Guess What?

I'm doing some knitting---------------- Now knitting is something that I don't do much of anymore but I saw this strange looking fibre in our local fabric /craft store and it had a funny looking scarfe displayed near it that took my fancy. Well the blurb said it only took one ball and could be knitted in a couple of hours so I thought why not.

When you stretch the fibe out it looks like this-----

You loop the R/H needle through the pieces that I have pinned out above making 5 stitches then you turn the 5 stitches around and taking the next 5 pointy pieces you knit them through the previous stitches like normal knitting-----

and you end up with this ruffle scarfe..

Confused---well it is easy to do just not easy to explain.

Here is another view of it hanging.

I now just have to find another 80 minutes to finish it.

Makings of a box

Recently I did a class at the Embroiderers guild in pattern darning and I did a sample of Kogin darning -you can read about it here. A couple of weeks ago in our Creative group we were shown how to make a box and I decided to use my Kogin sample for the top section. I did two rows of running stitch around the edge of the section to give it a border and made the lid of the box. For the rest of the box pieces I used a fabric that I had rescued from the Op-shop which was made out of had dyed Shibori fabric. This is the base of the box------ These two sections are the sides of the lid (top one) and the sides of the bottom of the box (bottom one). It took a bit of fussy cutting to get all the sections out of the same design but I think it will be worth it in the end. Sorry about the pins sticking out of the top one but I still have to stitch it and the others. All the top pieces of fabric are plain and the sides of the bottoms have the same pattern on them

Hopefully I will get it finished soon----:-))

Fairies in my garden

This morning when I woke up and went out the back door I was greeted by a heavy fog---but that was not all. I could see that the spiders had been busy overnight on my clothes line. Because we have had a rather wet summer this year there has been a lot of those long spindle legged spiders all over the place. As soon as we remove the webs they are back again. Anyway this is what greeted me this morning-------

Very pretty with the moisture from the fog on them.

Oh and these pictures will definitely "embiggen" just click on them and see.

Ta Da

The Church banner is finished----and it will be officially hung on Palm Sunday April 17th. The sides are straight even though it looks as though they are slightly curved in. The cross was sewn on first but the sections where the crown of thorns and the palm leaf go under the cross were left unstitched so that I could slip them under at a later time. I am not sure if it is noticeable if you click and enlarge the photo (or as MA says "embiggen"it) but the crown of thorns has thorns that are 3D. that stand up. I also added rows of stitching in variegated thread on the cross to resemble the look of the grain in the timber.

All in all I am rather pleased with the way it has turned out.

Oh and I received my Cloth Paper Scissors magazine this week after it had a holiday in New Zealand.

Not a Happy Chappy

I was always under the impression that if you subscribed to a magazine you would receive it before it hit the newsagents--after all the supplier already has your money. Late last year I subscribed to the CPS magazine for 12 months and the sub started with the January/Feb magazine which I should have received at the beginning of January. Unfortunately it arrived 3 weeks late much to my annoyance. Now I am still waiting for my second issue which was due out at the beginning of March and it is the 31st of March today and still no show. I had subscribed for 2 years to this magazine when it was first issued and I did have similar issues with it but never this late. I had hoped this problem would have been solved by now but obviously not. My point is are other people in Australia or other parts of the world having the same problems or is it just me.

I do know one thing --I will never subscribe to magazines from these people again--never ever.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Green Green Everywhere

"It isn't easy being green" sung Kermit the frog----------------- For the last 10 years our back yard at the beginning of Autumn was dry brown dirt where the grass should have been and the shrubs were dying one by one and the whole area was an eyesore. But look at it now----the grass is green (I won't call it a lawn because it isn't)--the trees and shrubs are green and growing every day and we have been able to replace three of the shrubs that had died previously. It is a pleasure to walk out the back door and see all this lovely green space..

You can see in the middle of the photo a green bird bath under a shrub--well at the beginning of Summer that bird bath was out in the open and now it is totally hidden by the foliage of the shrub.

