Butterfly box completed

Well I have finished this little box.  The interior took longer than the top.  I have added some heat set crystals and glued the felt into the base.  The interior of the lid is painted a lovely buttery yellow.

Now what shall I do next?

early works

The weather has been cold here on the Mornington Peninsula and so I have spent quite a lot of time indoors.  Now you might imagine that would provide me with an opportunity to catch up with my housework,  but no,  I have been sorting through boxes of "stuff" that I haven't looked at in quite a while.  

I was surprised to find this little doll's jacket which I made when I was about 8 years old.  We had a dutch family living next door and the daughter of the house took an interest in me and decided I should learn to sew.

Some old calico was produced and some threads, and the lesson began.  I do remember making this and also some other small garments for the two dolls I owned.  The design and the stitching is pretty rough but it always reminds me of the kindness of the young woman next door.  I have no idea how old she was - perhaps 16 or 18 but I do remember spending time in her home which was always spic and span and yet very welcoming.

This next piece of embroidery is something I made for my "hope chest".  I was engaged at 19 and we didn't have much but I was determined to have some pretty things.  It would have been a semco kit I think and I did several of these and also embroidered some pillowcases.  

My stitching was really quite neat in those days: good eyesight helps.


I do like looking through those boxes containing memories and treasures.


It is always hard to decide whether to keep old cards and scraps of wrapping paper - or that flower I pressed when on my visit to the uk. (I know I should not have brought it back with me).  I hardly ever look at them and sometime my children will have to sort through it all.


What do you keep?


For those who are interested in my visit to the Peninsula Hot Springs:  it was sensational!  I had been nervous and a little self-conscious: swimming in the surf is one thing - sitting still in the mineral baths is quite another.  Then there was the thought of taking my clothes off for the massage!


Well, the whole atmosphere was so relaxing that I was comfortable from the moment I arrived and to be honest didn't want to leave.  The mineral baths are soooo relaxing and the massage was just what I needed.  


It is funny how we often we let a lack of confidence spoil something special.  The visit to the springs was a gift from my neighbours (for babysitting) and I really do appreciate it.

vintage linen

I have managed to fit in some op shopping lately and have bought some lovely hand worked pieces, most of which were in need of a good wash and iron.  Anyway I will just let the pics speak for themselves.

The Visit continued

 We are still on holidays and are back in Tweed Heads in norther New South Wales now.  
I have taken more photos than I can manage at present but I will include some each day if I think they are interesting enough.  
The plant featured here is a frangipani, a very popular plant in the places we visited.  Anyway I wonder if anyone can see the frog in this pic.   

I don't know the name of this plant but perhaps Laurel will let us know.  It is a really pretty little plant with gorgeous shades of blue.

The house and the formal garden are surrounded by tall eaucalypts and they form a truly Australian backdrop.  They also provide shelter to many birds and animals and tiny wildflowers.


Laurel & Neal have put in many hours of work building up the poor soil and creating wonderful areas of plantings.
I can tell that this is a labour of love and that although it is beautiful now, there is plenty more planned for the future.
The house is also a delight to see.  The verandas provide shelter from the heat and the interior is very inviting with lots of Laurel's needlework on display.
Sadly by the time I went inside my camera decided not to co-0perate so i can only show a couple of examples of her work.  I am sure you will agree it is beautiful.

Later I will share some more photos of our trip to Noosaville which is a little further north on the Sunshine coast of Queensland.

City & Guilds and other thoughts.

As the new month starts I seem to have created a whole lot of mess in my studio/sewing room.  Too much thinking and not enough action lately.

Anyway one thought that comes and goes with some regularity is the idea of doing a City & Guilds course by distance learning.  If anyone can offer any advice on the matter I would really appreciate it.  Perhaps I could make up my mind one way or another and then that would be one less thing to keep thinking about!

In the meantime I will address a couple of things in previous blogs.  Thanks for the kind messages regarding my dear grand children.  The three in the previous blog are the children of my youngest daughter.  My eldest daughter also has a son but we do not see him as often.  They will all sleep over here on Sunday night as it is still school holidays.  Anyway, as far as the cooking is concerned: the children decide for themselves what they want to cook - usually something they have done at home or at their other grandmother's house.  We then write a list of the supplies needed and go shopping. 
After that they do the preparation and the cooking.  They set the table and serve up the food.  I guess it is only fair that I clean up afterwards!!! 

Jensters,  you asked me about my ATC for Stitchin Fingers.  I did finish mine and posted it on Monday.  It took me quite a while to decide what to do but once I decided I found I had something already stitched and I only had to add some water colour to it.  It was much more challenging than I had expected.  I hope it fits the requirements.  I think this month's theme of "wings" will be much easier.

You really have to laugh!

Yesterday I managed to lock myself in my sewing room/office.  This room is under the main part of our house and quite independent - no access from one to the other.  We have lived here for a while now but have never shut the screen door down here as it doesn't fit properly and there is no point. Well yesterday I pulled the door fully shut   -  as it turned out  -   fully locked.  As we don't use the door I don't have a key for it on my keyring, nor have I ever tried any of the many spare keys we were were given for the house.  I did however remember that there were keys "somewhere".  

