Gail Lawther at our club

We had a fascinating talk today from Gail Lawther whose books, A Trip Around the World
( which I picked up, new, for only £2 in a book shop in town, an unbelievable price for whats in it!) and Glimpses of New Zealand are a feast of design inspiration.
http://www.gaillawther.co.uk/home.asp
Well Gail delivered a fun and spirited talk about her love of New Zealand and showed 35 of her slim, vertical hangings, which all feature specific things that inspired her creative mind and fingers.
My most favourite was the maori face above, up close its all browns but stand away from it and there's the tattoed face! Its very clever.
But here's a taste iof some of the others that rung my bell...

these three are of the Rotarua geothermal springs where the hot geysers have forced up salts to the earths surface and they sparkle and look crusted in such wonderful colours...apparently!

The Queen never sent me to NZ when I was flying..godamit!

Now the feather represented a specific bird, that is the unofficial, official symbol of Nz.....since you rarely ever see a kiwi bird, they are so shy and timid. I will look out my book of hers, cos am sure the name of that bird will be in there, along with a pic of this feather hanging.

its amazing how different all 35 if the hangings are, and how many different techniques Gail had used therein!

Now many thousands first went to NZ in the goldrush and this next piece has the names of many of those who remain, but in the graveyards. So many died before ever making their fortune......whole families with children of all ages. So gail has named some of them and layered their names beneath net and voiles.........and here's the gold seam, running from top to bottom, through the stones of the NZ land.

This one above captures the paua (abalone) shells inner deeply colourful, mother of pearl like sheen. It was such stunningly beautiful colours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81ua

As always some members had brought in some pieces of work they had completed or that were WIP.
I liked the use of such small pieces of fabric in Jill Steels ( bookcover I think)

and more good use of scraps.. Betty Finchams CQ and yes more little jumpers! I took in 94 but there were some 6 or 7 carrier bags taken in too.

and a clever piece here...........nets catching fish I think........by Jackie Ward-Lomox..........some of the couched down net is plastic, probably from a bag of cheeses........like Baby Bells maybe. 

Oh and I finally had a go at making myself some shoe insoles, to slip in and out of the shoes that tend to cling to my bare feet when its hot. The stitching is abit skew whiff but I will perfect the quilting on the next few I make. I used felted woollens as the padding to use up some of my stash lol
They feel really comfy in my espadrilles and of course can be easily washed through.