What was I thinking...?

Truly, what was I thinking? I’m part way through this Flaming Heart piece and only now do I question WHY AM I WORKING ON WHITE CLOTH?

Lynda and I got together for another art day yesterday and had a couple of dyebaths on the stove whilst we worked away at other things. I am so pleased with the outcome [ always am :) ] Here are the results of the Onion Skin bath; mostly cotton and linen… and mostly vintage or found textiles! Love that old linen teatowel and the spots and rings that became visible after dyeing!

Onion Skin Dyed Fabrics

This is the simple Dylon Jeans Blue bath results. We tied the pieces with rubberbands as we wanted variegated colour not solid colour. Great results; great future sky pieces…. So again, remind me why I’m working on white? I think I’ll have to either paint or appliqué a background onto my Flaming Heart piece!!!!

Dylon Dyebath results

We played around with the gouache and indian ink wash off technique that I’ve tried before. The results weren’t totally successful and I’m blaming it on poor quality materials! I used an inferior brand of gouache which didn’t wash off the paper as should have happened. Consequently my whites are bright white not the soft sepia they should have been. Also, I rubbed a little hard trying to remove the gouache and have torn the paper….. Mmmmm should have known better!!!

Gouache and Indian Ink wash off technique

Tree of Life

Detail

Oh, and a last minute piece of discharged linen! Yuuuummmmm, look at those gorgeous organic shapes! Can't wait to stitch back into this!!

...of March Madness

Yay! I've recently reduced my work hours as I found I just wasn't getting enough time to play creatively and I felt somehow not whole because of that. Also, I felt that I wasn't spending enough time with my family....

So, flip side; Here I am with a bit less money to play with but way more time! I've done a little more to the sacred heart piece; the wings are cut and ready to trim and stitch on (soft creamy gold fabric- if they were jewellery they would be called white gold!)..... I'm loving this little piece; I haven't got a working plan; I'll just keep adding to it until it's done. I do know I want it to be very decorative and embellished!

Sacred Heart

Vintage Embroidery, silk and found textile Applique

on vintage linen

This is my first week of reduced hours and I am loving having my freedom back! I'm enjoying baking and cooking again; seeing more of my kids; and well, just playing! I continue to have a weekly art day with Lynda - this week we played with soldering. We soldered broken crockery, coloured glass and tried a technique (I can't remember if it was in Cloth Paper Scissors or Somerset Studio) where you adhese an image onto foam core board, polyurethane or varnish the image, add copper tape, then solder the edges and an eyelet pushed into the top of the foam core to make a pendant!

We had lots of fun...! and some mixed results! -I still need to practice my soldering technique and think I need a different tip for my soldering iron!

I also squeezed in a workshop with Glenys Mann (local textile artist who also teaches and organises textile events and classes bringing international tutors to Australia) which was fun! We did some natural dyeing, and rusting; as well as worked on an individual project prompted by Glenys' brief. She's a lot of fun and very talented and knowledgable.... I enjoyed the day very much!

WIP - Reliquery

My work revolved around the theme of reliquery. Here are some little pieces I worked on. This has since led me to explore the theme further and this discharged cross is a further step... I don't know where all this is going yet; but I'm having fun! Unfortunately I won't be able to make the class this week as Mack has a belated birthday sleepover...

Discharged Black Cotton Whole Cloth -Cross

Cross - detail

Cross - detail

I just love the shapes and images in the individual squares. Not sure whether to add stitch or just leave it as is? Any comments welcome.

Off into town for coffee and cake with a friend; then a quick visit to the op shops, before coming home and finishing up the signs I've not had time to finish! I'm also going to mount my 3 sisters piece onto a painted canvas and hopefully frame it to take into the gallery. I'm going to rename it 'Grace, Beauty and Wisdom'!

Studio Day.........March Progress

I spent a day in the studio with an artist friend yesterday; we did some monoprinting and discharge dyeing – We probably didn’t’ achieve half as much as we’d hoped but had a fun day! Thanks Lynda! She’s very talented! You can find her new blog here….

Simple Monoprinting on book pages and over the top of an old lino print.

Some discharge dyeing on black cotton.

We used foam and wood blocks to stamp on the bleach.

Progress on my Flaming Heart piece. I've used variegated DMC stranded cotton to outline the tiger lily flames! (From an upcycled vintage doiley)

What a weekend!

What a great weekend! I feel like I have achieved sooooo much. Don’t you love days like that? Firstly I didn’t have to work Saturday morning which was wonderful in itself! I got up early and cleaned toilets and the bathroom, did washing and ironing, covered the rest of Rose and Mack's school books (they are back to school this week and my baby Mack starts high school tomorrow!); normally these are all things which I detest! I don’t know what’s got into me but I actually really enjoyed myself!

Hand-Painted Sign

I finally painted one of the double signs (A-frame) that I was supposed to finish for a friend a little while ago and today I did the 80km round trip into town to buy groceries as there wasn’t much food left in the cupboard or fridge!

