Arty Dolls

Hi All

Here are the 10 little Arty Dolls which I made back in early February (Click on pic to see them larger) ... I couldn't put them on here back then as most of them were made as gifts for the 4 lovely ladies with whom I stayed on my March/April Teaching trip (They also received a "Jewelled Jemz" neck purse as seen in an earlier posting) and also 4 of them were little Easter gifts .... the other 2 are mine! haha! The inspiration came from Dottee and her wonderful "Artee Dolls" she does fantastic work which you can see at the following: http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/ (sorry don't know how to do that link thingie with just a word). I absolutely loved making them and intend to make more .. I showed my Sister in UK on the webcam and she has put in an "order" for some slightly smaller ones done in Xmassy fabrics for her Xmas tree!. As I also make a decoration for my kids every year (this year will be my daughters 18th decoration!!!) I will have quite a few to do!

The idea with the Xmas decoration each year since they were born means that they will take them with them when they move out and will be able to decorate their own trees. Although I have also made myself one each year so that my tree won't be totally nude haha! Not sure my son will want a dolly ... will have to do a boy-ee one in blues! :-D

Painting and other Painting!

Hi I am still here! I have had a busy week painting bobbins until yesterday when Hubby and I started preparing our bedroom for decoration! We actually started painting today and yes I did use a bigger brush than normal haha (Usually it's a 0000 - not a 1 1/2 inch!)
Second coat to do tomorrow and hopefully as Monday is a Bank Holiday here we can get the room back together ... only 3 nights on the lounge sofa bed - that will be plenty!!!!
I missed lace today ...I should have been at wire lace but the bedroom had to come first as Hubby was psyched for it! and I gotta strike whilst the iron is hot!
We are off to a friend's daughter and her hubby's housewarming party tonight but it won't be a late night with all the decorating to do ho hum!
Hopefully back to crafty stuff later next week.....

Craft Show

Hi - Well that was a quick 3 days since my last post....

I am off to the Big Craft Fair here in Perth this Saturday to demonstrate on the Australian Lace Guild WA Branch stand along with other ladies in our "Lacecargot Lacemakers" group - we will be there all day ... there are 5 of us so we can take it in turns "manning" the stand and looking around. I am taking along a Bedfordshire edging which I designed a couple of weeks ago ... It will be a small hankie size when finished (Only 14 pairs of bobbins). I am looking forward to having a snoofy around the stands and I will try not too spend too much money haha! I am also looking forward to seeing the quilts although I was a member of WAQA for 10 years I let my membership elapse last year as I really wasn't attending the meetings anymore with the exeption of the small Pin Pals group which I still do attend ... in fact the ladies of that little group will be coming to my house for the first time in a couple of weeks ... I just hope the house doesn't smell too much of paint as it is the day after the long weekend and that is when we are finally painting our bedroom (14 and a 1/2 years ago was the last time so well overdue!!!)
Thank you to the people who have visited my blog recently and left little messages, Hi Hannah, Jennifer, Waltraud..... It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when someone has enjoyed my work.... well the family will be getting hungry ... off to do Kitchen duty ... not half as interesting as being in the studio haha!

Stitching Group challenge

Hi

Here is a pic of the first three "months" stitches for the challenge (so far). The first stitch we were to do was "Colonial Knot" and the square bottom left of the picture is that one. The background in each case is hand painted craft felt. I did 4 different shades which when finished the final piece will reside in our bedroom which we are going to be decorating in 2 weeks time on the long weekend. The second stitch was "Fly stitch" and that is the falcon square at bottom right it also has some oval beads and glittery "worms" (coloured metallic stuff like the "bright check" used in goldwork). The third stitch was "Sheaf stitch" and that is the top Peacock square. The tail has Sheaf stitch as do the little sequin "flowers" ... it is also embellished with little seed beads. The stitch for the current month is "Wheatear" which I have done but haven't taken a pic of it yet .... so you will have to wait for that :-D LOL! If you would like a closer look just click on the pic. By the way the squares are each 8cm x 8cm and worked in bought threads as well as my own hand dyed ones.

Wheatear Stitch

Hi All

I have had a busy week ... lots of bobbin painting .... - orders to fill ... but I did get to do a bit to my Kanthas Quit at my embroidery group ... we had show and tell ... - I have put a pic of my friend Colleen's crazy patch on here... yes that is real handmade bobbin lace on it .. Colleen is a prolific lacemaker.... this month's "Wheatear" stitch is on this piece .... at the bottom can you see the "Centipede" he is done in the Wheatear stitch! :-D -on the dark background (if you click on the pic it will enlarge). I am off to the "hills" for the Monthly WA Guild Lace day tomorrow ... looking forward to it.. I will be taking my Cordonnicot Needlelace "Lizard(s) to work ... I will try and remember to take a pic of them next week ... I have to dig out the camera for some other pics anyway.....

