Last day of Summer and a new ATC

Hi... well it's the last day of summer today ... and the first time I have been in the swimming pool! (This Summer) Our pool is a big below ground concrete one and takes ages to warm up but as the weather from Monday this week has been 37°c, 37°c, 38°c, 41.3°c and today 33°c and humid! I decided it's now or never! I have put a pic of our bougainvillea on here ... millions of gorgeous bracts ... and today at Stitchety Grubs Embroidery Group my friend April brought in some ATC's for us all ... yes I have led her astray! haha! and I think she is going to get addicted too! and here is a pic of my new bewdiful ATC ...much better colours in "real life".

Cyber Fyber Swap

Hi
Well as promised here are some pics of ....first of all the ATC I sent to Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber swap . (I think from memory it is the one at bottom left of the four in the top pic) The second photo is the postcard I sent her - I used the "Tissue paper fabric" which I made at the Stitchety Grub Embroidery Group Play Day back in mid January as the background ... it worked really well.... (more about this background in another post soon) ... The stitchery is free Needle Lace ... the "leaves" are needle woven picots and the little "flowers" are made using a Couronne stick (also known as a ring stick) - separately then attached with a bead in the centre). Every stitch is a buttonhole stitch and it took about 9 hours to do the stitching on this card! The bottom photo is of the beautiful card which I got from Susan and the gorgeous ATC from her... I am so chuffed. You can read more about this Cyber Fyber swap at:

http://www.cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/

Music and Machine Embroidery

Hi have been busy last few days ...went to Perth city with daughter on Thursday to work out the bus for her to the University which she starts this week.... we also had a snoofy around then lunch ... the weather was cooler here last week so it was a good day to go (It's heating up again this week ... 33°c today and 37°c for Tuesday). Friday I tea dyed some calico and then painted it with Lumiere paint ... more on this when I have loaded pics on this computer.
These two pics are of a couple of pieces from the City & Guilds Stage 1 .... the top one is a piece based on a favourite piece of music .... the chorus of Alannah Miles "Black velvet". The second pic is my attempt at machine embroidery ... a lightening sky.... still haven't done much machine embroidery on the ol' sewing machine - I am predominantly a hand embroiderer.... I hope to "have a play" and get a chance to do some this year as it shouldn't be as busy as the last 3 years with the teaching at the AGM conference and last year was a very busy Lace bobbin painting year for me ... usually I paint around 300-350 a year but it was just over 450 last year! (Lots of commemmorative ones!)
I have been working yesterday and today on trying to finish a piece of my "Cordonnicot Needle Lace" - it is a design especially for "The Lace Place" museum at Hyden here in West Aus ... it is a frilled neck lizard ... I will take pics and post on her soon.

Paperbark tree

Hi
Here is a piece I did using actual "Paperbark" collected from local bush! It was machined in place then wools added and some textural hand dyed green wool which a friend gave me threaded through and tied on "sequin waste" ... it's on a background of Hessian ... which funnily enough the Aussie's pronounce as "Heshan" rather than the English way I was taught of Hess-ee-an!... one of the many peculiar pronunciations we come across here every day! haha
The one word that drives me nuts here is the way they say Maroon.... I always knew it as Mar-oon (rhymes with moon) Aussies say Mar- own! (As in when you "own" something!) I never say the word .....I call the dark red colour "Burgundy" LOL :-)
I received my postcard yesterday from Susan - Cyber Fyber so I really must try and dig out the camera and take a pic of it and the new ATC ... It won't be tomorrow as I have lace and then have to take Son to the city to the Orthodontist and on Thursday I have to go to the city with Daughter to work out what bus she needs and the stops for University which she starts next Monday! ... She still needs her Mummy ahhhhhhhhhhh hehe! :-)
I also want to go in Borders bookshop and see what's new in their craft department ... dangerous as it is ...last time in December I bought the "Paper, Metal, Stitch" book by Maggie Grey and Jane Wild ... is a beeewwwwwdiful book though! yum yum!

