Papers by Ebony

On Friday when I picked Ebony up for her weekly sleepover she was excited and keen to show me these papers that she had done at school.
I asked if it was a class activity that the teacher had shown them and she replied that it wasn't but something that she had shown several of the other children how to do.
It seems that she had spotted tissues with Texta pens and then added water until the colours spread out into these patterns.
Evidently she had folded them up to bring them home still wet hence the marks across the centre.
I love the colours that she has used.





And the second one-------





And another achievement for her is that she had her Martial Arts Grading this morning and she is now a Purple belt.
We were so proud of her as she works very hard and is becoming quite stong in her movements.
In fourteen months she has passed 4 levels but things will get harder from now on.
Well done Ebony on both of your achievements.

Calendar Girls May swap

Yesterday I received my postcard from Carol for the Calendar girls May swap.
Carol has done lots of Free Machine Embroidery on it in a variegated thread which lokks beautiful.



Thank You Carol.

Mystery Item

I mentioned in the previous post that Annie was the person selecting the theme for our June swap and that she had sent us a mystery item which we have to use for the theme.
I was not able to show it until everyone had received theirs.
Well now I can show you what it is----metres and metres of 4mm ribbon in 5 different colours.
I think I have enough ribbon to make a maypole to dance around.
Now the challenge is to think of a way to use it---thinking-thinking-thinking.

Ah I have an idea---------

ATC Swaps

I belong to a small group and we are swapping ATC's on a monthly basis.
The theme for the first month was chosen by Carole in NZ and she chose the letter "L"
Here are the four ATC's that I received for May.
The top left one is from Debbi in WA and her L is for "Leafy Lacy Lady." and I also think that she should have included "Legs" in that title as well.
The top Right one is from Ann in the Netherlands and her L is for "Love"
The bottom left one is from Annie in WA and her L is for "LACE and Lines" and the lovely lime green as well.
The bottom right one is from Carole and her L is for "Ladies and Lace"





This is the ATC that I sent to them and my L is for "Lavender".
The background is from a serviette to which I have added a hand painted picture of a stalk of lavender -a piece of ribbon and a printed word on lavender card stock.

Because I only had 4 of the pictures from the corners of the serviette I had to make my one from a different serviette.

The purple colour at the top of the card which looks like a column of smoke is actually part of the heart shape that surrounded this picture so it had to stay.

Thanks girls for these beautiful cards -this is going to be a fun group.

Annie has the privilege of selecting the theme for June and she has sent us something to use in the making of the Atc's but I can't show you yet until everyone has received theirs.

Let me just say at this point it will be very interesting.

Under the Sea 2

Yesterday I received my postcard from Liz who was my swap partner in the Fabric Postcard for Stitchers group.
The theme was Under the Sea and I posted previously about the postcard that I sent to Liz.
It is hard to tell in the scan but Liz has embroidered lots of seaweed in the bottom left hand corner.



Liz also included thiss beautiful ATC for Ebony.



Thank you Liz.

Killed Catalogue

Finally my Killed Catalogue has had some work done on it.
Late last year Maggie Grey asked us to bury an old catalogue and leave it to the elements to see what happened.
After several months we were to resurrect it and then create a piece of art.
6 months later here is my piece (can't rush into these things can I).
Firstly I applied Gesso then Quink ink and some Terra Cotta Adirondack colour wash spray.
Then I used 3 different Moon Shadow Mist sprays -Jolly Roger red- Buccaneer Bay blue and Violaceous violet.
I also used some Metallic rub-ons and some Goldfinger in colour green gold.
The pieces that I have embedded are all made from paper clay.





A close up of the top half of the page.
If you click on it you can see the great texture that has been created.

I'm not sure what I think of it really.

Under the Sea

In the group Fabric Postcards for Stitchers the May theme is "Under the Sea" and this is my card for Liz.
I started with a piece of Nuno felt that I had made last year and added some hand made cord that I had made on the overlocker for the seaweed.
I also added a school of fish that I made from a leftover piece of FME and a gold fish charm.
Then I added a piece of blue silk organza over the top of all this and finally I added more of the cord (seaweed) and some shells then sequins and French knots to represent air bubbles.
I am rather pleased with the outcome and I hope Liz will be also.

