Who's a lucky girl then

Yesterday I received in the post this amazing book--choc-a-block full of wonderful pictures.
Now I hadn't ordered this book from Maggie--it was a birthday gift from Lynda.
Lynda had gone to Ally Pally last week and purchased it and she had Maggie sign it for me- how lucky am I.
And do you know what is also fantastic about this book--Lynda has some pictures of one of her small art quilts in it.




This is the picture of my grotty catalogue that has been ouside in the back yard for several weeks now-it is all soggy and munched up by slugs and other unknown creatures just as Maggie said it would be.
Don't ask me what I am going to do with it 'cos I don't know.
Whatever Maggie says is ok with me but it has something to do with her online class she is running soon for people who have purchased her book.
If Maggie says jump I will ask "How High"
Can't wait for all this to happen.

Another thing that is commencing on Friday October 17th are the workshops by Lynda and Carol M (Fibre-in-form) on Textured Surfaces.

If you haven't signed up yet hop over to the web site and check it out you'll be glad that you did..

October TIF Block

Here is the block that I have done for the October TIF challenge.The colours are a bit lighter in the photo than they are in real life but you can get the idea anyhow.
I have again created this different style because I wanted to have a mixture of both the designs.
I think this is the 4th one that I have done in this design.
Now onto the embellishing.

October Calendar Girls postcard for Lynda

Here is my October Calendar Girls Postcard for Lynda and I'm early for a change.
Last week in the Paper Arts group I belong to at the Embroiderers Guild we were playing with Alcohol Inks so I decided to do this months postcard using them.



I used my Pinata Alcohol inks in Magenta and Sapphire Blue and that other funny looking thing is the tool that I used to apply the inks to the Acetate.

I used both colours on both of these pieces of acetate --the one on the left had more magenta and the right one had more Sapphire Blue.

I have placed them on top of a piece of white cardstock to show you that they have a very mauve tinge to them--------------

But when I placed the right hand one on top of a piece of blue cardstock the mauve tinge dissappeared and became the colour I was looking for.

Next I used the stamp shown from Amazing Creations and printed it onto the blue cardstock with the Stazon ink ----

and it looked like this----

From the pink piece I cut out a Vase and mounted it onto a very pale green piece of cardstock to get the right colour that I was after.

I added some rubons with the verse printed on them to the stamped card--this by the way is not the verse on the Calendar but it is a personal message that I wanted to send to Lynda.

I stuck the Acetate down with Vellum tape and then added the white flower (with a yellow brad for the centre) on the outside along with the vase.

I placed a tiny butterfly on the vase only because there was a butterfly on the calendar.

I also put a very fine gold border around the edge.

I hope it meets with your approval Lynda.

Drop by the Calendar Girls blog to see what wonderful work everyone is producing.

Do you need a good laugh?

I was reading Dot's blog last night and saw where she had visited this link and found that she could create an album of herself in wigs from years gone by.
I decided to try it out and here are the results.
The first photo was taken when Dot came to visit me when we went to Melbourne earlier this year.





This is the same photo in a blonde wig from 1996----I wish my neck was really that long and then I could wear dangly ear rings.

and in 1990

and 1972-------

If only I really did have that much hair.

Go and have a look and give it a try it's well worth it just for the laugh.

More ATC's and Postcards

We have received some more Postcards and ATC's this week.
The first ones are from Carol M. and the top one is my September Postcard for the Calendar Girl swap.
The colours are just magic to see in the flesh.
It is hard to take a decent photo because of the glossy nature of the card.




Carol also sent a postcard for Ebony--Ebony thinks hers is much nicer than mine.

We also did another trade with Anne from France.The first one is mine--I thought it was 2 pumpkins --one with a cats face on it-until Ebony politely informed me one was a cat's face and the other was a cat's bum---duh.

This one is Ebony's--we had to explain that the spelling of cat was correct in French.

These are the two cards that we sent to Anne--mine is the top one ------------

And this is Ebony'

Thanks Anne and Carol for including Ebony.

