August Postcard swap

The theme for the August postcard swap for the "Fabric Postcard for Stitchers"group was "Summertime" or the "colour yellow".
Well how could I think of summertime when it is freezing outside so I chose to do yellow.
I have this lovely fabric with fairies on it so this is what I made my card from.
I hilited the wings and the dress of the fairy with machine stitching in gold metallic thread but it is hard to pick up in the photo.

My swap partner was Cindy from the US and this is the postcard that she sent me.
I am not sure if Cindy has a blog or not but I cannot seem to find it if she has.
It is very textural and if you click on the photo you should be able to see all of it.

Thank you Cindy I love it.

August Calendar Girls Postcard

This months calendar page really had me stumped--maybe it was because I was not feeling well but I just couldn't get my head around it at all.
I kept staring at the blank piece of fabric and also a piece of white cardstock wondering what I would do.
At one stage I had thought that I would just send Carol M (my swap partner for this month) a piece of white cardstock and tell her to put something on it for herself.
Finally I decided to just concentrate on the hearts and go for it.
The background piece of fabric is a baby wipe that I had used to clean my stamps with.
I placed it onto a piece of commercial felt and ran it through the embellisher and then I cut out heart shapes and placed them on top of and underneath the base and embellished the lot together.
I then added 3 purchased hearts to give it more texture.

Here is the page that Val chose for August---I kept looking at the people trying to get inspiration but finally I followed the hearts and went for it.

If you would like to see what the other members of the group have done go here to have a look.

Ouch

Today Ebony had her next grading for her Martial Arts.
She is now a Purple belt one (5th Kokyu).
She is doing really well and has the determination to do even better.
One of the things she has to do is front splits and side splits.
Here she is showing me that she can finally get all the way down doing the side splits---ouch again.

This is a photo of Ebony and Sensei after Grading.

Congratulations Ebony

At Last something to show.

Here are this months fabric pages in the Fibre Fever group that I belong to.
This month Mieke and I swapped with each other.
The first one is the page that Mieke sent to me and has a lovely big butterfly made from left over threads --it is a lot nicer in real life.




This is the page that I sent to her and her theme is "Being Lucky"
I machine appliqued around the edge of the four leaf clover and the word lucky was also done using the built in alphabet on my machine.
I the did buttonhole stitch by hand around the edge.

I am starting to feel a lot better now thank goodness-three weeks is far too long to be not feeling well.

What have I been doing?

Firstly let me say thank you to everyone for their wishes regarding my sniffy nose.
I am still not 100% but I have to soldier on as I have heaps of things to catch up on.
The last weekend in September is the Embroiderers Guild annual exhibition and as usual I am running around like a dog chasing it's tail trying to finish off the things that I am putting in the exhibition.
I am also in charge of the Recycle Table which is a big money earner for the guild.
Members donate things that they no longer need like kits-books- threads-fabric-gadgets-embroidery frames etc -in fact as I tell them "if you no longer need it someone else will".
Last year we raised over $4,000 for the year by having a recycle table.
This week myself and another lady have been sorting out all the "treasures" that have been donated over the year and we have been pricing them and boxing them up ready for the exhibition.
We do operate the recycle table at the guild and it is always well stocked but I do keep things aside to take to the exhibition.
The photo below shows some of the threads that we have.
They are priced and bagged up with all the same type of threads in one bag ready to be displayed in baskets on the table.
We have all the different types of DMC threads
There are the Caron threads and every hand dyed thread type that I have used.
Then there is Appletons wool -enough to start a shop.
Gold threads silver threads --oh the mind boggles.
And all I could think of was "I would love that one" but I had to resist--"get thee behind me Satan"




This bag is chokkers full---but wait there's more---my head is spinning.

Next week we are pricing fabrics---Aida cloth-Lugarno--Linens of every count and type and colour and they all fit into a bag as big as the thread bag.

We also accept things from the members who want to sell their stuff on commission--we keep 20% of the sale price for the guild.

If you belong to a Guild and want to make money then this is an amazing way to raise money.

All I have to do is leave my purse home on the days or else it will all end up at my place.

Ebony's Two Poppy's

This week Ebony's other Poppy has been visiting from Kenya for a few days and to say that she was overjoyed to meet her other Poppy for the first time is an understatement.
He told her Kenyan folklore stories which she loved and he sang to her in his own language while telling her these stories.
Ebony's mother had not seen her father for about 12 years so there was much happiness all around.
Here is a photo of Ebony and her 2 Poppy's----------I think you can see how happy she is.

