Studio Journals Class

I have been doing the Studio Journals class with Sharon B on Joggles--well I should say I have been catching up on the class-----
I won't bore you with every page that I have done but instead I will show you some of the stuff.
The first picture is from Week 3 and we were looking at exploring paper pattern with cut outs etc.
The top right hand picture is the Rubin Face exercise where you can see 2 faces looking at each other or you see a vase.
The others are cut outs like we did when we were kids.





Week 4 we were looking at collecting photos of things that we could use for inspiration----
I had taken these photos last year when I was being inspired but I had just put them in a box and forgotten them---now they have seen the light of day again and I won't forget that they are there.

Week 5 and we are looking at Dingbats and clip art.........

I chose to use the Wingdings in my MS Word fonts and I wrote my name in normal letters and then I did it in the 4 wingding fonts that are built in-------an interesting experiment as you can see.

On the left hand page I have used one of the signs from the computer and changed the positions to develope different patterns.

On the right hand side page I have used 2 stamps that are the mirror image of each other and developed patterns with them---the single stamps are the ones in blue at the bottom

On these 2 pages I have again used another 2 stamps and made patterns and borders.

The single stamps are the brown and pale blue ones.

It's funny but I have had these stamps for several years and never used them now the mind boggles at what I can achieve with them.

There is only one week left to go with this class but I now realise that keeping a journal is important so I must remember to keep adding to it.

July Calendar Girls Postcard from Susan

Today I received my postcard from Susan for the July Calendar Girls swap.
Susan has painted the background and then did the most amazing Free Machine Embroidery to add the colour for the flower etc.
I love it Susan and I appreciate all the work that you have put into it.
Thank you very much.

If you would like to see how Susan made the card please follow the link above.

Final Week 6 Embellisher piece

This is my last piece for week 6 of the Embellisher class run by Dale at The Thread Studio.

I could have made a vessel or a box but I have opted for another magic carpet mainly because I am running out of space to display 3D type things.

I used a piece of teal coloured commercial felt as the base and then added some teal and burgundy hand dyed Tissuetex then embellished it from the front and the back.

Next I added some inchies that I had made ages ago from left over felted bits and 3 hand covered buttons which I had made several years ago and never used.

Finally I did some hand stitching with the last of the Marrakesh silk thread by Colourstreams---that I had-I love these colours as I have said before.

This is not a very big piece only 4" x 9".

This was a terrific class and I have learned heaps and I advise anyone with an embellisher and needs to know more about it to enrol in Dale's next claas starting in early August it is well worth while.

July Postcard for Sharon

Here is my very pink July Calendar Girls postcard for Sharon.
Seeing as I have just finished the embellisher course with Dale at the Thread Studio I decided to use my newly acquired skills to do this months postcard.
I started with a piece of white commercial felt and added a layer of fine wool prefelt- then a pink chiffon scarf that I had picked up at the op-shop.
I embellished this all together then cut out a vase from a left over piece that I had hand felted previously and then embellished this onto the base.
Next I did the gold stitching across the vase.
I made the flower from some felted wool fiber that I had and held it all together with a few stitches then I attached it to the card and added the yellow centre.
Finally I added some hand stitched green leaves and blanket stitched around the edge.





I have sent this to Sharon and I hope she will like it.

Embellisher class week 6

Finally I have something to show for week 6 of the Embellisher workshop with Dale at the The Thread Studio.
I have called this piece Bollywood Magic--Bollywood--mainly because of the colours and the magic part is because one of the things we were asked to do was make a magic carpet.
I love these colours and I based them on the Marakesh colours by Colourstreams which Dale sells.
The base is commercial felt--on which I lay strips of Sari silk and scrim and lightly embellished them together.
I then put a grid of Funky Felted Fibers and lightly embellished these down---next came a black chiffon scarf and then I embellished the lot together.
After that was done I added some wool yarns and finally some hand stitching in Marakesh silk thread.
At present this is just the base fabric but I intend to make it into a wall hanging.
Somewhere in the bowels of my work room I know that I have some Indian coins that I purchased from Dale probably 10 years ago and when or should I say if I find them they will also be added.
The size of the piece is 33cm x 41 cm.
Almost caught up----sigh---

Look out Look out----

Jack Frost is about------
Look what I woke up to this morning--brrrrr------the ground was white and crunchy.
Himself wanted me to go for a walk with him---I don't think so---not until all that frost is gone.
As you can see we don't have much in our back yard because of the water situation here---we used to have lots of trees and shrubs but gradually they have all died and we aren't going to replace them until things improve if they ever do.
OK now back in front of the heater for me.