Uluru or "Ayers Rock"

Hi
I have been a bit remiss in popping entries on this block this week... It's been a busy one in the studio ... had bobbin orders to paint ... and I have been making some ATC's towards the swap at the Australian Lace Guild AGM week at the end of September. I know it's quite a while away but from April onwards I have to rev up the bobbin painting to get stock ready for Early September etc.... no peace for the wicked! haha.
The pics here are of a piece I did using only one stitch on a painted linen background ... the stitch used was Coral Stitch.
I received my Cyber Fyber ATC in the post yesterday from Susan Lenz ..Yay... have popped it in my folder of ATC's to show off to the gals at the lace groups I go to ...I also posted my postcard and 3 ATC's for the "Random Swap" at Cyber Fyber to Susan http://www.cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/ yesterday ... I have taken some pics but need to take one of the new ATC then I will pop them on here once Susan has received the little package.... hold that thought.... hehe! :-)
At my Embroidery Group yesterday we decided what theme we would work with this year ... we are already working with the "Experimental" theme (Hence the Play Day last month) and I read out a few suggestions and everyone started yakking about "Countries" and places they have either visited or would like to go and the Cultures there ...so as they seemed so enthusiastic about this theme we decided that would be the way to go. It's up to them if they a) want to participate or b) want to do one piece over the year or a couple etc... I would like to get at least 4 done and the Countries/cultures I am going to do will be Egypt (Ancient), Incas from Peru, Italy (Ancient Rome) and either Ireland (Celtic) or perhaps India or Morocco ... Oh poop! I think there will have to be 5 or 6 smaller projects haha!
Well it's Noggin Time (4pm drinking time according to my friend Margaret who passed away suddenly last July) so off to get a glass of vino ....

Busy Busy

Hi
Sorry I haven't been posting the last few days - I've been busy working on my postcard for Susan and the Cyber Fyber Exhibition .... It is ready to go in the envelope now. I also have 3 ATC's ready to go with it for the Random Swap. The pic here shows a postcard which I received in December from Hannah. I had buried it on my drawing board in the studio and it came to light today. The colours in "real life" are gorgeous ... the pic doesn't do it justice! Hannah's blog is at http://www.katarski-artistatwork.blogspot.com/ she does some fabulous work. I have been making more ATC's today as we are having a swap at the April Lace Guild day - and any left over can go towards the swap in September at the Aus Lace Guild AGM week. They are quite different from the ones I had made to date ... they do of course have hand made lace on them.

Russian Mat update and ATC Swap

Hi

Here is an updated photo of my big Russian Mat ... this was taken at the end of December so it has progressed a little more since then but not a great deal as I am only working it on a Wednesday morning when I go along to Wanneroo Lace Group.I found out about Susan Lenz's Cyber Fyber ATC Swap (here is the link I am still waiting to arrange for my friend to come and show me how to do the links properly) but this should take you there: http://www.cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/ I have selected an ATC and am arranging a trade with Susan right now ... all very exciting waahoo! I got the info from Dale ...thanks Dale :-) http://downunderdale.blogspot.com/Another hot day today 35°c and seemed very humid though the weather man didn't think so ... he shoulda been here! It's cooling down at the end of the week to 29-30°c which should be luvly for the weekend. I am off out for the day on Saturday to the first meeting for this year for the Wire Lace Group .... I got started with a new wire lace necklace design today and hope to really get on with it on Saturday .... should be great!

Summer and experimental needlelace

Hi

Here are a couple of pics the first shows the gorgeous Frangipani which is, of course as it is full Summer here, out in flower. The actual plant is in the garden behind ours but as we are on the 'sunny" side we get all the benefit of the flowers without the cost of the watering!. Yay!

The other pic is an experimental piece of needlelace using, thick and thin metallic threads, Kitchen string!!!, fine wire, beads etc.

It's a hot summer's day here again today ... we still have the air con on (at 7.30pm) and it reached a top of 37°c. Crazy son was out playing cricket in it all afternoon ... nutcase! haha!

It was the 5th Birthday of my Embroidery Group - "Stitchety Grubs" yesterday ... the other ladies hadn't even realised we were 5 already!. We had a lovely sponge "Boston" cake - a light sponge with custard filling and choc topping and I decorated it with "Smarties" in the shape of a "5" .....We are going to discuss at the next meeting (as there were 3 away yesterday) what project we would like to do next ... the theme this year is experimental ...hence the "Play day" and we are hoping to do a couple more play days when the weather cools down.

We welcomed back our friend April who had been in the UK for the last 9 months or so... we had kept in touch with her via the ol' computers which was faaaab!