Paper Arts samples

Today was the monthly meeting of our Paper Arts group at the Embroiderers Guild and each month we try out a new technique before we get onto our main project.
We have been learning to do different background techniques and today we learned about a Faux Encaustic technique which was simple and we all had a great time making samples.
Because we didn't have one of those fancy small irons that people use for this technique we used our own normal irons but we covered the plate in several layers of alfoil and we rubbed wax crayons onto the heated foil and then pressed onto cardstock to get a rather nice background.
Each colour was added on separately.
Here are the three samples that I made.

I can see great possibilities with this technique.

Look what I won

Here is the pendant that I won several week ago on Julie's blog.
It arrived last week and I have just realised that I hadn't shown you.
Julie makes beautiful art and I am lucky enought to own another piece as well.
Pop over to her blog and have a look and also drop by her Etsy shop as well- who knows you may even be tempted to buy something.
Thank you Julie I have worn it several times and have received lots of comments.

May Calendar Girls Postcard

The calendar page for May was my choice and it is from a Monet Calendar.
I don't remember ever seeing this Monet picture before mainly because we usually mainly see the famous bridge scene on everything.
I chose this one because I thought it lent itself to being worked on the embellisher-which is what I used.
I had a prefelted piece of gold felt and used the different slips of the wool colours that I could see in the picture to work the background.
Then I proceeded to work the rest of the scene onto it.
This is my interpretation.





This is the calendar page that I used for the inspiration.

This postcard is for Lynda--I do hope she likes it.

The last 3

These are the last 3 embroideries.
After selecting the embroideries that had been done -taking colour-design etc into account we had several left over.
Members were told in the beginning that not all the embroideries would make it into the quilt but they would all be used in one way or another and be used as other raffle prizes.
These are the extra ones.
The first one is called Billy's Buttons by Lois Evans.
We had to make a choice between several designs and in making that decision it was considered that this embroidery would look amazing as a framed picture.
The stitching is exquisite with beading as well and when we placed several mountboard frames around it the decision was made.
Lois was with us at the time of selection and was quite happy for this to happen.
This framed picture will now be the second prize.






The next embroidery is worked by Joyce Weeks on the piece of fabric that has a photo transfer of Gum blossoms and leaves printed onto it and then she embroidered the blossom.
The fine stitching of the blossoms make them look life like.
This will be framed and used as a raffle prize as well.





The last ones were worked by Annette Horvath in silk ribbon and I am at this stage unsure of their names(waiting on Annette to get back to me)
These 2 were part of 4 small embroideries that Annette had done in case we needed to fill in a small area and we have used the other 2 on the quilt.
I decided to make these 2 into a small wall hanging and I have framed them in a piece of the variegated fabric that was used in the first small border on the main quilt.
There will be another border around this and some small embellishments to finish it off.
When everything is finished I promise to come back and show them all to you.

I am so proud of the work that everyone has done which has made this a very worthwhile project which we hope will raise lots of money for our Guild.

Thanks Everyone.

Three More

Like the title says three more.
The first one is the Eucalyptus blossom and leaves which has been stitched by Jan Hure.
Take note of the needle laced leaves--beautifully done by Jan





This one is made up of two pieces.
The first one is the title Australian Wildflowers again worked by Jan Hure and the Silk Ribbon flowers done by Annette Horvath.
The purple flowers are Wild Sarsparilla and the pink ones are Early Nancy( so I have been informed by Annette)

The last one is another version of the bottle Brush worked by Colleen Fox who is also a new embroiderer---a great effort by Colleen.

Tomorrow I will have the last 3 to show you.

And 3 More

The next three embroideries--- firstly the Grevillea done by Barbara Kelly.
I love the way that she has worked the leaves--that's exactly what they look like.




Then we have the Wattle tree worked by Shona Phillips--all those tiny French Knots.

Lastly the Wallaby Grass worked by Helen Hardie.

This is one of the many native grasses in Australia and Helen has worked the flowers beautifully.

Again apologies for the puckering which happened under the scanner.
More tomorrow----(I'm making you wait a lot aren't I?)

More Embroidered Flowers

3 more of the wildflower embroideries.
The first one is the Christmas Bells worked by Julie Pettit who by the way is a beginner embroiderer.





Next we have the Canberra Bluebell which is the floral emblem of the ACT where we live.
This was worked by Pearl Moyseyenko and is stitched in silk ribbon.

Finally the Callistemon (Bottle Brush) which was stitched by Betty Matthews.

More tomorrow.