Wild family

I have been making Wild women for the swap at The Thread Studio and this is what I have come up with-----
On the right hand side is the boot scootin' grandma in her glitzy dress---
In the centre is the hippie mama ----
And what can I say about the young one --it was hard for her to compete with the oldies.
Anyway I hope whoever gets one of these is happy.

Still catching up.

July TIF finished

Here is my finished Crazy Quilt block for the July TIF challenge.
I have had a hard time getting a half-way decent photo of it because of the subtle colours---they weren't playing the game properly--the lime green was too bright and the gold butterfly decided it wanted to be orange.
No matter where I tried to take the photo (out side or inside) it just didn't look right---so after taking over thirty photos I gave up.
This is the closest to the real colours that I could get.

I was not too sure about the colours when I saw them on Sharon's blog but I really do like them now that it is finished.

Now to catch up on all the other things that I have to do--this seems to be my favourite words at present--catch up--catch up---catch up.

Karate Kid 3

Ebony has started to learn Martial Arts and she loves it--she has been going for 7 weeks---and tonight we got her a uniform.
I know I am biased but don't you think she looks wonderful?
Of course I will have to take up the hems so she won't trip over.
Mr Miyagi would be proud of her----wax on----wax off.

July TIF Crazy Quilt block

It has taken me 2 weeks to try to get the colours right for this months challenge and I'm still not sure --but if the TIF police come a calling to get me I'll pretend that I'm not home.
The colours that my computer read were ghastly and I checked some of the other TIF members blogs and they have each seen so many different colours to what I am getting--I know the colours are only a guideline for us but I do want to try and get it right.
Mary Ann tried to help with a scan of what she saw but that only made it worse (thanks MA for trying to help)--so anyway here is what I have come up with.
I saw a yellow gold-an yellow green--a taupe--pale blue and a slate grey/green colour and after all the bother I can honestly say I am happy with it.

Now I will have to rush in and embellish it before the next one is ready.

Rush--rush--rush.

Three Cards

Just a quick drop by to show you these three cards that I made at a workshol last week.
I love the colours in these cards as they can be good for both males or females.

I think I will have to take a break from Paper arts for a while and concentrate on my fabric stuff before I get too far behing.

Memes and Awards

I have been tagged this week by several people for a meme and an award.
Firstly the Meme---I was tagged by Paula for this and I have to let you into a few of my secrets.

1----What was I doing 10 years ago--

Well I was still working selling Bernina sewing machines.
This job was a dream job for me in the beginning--all the things that I enjoyed were all in one place--sewing machines-overlockers-fabric-threads-books well what more could one want--
a better boss would have been great.
I would have stayed in that job until I died(I loved it so much)but if I had stayed there longer than the 2 years that I did it probably would have killed me in the end.
Too bad some bosses don't know how to value good staff isn't it.

2---Five things on my to do list today---

OK it's a bit late now for today as it is 8pm on Saturday night here in OZ so I will say for tomorrow---
a--go to church
b--go to the machine embroidery group at the Embroiderers guild
c--do some work on my Studio Journal
d--get fabric ready to make my CQ square for TIF challenge
e--try to get to bed before midnight

3--Snacks that I like---how long have I got to tell you.

I like Potato chips--chocolates--fruit--cheese on toast--ice cream cones----------etc-etc

4--Things that I would do if I were a Billionaire-----

Well the obvious would be to pay off the houses that my 2 eldest children have and I would buy one for my youngest son and Ebony to live in and I would give them some money for extras as well.
I would put money in a trust fund for my 4 grand daughters.
I would give money to my church to pay off the money owing on the building.
I would probably keep some for myself just in case and the rest would probably go to charity because I have all that I need in life.

5--Places I have lived----

a. Burnie in Tasmania
b. Yass in NSW
c. Canberra which is the capital of Australia and is in the ACT .

Well that's it for the meme

Now for the award---------
I was nominated for this award by both Paula and Tricia.
Thank you to both these talented ladies for nominating me for this award.




The rules for receiving this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

I am going to be lazy and not nominate anyone because there are too many blogs that I enjoy to just nominate 7 of them so feel free to join in if you would like to share your secrets with us.

Studio Journals online class

I am doing the online Studio Journals class with Sharon Boggan through Joggles.com and we are into the second week already (the third week is due tonight) and I haven't posted anything here before about what I have done so far.
I have been a bit slow getting into this as I have been snowed under with other projects but I have had to bite the bullet and put pencil (and glue) to paper and start.
I am only showing you a few of the things that I have done so far because most of it has been a lot of journaling --writing down the why's and wherefore's etc of what I wanted to achieve.
I have uploaded these photos back to front so you will have to either scroll down to the bottom and read up or just read on as is.
The second week is all about colour I have cut out a picture and pasted it in the middle of the page --surrounded it with paper cutouts of the colours that are in the picture and then chosen DMC threads in the same colours---







This is a page that I coloured with watercolours and then placed a scrunched up piece of cling wrap over it and let it dry--giving a page of fractured colour----

These are a couple of samples I did last year on Yupo-- done in watercolours and salt was added to create an interesting background.

