Weekend at Wanaka

I spent a weekend at the Otago Embroiderers Guild Wanaka School. It is a great weekend of embroidery classes - lots to see! I did a class on Personal Sketchbooks with Jan Wilson. My theme for the sketchbook was bird nests. We tried different techniques and mediums to create pages on our subject.

I love bird nests and want to create one in 3D and this was not the place to do any sketching or get ideas - unfortunately. There didn't seem much direction that I could take a bird nest in or so it seemed to me but I did have a lot of fun creating lots of ideas and trying a lot of different techniques.

These four sketches show just one idea.

Firstly just charcoal pencil on newsprint.



Then I did collage on black paper with a photocopy of lace!



Another pencil sketch but this time I put in some colour.



And lastly a stencil print - kinda looks like a stylised rose (well I thought so).



We were shown a neat idea to bind all our pages together which I want to do at a later stage. It would be a great way to create a sketch book of different types of paper to print/draw on and save pictures/scraps. It would make a great present for an artist. When I get around to doing the book I will do a step by step process of how it is done.

I definitely want to try this idea again - I just have to find an object that inspires me !!

We've Been Adopted

Look what turned up one night ! One minute seen racing across the driveway and later that night it had discovered the cat door and was inside eating cat biscuits. Who could say no to this sweet little face? It is amazing that there are people around that would take a little kitten like this for a drive in the country side and throw it out of the car - well partly true and because of a limp I am presuming the thrown out of the car bit.



Well he has settled in, the other three cats are coping a bit better and not hissing so much. They don't come to sleep in bed as much as they used to because young Harry is already in bed purring loudly !! Yes, we have called him Harry, I am not sure if it is (Horrible) Harry or (Dirty) Harry. He seemed not to know about dirt boxes but he knew all about newspaper on the floor and was also attracted to Ken's shoes. Needless to say the shoes are since tidied away. Harry is also a bit of a slippery customer, he doesn't want to be picked up and so isn't easy to grap and chuck outside at those important moments but sit down for any length of time and he is all over you wanting to have a cuddle, that and he loves having a snuggle with you in bed too. Thank goodness there have been no incidents on the bed.

Anyhow we are smitten with the kitten.

Dyeing again

I had a wonderful few minutes doing some more dyeing. Once I actually start to slosh dye on fabric time goes in a flash. I didn't have much fabric to play with - only 5 metres plus some bits and pieces and gosh cloths. Brown was my choice of colour for this session. I find I like to use a few browns in things. And I had some nice browns from lovely golden, rich toffee and deep dark cocoa. Swishing in a bit of black gave me some nice green highlights and somewhere a hint of blue and lavender slid in. My personal best piece was a test strip of some sheeting that I was testing. I wasn't sure just how well it would dye up and so I tore a strip off the end (extra wide 2.5metres) and had it snaking around in a tub. Every time I dyed another piece of fabric I would slop a bit of colourover the test strip and at the end laid all the gosh cloths on top of it higgledy piggledy and poured over one last dark brown dye mix. Everything in that tub turned out well but the star was my test strip - isn't that the way it goes ! Actually everything turned out well so I am happy. And as DH has turned up with another 20 odd metres of fabric for me I can hear the call of the (wild) dyes.

And then of course I had to iron some of them - even in this stinking hot summer scorching heat. I just love to iron the dyed fabrics and admire the way that the colours have spread and mixed on the fabric. So far I have resisted taking photos though I am not sure why but somehow photos don't really capture the essence of the fabric.

Oh well, off to dream of what I am going to dye next..........

Petal and Big Ears

Well my camera seems to be talking to Picasa again so I thought I would show you these photos. They are sort of a Christmas present from the dairy farm neighbour. They are two very late calves that were going to be knocked on the head. Well they knew Ken was a soft spot and gave the two calves to us. We started bottle feeding them both and they have started on Moozlee as well. So we now have Petal (black) and Big Ears (brown) joining us on the farm. Petal hasn't been too well but with some antibiotics and she seems to picking up. Big Ears took to feeding out of a bucket very quickly which saves a lot of hassle. They are both a couple of cuties.

