Monday, July 25, 2011

tyvek treasures

Tyvek is one of my favourite materials to play with.

It is so easy to use: painting, stitching and distorting with heat all give great results.







I find lumiere paints give a rich effect and respond well to heat.

Organza ribbon and a fabric flower are added to this piece. 



This tiny face was also painted with lumiere.

I used copper wire to create some structure behind this and the organza ribbon is combined with metallic angelina fibre.



This also has copper wire on the back and the hair is made from silk tops. 

Sunday, July 24, 2011

What was I thinking.

I made this little pin cushion a few weeks ago and once it was all finished I realised you can see the loose threads from the back of the work.  

I am so cross with myself for being careless and not making the back neat.  

This is something I do like to do - finish the back of my work neatly.  In fact I am a bit obsessed by it, so you can imagine I am not pleased.

The back is stitched together in blanket stitch and although I hate the thought of it I am going to have to unstitch it and fix it up.  Those loose threads will drive me mad.

 

Monday, July 18, 2011

Amazing Cactus





 These are some of the cactus on display at Garden World.









There is a huge display which attracts visitors from all over the country.





These are such strange plants.



They seem prehistoric.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

kookaburra in the garden

Today this young kookaburra
came to visit.  There were two of them flying around in the garden behind us and were being harassed by the magpies and noisy minas.  I am not sure what they were looking for but they didn't have a chance to settle.  Anyway I went outside to try to take a photo and one of the kookaburras landed on the veranda just above me.  It seemed to be quite a young bird and stayed still long enough to have its photo taken.  We often hear these iconic Australian birds in the early morning and at dusk but they are well camouflaged.  It is a real privilege to see them up close.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

old books and fresh flowers

As promised I will be showing some more pics of the plants I saw during the week.  I have to edit them so they don't take up too much space.

The pic here is something I created from one of the orchid photos.  

 
Isn't this flower just exquisite:
it hasn't fully opened yet.

The altered picture was created using adobe photoshop.  In the standard edit page I went to Filters and then Distort and selected the Polar Co-ordinates option.  This is one of the more simple alterations I have done but it is very effective.

Now to the question of old books.  I have noticed of late a tendency to use old books for various kinds of arts and crafts - altered books, collage etc.  Personally I have a problem with cutting up books; they seem to be too precious.  I wonder how others feel about this issue.  I bought a book from the op shop recently with the intention of using it in a creation I am planning but I find it impossible to cut it up.  It is not an important or particularly special book and cost me just $2.


Well that is my quandary at present.  Any help would be appreciated.

 

Friday, July 15, 2011

Garden World

 Yesterday I went to one of the biggest garden centres in the area.  
Garden World at Braeside is divided into several individual areas: there are of course the usual garden plants,  an irrigation 
centre where you can buy water tanks, irrigation systems etc, there is a small hydroponics area, collectors corner which has a wonderful display of cactus, orchids and other exotic plants. 
While I was there  I took lots of photos and so
today I will include some pics of my favourite corners.

My favourite section is the water garden area.  This has recently been refurbished, with new displays and a large fish pond outside.  I could spend hours wandering around there, looking at the fish and the plants in the ponds as well as enjoying the sounds of the fountains and waterfalls.







It was quite sunny so the reflections are really spectacular.


 I will show you some of the orchids and cacti in the coming days.




I hope you have enjoyed this little tour.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

crafting at last

 At last I have had some time to play - I want to make a journal cover and to try some different materials or techniques.  I have had a pack of Lutrador on the shelf for months and could never get around to using it.  I also have the wooden printing blocks I bought from Etsy a while ago.  I decided to use some lumiere paints and one of the blocks to add some flowers to the lutrador.


So far, so good.

The flowers look fine.

This is going to be a slow project so I will show some more in a day or two.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

a little bit of stitching



 I bought this pretty little doiley some time ago and had intended to dye it as the fabric in the centre was very worn with some small holes.






It was so pretty that I really didn't want to add colour to the lace so I decided to add some embroidered  silk flowers and a few beads.


I am quite pleased with the results.  




 On Friday, after lunch at the Tanti Mornington Hotel I took the grandchildren to Sunset Beach which is nearby.  The water comes right up to the wooden steps when the tide is in.



The children would have stayed for hours but I was freezing so we set off to the mobile library in Mount Eliza to stock up on reading matter.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Using up the stash

Today, with the help of my youngest grandson, Matthew, aged 8 I made a couple of pair of trousers for the little girls next door.  I bought the fabric about 13 years ago and was going to make something for Ally who is now 14 but she disliked the fabric so it has been in the stash all that time.  I am sure these will be good for crawling around in and at last I have put the fabric to good use. 





Wednesday, July 6, 2011

I love winter on the Mornington Peninsula

 The last few days have been bitterly cold with gale force winds and heavy rain.  Of course my first instinct is to stay in bed for the day or at least to stay inside but I have decided to embrace this wonderful weather, after all we are recovering from 9 years of drought and we asked for this rain.

Today I went out for a coffee at the Rocks at Mornington which is one of my favourite places.  On the way back I took a few pics of the bay (Port Philip) which looked so beautiful and of course the clouds were piling up with more rain promised.
 I am not doing much stitching at present as this weather does cause me some 
difficulties with my hands.  I wake in the morning with stiff and painful fingers and it takes most of the day to loosen them up.  


 I can still take lots of photos, look at all my books and mags for inspiration and of course I have my sewing machines.




The grandchildren are on school holidays and so all four will come for a two night sleepover tomorrow.  That is always something to look forward to.  





















Monday, July 4, 2011

Friends & Neighbours

The little girls next door will be 12 months old soon and I decided I would like to give each of them a special outfit.
They are not walking yet so I thought some nice warm trousers and a knitted top would make sense.  Sounds like a great idea and the sewing of the trousers will not be difficult but I don't knit well enough to create anything suitable so I put out a call to my friends and was thrilled when Laurel offered to knit two little tops for me.

I chose the pattern and bought the yarn and sent them up to Laurel in Queensland.  Today the first little garment arrived and I am so thrilled with it.  I couldn't wait to show it to you.  

Now I have to find a pattern and yarn for the second one.

Thanks so much Laurel for being kind enough to do this for me.