If you enlarge the picture you will see it better.

The dirt area will have mulch on it very soon.

It is wonderful to drive around Canberra and see so much greenery.

Oh and Robin did you notice that the two trashpacks have gone--we had to get someone else to take them.

Stuff and a Friend

Well here is the "stuff" that I purchased from Dale all piled up on the table --- There is a book The Found Object by Cas Holmes that I have wanted for ages--a "Flimsie" wool pre felt which is so soft and beautiful in the Paris colourway plus some Sari Silk ribbon strips which I have ironed out flat ready to use. I also bought some Silk threads in the Paris colourway to go with the Flimsie. A huge bundle of Colourstreams silk threads (I still have 3 more to come). Three cards of variegated cotton threads and a jar of printability stuff. Oh joy is me------ Back at the beginning of March(I think or late February) I had a visit from a blogging friend who lives in Sydney and she wanted to come to Canberra to see Ballets Russes so I offered her a bed for the night and we both went to see the exhibition the next day. We also met up with Sharon Boggan for lunch before going to the exhibition. Christine who's blog is Lady Janes Journal belongs to the NSW Embroiderers Guild in Sydney and we had met previously when she came to see an earlier exhibition in Canberra. Christine and I talked and talked non stop because we have so much in common--in fact when I picked her up from the train station and we were heading home I kept taking the wrong turns because we were talking so much. No I wasn't a dangerous driver I was looking where I was going but not actually going in the right direction. Anyhow we had a great time which was over all too soon. We asked a stranger to take this photo of us while we were waiting for the train--I know we were told not to talk to strangers when we were young but how else were we going to get this happy snap.

I'm Back

minus my money-----and do I look like I am having fun--you betcha--like a kid in a lolly shop.
Talk about stuff-my little fat fingers fondled just about everything.






Dale and I in the back garden waiting for Ian to cook the lamb on the barbie-----

and it was worth the wait.

This is a leg of lamb that was boned and then butterflied out flat and marinated for a couple of days.

I have never tasted anything so beautiful and tender in all my 70 years of eating and he cooked it on a little Hibachi cooker.

All that was left after we all had two helpings-----I would probably have had an extra piece but I thought better of it.

I haven't taken photos of my purchases yet but will do so tonight.

Oh and the wedding was lovely as well which was the reason that we went to Perth in the first place.

Blog Break

Just letting you all know that I will be away for a week--we are off to Perth again -for a wedding this time and a spending spree with Dale at the Thread Studio--I can hardly wait to enter her Aladin's cave of wonderful treasures.
See you next week.

A Great Day

Today we had a visit from my dear blogging friend Robin from Robin's Ramblings and her husband Bill.
We chatted for 4 hours non stop except for when we were poking food into our mouths.
I have known Robin for over 4 years now and we have met on several occasions before when she had come down from Queensland to visit her son who now lives in Canberra.
We had a lot to talk about because we have so much in common and the words kept on flowing with hardly a breath taken in between sentences.
We got our husbands to take our photos together using both our cameras and all I can say is thank goodness they don't take photos for a living because we would all probably starve.
But we got there in the end.




Robin gave me this beautiful box that she made--I saw it on her blog the other day and secretly admired it little knowing that she was bringing it down here for me.
Robin does the best edges using zigzag stitch on her sewing machine and the beautiful gifts that she makes are fabulous.
I tried to take a nice photo of it but to no avail so I nicked this one off her blog-hope you don't mind Robin.



It's nice having good blogging friends.

New Banner

I'm in the process of making a new church banner for my local church(St Barnabas) which has to be ready for Palm Sunday on April 17th.

My friend Dimity who attends the same church is helping as well.

As you can see there is a cross with a crown of thorns over the top and there will be a palm leaf behind the lower half of the cross.

We are also making 3D thorns which will be attached by hand to give it texture.

Sorry about the bump underneath but that is the carpet behind it.

