Australia report

AUSTRALIA

Well, after seven weeks on the road, I am back home (but only for a week!).

I will post about my trip in a couple of posts.

Let's start with Australia, where we spent four days in Sydney, and two plus weeks in Brisbane. The time in Sydney was too short, the time in Brisbane was too long.

I did get to swim in a couple ocean pools in Sydney. Actually, in two - Wylie (in Coggee) and IceBergs (in Bondi). Wylie is truly an ocean pool, with ocean floor below you, whereas Icebergs is like a pool bottom and sides, which gets filled by the ocean.

Wylie

the documentation

Icebergs

Visited Spoonflower. It was fun to see Australia's version of the fabric store where I was working! (To clarify - they are completely different stores, except both cater to a very wide range of sewing needs) It was a short trip, but I did buy what I was hoping to buy - that is a length of the Dreamtime fabric, designed by Aboriginal artists. I think I will make a pair of the Angelia cargo shorts with this.

the fabric

My daughter had also accidentally found 'thefabricstore', known online by sewists around the world, especially for its merino wool. I could not bring myself to buy any, knowing I was heading elsewhere for fabric shopping.

looks like a warhouse

Easy to miss

Im Brisbane I visited an exhibit at the Museum of Brisbane (which is right downtown at the old city hall, close to where we were staying. They advertise as MoB, which made me think 'Mother of the Bride' EACH TIME we walked by!) The exhibit was an art exhibit, rethinking 'flower arranging.' I am not a huge fan of art galleries - I don't know how to appreciate one piece of art after another (as opposed to seeing art just out in public, if that makes sense). However, this was interesting - kind of turning our usual thoughts of flowers in art and flower 'arranging' on its heads and sides, etc. My favourite piece, and most relevant for this blog, was this 'fabric maché' piece. The artist takes scrap fabric and mushes it up (in a blender, or something), similar to what we do with paper for papier maché and created this take on the wallpaper of their grandparents house. I loved this display, The pieces are a full size of the wall, for reference.

We also visited the Queensland Museum of Art, where there was a display featuring the works of Judith Watson, an aboriginal artist. This piece below is a concept piece showing the local river (Brisbane river), and superimposing effects of climate change. I really enjoyed her other works too.

see the Brisbane River?

close up of climate info

Delivered the items I had sewn for Australia daughter.

The Yanaka jacket was not the roaring success I was hoping for. That houndstooth linen was a bit of a challenge to work with for some reason. It was very shifty. And then there were some construction techniques which I did not like - some inset corners not well dealt with, in my opinion. (I only seem to have taken one photo... )

The Santorini tank looks great, if I say so myself! Sure, the back could be just a bit shorter below the waist.