Any guesses...?

Still not a pumpkin.... busy working away at my challenge piece. Can you believe I've already run out of beads and have had to order some from the States! I hope they arrive in time for me to finish this piece as I really want to enter something! i have spent many hours beading already - mostly keeping hubby company as he watches TV!

Bottom view! Not a pumpkin!

Detail; Not a pumpkin.

I've finally finished My Flaming Heart piece! I added text, some recycled sari silk ribbon and vintage doilies to the clouds and edges. I'm happy with how it turned out and am itching to frame it! That's the only problem with working as a framer.... I want to frame EVERYTHING!!!!

Finally finished! My Flaming Heart

Detail: My Flaming Heart - Vintage doiley pieces as clouds, backstitch text, recycled sari silk ribbon

Detail: My Flaming Heart - Beading

Working on some other things too... which I'll show progress on gradually!

COLOUR as a form of JOY!!!!!!!!!

Oh, JOY! Look at these colours!

Fibre active dyes on vintage cotton

Low immersion dyeing

I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered some Procion MX fibre reactive dyes online. Out of the 8 colours I wanted; the first place I tried could only fill 4. Gladly they posted them the same day and they turned up here Friday! (We only get post delivered 3 times a week so this was even more of a wonderful surprise!)

Soooo, after dinner; whilst everyone else was busy I decided to have a little play! I'm so excited by the results! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I am amazed at the brightness of the colours and after I've been through the bright pure colour phase I'm sure I will love coming up with my own blends!

A little bit of shibori.... First on a silk scarf...

Shibori Silk Scarf

.....then on a piece of vintage cotton which I scrunched onto a plastic tube (again something I've always wanted to try!)

Shibori Cotton

I adore how the colours have blended together in places and the scale shapes from the scrunching!

I've also made some progress on my Flaming Heart piece this week; adding beads... I'm also experimenting with ways to depict clouds...

Flaming Heart - beading detail

and....... I just wanted to share this gorgeous op shop find. It is the most beautifully embroidered Chinese jacket. I originally bought it to cut up... but on closer inspection I don't think I will be able to bring myself to! The embroidery is to die for..... I'm not sure whether to get it dry cleaned or wash it myself... One pocket is badly ripped; so will need a lot of attention. Also, a number of the original toggles at the front are unravelled... so I'll have to learn how to stitch them back down. It would make an exquisite evening jacket..... the label looks as if it is about a 1950's vintage.

It is just so beautiful....

Vintage Chinese Embroidered Jacket - back view

The green and blue dyes should arrive from a little further afield on Monday! I can't wait to try them out! Happy days!

Coloured Progress

I'm liking this so much better...!

The only blue fabric paint I had was metallic, but I think it fits in with the theme! I think I might add some white gauze or muslin clouds at the perimeter........

of windswept workings

Look what happened to 'Watch Me FLY!' overnight....

I added the hill landscape yesterday before I posted here.... the windswept trees and house emerged last night whilst watching TV with Hubble...  the trees are cut and raw edge appliqued from sari silk and the house is cut from the same red silk and white cotton that the centre woven panel is made of.

I have some onion skin dye on the stove...!

Watch Me FLY!

Just a quick post... have been absent from blogland for a bit. Work… Visitors…. Family…. Real life

I completed the pieced top for the Hubble’s quilt. It looks amazing and is HUGE! Well, larger than anything I’ve made before... 2.5m x 2.3m! It’s off to the quilting lady tomorrow!

I’ve also been working on ‘Heart with Wings’ … It’s actual title is “WATCH ME FLY’ . This comes from my journal of 8 or so years ago when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life…. I used the journal to vent and then gradually through the course of an entry I would get more and more positive until I came out of the other end happier; if not, more understanding and accepting of the place I was and of the feelings I was having…… It served me well... This piece represents me rising above and overcoming the situation I was in.

Playing..............

Just a quick post....my Dad is visiting from South Australia for a couple of weeks! I haven't seen him for a couple of years and it is his first visit to our little farm!

This was so much fun to make with some bits and pieces which were lying around my sewing table! I was too lazy to change the thread on the sewing machine but I needed a break from stitching Hubble's quilt blocks!

Coloured foil and silk on denim

I've stitched down the heart and wings on my latest piece... and love the way the wings are rippling and looking feathery

Heart with Wings- downward thrust!

Heart with Wings-

Feathery wing detail!

I found the cutest cookie cutter at the kitchen shop the other day and just couldn't resist! Jon had some fun at work today with these in his lunch box and the kids (who go back to school tomorrow after a 2 week term break) are looking forward to taking some of these ginger cookies in their lunchboxes too!

Dog Biccies!

...of Flying Hearts and Heartfelt Quilts

Busy, Busy Busy!

I’ve been racing around like a mad chook! I have house guests arriving today (my brother, his wife and 3 kiddies). They are staying for Easter and I’m so looking forward to catching up as it’s been at least 18 months since we’ve all seen each other….

So, housework has been on the agenda. (Not my favourite past-time)… and as much as I say to myself ‘They’ll just have to take us as we are’…. Part of me wants to have the place looking at least respectable! So……….Blah! Nearly done now; hopefully I'll even get a bit of stitching done before they arrive!

Besides that; I’ve got my new car! Oh joy, it’s divine and I love it!

Heart with Wings (Working Title)

Detail

I’ve been working on the Flying Heart piece… It’s grown somewhat and I made a new Heart with Wings as the other one is too small now! (I’ll use it somewhere else I’m sure!) It’s mostly an evening stitching project and is coming along quite quickly.

Heart with Wings - Whole piece

Now reorientated so there is more sky at the top!

Heart with Wings WIP

Also, it’s hubble’s 50 birthday in July and I want to finish a quilt for him. I started it nearly 2 years ago and haven’t even looked at it for probably more than a year! He keeps hinting though… and I’d love to have it done for him. In the six years we've been together the only thing I've ever made him is a pair of boxers! 

Jon's Quilt

WIP 36 blocks done-only 74 to go!

Kaffe Fasset Venetian Tile Quilt Design

The quilt is TRADITIONAL! …a gorgeous Kaffe Fassett design. The only traditional quilts I have ever made were a Log Cabin baby quilt for dear friends about 15 years ago and another Kaffe Fassett top that hangs unfinished on an old ladder in my dining room! It’s a lattice design and I love it but just haven’t got around to putting on the border and finishing it!

Unfinished Quilt Top

Kaffe Fassett Lattice Quilt Design

I have found a fairly local lady who quilts professionally and I will be taking Jon’s quilt to her once I’ve finished piecing. I’ve struggled with a square metre sized quilt under my sewing machine; I can only imagine how much fun I would have trying to machine quilt this huge piece! I would love to hand quilt it for him but I imagine he wouldn’t actually receive it until he was closer to 90! Maybe I could start another for him that I can hand stitch……. Now that I have a deadline to work toward to get it to the quilting lady…; I’m a little possessed! I need to make up 2.6 blocks per day! So far I’m averaging that! … I hope I can duck away to the studio for some sanity and stitching whilst my visitors are here….!   ; )