.

The vines have turned golden and when the sun hits the leaves in the late afternoon, it stirs the heart.

 

I did it.

This project has been an interesting exercise.

I'm feeling triumphant this evening as I prepare to go to Guild...

I've achieved what I was attempting to do.

This morning I finished putting all the cheese cloth down.

Once I have the foundation piece down, then I freehand cut the highlights...

Next she was ready to stitch.

I began with the eyes, the most important feature.

You need to have a clear vision of how the image will look when its finished.  At this stage I knew I could do it. Whoopeee...

This is as far as I've got today... will finish it tomorrow.