Machine Lace - Module 8

I've had a really productive past 2 weeks, knocking out loads of samples of machine lace and feel quite chuffed with myself. After hours and hours of practice I'm starting to enjoy free machining and feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it ...

This one (below) was made with squares of spun craft paper, laid on Aquabond and stitched together with metallic threads.

This purple piece is a piece of net fabric, and I've created the negative flowers by using a Shiva stick over a stencil, and then the free machined purple flowers are just pinned in place (at the moment!)

I liked working with the metallic threads and found they seem to hold together a bit better than the finer threads. I made these snowflakes using a silver metallic thread in the top of the machine and a white cotton in the bobbin.

I then had a go at cable stitch, putting a thicker thread in the bobbin and tried to work on a mesh fabric, but it just wouldn't work and kept jamming, so I changed the needle on the machine to a top stitch needle and put the thicker thread through the top of the machine and it worked a treat.

And on top of all this, I even managed to finish a Michael Powell cross stitch design for my sisters birthday, so all in all a very good fortnight .... just got to keep up the momentum now.

Subiaco Craft Fair

Sunday was a glorious spring day ... temperature up to 32C and everyone out and about enjoying the weather. We (me, mum and daughter) spent the day at the Subiaco Craft Fair at the UWA, Crawley. From what I can gather, it was the first time they'd had the fair at the Uni, and it was a great venue with loads of big tree's for shade and great areas for sitting and eating. Hope they have it again next year. A special thank you to the lovely lady at Timeless Jewellery for spending so much time and effort in helping us find a suitable necklace for mum's birthday. Despite all the efforts by mum to try and convince me she really didn't want it, I know she's chuffed to bits. Just got to convince hubby that I'll feel the same way if he buys me the funky green & blue necklace and earrings for Christmas - 2nd from the right.

The fair was all about good quality crafts and people's amazing inspiration and creativity.

Got a few nice bits for Christmas presents too, so that's taken a bit of pressure off.

On the way back to the carpark we had a walk along the river at Matilda Bay, with a view of Perth in the background, what you don't see in the photo are all the people enjoying family gatherings, picnics and barbecues. It was lovely to see everyone having a good time, and me ... well, I had a great day!

Beating Around The Bush 2009

I've just come back from Adelaide, where I attended the Beating Around the Bush international embroidery convention, presented by Country Bumpkin publications (of "Inspirations" magazine fame) and have to say, I had a ball!!!
The last one they held was in 2003, which I also went to, so it's been a long time between drinks and I've been patiently waiting and can tell you all ... it was worth it!
As always I love Adelaide .... its a city but still feels like a country town and has the most gorgeous buildings from its past, and you can't forget the Central Markets ... what a place! That was the first stop when we arrived .... had to get stocked up with fresh fruit, salads, bread and cheeses which kept us going for lunches for the week.

The convention was held at Unley High School, and as always CB pulled it all together brilliantly with buses collecting and returning us to our hotels each day. There were 78 classes to choose from and 30 tutors, some of who came from the other side of the world.

We were lucky enough to have Elizabeth Elvin, former Principal of the Royal School of Needlework, attend and her talk and slide show about the RSN was amazing.

And who could forget the wonderful bonnets, created to honour our convict women, as part of Christina Henri's "Roses from the Heart" project.

We also managed to squeeze in a day trip to the Barossa Valley. Although it was bitterly cold the scenery was well worth it, and the wines weren't bad either!

Lunch was lovely at Maggie Beer's Farm Shop where we had a pate picnic and the most yummy vanilla and elderflower icecream.

Despite wanting to do as many of the classes as possible, I could only pick 3 so decided to make the most of Tanja Berlin's visit from Canada and gain as much knowledge from her experience as possible. Tanja is RSN trained but now resides in Calgary, Canada. Anyone interested in threadpainting, white work, crewel work, blackwork, goldwork and much more should visit her website. I challenge anyone to visit her website and not sit there with mouths open in jaw-dropping amazement at her work.
Below is an example of one of her threadpainting projects .... I bought this kit and will attempt to stitch it at some point in time.

My first class was stitching a double sided bird which wasn't as daunting as it sounds; the second was threadpainting a gorgeous little rabbit; and the last class was learning blackwork and stitching a fuscia. All three are half done, and I'll post pics when I've completed them.

To whet your appetites, here are more works by a few other tutors that attended the convention.

This one is the most beautiful wool blanket with a mouse in a basket called "Rock-A-Bye Mousey", created by Angela Dower. Don't be deceived by the picture, the mouse and basket is about an A4 size on its own and photos just don't do it the justice it deserves.

Angela will be going online in 2010 with a website, but in the meantime you can contact her at terango@ncable.net.au. Keep a look out for Angela's designs ... they're well worth it!

And then of course, there's one of my favourite tutors. Jenny McWhinney, and her whimsical wool threadpainting designs, such as the elephants below. This was part of a wool blanket that featured a wonderful lions head in the centre, with other African animals and people embroidered around it. I've done quite a few of Jenny's classes in the past and enjoyed every one of them.

As well as all the embroidery, wine tasting, market shopping, interactive forums and lectures, we also had a banquet dinner at the National Wine Centre overlooking the Botanic Gardens. I was fortunate to sit at a table with Tone Henningsen Hoie from Norway, and admire the national costumes Tone and her daughter wore for the evening. There were amazing.

