Textiles have been one of my art forms since 2015. The shift from paint to textiles needed time to develop. I really did not consider myself to be a textile artist at all. This began to change in 2023 when I was accepted into the Ballarat Arts Foundation mentoring program.

My mentor was Christine Lethlean, a textile artist. The BAF Mentorship Program ran over six months from June 2023 to December 2023. In that time, the way I saw myself and my art changed dramatically.

One of my first conversations with Christine began with “I’m not a textile artist.” I showed her a box full of my fabric designs, my scarf designs, some eco-dyed fabrics, and half finished free motion quilting on hand painted silk. The silk painting and free motion quilting was done in workshops ran by Michelle De Groot of Michelle’s Patchwork.

Christine gently informed me that I was a textile artist. It took me a while to absorb her feedback.

In the last year, Christine has enabled me to see my textile work is something to pursue. This is an ongoing learning path. I’m still very much a beginner, and I value my time with Christine a great deal.

Below are some examples of my designs (still on my Spoonflower shop) with ‘Milkmaids and Pink Fingers’ in the centre.

How I went from Paint to Textiles

Stepping back to 2015, my first venture into textiles occurred before I painted. At that time, nature photography was my passion. I wanted to know how I could work on my photographs to make art, and stumbled across the art of surface design. Designing patterns for fabric, in particular, appealed to me.

Self taught, I developed a repeating pattern featuring local wildflowers. Milkmaids (a native lily) and the Pink Fingers Orchid (a native terrestrial orchid) were the elements I chose. The design is in delicate pastels, unlike the vibrant colours of my paintings. The flowers came from photographs I took on our bushland property. My designs feel personal and connected with home.

Michelle De Groot of Michelle’s Patchwork lives locally and is part of my artist community. Being in her classes and attending her quilting group, designing fabrics for home decor seemed natural. Michelle gave me feedback on my first designs and encouraged me to keep designing.

My Spoonflower online shop with the name Musing Meanders enabled me to print fabrics and sell them at markets. It also meant they were available worldwide. I also created digital designs for products on Redbubble. Scarves were my top-selling item.

Serious illness hit me in 2018. I kept the online shops, and still have them. However, my focus was elsewhere. Post surgery, using the computer and photographing tiny wildflowers were too hard.

I took up painting.

Exciting Times Ahead

In 2023, when Christine saw my paintings, she immediately suggested I turn them into fabric panels for textile artists. This could include quilting, but also so much more. I’m still working out how to do that, but I love the idea. There are designs in the pipeline, so stay tuned.

If you’re interested in textile art, in any form, please follow my website or sign up to my newsletter. In 2025 I will be working on a few new textile-based projects. There will also be a whole heap of new designs both on Spoonflower and Redbubble, but also textiles offered on my own website. I’m fired up for this, and it feels exciting.