New Jewelled Jemz Neckpurses

Hi All

I can show you these pics now ....of the 5 "Jewelled Jemz" neck purses which I made

back in February ... I fell in love with the green one so kept it and the other 4 went to live with the 4 lovely ladies with whom I stayed on my recent Needlelace teaching trip in March/early April in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane.

I am still sorting out this computer ... getting organised slowly :-D

Still waiting on the computer to be sorted

Hi All
I have been a bit quiet the last week - still waiting for the computer guy to come and sort out the rest of the bits from the computer crashing a couple of weeks ago (he's coming over tomorrow evening yay!)... then I will load on some pics .... I have been busy painting bobbins in the studio and doing some lace and embroidery so I am keeping out of mischief! haha :-D I am also planningt he new decor for our bedroom ... to be painted on the next Bank holiday at the beginning of June (it hasn't been doen for 14 years !!!)
Off now for a cuppa and yep you guessed ....choc haha LOL! :-D

Chocolate pots!!!

Hi All - I managed to find one of the pics from my Trip ... this was taken in Sydney at "Max Brenner's ... it is called a "Suckao" there is a small tealight in the bottom of the pot at right and hot frothy milk in the top into which you spoon the small chocolate pastilles (this is my friend Ethel and she had selected milk choc ones - I had dark choc!!!) you then stir it and the heat from the tealight underneath melts the choc into the milk then you sip it with the metal spoon which is also a straw ... mmmmmmmmm ... then pour a little more milk from the little jug and more pastilles ....voilá ... verrrrry decadent ...so much so that you can buy the little tealight pot and straw in a set or a pair of them ...my friend and I both bought a pair..... I showed my best friend back here in Perth on Easter Sunday using Margaret River choc pastilles which I just happened to have in my fridge (left from Xmas!!!) talk about addictive haha ... and with winter coming......mmmmmmmmmmmmmm :-D

Waiting! Waiting!

Hiya
I am still having to wait for our computer guy to come back from his holidays to help us retrieve info and especially pics from the bowels of this computer ... he won't be around for a week and a half so I just have to wait! grrrrrrrr! I have been busy in the studio all this past week painting lace bobbins ... orders and some stock for September.... not much time for other crafty stuff though I did go to lace group yesterday and started the fillings on the 2 Cordonnicot Frilled Lizards .... Dear Son is back to school tomorrow so back to the school "run" lark but of course there is the bank holiday "Anzac Day" on Wednesday .... might make a point of no working on the bobbins and doing something crafty instead ...sounds like a plan haha!

Blue Mountains NSW

Back again ... This was a pic of Two of the "Three Sisters" rock formation in the Blue Mountains - outside Sydney - I visited it on Maonday 19th March ... I have better pics but this is the first one I have managed to retrieve from the new photo folder!

Stoopid Computer!

Hi All
My appologies for not sending any posts ... I have had an Easter which was pretty hectic ... then last Wednesday my printer decided to "kark" it ..... then when we bought a new one it wouldn't load but as DH was trying to load it the program and all stored info from the old printer was deleted and lost !!!! I do have some back up discs from January for other info like all my stuff in " Word" so not a total disaster but the computer guy took the hard drive away on Sunday without asking if we needed to back any recent stuff up and has reloaded Windows XP on and lost recent things grrrr... it's different from the XP we had before so I am having huge problems finding info and the computer is not doing half the things it should so am thoroughly P**d off with it ... We also lost all our photo's stored in the program which came with our digital camera ... fortunately I have most of the older pics on a disc and the ones since last July are still on the cards in the camera and case ... hadn't gotten around to going to get the prints done yet ... luckily!!!! had to reload MSN got that working last night but not had a chance to check the web cam yet ... also my DD has reloaded Limewire and other programs which were wiped off! still have to re load my MP3 player and transfer the songs back to the Windows Media Player ... also lost the few which I had downloaded in the interim ... I will get to telling you all about the Teaching trip ...honest! but can only take this computer in small doses at the mo!

