drawing and felting

I confess that I cropped this drawing as the proportion go lost from the waist down.

Spent a morning trying to felt butterflies - added to my photo with a bit of rough painting to put abdomens in. Will try in a little applique or embroidery and see how it goes

stones

charcoal drawing and collage inspired by the pebbles at Colac Bay

stones - Colac Bay< New Zealand

Below this rise was a lovely stoney beach with small rivlets of fresh water running into the bay.

Plenty of ideas spring to mind when I look at the stones - circles and more circles. I will have to have a play with paper collage to see what transpires. Christmas holidays are not far away and perhaps I will have a little time to do more than think about it...?

back in the virtual world

Been busy and on holidays. Found lots of imspiration in Dunedin New Zealand.

Details from First Church:

The tulips, poppies and pansies were out. I took heaps of photos. This cactus in the Cactus house at Dunedin Botanical Gardens to my fancy:

and a photo I have played with of a surfer at St. Claire beach which has possibilities for interpretation onto (embroidery) canvas:

Cheers. will post a few more photos soon

stuff and pracrastinating

I have been spending most of my time (which is after dinner) working on my dragon fly table runner. I am very pleased with myself./happy with the result/chuffed with the nearly finished item - take you pick. All that is left to do now is finish the edge. I elected to bottom hole it and all that is left is to cut away the surplus fabric. Because it is a very course linen the buttonholed edge has gaps, so, before I cut I am going to 'fray stop' the edge - i do want to use it as a runner on my table. Means I will have to clear my table first. When it is done I will put a photo up - should be by next week.

In the mean time I am facing dead line for an art quilt for an exhibition in St Vincent's Hospital Exhibition Corridor. I have know for months and I have consistently baulked at doing it. I can't understand why. All that it requires is to big stitch quilt it - it doesn't profit me to avoid doing it - which I have done by finishing the table runner.

I shouldn't chastise myself too much though - I have been busy with other things - caught up in arrangements for two exhibitions in November at the local library for a challenge organised for members of the Embroiderer's Guild NSW to sync with Breast Cancer awareness and a major exhibition at the end of April next year.

I missed going to Stitches Plus last week as some of my family was visiting - three generations of women in the one house - must say I enjoyed it immensely. Because the family is scattered , and the children are now young adults family get togethers don't happen that often. So any get together, even if it is not the full complement is enjoyed I normally don't put photos of people up but in this case I am going to - I am enormously proud of their personal achievements and love them madly. The women are my daughter, my sister , my mother and I.

Oh, and there was an amazing dust storm over Sydney on Monday - I rely on the sun to wake me up but there was none so to speak - I took a photo from our front door when I got up a bit after 7:00 am. This the church directly opposite:

Cheers all - must go and try and clear up some of that dust that flew in on Monday ... and avoid that quilt just a little bit more.

playing and experimenting (and having fun)

I recently bought 'Stumpwork dragonflies'by Jane Nicolas. I have a couple of her books - for me they are a bit like top end cook books - I drool over the pictures and then put the book back on the library shelves. Jane had an introduction about study and sources that inspired her - and an adaption of a dragonfly which tempted me to do a style of embroidery which I have avoided/evaded/said was say too hard (but attracted me) for way to long. Anyway, to cut a long story short I bought some very course linen and had a go. I did the dragon flies first and then looked out some black work filler patterns on the net and here is a table runner in the making. I am quite chuffed with myself.


At the opposite end of the embroidery spectrum I have been playing with papers ( bond, brown paper and mulberry paper) and have created a collage which I will hand and machine sew into and see what happens. I previewed my collage on the fridge door -

I am continuing to play with postcard sized fabric and paper collages as well - all are still in the making and I will post a few of them up next week.

I haven't been to sketch club so no drawings this post!

Cheers

playing with pattern

I had a wonderful morning with Stitchers Plus on Saturday - we played with pattern. It is addictive. I did some more on Sunday and a bit on Monday night.

First I chose a drawing I did a while ago and printed it out in black and white:



Then I copied it, cut it up to create a kaleidoscope (needed some gentle help at this point - thanks Robyn), pasted it in my book , and then I painted it when I got home.
I also cut up a square and did a repeat pattern and painted it too



I now have lots of lovely patterns and can sidetrack myself forever and not actually do anything in cloth if I am not careful!

I went to sketch club on Tuesday - Jenny - I have moved on from bottoms and graduated to breasts. A new model I hadn't drawn before - I seemed to be in the wrong spot in the room last night- all the poses seemed to be foreshortened.


cheers all