Computer Junk

I have asked Kevin to save me useless bits from the computers he is fixing for distribution to various groups and individuals. This is today's haul.


Why do I want them? Wait and see!

The Aries Book

For once I will try to document all the steps of a project.

This is the better of the two pieces of vliesofix I painted yesterday, not yet ironed to fabric.

Here are the swapped blocks. I was supposed to make one myself and I did, but it became a journal quilt.

Marka (I love the transferred images)

Gail
Diana
Zoe
Shirley
Margaret

Today I have done nothing with this project. But I did a computer software workshop and renewed our passports on line, so I have achieved something.

Painting vliesofix

I am going to make a fabric book with some blocks I swapped back in 2005. The blocks themselves require backing, plus some of them need to be supported by batting. A turnout of the cupboards found the necessary materials.

I need to make a new fabric to be the book binding. The first step was to paint some vliesofix (paper backed fusible webbing) in similar colours to the blocks - red and gold.

It is some time since I did this technique and I messed up the first one by spraying it with water first. This weakened the web and it broke up as I applied the paint. The second one was more successful.

Tomorrow I will iron both of them to fabric before layering organza pieces and probably some Angelina on top.

Swapmeet

It is a beautiful sunny day today so we went to a couple of local swapmeets. The one at Melville was bustling and we bought some videos of old movies that we had missed seeing.

I couldn't resist buying this 1895 textbook.


The pencil drawing of the owner's name on the flyleaf is lovely.

And this one has some delicious advertisements inside - including one for the Australia Hotel, once in Murray Street, now long gone, which had "a telephone and hot and cold running water in every room". Probably still had communal baths and loos though.


They cost $1 each. Money well spent.

Textile Treasures

I went to Textile Traders in Myaree yesterday to buy some thread and somehow ended up buying two metres of each of these three embroidered braids. No idea what I shall use them for, but aren't they nice?

This Chinese silk brocade also demanded I buy it. Love red and gold as a colour combination and it was cheap - two metres for $20. I did a burn test and it IS silk.

Friday Flowers

I was looking for something else when I found this. I can't remember what the name of the rose is and it no longer lives in my garden. Yet another victim of my brown fingers.

More Retreat stuff

We made silk paper without using textile medium. This is one of my pieces.

I included some narrow silk braid and bits of a sheet of ironed Angelina fibres. It has been sprayed lightly with Starburst spray in a couple of colours. I quite like it, but I think I may spray it again for deeper colour.


Here is the little knotted string bag I demonstrated. The actual one I made on the weekend has disappeared - I made this one some time ago and rust dyed it.

You may remember this bowl. It is piping cord wrapped with a multicoloured batik fabric then coiled and machine stitched. It was my sample piece for this workshop.

Below is the one I made as I demonstrated the technique on Sunday. The cord is thicker and the fabric is the sundyed piece I used as a background to some stitching which I hated so much I unpicked it. It looks much nicer in the bowl.

Today I decided to make another bowl from the string I had made from some silk tweed that I bought for a song years ago because it had faded in spots. I decided to add in some yarns as well. I haven't got very far as yet, but it's looking OK.

Saturday Night

was Art to Wear and people dressed up in an array of garments or accessories they had made themselves. Juliet was unanimously acclaimed the winner, but the only photo I took of her red and black nuno felted jacket and hat was impossibly blurred, so I can't show it. But here are some of the others.

Loraine in her Zippedydoodah hat

Jan in her natural dyed dress and transfer printed top

Iris and her altered couture featuring a bustle made from the cover of an old umbrella.

Helen's belt which started life as a jacket

and Dorothy's scarf with a life size silk painted nude.

DW Retreat

My miserable excuse for the hiatus in blogging is I was so busy getting ready for it last week that I didn't have time, while I was still recovering from it the last few days. I SAID it was a miserable excuse.

Every year in September the Designing Women group holds a retreat at Banksia Springs in Dwellingup. This was our 8th year. We go down on Friday afternoon and come home on Sunday afternoon.

This is a view of the garden from the deck.

When we first started, we used to pay a tutor and cater for ourselves. Now we pay for a caterer and tutor ourselves. We think it is a much better balance! Shelley feeds us often and extremely well and we have a wealth of expertise in the group to demonstrate techniques.

This year the theme was "Strung out". We used flax to make a woven decorative piece, made string from fabric strips and knotted small string bags for treasures. We also constructed books under Alcira's direction. On Sunday, with Iris' input, we made all sorts of baskets, using a variety of materials. I demonstrated the machine made one and Alcira made this fabulous version.


We had a great time and I am already looking forward to next year. Except for Sunday the weather was good so we could go for walks. The ground was very squelchy though!