The sheep have been shorn today but I won't show pictures of naked sheep. And as always happens when the sheep get shorn, it rains!! Well, we are in a drought so the rain is welcome but I just wish that there was a bit more that the sprinkle that we have had.

Lots of pictures to come of some of the current projects that I am working on.

An idea

In my travels surfing the net I see lots of ideas and occasionally write myself notes. I annoy myself by sometimes forgetting where I saw an idea and am unable to find it again. But one that I did pick up was from someone that makes a lot of doll quilts. I thought that this was a good way to use up orphan blocks or to try out an idea and only making a small number of blocks. It makes a quick project (yeah, right) and with thought it could be given as a gift. I do have a lot of orphan blocks and stuff to send away to a UFO orphanage (I have only been planning to do that for a couple of years now) but I have some that I would be keen to make small "doll" quilts with. Sized right they could be table toppers or runners.

My camera and Picasa are not talking at the moment so here is a gratuitous photo of a quilt that I made a couple of years ago with my dyed fabrics. I love the luminosity of colour and the woven effect of such a simple block. And you can see that I even used up the left over blocks in a small quilt. The small quilt was done with a decorative stitch and the buttons came about when I made a bit of a mess of the stitching but if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't know.



I have just ordered a bolt of fabric for dyeing. The company that I have always ordered my fabric from has been taken over by another company and the service isn't quite so good anymore and I am thinking of perhaps finding another source of my fabric. They don't import this particular fabric any more themselves but rather buy it from another importer who deals in bigger quantities than them. Anyhow I am planning a few sessions with some dyes. I am wanting to use up all my dyes, they are starting to get a bit old and really need to be replaced for next season. I love dyeing fabric, I love playing with colour and it makes me feel like a kid again with the paint pots and splashing it every where although I am a bit more organised with the dyes and fabric. Actually I need to do some printing on fabric as well - again a whole lot of fun and I have some wonderful wooden blocks that I carved myself, very basic, and very primative but oh so effective on a wonderful dyed background. Mustn't waste time and hop to it!

Colour on the Farm

These are some old photos from around the farm. I was challenging myself to find colour and was surprised at finding this turquoise.

When I walk around with the camera I tend to see things in a new way and with all the buildings and sundry farm "stuff" that lies around there is always lots to see

Trying to be positive

I was trying to create a positive start to the New Year. I really need to make an effort with looking after my health. I have a lot I can improve on and do better but I am at least wanting to try. Of course it is depressing to find that my co-worker is resigning soon and I will have to train someone else to work with and I really don't want to have to step out of my comfort zone again. Just enough for me to want to seek solace in comfort, i.e. food!

Okay so let's get over this pity party and be positive. I need to put plans in place to cope with the changes that I am going to face over the next few months. That sounds like I need to make a list for myself - deep breath - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am trying to fit in half an hour of what passes for dancing most days. I enjoy my dancing and this is my effort to exercise. I am wondering about doing it at work during my lunch hour but not sure about that as there isn't much privacy and I don't want it to be a spectator sport.

I need to be more definite in my goals each week/weekend and actually work on them rather than sloping off and doing something else - another list looms.

At the moment my priority is to face the week ahead - I am working a full week so will need to be organised so that I can cope.

A List

We had to go and buy some curtain hanger thingies and of course I got lost in the store on the way out and ended up amongst the fabric. I did succumb to some cat fabrics and another novelty type for a project that I wanted to try. It was while I was waiting at the counter to be served that my non quilter friend spotted all the Christmas fabrics at 75% discount. Well what was I to do?? About $60 later I left but the rest of the damage was went we went back to the store later to get a refund on the curtain thingies that we didn't need. There was a lovely cream on cream print amongst the Christmas fabrics and at 75% off I ended up buying the 9 1/2 metres that was left on the bolt.

Anyhow the list of fabrics that did the damage was:

Two cat fabrics - 1/2 metre each
Palm trees & stars - 2 metres (I at least have a special project for this fabric)
Cream christmas fabric 9 1/2 metres
Poinsetta & black - 4 metres (good for table cloths)
Xmas patch - 2 metres
Festive patch - 1 metre
Bows & ornaments - 1 metre
Green print 1 metre
Red print 1 metre

so much for trying to cut down on fabric and using more of what I have good in the stash.

