My Cocoon Necklace and Earrings

Hi

Here are a couple of pics of my Cocoon Necklace and Earrings which I made the week before last. It is a "Stef Francis" (I have just looked for a link for her but it doesn't appear to be working today perhaps the page is being updated!) kit which I bought last year when I was on the East Coast of Australia at the "Gold Coast". It had very clear instructions and was fun to do ... I will wear it to the next West Aus Lace Guild meeting at the end of February.

We had a lovely evening last Saturday (Australia Day) the fireworks over Perth city were great but the accompanying music was pretty naff! seems to be getting worse every year!

It was a balmy night and we hid indoors all evening in the air con except when watching the fireworks of course... luckily the mosquito's didn't find me like they usually do though they did find my mate who got bitten on the palm! of her hand and also my Hubby got a bite on the knuckles!!! (I was fidgeting around so that they wouldn't land on me haha!)

Happy Australia Day

Hi
"Happy Australia Day" to all Aussies ... here are my two ... off to their friends to celebrate. We (The 2 oldies!) are off in a little while to friends (also oldies haha!) who live nearer the city so we can watch the firework show down over Perth at 9pm tonight from their balcony with wine in hand no doubt !!! he he! and we are sleeping over so don't have to worry about who's gonna drive! Yay!

More "Play Day" pics...

Here's a couple more pics from our "Play Day" last Friday ... you can see the "Tissue Paper Fabric" hanging to dry and I can't quite decide what Judy (Left) and Maureen are watching Ros do??? hmmmm! :-) - could be she is rolling a lolly wrapper or Tyvek or Plastic carrier bag strip onto a kebab stick to make a bead.

Sad Day for Perth Western Australia

It's a sad day here in Perth today ... we all woke up to the news that 28 year old Actor, Heath Ledger was found dead. He was a Perth boy and attended Guildford Grammer School which is only about 50 kms from me (only 4 kms from our old house). The TV has been covered in interviews and film clips ... no doubt it will go on for quite a few days yet ... :-(

Tyvek and Carrier bag beads

Here are a couple of pics of the "Tyvek" and "Carrier bag" beads which Maureen showed us how to make... they were made by wrapping a small piece of "lolly" (sweet for those reading this who aren't Aussie!) wrapper around a Kebab stick, a pin laced temporarily through it, melted slightly with a heat gun to attach it to itself, pin taken out, then a strip of either Tyvek or plastic carrier bag then wrapped a little, pinned, melted, then pin taken out and the rest of the strip wrapped around, pinned again, melted slightly to attach the end, pin taken out then the whole thing melted with the heat gun until it looks ok! The Lolly wrapper is there to prevent it all sticking to the Kebab stick ... they are verrrrry funky and we all liked making them! (sorry pic quality is a little blurry - lighting wasn't good... we had to put down the carport door as the wind would have blown everything everywhere but thank goodness it was only a 30°c day and not 38°c that was originally forecast!)

Embroidery "Play Day"

Here are a couple of pics by Helen - she was having a go at the "Fluff ball" fabric .... torn small pieces of synthetic coloured "fluff" and bits of synthetic "wools" and "pom poms" on a background of craft felt then all placed between Baking paper and then ironed ... these 2 pics show before ironing and after. This fabric can then be machine sewed (I like to use a multi coloured metallic thread) then turned into anything you want!

Pantoran Finished

Please read these 3 entries for today 15th January from the bottom up .... It would be real good if I knew how to use this computer properly haha! Anyway here is a pic of my finished Pantoran hanging on the wall in our bedroom - I am really pleased with how it truned out and the fact that it was finished the same year it was started (haha) in mid December though it did take until today to put the hooks up and hang it! Oh and in case you

are wondering what size it is - the quilt part at the top measures 51 cms!

Pantoran continued....

It seems that blogger is loading these posts backwards ... probably my ineptness! so please read from the bottom up! - Here are the 10 squares laid out in the order I want them to be in ... then I had to start the "quilt" for the top ... so here is a pic of it in the early stages!

Yay! Pantoran finished - here's the story

Hi All

Well as promised here are the pics of my "Pantoran". I have wanted to make one since I did research on both "Torans" and "Pantorans" back in 2000 during my City & Guilds Embroidery course. When I read early last year that Sharon B ( http://sharonb.wordpress.com/ ) was running a challenge for various people around the world to "Take a stitch Tuesday" I was tempted to join but knew I was going to have other commitments during last year that meant I would not be able to keep up with the stitch each week ...However I mentioned it to my ladies in my Stitchety Grub Embroidery Group they thought it a great idea and we decided we could manage a stitch a month ... we put bits of paper with 22 different stitches into a little bag and took turns drawing a stitch at every other fortnightly meeting. Most of the ladies did their stitching onto various "Crazy Patchwork" pieces but I decided to finally do my Pantoran and to do it in the colours which we (Hubby and I) were going to be decorating our bedroom in around early June. In the top photo you can see from the top left to right - the 1st square for the month of February - the feature stitch being "Colonial Knots", the 2nd square is a Falcon featuring the March stitch of "Fly Stitch", the 3rd square is a Peacock featuring "Sheaf Stitch" for April, bottom left - is a Fish featuring "Wheat Ear Stitch" for May, Sequin waste couched down using "Thorn Stitch" for the month of June. In the next pic - top left to right - An Elephant featuring "Feather Stitch" for the month of July, A square featuring Shisha and "Pekinese Stitch" for the month of August, A tortoise button (given to me a few years ago by a lace friend and I have been saving it for something special!) featuring "Chain Stitch" for October (no stitch chosen in September because of the Australian Lace Guild Conference we all went to!), A square with a "Conch" worked in "Coral Stitch" for November and last but not least a square with an "Ashtadel" (lotus flower) featuring "Couching" for December. As Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me load more pics I will continue in another posting......

