Amanda Daly Shares The Inspiration Behind Her Contemporary Quilts
We catch up with quilt designer Amanda Daly on the inspiration behind her quilt designs.
Living on five acres of bushland in Kenthurst on the outskirts of north-west Sydney, with its diversity of bird and animal life, is a constant joy for quilt designer Amanda Daly. It also plays a substantial role in her contemporary, whimsical quilt designs.
But the Australian landscape quilts Amanda has become renowned for may never have happened if fate had not found a way to acquaint the English-born quilter with the Australian bush.
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“I was born in England and moved to Australia when I was 16,” says Amanda. “We have lived in Kenthurst for more than 20 years now but in my 20s I spent some time living in Austinmer, north of Wollongong, NSW, and as a very young mum we moved to Adelaide for three years. My second daughter was born there but I was feeling a little lonely and isolated, so I decided to branch out a bit and explore creative pursuits other than just sewing.”
Macramé, which was the all the rage at the time, became Amanda’s craft of choice, but over the years she has also tried her hand at potting, tatting, crochet, cake decorating, painting and sketching. This period of experimentation gave Amanda the confidence and freedom to stretch her creative wings and in the ‘80s she found her way to quilting.
Amanda’s first quilt was not quite the success she had hoped for. It was a blue floral print puff quilt. “These were very popular back then; I was self-taught and I don’t think it was very well made,” laughs Amanda. “It was to be the first of two identical quilts for my daughter’s beds, but the result wasn’t quite as pleasing as I had expected, so I abandoned the second quilt before it even got started,” Amanda confesses. Not long after, Amanda gave that first quilt to charity but she says she would quite like to see it again now to note how far she has come.
Learn raw-edge machine applique, reverse applique and machine quilting with Amanda Daly
These days Amanda designs her own quilts, which are generally contemporary wall hangings or lap quilts made with appliqué and lashings of free-motion quilting. She has lost count of how many quilts she has completed but says her best guess would put it in the realm of several hundred.
A few years ago Amanda decided to retire from her job in community development, in which she working for both charities and neighbourhood centres. While she was passionate about her work, she says quilting had overtaken her life to such an extent that she needed to make a decision about what was really important to her. “Needless to say, quilting won, and although I had taught quite extensively in my spare time while I was working, now teaching quilting has become my full-time occupation,” Amanda explains.
Most of her quilts are machined although she does enjoy hand-stitching as well. She also incorporates a lot of fabric folding into her work and loves the extra dimension this gives to her quilting. She still makes a few traditional quilts, which she says could probably be best described as a “twist on traditional. More and more I am dabbling with mixed-media techniques and love to add texture to my work. However, I cling to my traditional background in quiltmaking. I love to design my own quilts and use the proportions of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Number Sequence as a design aid. I teach this theory in my classes and workshops,” Amanda explains.
While her work may have Ancient Greek influences via the Golden Ratio and Italian influences thanks to the Fibonacci Number Sequence, Amanda also credits the Australian landscape as having an influence on her designs. “I draw a lot of inspiration for my quilts from the Australian landscape and I also find inspiration every day, often in unexpected places. I carry a camera with me everywhere I go and have made many quilts from the inspiration in my photos,” she explains.
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Amanda finds colour equally inspirational in her designs, as it gives texture and contrast to her work. “I love to work with Batik fabrics; they have life and are also very easy to work with. I steer away from bold prints, preferring the pattern created by the piecing or appliqué to be the focal point. I’m naturally drawn to warm colours and love to add a small amount of cool colour to give the project life,” Amanda says.
As for the design process itself, Amanda always has a firm plan in mind, with detailed sketches before she cuts into fabric. “Things don’t always go to plan and the project I made for this issue is no exception. It was to have been a much larger piece, but the reality was that the original idea didn’t work on a larger scale. So while the plan and sketches are a good starting point, quilts need to have the opportunity to take on their own personality as they develop. In this case I went back to the drawing board and redesigned the quilt, while keeping the same fabric choices and appliqué designs and that was a good move,” she declares.
Teaching extensively in the Sydney area, and for workshops and retreats around Australia and beyond, keeps Amanda more than busy. At her regular weekly classes she is happy for her students to either make their own quilts from her designs or to follow their own inspiration with her help. “When I’m teaching for workshops and retreats, I have an extensive range of workshops to choose from. At the moment many of these are raw-edge appliqué, others are fabric folding or a twist on traditional. My projects are quite varied and I like to think there is something there to suit all tastes,” Amanda says.
Over the coming years she plans to reduce her teaching load to enjoy semi-retirement, but says she will always teach. “I can’t imagine a life without quilting, however I think my focus might be swinging around to incorporate mixed-media and continuing my trend towards adding embroidery and silk fabrics into my work.”
That is Amanda’s plan, but who knows where the rest of her journey will take her. After all, hailing from England, her works could just have easily featured randomly proportioned roses and quaint cottages, rather than the mathematically influenced Aussie quilts she is famous for if fate had not brought her to our shores.
Visit Amanda Daly’s website: amandaspatch.blogspot.com.au
