WIP 2012 London Olympic Pennant

I've done some more work on my first Olympic Pennant for Quilts 4 London.

I've decided on the binding fabric and I bought some fabric for the backing in town today. The binding is a retro pattern but I think it gives the piece an aboriginal feel. The work as it develops reminds me of the outback after rain. The rain soaks away and evaporates leaving billabongs and chains of ponds in the river and creek beds. I wanted it to have an Australian feel without adding kangas or koalas!

Olympic Pennant - working title 'Chains of Ponds'

I have worked on a small sample of the leftover discharged fabric to see how the fabric paint ponds and french knot wild flora will look. I am quite happy with the resultant sampler and may even bind it as an iddy biddy quilt! (That assumes I finish it of course! I should probably complete it first as I can see I will be quite 'over' french knots by the time the whole pennant is done!) I am using linen thread as with the running stitch detail and am finding the dull finish is a lovely contrast to the lustre of the metallic paint (Pebeo Setacolor Shimmer Electric Blue Opaque)

A Sample of Painted Ponds and French Knot Wild Flora

I went shopping today and bought the loveliest dress for summer! I couldn't wait to wear it as it was full of luscious summery colours and made me feel so happy; so I asked the lovely lady who served me if I could wear it out of the store! A bit cheeky perhaps but she was most obliging.......... luckily I was wearing shoes to match!!!!!!!!!!!

Blissful Journal

Here are a couple of detail shots of 'Bliss'. I'm liking her more and more and am really enjoying working on her now!

Blissful...

These wee daisies were fun and I love the variegated thread!

                                    

Bliss' Dress Detail

Bliss' Bouquet Detail

I love the unexpected colour combinations that some of these small works create.

I found some Letraset in my filing cabinet... Don't laugh but it must be over 20 years old - 8 years of which it spent in New Zealand! There's not a lot of it but I will use it in the River of Tears journal!

hope - lift your face to the sun........

...with some added Letraset

Alive but Trapped

Another journal page... I love the way the sun caught this!

Quilts4London - Pennants for Olympic Athletes

The organisers of Quilts 4 London are calling for A3 sized pennant shaped quilts to give to each participant at the 2012 London Olympic Games. I thought this was a wonderful idea and as quilts are accepted globally I offered to be co-ordinator for Australia! Their website now has a slideshow of the first finished pennants as well as construction details and ideas for pennant shapes ! Click on the link or on the banner at the bottom of my blog page.......

I decided it was high time I began my first one! I've started with a piece of discharge dyed cotton that I blogged about a few months ago. I've cut wadding and calico to size and am going to surface stitch and embellish before adding a plain cotton backing and binding. I'm enjoying how this is looking... The buttons aren't stitched on yet but I'll definitely will be adding some!

Quilts4London Pennant WIP

Quilts4London Pennant WIP- detail

More Joyous Journalling.....

Here is the stamped watercolour, (that I wrote about in my last post) on it's own journal page... I love the extra dimension the stamped text has given it. Not 100% complete.... and some of the actual journal words may still be a little too clear..... This process is still giving me so much joy!

Hope for the Future: River of Tears Journal Vol I

Once these divorce journals are done I want to continue either a daily or at least weekly page in a BRAND SHINY NEW JOURNAL...!!

This art quilt is changing as it grows; I go through stages of liking it and then disliking it immensely! I like it -not love it - at the moment!

Bliss

More journal pages....

I was lucky enough to get to Eckersley’s (Think art supplies!) on Tuesday when I took Jon’s boys back home. It was an hour detour from my already long journey…. Plus browsing time! ....but was worth every minute of it for the joy I had of being among all the art materials and having my sister-in-law for company.

Among the bits and pieces I bought, I found a wonderful alphabet stamp set by KaiserCraft. I'm impressed!

An old watercolour I added stamping too; I can now use it in my collage work!

I stamped some words onto white tissue paper and added them to this journal page. You may need to enlarge the pic to see.

Another new journal page; not finished but fun!

Here is a little something I'm working on. Don't really know why I started it... Just one of those things I had to do. I will put a face on the elfin figure and keep adding background and embroidered detail. It will eventually become a little art quilt.

Kleine Hexe

Here is my new herb garden that I blogged about recently. Jon and the boys helped position the heavy concrete troughs. They're all ready to plant up now....!

My new herb garden...

'Black' Iris, Herbs and Vegies

The dark iris buds have opened!

