By the end of  1995 I was getting sick of strong bright, even hectic, colours and wanting to work in some more soothing neutrals.  Was this an antidote to the fast pace of change I/we’d gone through?   Possibly – relocating back to one’s own country after several years away involved a lot of change – and it’s something that will probably loom again later this year, and I wonder if it will be reflected in what I do creatively…

“Winter Beach 1995”  approx 150cm w  x  90cm h is from this period.      No sashings or borders; machine quilted in the ditch and hand quilted down the middle of each strip insert, faced.   One of my favourite ways to make a quilt at that time was to run linear inserts across a width of fabric, wandering and crossing over at random, and then cutting into segments=blocks to be joined with others.  For a big project, selvedge to selvedge x  8″ wide is efficient and produces 6 x 6 1/2″ blocks – but of course the same procedure applies whatever size/width of fabric you have.  On a large scale several years later and back in stronger colour, this method produced Ivan and Tara’s Wedding Quilt 2000, 2.5m x 2.75m , 96″ x 108″, which also had a double pillow sham … quilted in the ditch and down the middle of each strip insert.   Every now and then while making it, I did wonder what I was thinking, but reminded myself it was for newly weds in the family.  

“Grey Landscape” 1996,   130cm w x 150cm h.