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 Stamps, Midnight Moonlight and Birthday Sleepovers

I also received my Tim Holtz stamps from Karen at 1papercut etsy store. They were beautifully wrapped, and … included a litle gifty of another little set of arty stamps. Beautiful. Go check out her store; she has stamping/journalling supplies. The Tim Holtz stamps are to die for...[never thought I'd be into stamps but..... : ) ] He is a wonderful designer... Here's a link to his website .

I've finally finished my Blue Moon ATC swap for Jane Clark at  Quilters Cottage Norfolk. It is actually take 2 as I wasn’t happy with how the first was turning out! I’m much happier with this one and I really hope she likes it! [no photos until I know she’s received it though!] It's called Moon Shadow as the Cat Stevens song was playing as I was finishing up and it seemed appropriate!

...and just so you know that I really am doing something on my studio days; here's an update of the little hand dyed lace piece. I'm liking how the Rose is looking with the variegated thread (one of my favourite things at the moment!)

The weekend was busy running around after my kids' social lives! (Their social calendar is definitely busier than mine!) It was also my youngest's 11th Birthday on Sunday and he had a couple of his wee mates sleep over on Sat night. They had a pizza/DVD night and no-one got  to sleep until afte midnight! Mack (short for Mackenzie) is on the right getting ready to blow out the single candle on his six egg sponge cake - which was enjoyed by all!

Birthday Boy!

Cinderella is off to town today to buy a dress for the ball!

Happy Days!

I’m in seventh heaven today! Totally appreciative of my studio time and in awe of all the wonderful artists -and their work- out there!

I received my Love Gone Wild ATC Swap parcel today and am absolutely blown away! A special thankyou to: (Clockwise from bottom left) Sabine Schneider, Lynda Roddy Ozzauto, Sarah Boblit and Joy Meadows. Your work is divine and I love each one of your ATCs! I will learn a lot from each of them too……. The 5th you may recognize as mine ( I made a couple of extras- one to keep with my swaps when they arrived. I may get them framed altogether!)

This is extra sweet for me being my first ever swap (Imagine, my first ever ATCs – I’m officially hooked!)

An extra special thankyou to Lenna Andrews of Creative Swaps for being such a fantastic hostess and for sharing your creativity and allowing us to share our's too. (Check out her latest Swap!) ....and thank you to Vintage Image Madness too, for the bonus bundle- very generous!

In addition, I’ve received my Blue Moon ATC from Jane Clarke at Quilters Cottage………………… It is truly divine also! Beautiful beadwork atop a lovely mixed fabric background. Wow! ...and a gorgeous card made with some of the scraps- a work of art of it's own! I hope I can do the theme justice with my return swap! Thank you Jane!

Jane Clark Blue Moon ATC

Even the stamp and airmail sticker are true to theme!

I heard from my friend Sandie today! (Another Sandi -confusing I know!) She was lucky enough to go to a Helen Godden free motion quilting class over the weekend. Helen is very talented; Here is  link to her artwork and another to her art quilts ... go check it out! Sandie doesn't have a blog but says she keeps up with my puddleducking via my blog... so, a big hug to you Sandie!

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!)

Joyous January!

First, a sneak peak at one of the challenges I've been working on!:

Detail

Detail

It's all finished now and I'm ready to send off photos for the deadline!

January has been wonderful! We’ve had so much rain that everything is lush and green and thankfully it hasn’t been too hot; we had a weekend away at Bellingen on the motorbike (we didn’t get wet this time!) We stayed at Casa Belle which is a wonderful piece of Paradise in the Bellinger Valley just inland of Coffs Harbour in the north east of the state of NSW! This is our 3rd stay in 3 or 4 years and we just adore it! If you’re planning a visit to Australia or are in Australia and looking for somewhere to stay in this area, we can highly recommend it!

We went on another organised bike run yesterday - a perfect riding day; I had a shopping day in Newcastle (about 4 hours drive away) with my eldest daughter (Kat) last week and bought some much needed clothes, shoes and underwear!; My youngest 2 children have arrived home from Christmas hols with their father interstate; and on top of all of that I’ve been busy working on challenges! Not so much studio cleaning and redecorating happening yet but the year is yet young! I'm harvesting Button Squash, Lebanese Cucumbers & 'Jack Be Little' Pumpkins (soooo cute!) from my vege patch (seeds were all from Eden Seeds - non hybrid, old traditional, open pollinated).

Here is the first of my ATC swaps. I'm not 100% happy with it but it's growing on me! It's just so different to the other entries posted so far- which are all divine!

Here is the link to Lenna Young Andrews Creative Swaps website with updates on this swap.

This is a little piece of needle weaving in situ on a piece of black felt that I did in front of the telly the other night. There is a photo and tutorial of the technique on this lovely blog: Creative Dabbling I came across the other day! Click here to go to the tutorial.

Needle Weaving on Felt

Needle Weaving on Felt

I couldn’t immediately lay my hands on my embroidery hoop to weave onto fabric and I was itching to try this sooooooo I decided to use the felt as a base instead with very successful results. The instructions are for a brooch but I may turn this one into a necklace (I’ve been doodling ideas for fabric necklaces in my sketchbook and jumped on this technique when I saw it!) Thank you Erica for wonderful instructions!

Erica dabbles with lots of different techniques (like someone else I know!) and I'm enjoying her blog. I've just 'met' Erica and realised it is her selvage quilt on the front cover of the latest Down Under Quilts magazine! Congratualations! Click here to go to Erica's blog entry about the cover and a further link to the article!