ATC's and Postcards

I had a one on one swap with a lovely lady named Winifred from Narrabri (Aus) recently after she had contacted me and asked for a trade.
This is the ATC that she sent me and it is so beautiful.
The background has been hand needlefelted with wonderful hand embroidered flowers and sequins and beads.
This photo does not do it justice but it was the best that I could get.

Here is the ATC that I sent her in return--it is made from the last pieces of a sample that I made at a Ken Smith workshop and it is made from all the pieces that I had left which I butted together and then used a zig-zag stitch to join them.
I then added gold foil.




Lastly here is a postcard that I sent to Candi in the US as part of a postcard swap on Stitchin Fingers.

The base is a piece that I made on the embellisher while doing Dale's workshop and I added some machine stitching-some gold foil a flower and a heart shaped brad.

I am sure that both the ladies that I have swapped with this time don't have blogs.

September TIF

Just in the nick of time I have finished my September Crazy Quilt block for the TIF challenge.
I started last night doing the embellishing and I have stitched all day today so that I could get it finished before tomorrow when the October challenge is posted.
As I said before these are the colours that my printer produced and I have taken the easy option and used them mainly because I like the way they work together.
The stitching etc is not up to par with previous months but I have been so busy with other things that I really got behind.
Next month I will try harder.

Tomorrow will be interesting to see what we have to work with in October.

A successful Exhibition

Finally the Embroiderers Guild exhibition is over for another year and to say that I am relieved is an understatement.
It was exhausting but it was worth it.
Here are a few of the things that I had entered and if you are an embroiderer of fine needlecraft then don't look any further if you expect to see something traditional.
Some people think that this isn't embroidery but if you look closer every one of these items has hand embroidery on it somewhere--I love hand embroidery but I don't normally enter any in the exhibition I leave that to others.
I always enter my creative stuff.
Anyway the first picture (sorry about the reflection) is a piece made from painted Tyvek mounted on black Kunin felt and then mounted on hand made silk paper.
It has beads made from Tyvek and commercial ones as well.
This piece has been sold.





Next is a piece of Nuno felt that I made at the second Fiona Wright workshop I attended last year and it had been put away in the cupboard after the workshop and forgotten about.
I decided to hand embroider on it and I mounted it on one of those white box canvas things that artist use.
This one has also been sold.

The next one is a sample that I made at the first Fiona Wright workshop that I did 2 years ago and it was keeping the other one company in the cupboard.

I also mounted this the same way as the other one.

This piece didn't sell.

When I did Dale's Embellisher workshop I made a piece of fabric and I turned it into a book cover and this has been sold as well

And lastly I made 4 Tassels and entered them because they normally sell well at the exhibition and I wasn't let down this time either--all 4 were sold.

Now for the truth--all of the above things that have been sold were sold prior to the exhibition except the tassels
I have sold another 2 of the pieces that I had entered since the exhibition and I thought that I had taken photos of them but I must have deleted them off the camers because I can't find them anywhere.

All in all it was a good exhibition for me.

September TIF block

I have managed to make my TIF block today and as I stated in the previous post I have chosen to use the colours from the print out.
I think I will enjoy working with these colours and I will try to get some stitching on it before the end of the month but I can't guarantee it.
Tomorrow(Thursday in OZ) is setup day for the Embroiderers Guild exhibition and then Friday-Saturday and Sunday I will be at the exhibition all day and I think I may be too tired to do any stitching when I get home.
At the exhibition I am in charge of what we call the recycle table.
This table is where we sell stuff that members have donated that they no longer use--things like embroidery books and magazines-embroidery hoops-fabric-threads-beads-Kits that have been purchased but never done(we all know that story don't we) in fact we will sell anything embroidery related and we do very well also.




Ok now I have to go and make sure I have finished everything.