The pins at the bottom are there because some of the palm leaves have to be attached under the cross.

I will show you the finished banner when it is hanging in the church in April.

Final Pattern Darning class

The final lesson today in Pattern Darning was what the tutor calls Two way Darning.
This was the technique that was used back in the "olden days" and I mean "olden days" when young girls would stitch away mending garments---and I don't know how they ever managed to do it with out the aid of electricity and magnifying glasses.
The first lot of stitches I worked were the green vertical ones and I made a couple of boo boos along the top but if I didn't tell you then you probably wouldn't have noticed.
The horizontal pink ones were worked next and they were woven in and out of the green ones in the centre.
I had to unpick a few rows every now and then-one would really wonder how much of a problem it is to count "under two and over four" and keep getting it wrong-but I did with monotonous regularity-but in the end I finished it and I am very happy again.
The first photo is the front --------------







And the second one is the back---------------

I have a couple of other small patterns that I will try later but I now have a new Church banner that I have to make up--so it will be heads down for a while now.

My Finished Book

Sorry about the dull photos but Murphy's Law has again reared it's ugly head.
This is the finished stitched front cover.
As you can see I have used Running stitch to outline some of the petals and also some French Knots to hilite the centres.
I did not want to fill the centres with French Knots because I wanted to give the appearance of flowers that were disintegrating.
The gold and copper hilites appear well with the book slanted slightly when I took the photo.






In this photo you can see the front -back and the spine-------------

Here is the spine showing the stitching over the tapes---------------------

This is the centre of the book not that you can see much really but you can see the stitched threads as they go in between the tapes that hold the pages into position.

I am very pleased with the finished book and I would advise anyone who has the opportunity to do this workshop with Isobel to do so--

January Fibre Fever Page

This is officially the last page for the Fibre Fever group swap and is from Kath in Crete.
If you remember my theme was for "the country you live in" and each month I received a page from one of the girls depicting the country where they live.
Crete is Kaths adopted country and if you enlarge the photo you will see that she has embroidered the words "fruit and flowers of Crete" and she has embellished the page with a bunch of grapes -a pomegranate and an olive plus a purple Anemone.
I love this page as it shows me something of about Crete that I was not aware of.
Thank you Kath.

I am still waiting for a page from last year but I am not worried because I know that it will turn up eventually.

Pattern Darning (Kogin)

Today in my Pattern Darning class we did Kogin which is a form of pattern darning that was developed in an area of Japan to improve the warmth and strength of fabric.(quote from Tutors notes)
Traditional Kogin designs were worked in white thread on dark blue (indigo dyed) fabric on clothing and now can be seen on bags-purses-wall hangings etc.(more quotes)
Once you get into the rhythm of the stitching it all falls into place- but again if you make a mistake it is very obvious.





I struggled with the back because I like it to be neat(I know you all said not to worry about it) but- you have to leave a loop at the end of each row.
The reason for this is that when the garment was washed the thread would shrink and without the loop of extra thread the garment would pucker.
I did forget to leave a loop a couple of times but by the time I noticed I was too far down the track so I just left it.
The long tails still attached were from starting and ending threads--I didn't have to weave them in because they will get caught up when I make the sample into a pin cushion or something else.
Or I may just leave it as a sample--who knows.

I think next week is going to be a real eye strainer :0(

Pattern Darning.

