Pyrography Iron and Yo Yo's

Hi - thanks to those of you who left a little message on my blog - I love to hear from other crafty people :-) .. Here are a couple of pics .... the first is made up of layers of different fabrics which were then cut back or "slashed" with a pyrography iron .....the 2nd one is experimental "Yo yo's" or "Suffolk Puffs" whichever you like to call them ... the black one in the centre was from a pair of old fancy stockings which had diamante's on the ankles ... though now it looks like a pair of eyes peeping out haha! LOL! :-D. I have been busy today preparing a wire bobbin lace piece as I am teaching a 2 day workshop in the middle of April and have been asked if I could have a 3rd design available ... it's a slow process winding the bobbins and working out quantities down to the last millimetre! .... This afternoon though I did finally get underway with making the design ( a second time) and I have started to make notes which will accompany the pattern! I had a bobbin order arrive in the post this afternoon so that will put the workshop piece on the "back burner" for a few days.... Oh well .... never enough hours in the day haha! I am so glad it has started to cool down here though having said that it is supposed to be 36°c tomorrow but cooler around 26°c and showers for next weekend! yay!

Textural Lava

Hi
Here are a few pics of my textural "Lava" piece. The Biege part is actually "shredded strips of tights" (stockings) ...just threaded through a large needle and sewn... other threads include: perle threads, wools, shredded glittery lycra material.
it's hard to tell but it is quite 3 dimensional especially the "stocking" bits!
I had a good day at Lace group today, managed to get quite a bit done on my latest Wire bobbin lace necklace ... the colours are working very well... I am not a green person but it looks good! I have had several compliments from the other gals! only about another 50 mins to do of the actual lace then I can take it off the lace pillow and add the beads and get rid of the ends! yay! then I will need to think about matching earrings!

Tissue Paper Fabric

Top pic shows the piece of "Tissue Paper Fabric" which I made back in January at the "Play day". I dug out a piece of hand dyed calico (which I had done several years ago) and then I brushed on watered down PVA glue, then placed randomly torn pieces of a variety of tissue papers ... dabbing each with the gluey brush... it was then left to dry overnight and then another coating of the watery glue applied and dried again (apparently we were supposed to repeat this 3 times but I only did 2 coats altogether as I didn't want it too stiff and hard to get the needle through!). I wasn't too sure what on earth I was going to do with this piece until a couple of weeks after when I needed to make a postcard for Susan's Cyber Fyber Exhibition ... It works beautifully as a background for free needle lace as I didn't then need to have a needle lace pad as I do for most of my needle lace! This pic also shows it before I "dry brushed" copper and gold acrylic paints on it. The second pic shows an ATC which I made using the Tissue Paper Fabric and also the postcard (again) and the other 2 ATC's which I have sent to Susan for the Random Trading day during the exhibition. The bottom pic is a shot of our back garden with the Agapanthus in flower.

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!

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.

Russian Mat and Happy New Year

Hi

Here are a couple of pics again of my Russian Mat... the 1st was how it was at the beginning of December last year and the 2nd image shows it as it was a few months ago in early August ... I have been working on it the last 5 days in the cool of my studio whilst rewatching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and it's extra items... I hope to take some more up to date pics and load them on here next week..... The mat is 49 cms in diameter.

Have a Happy New Year all.....

Merry Christmas

Hi
A quick note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year .... I have a friend coming over sometime in January to help me get organised with this blog ... there are lots of things which I admire on other people's blogs but have no idea how to get them for mine ...even though I have had a bit of a look it seems very confusing! So hopefully next year it will be more exciting! As another friend of mine would say "Merry Christmas and custard!"

Hello ... :)

Hi All

I have been busy the past week ... firstly tidying the studio though now you wouldn't know it! ... I have been working the last 2 days on my Pantoran as all 10 of the little squares are now embroidered and I am working on the top panel on which to hang them.... and it is all spread out on the studio floor! I am taking pics as I progress and will post them soon.

Here are a couple of pics I took on the recent visit to the "AQWA" Aquarium of Western Australia ... it isn't easy to take pics because of the reflections in some of the tanks.