The Reunion

It was fun. Some of the people there I had not seen for fifty years and I certainly needed the name tags! It was very well organised - well done, Ross Graeme and Rudy - and there was a very good turnout.

Lots of memories came back as Rudy chronicled our school years to much laughter. Lots of photos were taken - I hope better than mine. I have deleted most due to fuzziness, but here are a few.

50 year reunion

tonight for my class at Geraldton High School. We are going to the Vines Resort for dinner and spending the night there.

It is not the first reunion we have had - I went to one in 1989 when the school itself was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and we had another one in 2002 which was the year we all turned 60.

This one is a biggy - more than half the class will be there. We are being issued name tags - I shall certainly need them.

Altered Textile Swap

I took along my altered piece for the Contemporary Quilt Group meeting. This is the original piece.


This is the altered version.


There were some great pieces, though not everyone was there and so we have to bring them again next month.

Lyn Nixon gave us a great workshop on framing and my little red bit looks great all framed up.

Research

I am researching fabric books and book making in general for a workshop I will be giving later this year. It is surprising how much information is available.

These are the books I think will be most useful, and a selection of some magazines with relevant articles.




Thank heavens for cumulative indices. I know if I had had to look through all my magazines I would still be looking in a fortnight's time, having been distracted by lots of other articles!

I also finished this small bowl as a sample for another workshop. I had forgotten how simple and how much fun they are to make.

Quilts by Jannie Rees

The friendship group I belong to meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month with members taking it in turns to host the group.

Today it was Jannie's turn. Jannie is a well known and award winning quilter who has published several kits.

She is prolific and always has piles of new quilts to show us. I am in awe of the amount of stitching she achieves. Today there were several new quilts, all in bright colours. Some were commercial fabrics, but the quilt I liked best was made from Jannie's own hand dyes. Very simple and effective design. It looks to me like a winner for QuiltWest next year.

I had my camera with me, but didn't take any photos. STUPID!

Decision made

Sorry, Sheila, I went for the third one before I read your comment.

Here it is, with a few beads added to bling it up.


I think I am almost finished with the Maggie Grey piece. Just have a few more beads to add.

View Finding

We have to take a piece of textile work 8cm square to Contemporary Quilt Group on Friday.

This piece is painted vliesofix ironed on to black felt with some embroidery, including bobbin work, added. The whole piece is unusable as it is because of its poor design, so I have been using an old mount to try and select parts that might be OK by themselves.

Here are three alternatives:





Which shall I choose?

Father's Day

Fathers and fire - can't have one without the other.

Nice barbecue for lunch - both kids came. Later, Kevin decided he needed an open fire.

Altered Textile Challenge

At the July meeting of Contemporary Quilt Group a few of us brought along a textile piece that we were willing to have altered by someone else. The challenge is due at the meeting next Friday, so I thought I had better get started.

Red plus blue-green equals ?

Friday Flowers

I often take photos of flowers and rarely share them, so today I thought I would.

These camellias are in bloom in our garden at the moment.

Untieing a Gordian knot

I have this necklace which I really like. It is four red linen(?) cords threaded with clear perspex beads that look like ice cubes. Unfortunately it has a propensity to tangle, and after every wearing I need to straighten it before I put it away. The last two times I wore it I didn't untangle it. This was how it looked today.


I have decided I want to wear it to a special occasion in a couple of weeks so I tried to untangle it. Frustration, plus! I almost got out the scissors several times. But I persevered and succeeded.

I am reading

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.


This is her second book. I read the first - The Shifting Fog - while we were in Bali. While I enjoyed it, I did not consider it a keeper and traded it in at the Borneo Bar and Restaurant in Sanur.

This book has a similar feel, but a tighter structure. I think it may be better, but then, I am only 2/3 through. I really like the way she is weaving three stories together.

Almost tweeting

I am resisting the move to Twitter and I have only looked at a couple of Tweeters.

However, I found an entry on someone's blog that looks almost like a Twitter blueprint. Can't think what to Tweet about? Help is at hand!

This is the list:
Making :
Cooking :
Drinking :
Reading:
Wanting:
Looking:
Playing:
Wasting:
Sewing:
Wishing:
Enjoying:
Waiting:
Liking:
Wondering:
Loving:
Hoping:
Marvelling:
Needing:
Smelling:
Wearing:
Following:
Noticing:
Knowing:
Thinking:
Feeling:
Bookmarking:
Opening:
Giggling:
Feeling:

So to take the first four:
I am making metres of wrapped cord (Why will be explained later)
I am cooking (have cooked) a beef curry for dinner. Yummo!
I am drinking a glass of bubbly.
I am reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton