Embroiderers Guild 50th Birthday

On Tuesday the 21st August the ACT Embroiderers Guild celebrated their 50th birthday.
We had a lovely meal at the CIT(Canberra Institute of Technology) Restaurant which is the training school for  people who want to be chefs,waiters etc. in the food and wine industry.
What a fabulous job they did-the meal was fantastic and the service was brilliant.
2  of the foundation members attended, one of them still attends our weekly meetings.
There was a display of 1960's clothes from some of our members-one was a wedding dress and going away out fit including shoes and 3 dresses and a coat from my daughters vintage clothes collection.
I  must tell you that she wears the 2 day dresses and the coat regularly.

I must apologise for the photos as I was getting too  much light in the background.

Here is a view of the table layout and there were nine tables.
We had branches of Golden Wattle scattered on the tables and Annette had spray painted Gum leaves with

metallic gold paint.

There was a guest speaker who gave a fabulous speech and there were also two screens that continually ran showing photos of people and newspaper clippings over the last 50 years.
All in all we had a fantastic time thanks to the hard work put in by a great committee of workers.
Well done everyone.

A Great Weekend.

We have just spent an amazing weekend with our family--finally we were able to get them all together -in the one room and it was fantastic.
Our eldest son and his wife and children live in Tasmania and they don't get to canberra very often.
David and his wife Tamara were unable to get here for our 50th wedding anniversary due to work problems but we are thankful that they made it this time.
We took advantage of this momentous occasion and had a friend come and take lots of happy snaps for us.
I thought that I would show you a photo of Stephen and myself with our 2 sons and our daughter.
Our daughter Susan is the oldest and David (on the right) is next and then Danny (who is Ebony's father) is on the left.
It was a great weekend but I must admit I am now exhausted.



Tomorrow is the Embroiderers Guild 50th Birthday and we are having a birthday dinner so I will be on the go again.
I'm too old for all this excitement.

A fun thing to make

Last weekend I went to the craft show here in Canberra because I was on roster to be working on our Embroiderers Guild stand.
I had earlier booked in to do a "Make and Take" class with the Bernina stand  which is one of the things that I enjoy doing when I go there.
This is what I made ---a wallet which is made out of plasticated (is that a word?) fabric or I suppose it could be oil cloth but it is too thin.
It is not very big-just the right size to fit in your bag.

Here is the back view---

And when it is opened up this is what is inside --                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

A section for a few cards and a mirror to look at yourself if that's what you want to do. 

All in all it was a good little workshop.

                        

Mobile Phone cover

I have been busy designing and making some mobile phone covers  to sell at the exhibition this year.
I worked out a way to construct the cover that cuts out a lot of hand sewing which means that I can whip them up fairly quickly.
I then embroider them once they are constructed which I find a lot easier to do than embroidering them first and then trying to get the embroidery in the right place.This one is made from a small remnant of woolen dress fabric and lined with a printed patchwork flannel fabric.

I used Watercolours thread by Caron and the colour is Havana.
The yellow French Knot centres are worked with DMC Perle 8.

Here it is opened up showing the flannel lining.
Now I am off to make some more seeing as the prototype worked out ok.

While I was in Melbourne I did some embroidery while watching  TV which is something I never do at home.
Several years ago I made this wet felted square with the idea of doing an embroidered picture.

I took with me some wool threads and DMC floss so that I could work some flowers on the green section but when I was in a fabulous craft shop in the same building as the button shop I found these tiny little felted balls in bright colous so I bought some.

The first thing I did was to unpick the stitching that I had done because I didn't like it.
Then I snipped small sections off these balls and applied then to the felt with  a french knot.

I also added French knots everywhere to look like small flowers and lots of green straight stitches and ended up with a garden of flowers.
I will add more to it later this week.
I am going to mount it on the canvas board but I want to colour it first in the same colours as the felt to extend the overall picture.

Not sure about the sky part yet but something will happen I am sure.

I have finished the lady embroidery and she is in a frame that I picked up for $5 at the op-shop.
I rubbed it over with Goldfinger in keeping with the colours that we were allowed to use in the challenge.
Also included in the Pack we were given was a little gold charm which had to be part the finished piece so I stitched mine onto her dress to look like a brooch.
It is very hard to see her face when photographing it but it is visible in the flesh.
Now how's that-I have finished (or nearly finished) two embroideries in several weeks.
I just hope the momentum keeps up.

I Have Finally Figured it Out----

----Why I have not been blogging much lately.
I hate this new Blogger set up--it drives me nuts.
Every time I try to do a new post I can't find anything.
I know that if I just search around the page I finally get there but it is a nuisance--it was great the way it was before--well for me it was anyway-I'm too old for all these changes.
OK that's enough of me grumbling I had better tell you what I have been up to in the last two weeks.
Firstly we went to Melbourne for a few days break--it was nice to get away from home and the computer.
We flew down on the Tuesday morning but as usual with our luck there was a very heavy fog that morning and the plane was delayed for 30 minutes but once we got up in the air they made up 15 minutes so we weren't that late after all.
We were able to book into our apartment earlier than usual because our room was ready.
When we went into the room the blinds were shut and I wondered why -----

--the window on the right was actually a door so I opened it and was greeted with this view---

That's what I get for asking the receptionist (when I phoned up to make the booking) was that the best price that she could do for us.
The other side of the building is not much better but when we have been in this place before we were usually on the 8th floor or above--this time it was the 4th floor.
I went and visited my friend Kate who owns Buttonmania -a fabulous shop that sells buttons and buckles and she also covers buttons and belts and buckles for the Australian dress designers.
Here she is busy at work covering buttons--it is fascinating to watch her working away--

The contraption she is sitting in front of is the machine that she makes the covered buttons on.

These drawers are full of buttons-I look at them in awe as some of them are very expensive.

I loved this little tree that she had which was made with buttons--very clever.
I love spending time with Kate in her wonderful shop--and sometimes she even lets me play as well.
More tomorrow.