Melbourne here I come

I am off to Melbourne tomorrow to visit my daughter and also meet Sophie from Artstitches blog.   I haven't seen my daughter for a year so am delighted to go visit her.   Also, I enjoy Melbourne, love the architecture, mostly love the public transport system which far surpasses that of Perth.   Be back next week........

Textile Tuesday - Gold

Crazy patch postcard block for Textile Tuesday. It reminds me of the heatwave we are now suffering when people flock to the beach for a little relief. I will add some embroidery as soon as I get back from my holiday, maybe even while I am in Melbourne!

Australia Day

Yesterday was holiday day for Australia Day. A day to gather together and have bbq and a few drinks. I spent the day with friends and despite the great heat we had a fun time. I hope all my Australian readers also had a good day.

Dyeing more threads

This morning I decided I had too many skeins of sea green silk thread, so have overdyed 2 skeins in the hopes of getting teal. I also dyed a skein of white rayon thread and a stranded white DMC. They have been dyed blue. I used the direct application method, for ease, and have them now sitting in what will be a sunny position in the garden to cure until this evening. When the dyeing bug bites is sure does bite hard!

Dyeing threads and fabric

When I dye threads I always put a piece of calico under the threads to soak up the dye, the light brown was obtained from catching the drips of the dyed toasty brown silk thread. The fabric that caught the drips from the sea green threads is a bit too pale for me to use, but I really like the thread. I plan to overdye the greenish piece of fabric. The light brown has nice complex patterning on it and I will use it as a 'light' in quilting. I often dye or paint my 'lights' as I prefer them to using the traditional type of fabric.

Dyeing threads

I have been dyeing silk threads and silk ribbon this morning. They are now happily steaming in the sunshine until tomorrow morning when I can wash them and see if I am pleased with the colours. Tomorrow I have a load of cotton and rayon threads to dye, but I feel I did enough today. Besides I have to look up how to mix up the fixative.

When I have washed and dried the threads I will take a picture, must get some cards to wind them onto as well.

Denim tote

Here it is at long last! And yes, it will carry nibblies on the plane BECAUSE the food is so lousy or non existent! I am still looking at the tab and thinking maybe a button and a few beads, but too much embellishment on bags can be a nuisance when you use them a lot and you shed beads, etc. wherever you walk.

Embellishing

I'm not sure why I feel compelled to embellish the bags I made, it sure took me a lot longer to finish the denim bag than it need have done. I must take a picture of it so you can see the finished bag. I am going to Melbourne next week to see my eldest daughter, and I wanted a large bag to carry on the plane to carry a bottle of water, book, some nibblies in case the food is inedible, and my tatting in case of dire boredom. Actually, I have to stop tatting angels, I have already made three and I don't want to make too many, even if I am getting my Christmas and exhibition stuff done early LOL

Embellishing a bag

The first picture you can see is of the kunen felt which I monoprinted with gold paint, above the painted bit is the knitted tape yarn I will embroider on to the paint. The next picture is of the felt and knitting heat treated, it has shrunken to a lovely texture, it is lacey where the felt has burned away, but I felt it was to heavy both in looks and weight to embellish my bag. Another attempt produced this embroidered Annie Blatt tape yarn which was stitched to the bag front and embellished with sequins, beads, buttons and plastic bag beads. I hasten to add that the swinging beads are not on too long a thread. I once made a bag festooned with hanging and swinging beads and embellishments. I spent nearly the whole of that holiday untieing the dangling beads so I could actually get into the bag for my purse, sunglasses, whatever.

?Christmas

Being somewhat obsessive I have started making tree decorations for Christmas 2007. Having found the nice tatting patterns on Birgit's site I made this little angel, isn't she sweet? I still have to stiffen her and pull her into shape, but I am already planning more in different colours.

I think the vlisofixed piece is not going to work well for a bag, it is rather chunky and heavy, so I will probably resort to stencilling, stamping and a bit of stitching to jazz up the bag.

embellishment

I have been busy this last hour painting vliesofix, knitting a small piece of fabric, finding some kunan felt, ready to put it all together as embellishment for my denim bag. Will take some photos when I have something to show you.

