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!

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........

Framed!

I framed the mini quilt I made for the Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine 'Pretty' Challenge last year. I'm pleased with the effect and will now get it into a gallery!!! It is framed without glass; but I might add glass and make more of a shadow box effect next time.

'Beauty, Wisdom and Grace'

Mini Art Quilt stitched to stretched canvas

More progress on my flaming heart piece. The wings have been ragged edge appliqued on (by invisibly basting them - as per Jude Hill's method) . I then outlined them with chain stitch in a variegated thread (my favourite type!) I adore how the variegated thread gives life and dimension to a piece.

I'll be adding a crown next....

Flaming Heart progress

...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'!

of Flying High over a River of Tears....

I have been working away on a few things....

My Watch Me Fly cloth is complete- I think!  I’ve decided not to add a backing as I like the way the old damask linen falls. Here it is hanging in a window in my studio; I like the way the light is coming through the clouds and how the weave of the fabric is visible. I've enjoyed making this!

Watch Me Fly

This next piece is a piece of brown paper with an iron on vilene backing. The paper was crumpled and reironed giving it a wonderful texture to work with. I loved the way the light caught each crumple! This piece is inspired by my River of Tears journal pages. The photo shows some of the double page spreads from my journal photographed and printed out together.

The sequined piece that I used for the River has been in my stash forever and is originally from my Mum who was a dressmaker. The rocks at the bottom are reverse appliqued using sari fabric from yarnahoy ;the smaller rocks are made with fabric marker stitched over with straight stitch in a variegated thread. I forgot to take a photo of the finished piece... oops but I have continued the smaller round rocks along the top edge of the river and stitched orange trumpet bugle beads and a few Swarovski crystals in the river.... It all has meaning for me. I have taken the piece into work to get framed.... as I think it will work best as a framed piece. I want to experiment a little with framing some of these smaller pieces; and maybe put them in my etsy store or hang them at home!  I envisage doing a series of these....

Full Moon over the River of Tears

Finally, this is a piece of PaperCloth that I experimented with some time back. I wasn't really impressed as I think I use too much  PVA in the process of gluing tissue paper to muslin and the piece was left shiny and stiff. I had done some free motion stitching in white but then left it.

I came across it in the studio the other day and started to hand stitch into it. It really is quite brittle in places but I am loving the effect of the variegated thread stitches. I'm using a single strand of black as shadows between the flowers; sketch-like... I may end up cross hatching to make the shadows even darker. I wonder what will happen if I go over the finished piece with clear gel medium? Mmmmm...

Ranunculuses or Ranunculi

I'm so happy and excited that I'm going to be doing Jude Hill's SpiritCloth online course!

It starts in a few weeks... I've never done a course of any type online

 and look forward to learning lots and being guided by Jude!

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….!   ; )

...of Dragons and Hearts with Wings!

I found some beautifully dyed variegated threads at Cottage Garden Threads... I came across the name on a blog, did a search and now I'm in looooooove and need to order some! I've been using mainly the DMC variegated series but have also used a few of the Anchor threads (which I've not liked as much because the colour changes tend to be too short and not as subtle!) The Cottage Garden Threads are available online at: Orange Daisy.. Yum!

Yesterday's sunset in the Dungowan Valley

What a wonderful week it has been already! I raced all over town today; finally changing my name on the last few bank accounts and a few other official things that had slipped through the net. (We've only been married 5 years! Can't rush these things!) I've been procrastinating because I thought it was going to be much more difficult than it turned out to be! Thank you to the lovely girls who helped me do this almost effortlessly today!

SOLD!

I did my grocery shop and had the most wonderful surprise when I arrived home! My Green Eyed Dragon that I listed on Etsy has sold! I'm so pleased! The buyer sounds just lovely and assures me that he is going to a loving home!

The week isn't over yet and is only getting better and better! I arranged insurance for my new car which arrives on Friday! (Lucky, Lucky me!)

To top everything off- I've just had a call from work and they don't need me tomorrow so I have a full studio day! YAY! (Not that I don't love work- it's just I love being here too!)

Here's a little look at some pieces I've been working on....

 Two pieces of hand dyed silk

woven and stitched together

Red Silk and White cotton strips

Woven and stitched together

The red and white checkerboard and the blue squares are my experiments with Jude Hill's fabulous slow cloth fabric weaving technique at SpiritCloth. Here's a link to her video tutorial blog entry... which is serene and educational all at once! These little pieces were sooooo much fun to make! The blue squares are about 1" (2.5cm) square and the R+W about 3/4". 

The blue and white piece on the right is a hand dyed piece of linen from my last dye batch 

the heart with wings is from my River of Tears divorce journal...

I want to put all these components together; but may need to dye some more fabric or at least play around a little to make it work. I am going to add a few words but don't want to pre-empt them just yet. They are words I used to pump myself up at particularly trying times when going through a pretty yucky divorce. I had to work hard to get there; but they helped once I got to the point of being able to say them! Stay tuned!