Cathedral patchwork and stick insect!

Hi All

Here are a couple of pics .. the first is of a stick insect that was sitting on our driveway "sun bathing" last Sunday ...My Hubby came in and said grab the camera as his nephew in the UK is fondly known as the "bugman" ... and has some "pet" insects of his own. I was indoors at the time loading craft pics on the computer so Hubby knew I had the camera to hand. I emailed them straight away and he was well impressed! Amazing this technology lark! The second pic is C&G Embroidery ... Experimental Cathedral Windows....It's a shame all these samples are just sitting in folders ... but what do ya do with 'em?

It's been luvly here today ...around 26°c but the forecast for next Friday when I am hostessing the Embroidery Group "Play Day" is for it to be 38°c fooey! It'll have to be less messy stuff indoors with the aircon methinks ... we will have to schedule another day when the Autumn arrives (another play day what a hardship haha NOT!) :-D

The Old Village and applique

Hi

Here's a pic of the "Duck Pond" which is in the centre of the village, Ashmore, in Dorset ,UK where I grew up .... I wouldn't mind a dollar for every hour spent here! The pond is very old ... a watering hole for animals in bygone days and still now for horses and wandering cattle. As kids we used to "skate" on it in winter (in our welly boots!) though one of the grown ups would drive a tractor onto it first to make sure it was strong enough ... it's not very deep except near the centre it is a bit deeper but mainly mud and duck poop! hehe! The other pic is another experimental applique from my City & Guilds, this one using mesh from Onion bags and Manderin bags as well as leather (suede side down and up) it is actually s'posed to represent an old window ....the leather is the big stones surrounding the window. I went to my lace group today and managed to "put a few pins in"!! the ladies were all suitably impressed with how much I had done to the Russian Mat over the holidays.... after lace - my friend, Ros, and I went snoofying around in Spotlight (BIG craft and homewares shop) and we both bought a BIG bottle of PVA glue for next week's "Play Day" for the "tissue paper fabric", and I succumbed to a "foil sheet", 3 embossing powders... 1 copper, 1 Antique gold and a silver .... and a little pot of hologram glitter ... just coz I liked it!! (It's called "Red rainbow" and is realy prettiful in overhead lighting!) haha!

Experimental Applique

Whilst tidying the studio the last few days I took the opportunity to photograph some of the pieces which I did when I was doing my City & Guilds Embroidery Stage 1 a few years ago.This piece was an excersise in experimental applique based on a photograph which I had taken of my Mum's house in the UK when it had scaffolding all over it ... hence the silver ribbon representing the scaffold poles .... the turquoise was from the waterproof tarps which were spread around. I used "satins" and some opalescent sheer fabric and machine stitched randomly. I had fun in the studio today painting Tyvek, nappy liners, some bought lace which I was given, Duster felt (Yes, Pat from the ones you sent), tea bag fabric, white fleecy fabric and Vilene ...some of these are for the Play Day a week on Friday so I have tken some before shots and will take some after ones ... whether they work out or not !! haha! The paints I used were the little bottles Dye-n-flow, Lumieres and Jacquard paint.

Beautiful Roses

Hi - I rescued these 4 roses today ... I say "rescued" them as today was a cooler, breezy 31°c but it is going to heat up over the weekend and the forecast for Monday is again 40°c! So I thought I would bring these lovely blooms in so they don't "fry"! The rose is from a plant that my sister bought us back in April 1996, from a local nursery, when she first visited us here in Australia from the UK. It is called "Sheer Bliss" and was a new breed of rose for that year. You can also see 2 of my little Dottee dolls which I made back early last year hanging on our TV unit! I finished cutting up my "Stitch" magazines today and they are all re "comb" bound ...all the interesting bits ... still have to get around to doing the same to all my "Australian Lace Guild" Magazines ... gotta cut out all the patterns and prickings that I may do one day (haha)! and get rid of the bulk of the rest ... ads, random articles etc...

Phew Hot weather!

Hi- It was a stinker of a day .... 41.9°c ... there is a bush fire burning in the Eastern (hills) suburbs ... I have a couple of Lacemaking friends who live over there so I hope they are ok.
I decided last week to go through my UK "Stitch- with the Embroiderers Guild" magazines and to take out the articles I am interested in and rebind them (I have a comb binding machine) ... it's surprising how many pages are adverts .. so they went in the direction of the rubbish bin .... I have still quite a few mags to go through and have so far rebound about a quarter of them ... should make a bit of space on the shelves in the studio! yay!...
My studio is starting to look like it needs tidying ... but I will wait for another week or so as the Embroidery group gals will be here 2 weeks tomorrow so I don't want to do it too early or else I will have to do it again! hehe!

Happy New Year

Hi
Happy New Year .... "Him indoors" and I (kids were doing their own thing!) had a great evening over our friends on New Year's Eve ... eating drinking and yakking and we went out onto their front balcony to watch the fireworks down over the Swan River down in Perth City ..... we have our big "Skyworks Show" coming up on the 26th of January to celebrate "Australia Day" ... which will be a much bigger display than Monday night's. We will be again at our friends place that night so we get a great view without actually being down in Perth and having to contend with the traffic!!! afterwards! also an excuse to eat and drink again haha! :-) I have spent the last 8 days working on the Russian Mat ... hiding in the studio in the cool ... today the top temperature was 37.5°c and 40°c is forecast for tomorrow then cooling to 33 and then up to 40 again at the weekend! Summer is here! I must start to plan what the gals will need to bring to my house on the 18th .... My embroidery group are having a "Play day" ... so I will have to write out a list of suggestions for materials etc for them to bring along... I hope that day isn't stinking hot as it would be easier to do some of the things outside! fingers crossed for a 32°c or less day.