Once upon a time there was a Dragon....

.......and now he is complete and up for sale in my Etsy store!

Green Eyed Dragon

Complete! with pashima shawl fringe

Hand dyed vintage embroidered linen backing

Hanging sleeve top left and pashima shawl fringe bottom right

Corner Detail - Double Cross and French Knot

I love the variegated thread cross stitches that fitted perfectly along the drawn thread type edging on the vintage linen.

Vintage Tie Label and Shadow work

I'm so pleased with how he turned out! The End.

Fire Breathing Dragon

The Green Eyed Dragon is officially breathing fire...

 WIP - Green Eyed Dragon

Vintage Tie, Denim, Hand-dyed silk, Czech linen/cotton cloth,

Couched threads and fibres- silk and cotton,

Variegated embroidery thread, Perle thread

Green Eyed Dragon

I've been collecting neckties for about a year now; and have just 1 finished project incorporating them! (a bag that I use frequently!) I have 3-4 other pieces in various states of completedness some of which I have blogged about. I love the crazy patterns, designs and colours and I especially love how the colours look together -as they hang off the old wooden ladder suspended from the beams in my studio....

Here is a little something that I'm just letting happen with my most recent purchase...

Green Eyed Dragon - WIP

I'm not trying too hard on this and there's not a lot of forethought - not even a sketch...which is unusual for me... I'm enjoying the process.

 Detail-

 including vintage shadow work and label from back of dragon tie

 Gold Lined Cloud Detail

 - metallic fabric scraps, and worn denim

Off to do some gardening before it gets too hot.........

Ties, ties and more ties! Red!

I can't stop buying ties! I've been picking them up here and there and bought 30 for $6 from a charity store last week! Some of them are so ghastly that they're beautiful! Some of them just sing when put together and I'm officially addicted!



The first picture I'm posting is similar to my last post. I haven't bound this yet because I'm thinking about making it into a shoulder bag.... I love the colours - colours I wouldn't normally put together. I haven't done much quilting so my early attempt at stippling over the tie fabrics is very exciting for me. I love how a thread colour can help tie the colours together.


I've been pulling the ties apart so far but met a woman in the op-shop who leaves them in tack and sews strips together to make up bags.

This second photo is an experiment called "Suit and Tie". I used suit fabric as the border - in this case a gorgeous charcoal wool (also from the charity store!)

I love the layout, the red themed tie fabrics but I do think I am going to have to stabalize the fabric somehow because the puckers on this are driving me mad! I'm certainly not a perfectionist (ANY MORE I can finally say!) and love those really loose art quilts that are more about the art than the perfect seam or binding. (This is the first time I haven't used a mitred corner binding and it has been a challenge for me!)


I am using tie strips left intack to bind this, (The perfect width!) which I am hand sewing on. I have machine pieced and quilted just the borders on this as I loved the way the silky fabrics puffed up like little pillows. Overall size is 18" x 18" (46cm x 46cm)

I am going to handsew some tie labels or suit buttons in the centre 4 intersections which may cover some of the puckering. Overall I am pleased with how this one has turned out. To me it has a slight oriental or ethnic feel. Probably not one to sell but I will hang it at home and it is now my officail prototype!

In truth I work on lots of different projects at once and seem to have quite a short attention span. I have a big burst and then hey! start on something new as a different inspiration hits me! I love the zing of a new idea and where it leads me. I love the idea of doing series of works (with my painting too) but in truth they develop so fast that the first and second may not even seem related!