A Gratuitous Photo

Back to Blogging

Illness stopped me blogging so long ago and then I just never found the right moment to jump back in but New Year 2009 seemed a good time.

So many small things have changed and I have changed with them. One biggie though was finding that I had diabetes (NIDDM). And I slowly slipped in my management of that too so again this is a good time to strengthen my resolve to look after myself and manage my diabetes better.

Okay then, let's put in a gratuitous picture and leave it at that for now. Well maybe not - where is Picasa when you want it??

Dye Day

I didn't pick the best of days for dyeing, it was a little cooler today than the past couple of days but I soldiered on. I had bought some new dyes and instead of mixing my own colours I decided to go for mixed colours this time to have a play. I just did some very basic dyeing to see what the colours looked like but I did them at fifty percent which is what I usually do.

My first half metre on the right was scrunched into a tray and had a quarter cup of dye poured over it and left for 15 minutes and then another quarter cup of dye poured over and the colour was manipulated through the fabric so that there were no white patches. The second half metre had the other half cup poured on it, scrunched and then the fabrics were layed into a container and pressed firmly down so there would be a little bleeding.

The textures were interesting, lots of light and darks on the first pieces and on the second pieces I was surprised that there was very little bleeding of colour.

First up is a deep lime, as you can see the mix had settled and I got a rich spicy orange colour instead and interestingly it is two different tones plus darks and lights in the piece. The second piece has a hint of green in it which is interesting as it was placed on the top of the boysenberry and nothing on top of it.


The greens are more attractive than they appear. The mixed piece had been placed at the bottom of the tray with the blue on top of it but it is more of the Eggplant that shows than blue. I found it interesting how pale the second piece was too.


Brilliant blue - it probably would have been darker if I had it at full strength. The mixed piece was placed between the Green and Eggplant.


And lastly this is Boysenberry. I think I will play with adding some black to it and possibly some Eggplant. It is a nice red without being harsh.

For some reason when I blot from Picasa I can only get four photos and poor old Eggplant lost out on the transfer, it was nice too!

I am having another day tomorrow with a friend coming over to have a play for the first time. More fun and this time I have some large pieces of sheeting I will play with as I like to use the big pieces for my backings.

Now just to hope that all this decides to publish and not disappear into the blogger black hole.
More tomorrow. 

Spring

Well it is officially Spring and today is Father's Day but did the cats have to bring in a (live and screaming) rabbit for Ken's present? Losing it in the house was not a good start to the day either. I did discover it finally behind a large desk that was surrounded but lots of "stuff". Poor Ken finally managed to pull the rabbit out unscathed and took it outside to one of the paddocks and let it go - lucky rabbit.

The weather lately has been warming up (as it should) but we have been having cold winds coming off the sea (bitterly cold actually). A good time to get organised for lots of dyeing as I do all my dyeing outside (under a nice veranda). I am lucky to have a four metre bench to work on or is that lucky to have a husband who doesn't like to throw things out and came home with the bench from work one day and asked me if it could be useful. Now all I need is an outdoor sink with hot and cold water (I am planning that too but that is part of the long term plan).

On my way around taking photos of some of the areas that had been boggy mud and are now drying out I took this photo - I like the tractor tyre pattern and it is very three dimensional.




My other mud photos didn't quite come out as well but it was interesting to study the patterns and textures that were there. I am still trying to think how I can get tyre patterns onto fabric from one of our cars - I love the pattern it makes - next time it rains and there is some mud I will take a photo to keep as a record.

I really have been lazy as far as creativity goes - nothing has called my name so far. I really must get on as there are one or two small projects that won't take much to finish and it is always satisfying to cross something off the work to do list. And of course I do love my lists. 

I am back

Actually I have been back three weeks now and I only realised on reading my last blog entry that I was supposed to be writing to my blog while I was away - tsk, tsk, I never did. Actually I didn't feel that I saw much that was of creative interest although I did find the geology of a couple of areas I visited interesting. Actually I hardly took any photos at all.

So where did I go - without boring anyone too much I visited friends in Portland, Oregon where the day after I arrived we had a record high of 103 degrees - hot. We went to the beach for the day via Tillamook for icecreams. To beat the heat another day we went to Mt St Helens which is an amazing place to visit.