September TIF

Well finally I have the opportunity to start my September TIF challenge CQ block
All my stuff for the Embroiderers Guild exhibition this weekend is finished(they don't call me last minute Doreen for nothing) so now I can piece my block together.
It still may not get completely embellished in the next 6 days but at least it will get started.
Now I have a slight problem- you see the colour of the top picture is the colour that my printer identifies as the ones it sees on my screen----and the colour in the second picture is actually the one that is on the screen.
Which one do I use?
Well I know I should use the second one but I am actually going to use the top one because I need some more lighter coloured blocks.
There seems to have been a few darker coloured blocks recently and I need some paler ones for balance.

So now I am off to look for the fabrics.

Calendar Girls Postcard for Pat

This month I am making a postcard for Pat and I thought I would try something different and decided to use card stock for my September Calendar Girls Postcard.
The stamp I used is from Sunday International that I have had for several years and only used once--not because I didn't like it but that I forgot that I had it.
I have nearly 100 stamps and when I sit down to make cards do I ever use them?----no-- I go ahead and make collaged cards.
Why do I buy them?----because I like them of course.
Anyway I digress.






The base of the card started out a yellow/gold colour and then I started using my Distress inks to alter the colour.
I used the colours Tea Dye--Black Soot and Marmalade.
I stamped the image on the base card with black ink.






I also stamped it onto a piece of green cardstock and cut out the leaves and stems.
I stamped some flowers with Fired Brick Distress ink to colour them and cut them out.

I then added some foam mount circles so that they would be raised up on the card

I glued the green pieces onto the card over the same image and added the flowers as you can see in the first photo

Oh and I forgot to say that I sprayed the base--leaves and flowers with some Moonshadow mist colours as well.

I hope you like it Pat when you see it in the flesh.

Stuff that makes my heart sing

When I went to the post box yesterday there was this bulging parcel waiting for me from Paula.
She had notified me to say she had sent me a parcel --a sort of belated birthday present.
Not much she said and if I couldn't use all of it I could give some to Ebony.
It's a wonder you didn't hear me shriek wherever you are because I sure made a noise.
I couldn't believe my eyes---------------
All these lovely Sari silks--such yummy Autumn colours.






More silks......................

What about these fibers

And laces...................

More lace-black and navy...............

Beads..........................

More silks.................

Now I know I am a good Grandmother but if anyone thinks that I am giving any of this to Ebony well they can think again.

Thank you Paula for such a wonderful gift and I will put it all to good use.

I can hear my embellisher calling out to me--"come show me what you got"

Yummy Pencil Rovings

I received these Pencil Rovings from Dale at the Thread Studio this week.
The colours are wonderful and so bright I can't wait to use them on the Embellisher.
They arrived in bundles like this------------






Then when I undid them -wow- how cool are these-------------

Here are a couple of close up photos of 2 of them.

My favourite------

Just look at all the colours in this one.

My only problem now is I haven't got time to experiment with them.

I still haven't started my TIF crazy Quilt block for September or the Postcard for the Calendar Girls swap---Yikes I'm in big trouble.

Not quite a Dressel

I know that I have been quiet lately but I have been busy making "stuff" for the Embroiderers Guild exhibition held on the last weekend in September.
Most of the things I exhibit are not the traditional embroidery items and this year is no exception.
We do have a very active Creative and Machine Embroidery group and now an Embellisher group has been added to the ME group.
This year I have made a few wall art pieces and also this "Not quite a Dressel" piece.
Lynda had an article in the June edition of Workshop on the Web about how to make a Dressel.
This piece started out to be a dressel -but I couldn't bring myself to slash the required lines in the piece of fabric that I made on the embellisher with a soldering iron.
I decided to make it into a "vase" and instead of the flowers going in the vase they are on the outside.
The base fabric was made as per the instructions in the article and I cut the flowers out of another piece then stitched 2 of them together to make a flowers.
These were hand stitched onto the base and then the copper coloured pearl beads were added for accent.
I also hand couched a Stef Francis thread around the flowers.




This is a view of the vase on it's side and you can just see the cord twisting around the flowers.

I am pleased with the end result.