I made a baked berry cheesecake (YUUUUUMMMMMM!) and a roast leg of lamb for dinner tonight. Gee, I even washed some blankets which have been hanging around in the bottom of the clothes hamper…. and it was hot enough today that they were nearly dry as soon as I had hung them!

I also had a bit of a play around with this skirt which used to be a favourite until I was silly enough to wear it whilst cleaning the bottom of the shower one day. There was a horrid bleach mark on the bottom which meant I haven’t been able to wear it since; but I've had the inspiration to resurrect it!

Today I decided to try and embellish it a little by stamping household bleach on to the hem area with a cork- disguising the original bleach mark. I allowed it time to discharge and then washed it. Viola!

I think it would be wearable now but I am inspired by this piece of lace I picked up in Queensland late last year and want to somehow turn these dots into flowers.

Isn’t this lace just divine?

Off to watch some telly with the Hubble; I'm mending a favourite, favourite, favourite pair of khaki cargo pants using Jude Hill's invisible basting method. I think she refered to it as stitching that glues fabric layers together and that is exactly what it feels like. Jude's blog Spiritcloth is here for those of you who don't know her work yet. She holds online classes; 2 of which I've been privileged to have participated in. I learnt soooo much!

Finishing this post on a high! I feel great that I have done so much! Catch you soon..........

tee hee, it's about me!

The lovely Jane over at QuiltersCottageNorfolk has received my BLUE MOON inspired ATC swap and posted about it here! I’m honoured!... it’s so weird seeing your own work on someone else’s blog and what a gorgeous photo, Jane! Thank you! (Seems like I finished and wrapped it just a few days ago and now it’s around the other side of the world!)So, I can post my photo now!

Moon Shadow ATC

Discharge Dyed Denim, Organza, Tim Holtz Bird Stamp, Stamped Tree - embroidered

Embroidered MoonBeams, Machine stitched edging, starry denim backing with label,

silk and varioius fibre tassel

Blue Moon ATC Swap

Top: Sandi Manning

Bottom: Jane Clark

I really enjoyed this swap; (challenging as it was for me!) ....so thank you Jane!

I would love to do an ATC or similar swap with whoever is interested… just leave me a comment….

of a whole studio day!

I found this small embroidery on linen at an op shop some time ago and just had to save it!

Today I threw it in the dye bath and after it was washed and dried I discharge dyed the original stitching... I love the effect!

Yay! My work hours are going to be consolidated a bit and it seems I am going to have at least a couple of days a week with no work… which means of course I can get more done at home and in the studio! Also, the total hours will be approximately the same as I have been doing but I won’t need to spend as much on petrol to get there (an 80km – 50 mile round trip) which is a bonus! Instead of 5 days part time it is going to be more like 2-3 full days.

It will definitely make me appreciate the time I do have here. So, it was down to busy-ness in here this morning and I dyed a batch of fabric with a particularly prevalent weed we have here. Again, the silk took the colour the best and adding salt at the end changed the end product from a fairly non-descript green to a mushroom pink on most fabrics. An interesting result on the linen….

I love the softness of natural dyes… I also found a piece of printed cotton that I had left in the bottom of my last onion skin dye bath. Beautiful colour! Nice effect! All rinsed and dried now.

Natural 'weed' dyeing!

 The darker pieces are silks and the others, cottons and cotton blends.

I had the dyeing bug after that and I can always find plenty of scraps to throw in around here! So, I used a commercial jeans blue dye and did some low immersion dyeing. I love the effects that I have. Again a mix of cotton, linen, silk, & cotton blends. This was my favourite piece of the day! A gorgeous piece of linen which was scrunched and retained some whites!

Low immmersion -commercial denim blue dye on linen

Various pieces of cotton, linen and blends with denim blue commercial dye- low immersion

Fire Breathing Green Eyed Dragon!

WIP - Nearing completion!

Last night saw me stitching more on my Fire Breathing Green Eyed Dragon! He is nearing completion and I was just starting to think about a backing fabric and work out how or if I’m going to bind it; when inspiration hit from a piece of blue linen I’d just dyed!

I have an old thrift store pashima shawl I dyed a few months ago that has some nice tassels so I think I’ll use that on the bottom edge…. mmmm... might need something blue along that bottom edge too...

of Nature, WIPs and Work

This new part time job is taking it's toll... : )  I'm loving it; but I'm exhausted! I think I'm still trying to get as much done (house, garden, studio) as I usually do and it's just not happening. I don't want anything to come between me and my creative time and I'm frustated with myself that I'm tired! I guess it's just all new and will be a matter of settling in. I started a little later this morning as I attended a little ceremony at my son's school........ It's great that my new work place is flexible; they're lovely people and I feel like I'm learning lots; it's hands on, which I love.

So, I haven't really done much needlework.... I started a little on the Blue Moon ATC last night... I'll see where that goes...

Blue Moon ATC

WIP

Yellow Clouds yesterday evening....

they really looked ominous and were strangely coloured.. 

but we didn't get a storm....

My very favourite rose: Mary Rose

see, I can do Shabby Chic!

Young Chinese Elm

My Silver Birch trunks are turning silver!

