Spring has Sprung

Finally a week later I have fully recovered from the hectic weekend of the exhibition.
We are having typical Spring weather in Canberra, beautiful sunny days and then several rainy days which is great for the gardens.
As you all may well know I am not your average keen gardener --I love looking at beautiful gardens but I just don't like all the hard work involved in having one.
This weekend Ebony and I brought some new Herb plants and transplanted them into bigger pots and replanted the two that survived from last year.
There are a couple more that I want to get and I think I will be capable of looking after them-well time will tell anyway.
So here they are freshly planted and standing up straight -from the left is Parsley-Oregeno-Basil-Chives and Mint.

Now I am off for a Nanny Nap.

Ask Me How I feel?

Well the answer is --exhausted.

I worked seven hours on Thursday setting up the recycle table--very tiring- then back for the official opening at 7.30pm then seven hours on Friday selling the stuff on the recycle table and today it was 6 hours.

Friday was a busy day and we had lots of customers but today was a cold and bitter day so things were very quiet.

Tomorrow it will be nine hours because after it closes we have to pull everything down and pack all the stuff up.

Thank goodness it only happens once a year--I don't think this old body could take another day.

It has been a great time meeting up with old friends who seem to show up annually to check out all the work that the members have done.

I thought I would show a photo that was taken of Stephen and his gorgeous wife (me) at the opening night--and I can tell you that after standing for all that time selling stuff I am even more shorter than him now.

OK I know it is early but I am off to bed.

Diaries

There's no stopping me now-----
I have finished the diaries that I started yesterday and I am happy with the results.
The first ones are made from some of our hand dyed felt overlaid with hand dyed silk organza and then machine stitched for hilights.



These two were made using some of my samples that I had tucked away--there was a third one but I have decided not to go ahead with that one as I don't think it will stand up to the wear and tear that it would get.

Next I have to make some cards and then that's it--I think !!!

Lavender Bags

Something else for the Sales Table at the exhibition--some Lavender bags.
I have made seven of these and I did the embroidery on them when we went to Melbourne in June this year then I finished them off yesterday.
The embroidery is done in either Silk ribbon or Perle cotton and the cords were made on the machine bobbin in Perle thread as well.
I had to leave the filling of them with the Lavender until Stephen was out of the house because he is allergic to it and when they are done I have to put them in a plastic container and store them in the garage until next week--"or else"--------------------

I also made four smaller pillow ones from Silk fabric with Silk ribbon embroidery on them so now I am off to finish covering some diaries (for 2012) that I have started----busy busy.

Another UFO Bag

This is the last UFO bag that I have finished.
It started about seven years ago when I had woven the panel on the front and I sat it on the purple piece of fabric and thought that it was a good match.
I made the length of cord that became the handles (on the sewing machine) at about the same time and that was as far as it went.It has lingered in the same box as the others-only seeing daylight for as long as it took me to decide not to finish it at that stage.
It is not a big bag but it does look nice--my colours- but not my style so along with both the others I will try and sell them at the exhibition which starts on the 23rd September.

Now to finish all the bits and bobs that will go on the sales table.

Every year I say I won't leave everything until the last minute but I still do and I'm too old to change now.

Another One

Another UFO--this time the fabric was pieced together about two years ago and I cut the shapes out of felt and pinned them onto the piece of fabric where it all sat until last week.
Nice to have another one out of the way.

One UFO Done

About five months ago I made a list of the UFO's that I had and I am ashamed to say that there were over twenty of them.Many of them had the stitching finished and only needed to be constructed.
This Sashiko one has been lurking around for about 6 years --I had finished the stitching but I didn't know what to do with it after that.
I didn't need anymore cushions and I didn't want to make it into a wall hanging because I had nowhere that I could hang it so it just sat in a box with the other stuff.
This week I decided to make it into a bag and it is now finished.
The corded handle is made from commercial cord which I zig zagged together and I added a small hand made tassel on one side.

I have another one almost finished--today could be the day.

Silk packs to sell

Previously I had shown you about our dying day where we had dyed silk fabrics and ribbons etc. to sell at the Guild exhibition in two weeks time--well yesterday I packages some of the things into packs in colourways that will be handy for Crazy Patchwork and embroidery.
Each of the colourway items were dyed in one jar together so that they could be used together and it is amazing how different fabrics etc. take up the colours in different ways.