I am back from my Teaching Trip

HI ... got back yesterday ... just a couple of lines to say that I will try to load all the piccies from my Camera over the next few days if I can find time (have arrangements with friends for Easter so not sure how that will go )... but I also need to take a couple more piccies of the yummy craft/threads etc which I bought whilst away ... I was a "Nawdy gal!" haha :-D

I am back from my Teaching Trip

HI ... got back yesterday ... just a couple of lines to say that I will try to load all the piccies from my Camera over the next few days if I can find time (have arrangements with friends for Easter so not sure how that will go )... but I also need to take a couple more piccies of the yummy craft/threads etc which I bought whilst away ... I was a "Nawdy gal!" haha :-D

Lacey Days

Just a quick note to say that I am off tomorrow for just over 2 weeks on my Needlelace Teaching trip on the other side of Aus... I'm back just before Easter! (My fave choc season haha!) will be sure to take some pics to post here on my return :-D
Bye for now.....

Dodgy disc!

Hi, no posts for a few days as I have had a dodgy disc in my back so haven't been up to too much... I did go to Lace group yesterday but took my Kanthas embroidery quilt as I was not going to be able to bend over a lace pillow. I have been gradually packing my suitcase ready for the teaching trip on Friday ...still a few things to "round up" though :-D
I took my goodies to show the others which I exchanged with a new friend in USA - she wanted some of my Cattern's Day painted bobbins so I got yummy threads, beads, Angelina fibres and a little kit for foiling on fabric... I will post pics on here when I get a chance in a few weeks time to do something with them at the moment I only have time to look and fondle them haha!
I had a friend ring me today in regards to the Wire workshop ... my first definite student letting me know how many pairs of wire bobbins she has .... Yay!!! I will have to get into the rest of the preparations for that in April as soon as the needlelace teaching trip is over and Easter too (My fave choccie time of the year!)

A Sense of place "Quilt"

Ah ha!!! Blogger has let me add another pic .... this shows the Plants at the bottom of the wall hanging ... they were made by distressing (burning over the gas stove!!!) and using a pyrography iron. Also "tubes" which had florist wire up the centre so that they can be manipulated and "tweaked" especially as it was travelling backwards and forwards to the UK ...yep it was one of the assessment pieces for that City & Guilds I did.... :-D
(more info below)

No pics :-(

It seems blogger won't let me add any piccies now ... poop! will try again later

Waterfall Quilt

Well ..I went to quilting group yesterday and had a great time ... got quite a bit done on my Kanthas Quilt and enjoyed the company of my friends. We were in the nice cool air con which was good as it was 42°c outside as it is again today and is also supposed to be tomorrow !!! Here is a pic of my 3D wall hanging (we had to do something for the title of "A sense of Place!")which features several techniques... under the 148 leaves!!! there is very dark green velvet which on one side was "plaited" and on the other smocked to give dimension!... the back ground behind the waterfall was tiny appliquéd pieces and the water in the "pool" is interwoven strips of fabric... as there had to be a building there is a ittle "tree house"! in hand dyed fabric sandwiched to craft felt for diimension.... the whole wall hanging is on hand painted Hessian. ok bloggere doesn't seem to want me to add another pic to this entry so I will do another......

Bank Holiday craftiness!

Hi .... I been busy the last few days ... alternately working on my "Kanthas Quilt" ....and on a knitted scarf ...as I can't do too much knitting at a time 'coz of Arthur Itis in my fingers ...I have been knitting 2-3 rows then putting it down ...carrying on with the Kanthas then doing another few rows! The scarf I am knitting is with some wool I got last week in Spotlight ...clearing out at $2 a ball instead of $4 called "Moda Dea - Wild" the colour... "funky" ...it is sooooooooo soft and is knitting up great!
As there was such a load of rubbish on daytime TV (It's a bank holiday here in West Aus today) I spent the day watching "Four weddings and a Funeral" on DVD and also "Pride and Prejudice" - the BBC TV series not the recent movie) ( for the umpteenth time haha!)....I'm off to quilt group tomorrow ... carrying on with the Kanthas ...

Tree of Life Quilt

Here are a couple of shots of my "Tree of Life" quilt which I did during my City & Guilds... it took 98 hours ... it was one of the assessment pieces which you have to work as if a commission - so time had to be logged as well as costs etc.... the quilting stitches were done with a variety of my hand dyed threads ..... I was breaking out of the zone on this one as I never work in orange colours.... The background was "blow painted!" that was fun though I ended up with an headache from the lack of oxygen haha! The silhouette's of the trees were done by tearing a sheet of paper ... as a stencil then the ol' blow painting again...