Here are the samples of my first attempt at Pattern Darning.
To say that I am very pleased is an understatement--to say it was easy would be a lie-but- to say that I have enjoyed it in the end is the honest truth.
Yes my eyes hurt even with the magnifying glasses but that was because I was getting tired and wouldn't give up --nope the stubborn part of my being kept pushing me on.
I made plenty of mistakes and unpicked lots of stitches but it was all worth it in the end.
I started out using variegated Perle 8 cotton but in some of the designs it looked awful --especially the one which I eventually worked in cotton a Broder worked in the red thread on the top left.
The aqua one on the bottom left was printed wrong on the instruction sheet and the tutor said she would correct it and bring it back on Monday.
After I had completed the other five I thought that I would try to work it out for myself-which I did and I am not sure if it is correct but I think it looks ok :-))






Then when I turned the piece over to look at the back--horror of horrors I had made two mistakes on the back--see the aqua sample on the bottom.
Then I decided to work it again in a lime green coloured thread and bingo it was ok.
I also got the tail of the green thread caught in the needle of the green one on the centre left side which caused a length of thread to carry down the side.
Ah well it is only a sample and the Tutor is a friend so I don't think I will be shot at twenty paces.

You can see the long threads carried across the bottom third of the diamonds--that's a no-no--------------

This is what it is supposed to look like.

I am a happy chappy anyway.

OWOH Winner(s)

Yippee---- I have used the random generator and I now have a winner for my little white quiltie----------
Drum roll please-----the winner is Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm.
Congratulations Sandra --I will post it off to you as soon as I get your address.
Because I had over 200 responses I have decided to give a second prize which is another quiltie that I made using patchwork fabric woven through warp threads which was then embellished with machine and hand embroidery.
So another drum roll please-----this one goes to Jan at Jans arty atc journey.
Congratulations Jan I will send it off to you as soon as I have your address.

Thank you to everyone who dropped by and left a comment I hope that you have enjoyed your visit.

What have I been up to recently--well there has not been any blogging which is quite evident-but I have been busy.
Last weekend I did a 2 day workshop with Isobel Hall at the Embroiderers Guild on Embroidered books.
Isobel is a mixed media artist from the UK and has written several books including "Bags with Paper and Stitch"-"Embroidered Books" and her latest book"Mixed Media :new studio techniques" was written in conjunction with Maggie Grey.
There were 15 of us in the class and we all had a great time and learnt so much from such a giving teacher.
We found new ways to use "stuff" that we already had-different ways that is.
Isobell's husband Eric travels with her and what an asset he is-doing all the odd jobs for us like drying our painted papers so that we could get on with the next new technique.
I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed a class so much-no stress involved-no pressure to get things completed-which is a good thing because my book is far from being completed.
We made the book pages and stitched them to the tapes and then went about making the covers.
I am not going to show you much at present------------------
Here I am with Isobel having a good time-----




-----------but here is a sneak peak of my paper which had been stencilled with Light molding past using a floral stencil.
I know it is a bit hard to see but that adds to the mystery.
I won't be able to do anything more to it until the weekend because I have a fellow blogger coming for a sleepover on Thursday night and there won't be much time for craft when there is so much chit chat going on.

On Monday I started the first of 3 x 2 hour classes in Pattern Darning which I never thought I would do because counting stitches and rows on even weave fabric is not my idea of fun.

But I have admired the work of the person who is teaching it at the Guild so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

I had to enlist the aid of a magnifying glass because I am working on a 28 count fabric and perle 8 thread-need I say more.

So far the stitching and "unstitching" are about even in time spent-- because if you make a mistake (and I do) you have to correct it otherwise it stands out like a sore thumb.

If you don't know what Pattern Darning is go to Sharon Boggans blog here and see how it is done.

I will show you my efforts when I finish the sample (that's if my eyes hold out).

Next week we are doing Kogin embroidery and you can see a sample here

And lastly the OWOH event finishes tomorrow and if you want to enter my giveaway you still have time --just scroll down to the previous post and leave a comment just remember that I must be able to contact you to let you know should you be the winner.

Oh and I have decided to give another prize as well because of all the comments.

It will be another Quiltie but not the same type as the first one.

One World One Heart 2011

I have decided to participate in this years One World One Heart event run by Lisa Swifka .

This is the fith year (and final one) that Lisa has run this event and I have at last made the effort to join in.

The reason that Lisa started this event 5 years ago was to connect bloggers with each other.

Each of the bloggers participating in the event are offering a "door prize" as a giveaway.

