The Box is Finished

Yeh----it is all stitched up-amd I am pleased with the outcome.
It was a very time consuming job stitching all the individual pieces together and the more pieces I had stitched together the harder it became but I got there in the end.
I have tried to take the best photo that I could without showing some of my donkey stitches (big and uneven) so that you still believe that I am a neat sewer.

At least it hasn't become another UFO tucked away somewhere.

The Two Faces of Ebony

This is a photo of Ebony that I took earlier this week.
She has had her hair braided by her mother and no it isn't all her own hair-she has hair extensions in it.
Oh and no she doesn't wear glasses either there are no lenses in the glasses--she just likes doing things like this just for fun.
She was also wearing a pair of red and white striped sox that came up over her knees and she had on a pair of dark blue denin shorts as well.
I am always amazed at what she turns up wearing but then her dad was the same when he was her age.




This is what she looked like the week before.

A surprise gift

Recently I sent Jen a pile of old paper patterns for her to use in a mixed media project.
Yesterday I received this wonderful journal as a thank you gift from her.
She had used the patterns to make a fabric by stitching them together and then she painted them with gesso (I think).
Next she added some embellishments----------------------oh so beautiful.





Here is a close up of the embellishments-------------





And this is a close up of the back cover...................

And the inside sleeve and journal pages.

I love it Jen and thank you very much for making it for me.

Guess What?

I'm doing some knitting---------------- Now knitting is something that I don't do much of anymore but I saw this strange looking fibre in our local fabric /craft store and it had a funny looking scarfe displayed near it that took my fancy. Well the blurb said it only took one ball and could be knitted in a couple of hours so I thought why not.

When you stretch the fibe out it looks like this-----

You loop the R/H needle through the pieces that I have pinned out above making 5 stitches then you turn the 5 stitches around and taking the next 5 pointy pieces you knit them through the previous stitches like normal knitting-----

and you end up with this ruffle scarfe..

Confused---well it is easy to do just not easy to explain.

Here is another view of it hanging.

I now just have to find another 80 minutes to finish it.

Makings of a box

Recently I did a class at the Embroiderers guild in pattern darning and I did a sample of Kogin darning -you can read about it here. A couple of weeks ago in our Creative group we were shown how to make a box and I decided to use my Kogin sample for the top section. I did two rows of running stitch around the edge of the section to give it a border and made the lid of the box. For the rest of the box pieces I used a fabric that I had rescued from the Op-shop which was made out of had dyed Shibori fabric. This is the base of the box------ These two sections are the sides of the lid (top one) and the sides of the bottom of the box (bottom one). It took a bit of fussy cutting to get all the sections out of the same design but I think it will be worth it in the end. Sorry about the pins sticking out of the top one but I still have to stitch it and the others. All the top pieces of fabric are plain and the sides of the bottoms have the same pattern on them

Hopefully I will get it finished soon----:-))

Fairies in my garden

This morning when I woke up and went out the back door I was greeted by a heavy fog---but that was not all. I could see that the spiders had been busy overnight on my clothes line. Because we have had a rather wet summer this year there has been a lot of those long spindle legged spiders all over the place. As soon as we remove the webs they are back again. Anyway this is what greeted me this morning-------

Very pretty with the moisture from the fog on them.

Oh and these pictures will definitely "embiggen" just click on them and see.

Ta Da

The Church banner is finished----and it will be officially hung on Palm Sunday April 17th. The sides are straight even though it looks as though they are slightly curved in. The cross was sewn on first but the sections where the crown of thorns and the palm leaf go under the cross were left unstitched so that I could slip them under at a later time. I am not sure if it is noticeable if you click and enlarge the photo (or as MA says "embiggen"it) but the crown of thorns has thorns that are 3D. that stand up. I also added rows of stitching in variegated thread on the cross to resemble the look of the grain in the timber.

All in all I am rather pleased with the way it has turned out.

Oh and I received my Cloth Paper Scissors magazine this week after it had a holiday in New Zealand.

Not a Happy Chappy

I was always under the impression that if you subscribed to a magazine you would receive it before it hit the newsagents--after all the supplier already has your money. Late last year I subscribed to the CPS magazine for 12 months and the sub started with the January/Feb magazine which I should have received at the beginning of January. Unfortunately it arrived 3 weeks late much to my annoyance. Now I am still waiting for my second issue which was due out at the beginning of March and it is the 31st of March today and still no show. I had subscribed for 2 years to this magazine when it was first issued and I did have similar issues with it but never this late. I had hoped this problem would have been solved by now but obviously not. My point is are other people in Australia or other parts of the world having the same problems or is it just me.