After a few minutes of panic I decided to climb out one of the windows.  Fortunately they are close to the ground.  I went upstairs and looked around and then suddenly remembered that the spare keys are kept down in my office!!!!!!!!  Yes, I had to climb back in through the window, sort through the keys and unlock the door!!!!

So funny now.

I

 I have made a little more progress on the piece of pleasted silk.  I am now in a quandary about its future.  I have decided it is too delicate to be a needlebook and my second idea of a journal cover might work but the piece is quite bulky.  Perhaps I'll just frame it and put it on the wall.  Any suggestions welcome. 

Progress report

I have managed a little stitching time in the past two days and have added some stitches to my pleated silk piece.  It is beginning to look a lot like spring.

 

OUCH!!

I had a lot of errands to run today so started the day early and of course the windows of the car needed wiping down before I could start my driving for the day.  As I went to pick up the cloth to clean the windows I slid my thumb along a piece of cardboard the was in the back of the car and nearly took my thumbnail off.  Hence the name of this post.  I seem to bump the thumb no matter how careful I am being so I have wrapped it up well and now it is safer but no more comfortable.

Oh that was a big grizzle, sorry.

Last night I did a little more on my "speak" project.  I will post a pic if I can upload it.  I will probably have to give stitching a miss tonight if my thumb doesn't settle down. 

It is a new month and I need to make a start on yet another needlebook as well as another ATC for Stitchin Fingers.

While I was out and about I managed to take some photos so I will share one or two here.

Don't you just love the shapes of these trees?  Sadly years of drought have taken their toll on these beautiful trees.  There has been plenty of rain lately but it is too late for these beauties.

Gales & Galleries on the Mornington Peninsula

This morning I was fortunate enough to be dropped at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery while hubby hit some golf  balls nearby.  The gallery is set in beautiful parkland: this is my first visit although it is ten minutes from where we live and I drive right past at least once a week.  There is a lake in the grounds, as you can see in the pic at the left and when we drove in there were children feeding ducks and geese.  I will have to go back again to take some photos.
The gallery had too exhibitions on today.  One is the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 exhibition.  Some of it was really moving.  The  other was the Recycled Library: Altered Books.   It was very interesting but I must admit I feel quite ambivalent about cutting up books in the name of art.  Some of the pieces were quite amazing though.

After the gallery we went for a drive further down the peninsula to Arthur's Seat.  This is a well known tourist area and in the past there was a chair lift operating from the top to the tea rooms halfway down.  It is not operating at present and the tea rooms are closed.  Up at the top there is a lovely cafe/restaurant called Arthurs (original name) and as it was so cold and windy we decided to pop in for a coffee and scones with jam & cream.  So much for the diet today.  I managed to take a few photos and although it was gloomy I think they look fine.  This first shot is looking back towards our house.  The second one is of the general area.  Yes it was a gloomy day.

Arthurs Seat VIC - Google Maps

have a look at the links if you are interested in my outing today.

MPRG Exhibitions

Now to the stitching:  

I have started filling in the gaps in my "SPEAK" project.  

One section is french knots done in 

2 strands of variegated silk thread,

in a gorgeous coral colour.

Another is thread painted with a hand dyed cotton that reminds

me of autumn leaves.  

This is a project that I will work on when I have nothing else I want to do. 

SATURDAY EVENING

It is saturday evening already and May is almost done.  It is cold here: about 14 degrees I think and we had lots of rain last night.  It was a good day for gardening and I planted a grevillea Robin Gordon in the front garden, also 2 Correa Dusky Bells and 1 Correa Alba.  These plants grow particularly well here and attract the native birds.  I  can see this garden from my bedroom window so I am taking extra care with it.

Last night I constructed my May needlebook using the fabric I coloured with water colour pencils.  I was really happy with this piece.  The design was easy to draw and colour and the stitching just did itself: well I did it but there were no set rules so it was very relaxing to do.   

 I had a lovely piece of aqua wool to do the inside and it matches perfectly.  I just have to decide on how it should be fastened.  Should I just use a pretty ribbon or would a magnetic catch make more sense?  Any ideas are welcome.

After that was done to my satisfaction, and inspected by my dear husband I decided to make a start on another challenge.

On the Three Creative Studios Forum we are given a "cue" every week to inspire us to do something creative.  Sometimes it is a photo or a drawing or just some musings.  This week's word "SPEAK" really had me stumped.  I was watching TV and thought I would just take a piece of calico and put it in a hoop and with a needle and some silk thread and see if it would SPEAK to me.  The pic above is the result.  Over the next few weeks I will work on this piece and share the journey of discovering what it will reveal to me.

water colours & stitches

I have been trying out colouring fabric with water colour pencils.  This is part of a challenge on the 3 creative studios forum.  I have used calico for this challenge as I have heaps of it and it doesn't matter if I mess up.

