Page 40 - The Digital Cloth Holiday issue 2

Catherine is a quilter and surface Fabric Designer
designer from Prebbleton on the
outskirts of Christchurch, New
Zealand. She has been making her
own textile fabric for sale since 2015

and calls this Mallee Textiles. Why
does a kiwi use an Aussie area for a
name you might well ask? Her
husband, Brad, comes from the
Mallee originally, although he has
been in New Zealand for 35 years.
They are both into horses and named
their property Mallee Park. Since
Catherine made her textiles there,
she called them Mallee Textiles.
Catherine makes unique, one of a

kind fabric’s, using one or several
techniques. Counting up there are
about 18 different techniques or
combinations she might use. Starting
with white she usually dyes a base
colour as a starting point. When these
fabrics are ready, she gets out her
paints, stencils and stamps and starts
creating.

How and where does she start? Well
there are some favourite processes
she uses time and again as they sell
very well e.g. circles, slash painting,
one or two favourite stencils or just
using the paint roller to create
texture. A lot of it is how she feels
on the day! She loves the freedom of
making fabrics without a purpose in
mind and loves looking at the fabric
thinking how it could be used.

Could it be a mountain or a pathway?
Is it good texture for a wooden shed
or corrugated iron for a roof?
However, if she is making fabric
specifically for one of her own
projects she enjoys the challenge of
trying to create something specific.
To get the right piece can take a few
attempts but the bonus is the fabrics