I do know one thing --I will never subscribe to magazines from these people again--never ever.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Green Green Everywhere

"It isn't easy being green" sung Kermit the frog----------------- For the last 10 years our back yard at the beginning of Autumn was dry brown dirt where the grass should have been and the shrubs were dying one by one and the whole area was an eyesore. But look at it now----the grass is green (I won't call it a lawn because it isn't)--the trees and shrubs are green and growing every day and we have been able to replace three of the shrubs that had died previously. It is a pleasure to walk out the back door and see all this lovely green space..

You can see in the middle of the photo a green bird bath under a shrub--well at the beginning of Summer that bird bath was out in the open and now it is totally hidden by the foliage of the shrub.

If you enlarge the picture you will see it better.

The dirt area will have mulch on it very soon.

It is wonderful to drive around Canberra and see so much greenery.

Oh and Robin did you notice that the two trashpacks have gone--we had to get someone else to take them.

Stuff and a Friend

Well here is the "stuff" that I purchased from Dale all piled up on the table --- There is a book The Found Object by Cas Holmes that I have wanted for ages--a "Flimsie" wool pre felt which is so soft and beautiful in the Paris colourway plus some Sari Silk ribbon strips which I have ironed out flat ready to use. I also bought some Silk threads in the Paris colourway to go with the Flimsie. A huge bundle of Colourstreams silk threads (I still have 3 more to come). Three cards of variegated cotton threads and a jar of printability stuff. Oh joy is me------ Back at the beginning of March(I think or late February) I had a visit from a blogging friend who lives in Sydney and she wanted to come to Canberra to see Ballets Russes so I offered her a bed for the night and we both went to see the exhibition the next day. We also met up with Sharon Boggan for lunch before going to the exhibition. Christine who's blog is Lady Janes Journal belongs to the NSW Embroiderers Guild in Sydney and we had met previously when she came to see an earlier exhibition in Canberra. Christine and I talked and talked non stop because we have so much in common--in fact when I picked her up from the train station and we were heading home I kept taking the wrong turns because we were talking so much. No I wasn't a dangerous driver I was looking where I was going but not actually going in the right direction. Anyhow we had a great time which was over all too soon. We asked a stranger to take this photo of us while we were waiting for the train--I know we were told not to talk to strangers when we were young but how else were we going to get this happy snap.

I'm Back

minus my money-----and do I look like I am having fun--you betcha--like a kid in a lolly shop.
Talk about stuff-my little fat fingers fondled just about everything.






Dale and I in the back garden waiting for Ian to cook the lamb on the barbie-----

and it was worth the wait.

This is a leg of lamb that was boned and then butterflied out flat and marinated for a couple of days.

I have never tasted anything so beautiful and tender in all my 70 years of eating and he cooked it on a little Hibachi cooker.

All that was left after we all had two helpings-----I would probably have had an extra piece but I thought better of it.

I haven't taken photos of my purchases yet but will do so tonight.

Oh and the wedding was lovely as well which was the reason that we went to Perth in the first place.

Blog Break

Just letting you all know that I will be away for a week--we are off to Perth again -for a wedding this time and a spending spree with Dale at the Thread Studio--I can hardly wait to enter her Aladin's cave of wonderful treasures.
See you next week.

A Great Day

Today we had a visit from my dear blogging friend Robin from Robin's Ramblings and her husband Bill.
We chatted for 4 hours non stop except for when we were poking food into our mouths.
I have known Robin for over 4 years now and we have met on several occasions before when she had come down from Queensland to visit her son who now lives in Canberra.
We had a lot to talk about because we have so much in common and the words kept on flowing with hardly a breath taken in between sentences.
We got our husbands to take our photos together using both our cameras and all I can say is thank goodness they don't take photos for a living because we would all probably starve.
But we got there in the end.




Robin gave me this beautiful box that she made--I saw it on her blog the other day and secretly admired it little knowing that she was bringing it down here for me.
Robin does the best edges using zigzag stitch on her sewing machine and the beautiful gifts that she makes are fabulous.
I tried to take a nice photo of it but to no avail so I nicked this one off her blog-hope you don't mind Robin.



It's nice having good blogging friends.

New Banner

I'm in the process of making a new church banner for my local church(St Barnabas) which has to be ready for Palm Sunday on April 17th.

My friend Dimity who attends the same church is helping as well.

As you can see there is a cross with a crown of thorns over the top and there will be a palm leaf behind the lower half of the cross.

We are also making 3D thorns which will be attached by hand to give it texture.

Sorry about the bump underneath but that is the carpet behind it.

The pins at the bottom are there because some of the palm leaves have to be attached under the cross.

I will show you the finished banner when it is hanging in the church in April.