In week one we were given a Van Gough picture to draw in black and white and then describe what stitch we would used to embroider it.

My only comment is that Van Gough would have nothing to fear from me if he were still alive today.

Another thing we had to do were some rubbings---these were done with a graphite pencil---the first page is rubbings of tree barks and concrete---

This page is rubbings of some of my mother's glass dishes that I inherited and the basket in my sewing room is the one in the top right hand corner.

When I first started this class I was a bit afraid that I would not be able to keep up with what I was meant to be doing but I really only have to in the end please myself --it is not a competition just a learning experience.

As I was looking for something today I discovered lots of note books where I have started to take notes and drawings of projects that I had been working on and not realised that I have in the past been doing just what this class is about --now I will be able to keep everything in the one place--so I have learned something already.

ATC's

Several weeks ago Susan asked Ebony and I if we would like to trade with her outside of the Cyber Fyber swap--well of course we said yes and our Atc's from Susan arrived today-----
The one on the left is mine and it is fantastic---it looks like she has done it with machine embroidery and a soldering iron.
The one on the right is Ebony's and again it is beautiful---thank you Susan.






These are the two that we sent to Susan----
Again the one on the left is my one that I sent to Susan--it is made from scraps from a class that I did years ago with Ken Smith a great Australian Machine Embroiderer --and the other one is Ebony's which is made from her first piece of machine embroidery and she has added a bow and a button to it.

Thank you Susan so very much for the swap as I know how busy you are these days.

Week 5 Samples for Embellisher workshop

Here are some of my samples from the week 5 class on the embellisher with Dale at the Thread Studio
The first one is wool rovings wound in a spiral and embellished then I added some fancy threads plus a chiffon scarf and embellished the lot--then I zapped it with the heat gun creating great texture.



This is the reverse side and it is nearly as nice as the front.






This sample is a serviette on foiled felt and strips of different coloured chiffon scarf--embellished and then zapped--yummy

This one is felt-hand dyed Tissutex--silk rods--wool threads and a chiffon scarf--embellished and then zapped.

I think this will become a needlecase.

Another piece of Tissuetex with a chiffon scarf --embellished and zapped-- double yummy.

Tissuetex is a paper that thinks it is fabric- very strong and takes dyes beautifully can be stitched on and can be purchased at The Thread Studio.

This week it will be week 6---the last one and I must say that I will miss it when it is all over.

I have learned to experiment with fibres and papers and fabric and that most things can be embellished(as long as they don't break the needles that is)

TIF colours for July

Well here they are the July colours for the TIF challenge and what a challenge this one will be.
I haven't even started looking for the fabrics to make my Crazy Quilt block yet as I haven't had time-what with doing the samples for week 5 of the Embellisher class with Dale and also the Studio Journals class with Sharron B through Joggles.
Life has been hectic as you can all see but it gets me out of doing the housework.

ATC's and Postcards

Recently I have been involved in Postcard swaps with members of the Stitchin Fingers Postcard group.
The first one is the postcard that I sent to Judith in the UK-- I don't think Judith has a blog.






And this is the one that I received from Ruth P in Queensland and again I don't think that she has a blog either.
This PC would have fitted in really well with our Calendar Girls swaps.

Ruth also sent Ebony an ATC which she loves especially the big E------

And these 2 ATC's for Ebony came as well from Mary-Anne which were in the parcel with my red white and black crazy quilt block.

Thanks everyone from Ebony and from me as well --we are indeed very lucky.

Week 4 Embellisher On Line class

Here are some of my samples for week 4 of Dale's on line embellisher class.
We are learning so many techniques in this class which then make me think of new things to try.
In the first sample I cut up an old sweater and embellished it and then cut out circles which I made the flowers from----I then embellished the flowers to felt them even more -added a yellow circle of felt and punched that from the back to make the centre of the flower.
I then embellished the lot to a piece of felt that I had made earlier.






In this sample I embedded the lace and braid to a piece of felt--I was surprised that all the pieces felted from the front---the two braids at the top were embellished from the back but they show too much of the felt coming through--but the bottom pieces are done from the front and have embedded very well.

The task in this weeks class was about knitting squares and embellishing them ----in this sample I have used a hank of silk thread that I got from Dale several years ago.

Lastly some fancy wool knitted and embellished to a piece of hand made felt.

Now for week 5 where the heat gun comes out of the box again-----