The last two packets had Pumpkin Spice as one of the colours in it and it seems to have taken over but I rather like how they have turned out.

Now to pack all the silk ribbons and threads.

More Stuff

I seem to be only able to manage a post every fortnight at present but it should improve in the future.
What I have been doing is getting stuff ready to sell on the sales table at the exhibition in a fortnight.
I have been busily stitching all the embroidery parts and now I am at the stage of constructing it all.
I first cut out all the little bags etc then I do the embroidery on all of them then I stitch them up and make the cords etc.
Just like a little production line sweat shop.
These little bags are lined and they will contain a little bag with lavender.
The fabric is silk with silk ribbon embroidery and the cords are made using the bobbin method on my sewing machine.

Can't stop here chatting --must get back to it.

What have I been doing?

Well I didn't realise I hadn't posted for 2 weeks until I logged on today.
Nothing is wrong with me--well nothing that a bit of energy wouldn't fix anyway.
I have been making this little embroidery kit and a bag to store it in for the Guild Exhibition this year.
This will surely knock the socks of the other Guild members when they see it because I don't usually do things of this nature.
Why did I do it?
Well--I found this beautiful piece of pink and white cotton check fabric and it said to me "Do something different with me" so after much thought I decided to make this little embroidery kit and embellish it with Silk Ribbon embroidery.
I made the cord that is couched around the edges on the sewing machine by using the bobbin winder.





Then there happened to be enough fabric left over to make a dilly bag to store the kit in.
I didn't add embroidery onto the bag because I felt it looked better left plain.
Again I made the twisted cord on the sewing machine and I added four buttonhole loop carriers for the cord to go through.






I had intended to sell it at the exhibition but alas my daughter said she wanted it for a friend so........

More Dying

We also dyed silk ribbon-threads -braids and laces while we were at it and I am sure going to find it hard parting with these--but I know that I would only store them away and just look at them.
The first picture is the silk ribbon and threads-for some reason we don't have a green.




This bundle is the braids-laces and some motifs.

This is some silk velvet-very pretty soft colours.

This is silk dupion dyed in the same jars as the velvets above.
We had several metres of cotton lace that we dyed with the stuff I showed yesterday and for some reason it came out with big white blotches so Suzanne overdyed it with pearl grey which toned down the original colours and gave the white sections a soft muted colour.

Very happy with the result.


All we have to do now is iron all the stuff and package it--phew not looking forward to that job.

Our Dying Day Results

Finally I have photographed the stuff that we dyed recently to sell at the guild exhibition.
Each bundle was dyed in a jar-there are 5 different silk fabrics plus threads-laces and Silk ribbons.
We are a bit hap hazard with how much dye solution is poured into the jar so we would not be able to reproduce the colour-way exactly the same again.
Our idea is to produce one off colour-ways that are special--not a commercial amount.
The photos are true colours (thanks to a beautiful sunny day here) so I think they will sell well.
Sorry about the long line of photos but I don't know how to set them up in nice little boxes side by side.
The dyes we used were Procion-----------

Chartreuse and Purple---------
Old Rose and Pearl Grey----------

Bronze and Turquoise----------

Intense Blue and Fuschia-----------

Pumpkin Spice Sun Yellow and Intense Blue

Pumpkin Spice and Chino------------ Chino and Golden Delicous------------

Robins Egg Blue and Antique Gold-----------

Uh Oh

Well the story goes like this----I was cooking dinner tonight and I had some vegetables in a plastic bowl which was sitting on another oven plate waiting to be added to the steaming pot.
I then turned on another plate to cook the chicken strips that were going into a small frying pan.
I then noticed smoke coming from the plate--------------------





which had the bowl sitting on top of it------------
You don't have to be a genius to guess that I had turned on the wrong plate.
Uh oh one holey mess you could say.






The bowl --minus it's bottom with the coil plate showing through the bottom of it.
I will be trying to get the pieces of gunk out of the coils for ages not to mention the smell.

For my next trick---you'll just have to keep on waiting I suppose.

Who's a Lucky Girl ?

Recently I won this absolutely beautiful piece of embroidery in a giveaway on Karen's blog Contempory Embroidery
Karen works these amazing pieces on watercolour paper and they include Straight Stitch-French Knots and pin pricks.
This piece measures 6 inches by 3 inches (you work it out in centimetres) and is so delicate and white that I could not get a decent scan or photo of it so I asked Karen to e-mail the photos that she took.
Her photography skills are as good as her stitching.
The first one is a full view------------



And the second one is a close up of the top section.