Final Pattern Darning class

The final lesson today in Pattern Darning was what the tutor calls Two way Darning.
This was the technique that was used back in the "olden days" and I mean "olden days" when young girls would stitch away mending garments---and I don't know how they ever managed to do it with out the aid of electricity and magnifying glasses.
The first lot of stitches I worked were the green vertical ones and I made a couple of boo boos along the top but if I didn't tell you then you probably wouldn't have noticed.
The horizontal pink ones were worked next and they were woven in and out of the green ones in the centre.
I had to unpick a few rows every now and then-one would really wonder how much of a problem it is to count "under two and over four" and keep getting it wrong-but I did with monotonous regularity-but in the end I finished it and I am very happy again.
The first photo is the front --------------







And the second one is the back---------------

I have a couple of other small patterns that I will try later but I now have a new Church banner that I have to make up--so it will be heads down for a while now.

My Finished Book

Sorry about the dull photos but Murphy's Law has again reared it's ugly head.
This is the finished stitched front cover.
As you can see I have used Running stitch to outline some of the petals and also some French Knots to hilite the centres.
I did not want to fill the centres with French Knots because I wanted to give the appearance of flowers that were disintegrating.
The gold and copper hilites appear well with the book slanted slightly when I took the photo.






In this photo you can see the front -back and the spine-------------

Here is the spine showing the stitching over the tapes---------------------

This is the centre of the book not that you can see much really but you can see the stitched threads as they go in between the tapes that hold the pages into position.

I am very pleased with the finished book and I would advise anyone who has the opportunity to do this workshop with Isobel to do so--

January Fibre Fever Page

This is officially the last page for the Fibre Fever group swap and is from Kath in Crete.
If you remember my theme was for "the country you live in" and each month I received a page from one of the girls depicting the country where they live.
Crete is Kaths adopted country and if you enlarge the photo you will see that she has embroidered the words "fruit and flowers of Crete" and she has embellished the page with a bunch of grapes -a pomegranate and an olive plus a purple Anemone.
I love this page as it shows me something of about Crete that I was not aware of.
Thank you Kath.

I am still waiting for a page from last year but I am not worried because I know that it will turn up eventually.

Pattern Darning (Kogin)

Today in my Pattern Darning class we did Kogin which is a form of pattern darning that was developed in an area of Japan to improve the warmth and strength of fabric.(quote from Tutors notes)
Traditional Kogin designs were worked in white thread on dark blue (indigo dyed) fabric on clothing and now can be seen on bags-purses-wall hangings etc.(more quotes)
Once you get into the rhythm of the stitching it all falls into place- but again if you make a mistake it is very obvious.





I struggled with the back because I like it to be neat(I know you all said not to worry about it) but- you have to leave a loop at the end of each row.
The reason for this is that when the garment was washed the thread would shrink and without the loop of extra thread the garment would pucker.
I did forget to leave a loop a couple of times but by the time I noticed I was too far down the track so I just left it.
The long tails still attached were from starting and ending threads--I didn't have to weave them in because they will get caught up when I make the sample into a pin cushion or something else.
Or I may just leave it as a sample--who knows.

I think next week is going to be a real eye strainer :0(

Pattern Darning.

Here are the samples of my first attempt at Pattern Darning.
To say that I am very pleased is an understatement--to say it was easy would be a lie-but- to say that I have enjoyed it in the end is the honest truth.
Yes my eyes hurt even with the magnifying glasses but that was because I was getting tired and wouldn't give up --nope the stubborn part of my being kept pushing me on.
I made plenty of mistakes and unpicked lots of stitches but it was all worth it in the end.
I started out using variegated Perle 8 cotton but in some of the designs it looked awful --especially the one which I eventually worked in cotton a Broder worked in the red thread on the top left.
The aqua one on the bottom left was printed wrong on the instruction sheet and the tutor said she would correct it and bring it back on Monday.
After I had completed the other five I thought that I would try to work it out for myself-which I did and I am not sure if it is correct but I think it looks ok :-))






Then when I turned the piece over to look at the back--horror of horrors I had made two mistakes on the back--see the aqua sample on the bottom.
Then I decided to work it again in a lime green coloured thread and bingo it was ok.
I also got the tail of the green thread caught in the needle of the green one on the centre left side which caused a length of thread to carry down the side.
Ah well it is only a sample and the Tutor is a friend so I don't think I will be shot at twenty paces.

You can see the long threads carried across the bottom third of the diamonds--that's a no-no--------------

This is what it is supposed to look like.

I am a happy chappy anyway.

OWOH Winner(s)

Yippee---- I have used the random generator and I now have a winner for my little white quiltie----------
Drum roll please-----the winner is Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm.
Congratulations Sandra --I will post it off to you as soon as I get your address.
Because I had over 200 responses I have decided to give a second prize which is another quiltie that I made using patchwork fabric woven through warp threads which was then embellished with machine and hand embroidery.
So another drum roll please-----this one goes to Jan at Jans arty atc journey.
Congratulations Jan I will send it off to you as soon as I have your address.

Thank you to everyone who dropped by and left a comment I hope that you have enjoyed your visit.