Then off I travelled to Calgary for the opening of the Stampede and what fun I had there. All the parade photos that I took were of horses - anybody would think that I liked horses. I also did a side trip to Banff where the photos were all geology and plants.

I then flew down to Boulder, Colorado for my residential workshop with Judith Trager and I have a photo below of my first day (there were five days in all). It didn't help that I came down with a virus and sneezed and coughed all week. It was amazing that we were 6000 ft above sea level - that is like halfway up a mountain to me. And of course those 100 degree plus days. Thank goodness for airconditioning is all I can say. What a wonderful place Boulder was.


Anyhow off I went to Paducah in Kentucky to visit the American Quilters Museum and generally check the place out. This time the 92% humidity at night nearly bowled me over - phew. And of course those temperatures. Funny that I didn't miss the fact that it was the middle of winter at home during this time. I enjoyed the old town area of Paducah and exploring around there.

After waiting for St Louis airport to reopen after the large storm that had gone through the city the day before creating mayhem I went to Las Vegas - I wanted to see the glitz and glamour of the city at night with all the neon lights and I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. Well I saw it all and I was not disappointed. But those temperatures again - actually I didn't find them that hot compared to the cooler summer temperatures at home which was interesting. I didn't get sunburnt at all.

San Francisco was last on my tour where I spent a couple of days before flying home. After five weeks of travelling I was getting tired of living in hotel rooms and other peoples homes. It was good to get back to my own bed. Although I have to say I didn't enjoy the Novo-Rota virus that I caught as soon as I got back to work - it had been going around Oamaru while I was away.

Anyhow that was (briefly) my adventure. I don't feel as though I have been very creative since I got home - there has been a lot to do. The most creative I have been is doing some baking yesterday, ginger crunch, afgans and kiwi biscuits - yum.

Glad to be back blogging and must write some more. 

Last Days

I'm heading off tomorrow and although I am planning to keep in touch via internet cafes I am not sure if I will be able to send photos or not so there may be just text entries instead.

It has been so cold over the last couple of weeks - well it is supposed to be winter, but it has been a prolonged cold. We often get nice sunny days after all the snow and frost but there hasn't been much of that lately.

I have been putting out bread for the birds. I save old bread in the freezer and bring it out on cold days. Not the best of shots but this is a group of Wax Eyes feeding - the bread will be gone within the hour. There are Sparrows, Blackbirds and Larks also hanging around but they are shy feeders compared to the Wax Eyes. Around the back of the house the Swallows are doing their aerial aerobatics - they are wintering in by the spa pool which obviously keeps the worst of the cold away for them. Fantails are flitting through the garden looking for insects and driving the cats crazy as always - thankfully they are never caught. And I have seen a large flock of ducks coming in to land down on the pond. The pond is full and the neighbours paddocks are flooded and swampy which they are loving.


I have managed to sew some blocks together for a future quilt. I will leave putting the top together until I get home. I have a mixture of lighter shaded blocks which will shade down to some darker blocks. I have used mainly paua colours again, blues, purples, teals with hints of greens. I am thinking it might be the sort of thing that a Kiwi living abroad might want to remind them of home. Just a couple of piccies of some blocks below to show the variety of colours. Very simple piecing but I thought very effective.


 

Getting Ready

I am wanting to bring some fabrics with me to give to quilters that I meet on my trip. What else to take but some NZ themed fabrics. I have been cutting and folding squares and of course peeping out at the bottom are some sheep - have to have sheep. I am also going to take lots of dyed fabric with me but I am yet to make my choices as to what to take - probably lots of greens to promote NZs clean green image.


I have also been covering notebooks. These ones are covered with dyed fabric but look nothing at all yet the fabrics by themselves are fabulous. They probably need some embroidery/stitching to bring them up more but I am in a hurry and this is all there will be.


I also did some in NZ fabrics to bring along as give aways - I am quite pleased with how they turned out. And when the notebooks are finished the fabric can be taken off them and reused for something else.


I still have some more notebooks to cover (hopefully I will meet lots of people to give them to) and a couple of goodie bags to make for my surrogate grandchildren. And of course I will have to go shopping to find some goodies to put in the bags.