First I drew a design, just working free hand with the pencils.

After colouring it in I sprayed it liberally with water and silver sheen, dried it over the heating vent and then ironed it.
The design remained intact although it was somewhat softened by the water. 

As usual I am making this up as I go along: I thought some quilting would be good.  Using pellon as batting backed the piece with another piece of calico.  So far I have just hand stitched around the flowers and leaves with coordinating  single threads.  So far it is working out really well.

This will be another needlebook for my monthly challenge.

galahs & grevilleas

I have had a busy few days with the family but still found time to stitch.

The embroidery of the grevillea is done but I am not sure what I will make from it.

It turned out better than I had hoped: the grevillea is particularly hard to capture in thread.  There are many varieties, some with small toothbrush like flowers and others with spidery blooms.  Colours vary from reds, yellows, pinks to creamy shades.  The foliage is just as varied: some with fernlike leaves and others with prickly needles. The nectar attracts the native birds as well as the bees to the garden.

During the weekend two of my grandsons stayed over on Saturday night  and then on Sunday morning the older one, Michael, went to the golf driving range with Mike (my husband) and Matthew and I looked for birds in the garden so he could fill in his bird observation log book.  We were lucky enough to see lots of lorikeets of course and magpies.  We were writing up the log when a couple of galahs landed on the verandah rail.  They are much more timid than the lorikeets but we managed to take some pics. 

flora & fauna in our garden

Well, my grevillea is progressing well.  I am finding this project, which I have set for myself, to be really challenging.  The grevillea is a very hard flower to express in stitch.  I have done one in silk ribbon too but I have no idea where it is now.

This time I am using a variety of threads and stem stitch, split back stitch, satin stitch, couching and french knots and am reasonably happy with it so far but I can feel a little paint or even hapazome coming on.  It needs something to bulk it out a bit.  

Incidentally the two flowers I posted on the previous blog are grevillea coconut ice and grevillea ned kelly (I think, the birds have made off with the label).

Talking of the birds, here are some of the lorikeets that often visit the garden.  We feed them occasionally as they are so beautiful.  They feed on the native flowers as well so there is plenty to attract them to our garden.

We also have possums visiting us in the evenings: they are nocturnal creatures and if we don't bring the bird seed in they eat it all.  I had to distract this one with an apple last night in order to be able to bring the seed in. 

RAINBOW CIRCLES

I have been looking through some photos of my embroidery and found something I would like to share.  Some time ago the Embroiderers' Guild UK forum participated in a project to make some "rainbow squares".  Each circle in the square had to be just 3 inches and worked in one colour.  These are two that I created.  I wanted to use as many stitches and materials as I could to demonstrate the diversity of the opportunities available to needlewomen.    There are silk ribbons and threads as well as tiny beads and crystals.

cold Wednesday

First, let me say thank you for the positive comments.  I am really enjoying the blogging and the feedback really helps.

The idea of "a needlebook a month" was something discussed among stitching friends last year and here we are nearing the end of April and I have done 3.  I also have to do one for a swap on the Country Bumpkin Forum - I know I could use one of the monthly ones but this is a special project, over and above.

About taking your stitching with you when visiting friends:  my rule of thumb is that if I knittted, would I take my knitting with me?  Knitting seems to be something people accept so I think they will accept my stitching.  I don't take it if there are little children or dogs in the house in case I drop a pin or a needle.  I don't take it if I don't know the people well.  Otherwise I take a little bag of stitching with me.  It is amazing how much you can do while waiting for the doctor, or visiting someone in hospital and definitely on holidays.

Anne I love the idea of a place mat a month - or maybe a tray cloth.  Perhaps we can do that next year.

Anzac Weekend

I have been fosicking about in my basket of ufos and found a piece I did a couple of years ago. It is a tulip embroidered on silk and just the right size for a needlebook.

Having come to the conclusion that it would work I then needed to find a suitable fabric for lining it. I wanted something with a bit of body to it as the embroidered fabric is quite flimsy and I wanted something interesting that would add to the piece rather than vie for attention.

Over the past few weeks I have received several parcels of goodies from friends so I thought I would look through that collection and see if anything worked well. Of course it did. A piece of painted fabric with a bit of a metallic look about it. It is quite stiff so is a perfect backing.

I stitched the two pieces together using some of the inbuilt stitches on my sewing machine and it turned out well.

I will just add a folded piece of felt for the "pages" and finish it of with a couple of charms or tassels.

Well, the days are just flying by and I am not stitching much.

My current project is a small piece of embroidery to be set into the top of a music box for my grand daughter.

I have used some calico which has blotches of colour in pinks/mauves. When I was painting batting recently I used this piece of calico to cover the batting as I ironed it dry and it picked up the excess paint and looks quite good.
I have used my Embroidery machine to put her name on the fabric as I am in a bit of a hurry and now I am just stitching some simple flowers in an informal way on the fabric.

By tomorrow it should be complete and set into the box.