Having a bit of trouble with photo formatting of late. My pics are tending to get squashed up. I tried resizing a couple of them but now they won't centre.. so apologies for the mish mash array!

grrrrrrr

I have to make another 80km round trip into town tonight as Rose has a twilight school swimming carnival this evening...

The Hand Embroidery Networks (HEN) Winter Wonderland Exhibition is online here. There is some absolutely fabulous, clever and detailed work!

here comes the rain..........!

but first...., I wanted to show you the starting point for an ATC swap with Jane Clark at Quilters Cottage Norfolk. Here is a link to her blog post showing her gorgeous Blue Moon ATCs. Please check out the rest of her blog; she has some really lovely and varied work... and updates at least once a day!

Blue Denim Moon

Discharged Denim - ATC WIP

Inspiration for this comes from Jude Hill's divine blog : Spirit Cloth. I read Jude's blog every day (I think I'm addicted to her slow cloth methods, her colour and texture combinations, her musing, her photos, her stitches and her beautiful story cloths) If you're not already following Jude I guarantee you will once you see her work!

Blue Denim Moons

Discharged Denim - ATC WIP

If you follow the links on Jude's blog you will find Shibori Girl (Glennis Dolce) who's amazing indigo moons Jude features. Again, check out her whole blog!

Rain Approaching

Sun Shower

(actually a little more than a shower but don't you love when it rains and the sun is still shining?)

We're thankful for the rain as everything was starting to dry out again!

...did I mention where I started work sells art materials? tee hee (musn't tell hubby!)

3 Bags Full!

Yay! I’ve finally completed my first pennant for Quilts 4 London! (As Australian Coordinator I thought it was high time I got this completed and added onto the Quilts 4 London website) I’m very pleased with how it’s turned out!

'Chains of Ponds'

Pennant

I have added a hanging sleeve to the back but not the label yet as I will print out a few at a time onto Inkjet Fabric. There are many hours of linen french knots embellishing a discharge dyed background. I also used fabric paint. I have blogged about the process previously, so if you're interested please go back to the last few months of my blog!

Detail of embroidery and binding

Detail of backing fabric and binding

The objective of Quilts 4 London is to make a pennant (a mini journal/art quilt in any textile medium) to present to each participant at the 2012 London Olympic Games. I thought this was such a wonderful idea when I came across it that I knew I wanted to be involved!

There are instructions for making a pennant on the website if you’d like to participate as well as a gallery of completed pennants, and lots of useful links. Email me if you live in Australia and have any questions or admin if you live elsewhere.

Edited to add website (as these links may not be working.....)  www.quilts4london.org.uk  Just cut and paste into your browser.

On a completely different note; I got my sheep shorn today- all 6 of them! The weather has been around the 40deg C (about 100deg F) mark for about a week now with little relief and I’ve felt so sorry for the larger ewes who were carrying a lot of wool. I managed to track down a portable shearer and now have 3 bags full of wool! (Well, 2 ½ anyway; so I have more than enough to play around with!)

I want to teach myself to spin first and I also want to make felt using the natural colours (I have black, silver and a couple of fleeces that are tri coloured!).

Now, I need to find some carding combs!

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

Playing with Dye!

Discharge Dyeing

My most recent studio play over the last week or so has involved bleach discharge dyeing of plain black homespun. I have played with this before but I tried a few different methods this time.

Discharge shibori!

The tiger stripe piece was concertina folded and bent back on itself before being wrapped with string and discharged with bleach. It reminds me of an x-ray! Mmmm…I would love to try shibori!

This piece was created by printing on the bleach with styrofoam pieces! (Previously I have used small wooden blocks, jar lids and cotton reels) I was really impressed with the results and have started a quilt utilising my most current pieces and some of the older ones buried in my stash! I love how they glow!

WIP

Flour Paste Resist

Flour Paste Resist/ Discharge Dyeing

This square bordered piece was created with a flour paste resist and then discharge dyed. I pressed some small and large circles into the paste as it was drying and when it was completely dry I scrunched up the fabric to create cracks in the paste which formed this gorgeous all over crazing effect. The patterning is not as defined as I imagined but it’s growing on me. After reading some blogs about others’ experiences with this I resisted the temptation to do the dying the same day as I added the paste! (Messy to say the least!!) I waited until the next morning and until the paste was completely dry! Would like to try this as a dyeing process- not discharge.

Onion Skins

Today I have onion skins in the dye pot! ; something I have not tried before. I have a couple of small pieces of white silk; one is trussed up with rubber bands, a small piece of cream silk, a piece of cotton organdy and a few tiny pieces of felted wool.

The wool has taken the dye beautifully and is such a gorgeous ginger colour! The silk less so (and I disliked the trussed silk so I have rescrunched and trussed again to add more colour. I think it was the contrast with the white I didn’t like!) So, it’s back in the pot with a larger silk piece that I am over dyeing – being one of the gum leaf dyed pieces from last week! How blessed am I to have a stove in my studio?

I’ve reboiled the kettle about 3 times now and still haven’t made myself a cup of tea! So, that’s what I’m off to do now. Promise! I won’t get sidetracked again!!!