Karen also has an Etsy shop here

and a Facebook site here --------
so please go visit her and see what she has to offer---- you won't regret it.

New Glasses

I have new glasses (and a new haircut)so I thought that I would show you---please ignore all the skin blemishes-the doctor told me that it happens when you get older-what about the double chin as well.

Ah well that's me anyway.

Dying Day

Early this week I went to my friend Suzannes place and we did some more dying in preparation for selling at the Guilds annual exhibition.
After we had all the important fabrics-threads-and laced dyed we had some dyes left and I decided to cram jar a few bits and pieces to see what the outcome would be.
Among what I shoved into the jar were these paper napkins.
They are not like the ordinary thin napkins that you see in some restaurants --these are large and thick and they feel like they are made of cotton.
I discovered them a few years back when I was taken to a posh restaurant by a friend and I kept mine and while playing with inks at home one day I discovered that they held the dye brilliantly and I decided to make some paper beads with them.
Until recently I had not seen them anywhere else-but I went out to lunch with a friend after attending the Guild and lo and behold this place had these napkins.
I instructed my friend not to make a mess on her napkin and I neatly folded up mine and put it in my bag as well as taking the other two which were also on the table-(cheeky).
Now I had 4 pristine white napkins to play with.
Back to the dying---I didn't know if they would fall to pieces or not but I poked them in the jar with the dye and soda ash and waited to see what would happen.
The dyes were procion in magenta-sun yellow and intense blue.
As you can see they all have a strong magenta colour --------the first one was on the top and the yellow and blue colours are visable.

This one was in the middle and only the yellow got through to it---------------------

The final one was on the bottom and is only pink and it is half the size of the others.

I think I will stitch on them and make book covers out of them.

Another Bargain

I hadn't realised that it has been 2 weeks since I have posted anything here but I have had an excuse---honestly---because we have had the pesky flu running rampant through our family and I am fed up with it.
All is back to normal now thank goodness but I haven't any stitching to show because I haven't finished anything.
But I do have another Op-Shop find.
Yesterday I had to work at our church Op-Shop because the lady who is in charge on Thursdays has taken 3 weeks leave and I am the person who fills in for her.
Now it turns out that the other lady who was working yesterday is the "bag lady"--she is in charge of pricing the bags and putting them in the shop.
My lucky day-------so look what she was putting out---this fabulous black leather shoulder bag and it only cost me $5.
It was shouting at me "Don't let her put me out there Doreen--I want to come home with you".
Well what was I to do?
This is the front that has a pocket------------------------------


And the back which has a zip---------------


And the inside that has two sections---one section also has a zippered pocket in it and the other has a place for my mobile.

I have two more Thursdays to work this month so who knows what I will come home with next time.

Op-Shop Find

Today I went down to our church op-shop (thrift shop-charity shop) because I had taken home last week 14 Barbie and Ken dolls to wash and also wash their clothes.
I spent ages washing Barbies hair and coming it and if you have ever spent time doing that for your little ones you will understand it when I say what a time wasting job it is.
Anyway I digress--while I was there I noticed this wooden sewing box that had just been donated.
The stars sparkled in my eyes when I was told it was only $5 and my hand was in my purse quicker than a rabbit down a hole.
It is missing the handle that goes up and over the centre section but I can understand why it has been removed because I think it would have gotten in the way.
The man of the house said he could put new handles on it but I think I will decline the offer.

The lid on the top opens up and then----------

The centre section concertinas out and has all these little compartments.

What a treasure.

It is Finished

I have finally finished the scarf that I started several months ago and I think it looks rather nice.
It only took me a couple of hours to complete it--probably 4 hours from start to finish and I didn't use one complete ball either.
Now the big test is will it be warm or not.

My only complaint is that it was so awkward to knit that I won't be rushing off to make another one in a hurry.

Gifts from Gina

Recently when I was in Melbourne I met up with Gina(see post below) and she gave me this lovely gift.
It is a mug rug...."A mug rug" I hear you ask "what's a mug rug"
Well a mug rug is a placemat for you to put your mug of coffee on and there is also room for a couple of biscuits as well.
I tried to scan it sideways but the scanner wasn't playing ball.
What a neat gift.

Then this week I received this ATC from her as well.."gingham and cherries" it is called.

Thanks Gina.