I have to admit I was very teary the day I had to leave ... I'd had the most wonderful 9 days, doing what I love and mixing with like-minded people and making lots of new friendships. Who wouldn't be sad to leave that?!

Now I'm home again and back into textiles .... hand embroidery has been put aside for a while until I catch up on C&G homework, but I'm already saving for the next Beating Around the Bush in 2011 ... hope to see you there.

Rusting Fabrics

I've been experimenting lately with rusting fabrics ... this is great fun and you get the most amazing patterns.
I tried to be clever with some of the pieces, as I felt some of them were a bit "in your face" with the stark white/cream background against the orange rust, so I decided to immerse the fabrics in tea to tea-dye the background. The result wasn't what I expected .... instead a grey/brown fabric.

The tannins in the tea worked against the wonderful orange/gold colours of the rust. Although it changed the visual context completely, it left something quite different and unusual in its own right, even if it wasn't was I had hoped for. Isn't that usually the way?!

Not sure what I'll do with these samples yet, but one of the larger pieces pictured below will be used in my wall hanging.

Don't think hubbies got anything rusty left in his shed .... I've ransacked it, dragged out anything rusty, covered it in fabric and sprayed it with vinegar, oh well - he needed a clean up in his shed anyway!

Transparent Fabrics

After a harrowing few months I'm now back into the swing of it and madly trying to catch up on lost time, throwing myself whole-heartedly into Module 8 : Transparent Fabrics, More Machine Techniques and a Working Design for a 3D item.
I spent the day holed up in my studio painting papers with transfer paints and crayola transfer crayons. Managed to make up over 50 papers .... some will come in handy in the future.

I used everything that I could find that could be described as a stencil of some sort, to try and give me as much variety in the patterns, as possible. Some worked better than others, depending on the fabric they were transferred onto.

I found that voile and nets were great, but crystal organza's blurred and didn't take up the transfer very well.

The transfer paints were great for stamping, and gave much brighter colours than what appears on the paper.

Rubbing mats were good fun to use with the Crayola transfer crayons, and the designs could be cut up and re-arranged.

I even tried the scrapbooking wooden motifs as stamps and stencils, they worked fine!

A productive day .... lets hope tomorrow is as good.

Trip to Melbourne

Well the past month has been a mixed bag with highs and lows.
I completed my Module 7 and submitted it for assessment. I got a good report back but have a bit of "tweeking" to do on my wall hanging, so hopefully next week should see me in a brighter frame of mind to tackle this.
I went over to Melbourne to visit hubby, who's working over there, and had a lovely week. Weather was cold and brisk, bringing back memories of England, but nice and refreshing.
I LOVED the architecture of Melbourne and went a bit snap happy.
It's such a lovely city with so much to see and photograph ... twice I was approached and asked if I was a professional photographer!!

Spent a morning at the Victoria Markets .... what a place! I could live in Melb just for the food and produce ... so much to choose from, good prices and all freshly picked.

We spent a day travelling through the Dandenong Ranges on the Puffing Billy train. Great experience ... even though it was an open sided train and the weather was only 6C!! Scenery was stunning ... would recommend it to anyone.

I spent days and days visiting art galleries and museums, and in the National Gallery of Victoria (International) I found an exhibition called "Persuasion : Fashion of the Age of Jane Austen". What a find!!!!! Beautiful costumes.

So all in all a great week in Melbourne, but came home and had my feet kicked out from under me when I came down with swine flu. I was very ill for 10 days and just as I was starting to pick myself up we were then knocked down again by the passing of a very good and dear friend.

Highs and lows .... such is life.

More of Module 5 & bits and pieces

I'm still busy plodding along with the wall hanging samples and trying to put together my Module 7 submission, and have nothing of note to post at the moment, so I thought I'd include a few other snippets from the course as well as my own hand embroidery.
Part of our Module 5 submission was to present our work in a 3D format. We were given ideas of using: a wine rack; a mobile; a box format etc. I didn't want to go down the track of something the tutor had suggested and wanted to come up with an idea that was completely my own. As usual it took a few weeks for the cogs in my brain to start working, then one day I spotted a little caboose in a magazine and WHAM! the idea was planted.
I built a cardboard and paper mache train and caboose to hold my research and design pieces in, like a moving filing cabinet, and called it the "City and Guild Express". It took me a long time to work out the size to a scale that would enable the caboose to hold A4 sized documents in a landscape format, and I had to mock up loads of paper samples before I started on cardboard.
As usual with anything that I do, it took me AGES to finish it, but I was really chuffed with the end result. The wheels are wooden teddy bear making joints fixed with split pins and actually move as you push the train.

It has so many layers of paper glued to it, along with paint and varnish, that its really quite sturdy. My tutor replied by saying that there's not a lot of submissions that make her smile, but this did!

It now sits with pride in my work studio and will one day be handed over to my grandson to put his toys in, and no doubt destroy, as only little boys can do!

I also thought I'd show a few gift tags I've been steadily making over the past year or so. I thought they'd be nice to give to special family and friends, and also for labeling jars of buttons, ribbons, pins etc. Here are a few examples. I've sold a few through a local gift shop .... do you think if I put them on Etsy anyone would be interested?