So to the people who don't know me let me introduce myself----------

My name is Doreen and I am a dabbler in many things.

I started my Journey as a dressmaker many moons ago and in my fifties I rediscovered hand embroidery.

Next it was Machine embroidery-then felting -then card making and then mixed media work.

Gradually I am doing the circle again and I am back doing hand embroidery but this time in a more creative way.

I love what I do and I love having the freedom to change my mind and try something new without feeling guilty about not finishing the last project that I was working on.

The idea of OWOH is for people to meet each other and maybe become great friends into the bargain.

The event is open to all bloggers worldwide and all you have to do is leave a comment here on my blog to be in the draw and I must be able to contact you if you win.

If you would like to see the list of the other participating bloggers click here and then you can leave a message on their blogs as well.

Now about my door prize---

It is a small quiltie which measures 6 and 1/2 inches square and is made of embroidered silk chiffon with cotton laces attached.

It has a small photo of a little girl printed on fabric and embellished with silk ribbon embroidery,buttons and flower motifs.

The blanket stitched border finishes it off.

The event closes on February 17th 2011 when the winner will be announced.

I will contact the winner by e-mail.

Good luck.

Final Fibre Fever page

This is the final Fibre Fever page that I have made for the swap that I am in.
The page is for Ati and her theme is yellow.
The background is a piece of felt that I had dyed and the lady is from a panel of patchwork fabric which has all these ladies in different outfits on it.
I added some tiny buttons on the jacket front and on the flowers on her jacket and hat-2 tiny black beads for her earings -plus a necklace out of beads and a pair of gold scissors on the bag she is carrying.
I also worked french knots in black thread on the black spots on her jacket.
I finished it off with a blanket stitch edge.






I am still waiting for two of my pages but they will arrive soon.

Quilts for Comfort

This is the quilt that Jan has made up from the blocks that I sent her for the queensland flood appeal.
I posted the blocks to her on Wednesday afternoon and she received them on Friday and she finished the quilt today Saturday.
What a wonderful lady she is.
Not only did she finish my quilt but she also finished 4 other quilts as well today.
If you want to see what she has been doing then go here and here and read all about it.
Like I said in my previous post about these blocks-they have been in a box for about eight years because I couldn't be bothered finishing the quilt--this lady did it in about one hour.
You are an angel Jan and I hope whoever receives the quilt will get a lot of pleasure and comfort from it.


.

I have some other quilt tops that I think I will send down to her for the appeal as well.

They aren't much use to me stored unfinished in a box.

Hot Needles Cool Stitches

I have started on Dales second workshop for the embellisher and here is one of my first samples.
Dale has taught us a new and simple way to make our pre-felts which speeds up the process of getting started.
This sample has two separate layers of wool with some lime green scrim sandwiched in between them.
I stitched on the embellisher in a circular motion and finished up with hand stitching around the circles.
I have more prefelts made but I am finding the hot sticky weather a bit unbearable and stitching is not an option at present.
Too many Nanny naps happening I am sorry to say.

When it cools down tonight I will have another go at it.

Blocks for Qld Flood appeal

A couple of posts ago I mentioned how people were asked to make Quilt as you go blocks that would be made into quilts for the flood victims in Queensland.
Today I thought that I would start to make some and then I remembered that I had made some about 8 years ago that I was going to make into a quilt for Ebony but they never did get made into a quilt.
So I hunted them down and now I am going to send them off to Jan the lady in Victoria who will be responsible for finishing putting them together.
There are 12 blocks in total and each block is 15 inches square so there is enough for a large quilt.
This is one of the blocks-very purple which when I made them was one of Ebonys favourite colours-but not anymore.





If you want to learn more about this project just click on the badge on the right side of this post and it will take you to Jans blog which she has created for this appeal.