Come back soon Julius --Ebony wants to learn more about your culture.

Sniff Sniff

No eye candy--no poetic words--nuffink.
I am just dropping by to say hi and to explain my absence-----------------------
I have the dreaded lurgy.
My nose thinks it's my feet and won't stop running--all I want to do is sleep.
I have tried to do a few of my committments that are due but alas it's not working out so all I can say is--I'm back off to bed.
See you when I feel better.

Monthly ATC swap

The July ATC swap in our group of five was my choice and I chose black and white plus one other colour.
I should have posted these before I went on holidays but I just ran out of time.
The top left one was made by Ann in The Netherlands-next with the red bottom section was made by Debbi in WA to the right of that is mine then the bottom left one with the flower is by Annie in WA and lastly the bottom middle one with the teal centre piece was made by Carole from NZ.
The face on mine is made from a button and I cut the shank off the back of it.




Once again ladies a great set of cards for my collection.

More Perth photos

Thanks to Jo for sending me this photo I will treasure it always.

And a few more photos -none of them are of the work that I did in the workshop because I need to finish them off but I will try to get them done soon---I promise.

Here is Maggie demonstrating how to do it ---------------

A shot of the ladies working hard on their pieces -which is what I should have been doing instead of taking photos.

The lady in the front of the photo in the burgundy top is Dorothy Boxall who comes from Perth and is one of the many friends that I have made while doing Dale's online workshops.

More swoopy photos taken from the balcony window-----

And another one.

No more swoopies left ---at present anyway.

What can I say ?-----

----but to tell you that I have had the most enjoyable holiday of my life--or should say of our lives.
Perth was fantastic--the weather was superb- we left Canberra at 7.15am and the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius and we landed in Perth at 1.30pm (Perth time) and it was 20 degrees Celsius and it stayed like that the whole time we were there.
We had a fantastic apartment with a great view -almost in the centre of the city-what more could we ask.
The public transport was free around the city -the people were friendly-nobody bagged us because we came from Canberra (they usually blame us for what the politicians do) and we could sit on our balcony at night watching the planes coming into the Perth airport.
And then there was the really good stuff--on Saturday I went to the Craft show and the only stand I got to was the Thread Studio--need I say more.
I was like a woman possessed-all that yummy stuff and my credit card really did take a belting.
I watched Maggie demonstrating on the embellisher at Dale's stall and went to hear her lecture which was wonderful.
When I walked into the hall and was heading to the Thread Studio's stall I heard this voice say "Doreen"---nobody knows me in Perth--but it was Jo (Aussie Jo) a fellow blogger.
We had never met face to face before but she recognised me from my photo (unmistakeable as it is) and we chatted for ages--went to see several displays together--had lunch-sat at Maggies talk--old friends instantly.
Then I bumped into Linda another blogger whom I knew would be working on one of the displays and we had a big chat.
Linda and I have been friends since 2006 when we swapped ATC's in a swap arranged by Dale.
I bumped into Helen Gray who is a wonderful Textile Artist from Canberra who was there as the guide for a display by 6 talented people from the ACT.
On Tuesday I did the workshop with Maggie Grey--what can I say?-I don't think I have ever done a workshop with a more generous person than Maggie.
She gave us so much information -nothing was held back--no secrets kept-she told us the lot.
It was all hand on and I mean hers-she came by as we worked and tweaked a bit here and fiddled a bit there always encouraging us as we worked--I learned so much.
In this photo from the left is Linda,Jo,Maggie,Dale and little ol' me.



On Tuesday night Jo,Stephen and I were lucky enough to be invited out to dinner with Maggie, Clive, Dale and Ian.
On the way to the car after dinner Maggie showed me how to take a swoopy photo-the proof is below.
It is of flashing lights in the window of the local member of parliament and if you click on it you will get a closer look at what looks like stitching.
Thanks for showing me how Maggie.

This is Stephen and I at the dinner---all together now-ahhh.

This is the apartment where we stayed and that is me up on the balcony on the 7th floor and the sky was that blue colour all the time we were there except for the morning on last day.

It's nice to be home again in my own bed--you can't beat it can you.