Dyeing

Yesterday I re-dyed my old black teeshirts black (again). I have had a run of forgetting the salt for this job, but remembered yesterday and came home and dropped them in the washing machine with the black dye, salt and I added some washing soda to the mix. Now I am eyeing the ones I usually re-dye with blue and thinking I may do them too. Adds a new lease of life to my very much worn cotton tees.

We are having beautiful weather this week, not too hot. I feel so much more energetic than when we get really hot weather. Just another 6 weeks of official summer and we will be into Springtime.

Tatted Angels

I ran out of tatted Christmas ornaments this year, and after trawling the net decided I could make Birgit Phelp's Bitty Angel. My first one is a rather lopsided failure, but I do know I can do this pattern and will try again, keeping count of which chain I should currently be doing. Nothing like getting in early for Christmas!

More bags

After a struggle I managed to attach the strap to the floral bag, the pattern did not seem to fit the bag; it needed to cover the raw edges of the facing and did not. So I recut a strap and interfacing and attach it in my own way. I had hoped to do more to the denim bag today, but have finished the lining for this one, including zippered pockets, so I suppose I have not been too idle.

tidy, tidy

We are back to house selling again. This morning I have been out in the garden as it is watering day, so that has to be seen to, have been sweeping the patios and paths, attacking untidy branches with my snippers and de-snailing any poor attacked plant. Now I have to flick a duster round before I go to Tai Chi. I dearly want to sew, but daren't make a mess or it will all have to be cleared up again.

I had decided to make a denim tote today and after finding some likely embellishments and laying them on the denim to decide on the best, I went to sort out some lining. That was almost a mistake because I found some floral cotton fabrics and decided to make a floral bag. I am going to Melbourne later in the month to visit my daughter and also see my friend Sophie of Art Stitches blog. Floral bags are so fashionable this year and maybe I'll knock everyone's eyes out with my new fashionable bag. Gosh, I might even get upgraded on the plane!!! Anyway, the denim remains as I left it and the bag just needs to have its strap attached. I'm sure I had some belt stiffener somewhere, will have to go on a hunt.

Card case

I cut up some fabric I had made and turned it into a little card case. Some dangly beaded earrings I bought this morning in a sale came in very handy to act as an embellishment. The earring just adds the right finishing touch. I bought a couple of pairs of earrings this morning, and found a gemstone brooch I had forgotten in my turning out this morning. Quite a nice little haul to tuck away for another day.

Joan's blog

I spent part of this afternoon making a card case. It usually isn't dark by the time I finished, but it us raining and dark much earlier tonight. I promise to take a photo tomorrow.

I found another fibre blog today, Joan lives in Western Australia too and we belong to the same textile arts group. Here is a link to her blog.

Selling houses

Today we have another home open, I have been cleaning all morning and am fed up. My sewing machine is beckoning and I dare not get out fabrics to choose and start playing, I am such a messy worker. Later on I intend to work on some more 1" x 1" squares and maybe sort out some postcards.

Multi-useful work

It was suggested that what I called flames for Illustration Friday was more like a creekbed. The piece of embroidery still looks like flames to me, but I can see the whole piece and the metallic threads and fabrics glinting through, but when turned on its side it does resemble a creekbed too. So now I have entered it into Textile Tuesday in the 'Water' theme. Can't you guess that just before Christmas I went to a talk by an artist on Abstract Art. Realised that much of my textile work is in some sense or another, abstract. Guess it is what happens when someone who has had no formal training in art tries to express herself artistically.

freemotion fabric

I was turning over my stash the other day and came across this piece of fabric I made in a workshop. The piece of work never got finished because this was when I put the sewing machine needle through my finger and was too sore to play with wire and other goodies. The fabric was made on kunen felt with scraps of fabric added on top, black tulle on top of that, embroidered and then the felt was burnt away to create a lacy effect. Very pretty.