Blog Hop - Robyn McGrath

Welcome to Robyn McGrath who takes us on a tour of the creation of her Oceania Collection quilt for the SAQA Auction which starts on 9 September 2013.


In Waters Cool and Clean” - Fat belly Seahorse, Sydney Harbour is the title of my 12” x 12” quilt for the SAQA Auction.

I chose my subject because a native Aussie fit with the Oceania Group contributions and because my scuba diving son phoned to tell of his excitement in seeing one of these creatures and shared his delight that Sydney was clean enough for them to inhabit.

I decided to colour my white background fabric using an ice dyeing  technique because the serendipitous results are often inspiring. So, soda soaked fabric was folded, scrunched and placed on wire racks and covered with small ice cubes.

Fibre reactive dye was sprinkled on the ice and covered with plastic and sheeting for 24 hours.

The results were a surprise because I used a rack with a small grid and here and there grid marks appeared on the cloth. I decided to use one of the pieces with the grid marks as it worked for the large stem of kelp.

To add my message about cool clean water I made a freezer paper stencil and used decolourant to lighten the words in several places on the background.

The kelp fronds were cut from organza, and  the impression of cellular structure was made with paintstick rubbings over mesh. These were applied  and heat cut to shape with a stencil cutter. The ferny seaweed was also added with paintstick rubbings over small woodblock stamps.

The seahorses were cut from different silks, appliquéd and decorated with programmed and free motion stitching The foreground seahorse  was machine trapuntoed for extra impact. The quilting was dictated by the pictured items and the ice dyed background. Here's the finished work!

For more inspiration see the following posts from other Oceania members:  
13 August             Linda Robertus                lindarobertus.blogspot.com
15 August             Linda Stokes                   linda-stokes.blogspot.com
19 August             Kate Oszko                    koszko.blogspot.com
21 August             Felicity Clarke                 bearlytherecreations.blogspot.com