They are such a dark velvety purple and absolutely gorgeous!

Here's another yellow one. I love the surprises I’ve been having each day as the buds show colour and I find out which I planted where!

My favourites are pink irises….. but I’m fairly sure I don’t have one. I’ll need to keep an eye out at the nursery….!

We have 3 old and very heavy concrete laundry troughs which were located in various places in our huge house yard. They had been used as garden pots by the previous owners. Whilst Jon’s boys Ben and James are here we utilised their extra brawn to move them all into the vege patch, where I will turn them into herb gardens! They are all double troughs, so I have the equivalent of 6 new large pots! I added alpaca poop, compost and mulch to the soil. I’ll give them a week or so to fester nicely in the warmth and wetness before planting them up! It'll be nice to keep the herbs close together and they look great along the fence of the vegie patch...

The beans I planted a week ago aren’t up yet… hopefully they won’t be too much longer! The peas and snow peas are starting to produce… so we've been munching as we've been working. I don't think I've ever actually got fresh peas shelled, cooked and served to the table!

On the road again tomorrow; I’m driving the boys back home. I'll travel an extra hour to go to a large art store to get a few supplies!

Recommended Artist's Journal Book

Here is a book I can recommend with much enthusiasm! I received it from Amazon on Friday and have been savouring it bit by bit, day by day for the last few evenings; sitting up in bed with a cuppa -and the best bit is; I'm still not quite done!!! The pages are in many styles by many talented journal artists and are fantastic inspiration. I thoroughly recommend it!


Amazon.com: 1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations (1000 Series) (9781592534128): Dawn DeVries Sokol: Books

Edited to add photo...

Would love to add either my own pic (haven't actually taken one tho!) or the Amazon pic - not sure if that's allowed?

Of Freedom, Joy and more Irises!

I did a couple more journal pages yesterday......... and these are different again. Have I mentioned the sense of freedom evoked when I'm doing these? There is no preplanning (apart from some thoughts of allowing for the river to flow through) and I just use what I have at hand. It's quite a messy process..... but that suits me I think! Who would have thought these books of pain could bring me so much joy?

This double page spread has no river.  I don't see any of them as complete yet. I will come back with line drawings and collaged or stamped or handwritten text.

I’m finding I’m getting more adventurous, more casual, less worried about having everything turn out to be a masterpiece or even saleable. This is very empowering. I’ve been reading lots of creative blogs lately and am so inspired not just by the art of others but the art that is produced around and through people's lives and happenings; both positive and negative. I love to hear about what inspires artists; what makes them tick; their journeys.

WIP Metamorphosis - New Life from the River of Tears

Tomorrow I am making a 6 hour return trip to collect Jon's boys for a long weekend school holiday stay. We'll have lunch at Nana's (Jon's Mum) to break the journey. Yesterday, Rose and Mack flew to Brisbane to spend a week with their father so I am kiddie free today (and not so secretely loving it!) I will make a detour either tomorrow or on the return trip next week to collect some  art supplies (not really much needed but definitely muchly inspired, muchly wanted and muchly required for trying out new things- you know how it is!)

Here are some more irises opening in my garden!

Three Iris Sentinels

These are such a dark purple that they look almost black as buds! I haven't yet checked on them today to see if they've opened up further. These were already in the garden when we arrived along with some other purples.

These supposedly ordinary geraniums were catching the sunshine beautifully...

Sneak Peak WIP

Here’s a sneak peak at my latest WIP (work in progress)! It’s mixed media on stretched canvas and inspired by my River of Tears journal. It is such great fun……. I want to add more elements but I quite like it’s simplicity as is. I originally designed it this way up….

But have been working on it this way up.

Now I’m not sure which I like best. Maybe the original? Comments greatly appreciated! Which orientation? And does it need more elements?

Last year I was given a selection of gaudy but oh so beautiful irises……… They are starting to flower! I'm so excited as I can’t for the life of me remember which colours I planted where! I leave you with this image of these two toned ones which are the first to open!

River of Tears Journal - more pages!

I’m continuing daily with my journal: The River of Tears.

Here are a few more pages that I’ve been working on. These aren’t finished yet. I still feel there are some over-drawing and text to add to most of these. I'm still enjoying the process immensly and am almost consumed with it at the moment!

I've found some old artwork from that dark time and have incorporated peices of that as either torn up and collaged fragements or cut up sections. They no longer represent the original idea (in some cases thankfully!)