My name is Barbara and I live in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs with my husband of 27 years and my 22 year old daughter. I trained as a nurse in the late 70’s and worked in various positions in nursing until my daughter was born.  I began smocking when my daughter was small, I enjoyed the rhythm and precision of handwork. I moved on to ballet costumes and uniforms and all those things children get you into!

 In 2004 I chanced upon a job offer to make dog training collars and harnesses and so began a new phase and relationship with my sewing machine.  Free motion embroidery and thread painting creates a marked contrast to my day job!  I have never shown any particular artistic ability,  but the thread painting has helped me to see things with a new eye.  I now find myself wanting to photograph lots of colours, shapes and textures and capture them to use in future projects.

This photo of me taken late at night in my messy work room.  I'm working on the Calla Lillies in the photo above (thanks John O for the photo), listening to NCIS on the TV and trying to get enough done before I have to clean up the space for the next days' real work!!!

I've always tended to sew things fairly fast in my impatience to get things done.  My mum used to say I sewed with a "hot thread and burning needle" which I'm sure was not intened as a compliment!  But thread painting and free motion embroidery really lend them selves to my way of doing things, so perhaps this technique was just waiting for me to discover it.