This is my first hand made Christmas cracker.

It is made with lutrador, hessian, lace and paper flowers.  Quite pretty I think.

Now I have to make some more for the family feast.

hair clips

I have three markets coming up - the first is this coming weekend.  It is Melbourne cup long weekend so it is a 4 day event.

It is one of the activities included in the Peninsula Arts Society Spring Art Show.

Last year our textiles group was given the opportunity to show some of our work and this year we are allowed to offer our pieces for sale.

It is always so hard to know how much to do and how to price things.

Holidays amd precious friends

 This week I was lucky enough to take a quick trip up to the Gold Coast (southern Queensland) and while I was there I caught up with Elizabeth Peters.  I first "met" Elizabeth on the Country Bumpkin Forum, which no longer exists, and we have met in person several times.  We spent some time op shopping and also enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch in Southport: take a look here.

We spent some time looking at Elizabeth's beautiful creations: lace and felt and lots of other treasures.   you can see her work here

On a previous visit to the Gold Coast I bought this little wicker case to keep some needlework supplies at my father-in-law's house.


He lives in Tweed Heads which is at the very southern part of the Gold Coast.



On this visit I was so excited to see the contents of the case again.

 It contains needles,beads,buttons and a piece of embroidery to work on while visiting.

 I had a lovely time away but am happy to be home again.

vintage lace

 I bought this gorgeous lace from the salvos today.  I think it is handmade but I don't know a lot about lace.  It is very fine and quite beautiful.

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?

Butterflies and Bling

 I have added some lace butterflies to the corners of the box lid and then painted them with yellow glitter paint so that they blend with the other elements.





The wings of the butterfulies are turned up a bit so you can see what is underneath.

 The base of the box needed some attention so I have painted it with crackle paint.

This is a new product to me and I am quite happy with the results.

 Next I need to decide how to treat the inside of the box.  Fabric, or paint, or paper? 

I like the inside of a box to reflect the outside somehow so I think some butterflies and flowers will be in there.











 

encrusting a box top

 At last I have found time to do something crafty.

 I have several little boxes just waiting for some attention.

Two coats of cream acrylic paint gives the cardboard box a bit more strength and a neutral base.

The stash has revealed lots of options and the colour scheme is decided by an old doiley that was  dyed a couple of years ago. 

It is the colour of smoked salmon and there are lots of other embellishments to choose from.

The doiley is glued to the top of the box and over the sides.

On top is I have added some lace and bling - a little at a time.

A search through the button and bead boxes has revealed some great options. 

I do love embellishing box tops.  There will be more pics tomorrow.

lacemaking on the machine

I think making lace on my sewing machine is one of my favourite activities.  It is time consuming but it can be very relaxing -a  kind of meditation.  You have to feel completely in tune with the machine and the threads to achieve what you want. 

The pic on the left shows (not very clearly) a small piece of lace in orange thread with white flowers.  I made this piece some months (maybe years) ago as a practice piece and although I was pleased with it I couldn't think of how to use it.

Well it is now part of the collage I am working on and I think it works really well.

This second pic shows what can happen if you are not concentrating on locking all the areas together.

This is basic to making machine made lace and I have no idea what I was thinking about at the time.  Obviously not what I was working on.  Anyway I am not inclined to waste anything and although it didn't turn out well I know it can be used if I just set my mind to a little darning here and there.

It does look quite messy but I am sure I can make it work for the collage.

You can see clearly here that I have a bit of connecting to do.

  I deliberately worked on quite thick areas and that has turned out well.

  The threads I used were in Autumn colours with some metalics included.

 

The thread in the bobbin was green variegated so the back looks a bit different.

I will try to take a pic of the back when I have finished "fixing"  this.

collage episode 3

This morning I started to make some lace on soluble film:  I am not sure which brand it is because I picked it up in an op shop with some other goodies.

This is the stitching before rinsing it out

It is important to make sure that the stitching connects and crosses over or you just end up with a long string of stitches.

This film was quite heavy so it was difficult to wash it all out - if you leave any residue the lace will be stiff and harder to work with.

Once I was sure that it was thoroughly rinsed I gently squeezed out the water being careful not to let it tangle or break threads.

This is how it looks partially stretched and still damp on the ironing board.

The machine stitching took some hours so in between times I painted the canvas with Gesso to make it more textured.

  I sprinkled some glitter on to the wet Gesso just to make it more interesting,

  It dried quite nicely.

 Tonight I will start to construct the collage.

Autumn collage on the table

This month I have received some Mistyfuse and Foil from The Thread Studio you can check them out here and this has really inspired me to do something creative.

  I checked out some ideas here and then rummaged around in my workroom to see what I could do.

First I found some copper metallic Angelina fibres.  

The Mistyfuse is very fine and lovely to use:  I laid the black mistyfuse on some baking paper and spread some copper Angelina fibres on top and laid the white mistyfuse on the top.  After covering it with another sheet of baking paper I ironed it thoroughly

 You can see from the photos that it is still quite transparent (or is that translucent). 

 Having done that I collected things that I liked including a canvas I had painted yellow some time ago.

. 

 Among the bits and bobs I found some paper, ribbons, fabric, dried flowers and free machine made lace to mention just a few.

This collection will sit on the table for a few days - I will place the pieces and leave it for a while and then move them around until I am happy with them.

painted satin & dyed lace

I have been wanting to make a little trinket box for some time but I just haven't found enough free hours in the day to make a start. 

 Last evening a business colleague called in for a meeting with my husband so I took advantage of the fact that I would not be missed and spent some time starting off this project.

It is to be a small square (cube) fabric and lace box suitable for the dressing table.  I started by cutting out a strip of card (acid free of course) for the main body of the box.

The fabric is some white satin from the stash and the lace is synthetic and I tried to dye it when I was with Linda years ago.  It is a very pale gold colour.

To create the colour on the fabric I dipped the satin in some lukewarm water and then used a brush to apply some lumiere paints to the damp fabric.  In order to spread it out a bit I rolled the fabric up and then rinsed it 
 

 under the cold tap.  I wasn't too bothered about making it even or consistent because I want it to show through the lace in a random way.

Once I was happy with the colour I placed the fabric on an old towel and ironed it till it was almost dry.

I had to wait till the morning to attach the lace to the satin.
Using mistyfuse I bonded the lace to one half of the fabric as I didn't want the lace on the inside of the box.

To give a bit more shape I have put some batting under the fabric on the inside and now just have to decide how much bling to add before making the base and the top.


So far I am quite happy with this little box.  It is quite pretty and the colours remind me of the sand and sea.