ATC Birthday card swap

Here are the last 2 cards that I have received for the birthday card swap from 2010.
Both ladies had been sick last year and had not been well enough to complete their cards on time for my birthday in September-but I have now received them.
The blue one is from Jo in the UK and the cream one with the stitched D on it is from Cobi in the Netherlands.

Thank you ladies for sending them to me-they were well worth waiting for.

Disaster in Queensland

As you are all aware here in Australia we are having terrible floods in Queensland that are tearing the hearts out of many of our fellow Australians.
I have never seen TV coverage of floods that tore through a town with such magnitude and they are likening it to an inland sunami.
I pray that the rains will stop soon and allow these people to rebuild their lives if that is possible.
I have noticed on several blogs today where there has been appeals set up in Australia by bloggers to help in a small way.
One of them is the Gumtree-designers who have an appeal running and if you go to the link you can see what they are hoping to collect. http://www.gumtree-designers.com/2011/01/we-need-your-help.html
The second one was brought to my attention by Mary-Ann in Canada who pointed me to Kaite's blog.
Kaite has a tutorial on how to make the 10 and 1/2 inch blocks.
Kaite is not the person running this appeal but she will guide you as to where to send the blocks when you have finished them.
I do know how important these appeals are to the victims of these terrible Natural disasters because when we had the horrific bushfires in the ACT back in 2003-myself and hundreds of others were involved in making quilts for the families who lost their homes-and there were 500 of them.
I hate to think of how many homes have been destroyed but the TV coverage showed houses rushing down
in this massive torrent of water.
Please help if you can.

Oh no I forgot something !!!

Tonight I was looking at the calendar and it suddenly dawned on me that I had missed my blogaversary.
On the 5th of January 2007 I started my blog-if you want to see the firstpost go here.
I new nothing about blogging or how to use a computer except to send e-mails and play Solitaire.
Lots of people helped me on my journey-encouraging me every step of the way and I am very grateful that they took the time to guide me.
I am amazed at how much I have learned in this time and I only wish that I had something interesting to show you but alas there is nothing.
Next week Dale at the Thread Studio is starting a new Embellisher workshop called Hot Needles Cool Stitches and I have signed up for it so hopefully I will have some samples to show you all.
I just want to thank everyone who drops by whether you leave a comment or not because it's the thought that counts-you made the effort to look and that's what matters.

It's Fixed

The chubby little face that had dissappeared from the people I follow on Follow Friends has returned.
After hours of looking at the same info and changing photos it has reappeared.

On second thoughts it may have been better to leave well alone.

Just kidding.

Can anyone help me

I have noticed that on all the blogs that I have subscribed to as a follower my profile photo has dissappeared and I am now one of the faceless people at the end of the Followers section and I am appearing as Deefer not DoreenG.
I haven't changed anything in the settings so I don't know why this is happening.
Any ideas?

40 Years later

Last week we had a friend staying with us for a few days and he mentioned that he had some photos which he had taken when Danny was baptised.
He sent them down to us by e-mail today and I thought that you may like to see how we have both "matured" over the last 40 years.
Danny was 4 1/2 months old when this photo was taken and you can all figure out for yourselves how old I was.




Our friend also took this photo of us when he was here--I was cooking dinner on the barbecue-hence the apron -I don't normally wear aprons.
I love this photo--he's my baby -----and he is Ebony's dad.

I went to the Movies

Today Stephen and I took ourselves off to the movies to see "The King's Speech"
What a wonderful movie this is and if you haven't seen it yet then all I can say is go out and see it.
Colin Firth is brilliant and the Australian actor Geoffrey Rush is equally as good as well.
Helena Bonham Carter and another Australian actor Guy Pearce combined to make this a brilliant movie.

I know this movie has been out for a few weeks now and has been advertised on our local TV over the Christmas period so we thought we would go and see what all the fuss was about.

I am so glad that we did.

Do yourself a favour go see it.

I obtained this poster from here and I hope I haven't infringed any copyright laws by obtaining it but I see it as free advertising.

If I am in trouble I will remove it.