After that the only thing I really have to think about is a bag for my camera. It is currently in this huge bag that my husband bought for it - way too big to be carting everywhere. I thought I would make a double padded carry bag for it that won't look so out of place for me to carry about. Hopefully I can get myself organised and get all this done this weekend. Next weekend I hope to reserve for packing and then it is off on the aeroplane and winging my way to Portland Oregon for the start of my trip. 

My Weekend

I hate when things disappear into blog heaven and have to do it all again - it is never the same.

Our club had their biannual exhibition and invited me to have a sales table ( there were only three other merchants). This is the only time I go out of my way to sell fabric and was happy to sell my fabrics. This is my entire stash of dyed fabric (for now). I figure that I can replace anything that I sell with more fabric. It was a great day and worth my while being there.


Shirley from Dyeing 2 Design was there as well. She has a new range of fabrics that she is selling (check out her blog). I had to buy some for some blocks that I was making over the weekend - they are wonderful blendy colours. I will put up a photo when I am a bit further ahead with the project. I am not sure when Shirley will be putting them up for sale on her web site but they will be worth buying - the photos on her blog don't do them full justice - wonderful blendy colours.

This quilt won Viewers Choice - the workmanship is amazing.



This is one of my quilts - I started making it during our last exhibition. I have never seen it hung before and thought it was amazingly vibrant. I plan to bring it to the US with me and give it to a friend's young son for his bed.



I had to take a photo of this quilt. I think it is a real snuggle quilt - warm and inviting colours. Of course I am biased - I love 9 patch.


All in all a wonderful weekend (though cold) and I loved the wonderful display of quilts, the inspirations and wonderful colours.

I think off to the spa soon for a hot soak - brrr Winter is not my favourite season. 

Lavender Luggage

Isn't it gorgeous? This is going to be my carry on bag for when I come over to the US (only 23 sleeps to go). It doesn't show here but it is quite a little fattie. I am planning to fit in a change of clothes, my camera (large), toilettries and my journal stuff (incl pens, pencils, stamps etc) and a few other bits and pieces. Ken thought I should have bought the black set (there are three of them in all but I only wanted the large one here) but I thought how boring when everything else will be basic black - I wanted purple and this was close enough.


Queens Birthday weekend coming up and our quilt group are having their exhibition. I am having a stall selling off my stash of dyed fabric - hopefully will make a little more spending money for my trip. And of course I have a good excuse to dye lots more fabric when I get home. I will post some piccies from the exhibition after the weekend. 

Christine's quilt

I like the collage of photos of this quilt. I have spent the past two years making it - on and off during that time - I didn't want to hurry the process. It is a quilt for my best friend's birthday in June. And now I'm hurrying to finish sewing the binding and make a label for the back.

The colours are my favourites and in fact this was my collection of special fabrics that I found hard to cut into, that is until I decided I wanted to make a quilt for Christine. These are her favourite colours too - the wonderful paua shell colours.

So at the moment everything else takes a bit of a back seat to getting this finished. The cats are helping by sitting on it whenever they can and softie that I am I can't disturb them - that's what is making it a slow process at the moment.

 

Found them

My glasses have turned up - phew. I was out getting in firewood for tonight (it is late Autumn down here don't forget) and there under some wood were my glasses, safe and sound. I am so relieved as I really didn't want to be buying them quite now.

I attribute my luck to a personal charm I created after reading about them in Keri Smith's Wish Jar Journal. I had a Japanese coin that we found under the seats in our car, I wished upon it and make it into a bracelet with some fabric. IT WORKED FOR ME!

Where are my glasses?

I know I had them on yesterday but I had them on and off during the day as I was doing various tasks. I was sure I had them on when I went outside to do some photographs of some fenceposts that look interesting but the photos were not quite what I was wanting. I was sure that I had them on when I went out and got firewood as the sun was bright and my glasses are anti-glare. I know I didn't have them on when I went to check the crock pot for tea as they would have steamed up and I wouldn't have seen a thing. So WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?? I am usually very good and never, never misplace them but they are missing in action. I know I can cope without them - I just have to make sure I have sunglasses on hand for outdoors and I have my reading glasses and computer glasses for those more close up jobs. But WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?