Cacilhas (just across the river from Lisbon)

Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon

Pena, an OTT summer palace in Sintra

Castle St George, Lisbon, Portugal

PHM visit

We spent a pleasant hour in the textile storage area of the Powerhouse Museum basement on Tuesday. As usual we took too long on each item so that we didn't see all that we had chosen from their collection of textile maps. But each item we saw was very interesting.

Following our visit to the Mitchell Library, we chose to see a piece of tapa cloth that was collected before 1900. It would make a very striking waistcoat. And it is much thiner than the piece that Elizabeth Cook was "working on."

Her embroidered map of Australia was (dimly) reflected in a doiley that brough back a rush of memories of the printed linen of my youth.

We inspected and discussed a couple of fabrics lengths printed by Jenny Kee.

There was the cotton handkerchief issued to passengers on an Orient Line cruise from Sydney to Japan in 1957. I expected this to be the most ho-hum of our selection but it is delightful.

But the tour de force is an 8 metre long, hand dyed, double woven sequence of sketches woven by Kelly Thompson.

Indomitable Explorers

Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society will present a lecture on Monday, May 16, 2011 by Paul Brunton who is a Senior Curator at the Mitchell Library, NSW. There is a $20.00 fee for lecture which will be held at the Wentworth Falls School of Arts theatre, Great Western Highway at 10.30 for 11.00am.

Help Save Fairfield Regional Museum and Gallery

Sgn this petition which is trying to convince Fairfield Council to reconsider its decision not to fund the appointment of a Director and a Curator to the Fairfield City Museum & Gallery. Without these experienced staff the place will just wither away. Fairfield City Museum & Gallery is one of the few regional galleries which regularly exhibits textile arts. The online address of the petition is www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/directorforfcmg
Please forward this to anyone else who might be interested?