If you are interested

I obviously don't have a life, because I have started writing another two blogs.....


One is specifically written about my Dad who -you may have read -has Alzheimers and Parkinsons...  I am his full time carer.


The other is to help preserve his (and therefore our) story.  Past, present and future.


To personalize this post a bit, here's a photo of him in his movie-star-good-looks days.  I thought I'd make a BIG photo so you can see the charisma oozing out of him!!!

The blurb on the Blog by-line says it all.   Have a look if you have the interest...


Also- comments are very welcome!

Painting at last

Well- I'm making  a start of it anyway...


It's bloody hot here, and my studio is not air conditioned so it wasn't a great choice to start painting today.


But- out I went to the back yard, knitter's thumb strapped, supervised by the ever vigilant Larry, and I started anyway....


Here's my boy, keeping an eye on me as always...


NOT...

It's been at least 4 years since I last started a painting, so I must admit I was a bit tense...   The blank canvas is a scary thing.


But- I solved that problem by starting on a pretty big canvas I picked up from the local church op shop for the bargain price of $2.  Gotta love church op shops!  You can see the original painting of a rose in a vivid magenta colour....  I only thought to take a photo of it after I had already started playing around on it....

I then started the layering process, and here's some sections that appealed to me as they appeared:

I only had an hour or so to spend on it, and the painting will evolve over time, but it's a start... So the end of the session saw the canvas looking like this....

 I sure had a great time, even though it was 37 degrees Celcius!






And Larry???

The excitement was just too much for him.....

Out of not so good comes something else

Or a door closes and a window opens....  You know all those old sayings....


The stimulus for these ponderings is that, unfortunately, I dislocated my thumb.  It keeps popping out of joint and I have to strap it up.  An injury from recent overly vigorous knitting.


Now stop laughing.....

Anyways, sadly, I have a basket of unfinished, nearly finished and waiting-to-be-sewn-up offerings to the knitting gods.

However, because of this threatening injury, I have taken up other exploits while the healing occurs.

Firstly: progress on my quilting piece I posted about recently....  I have kept decorating and adding pieces, and I think it is coming along rather nicely!

And I have finally got back into the studio and started a bit of painting.


I'm doing a separate post showing the progress there...

Quilted Recycled Felted Repurposed

I moved over from Melbourne 2 years ago to help my folks, as Dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimers and Parkinsons and Mum was not coping as she wasn't well herself.  My wonderful mum died in late June, after a long battle with various primary cancers (5 different ones over 33 years in fact), but succumbing to uterine carcinosarcoma (a nasty nasty type of cancer) which she had been fighting for 2 years...  She left an array of beautiful jumpers, cardigans and scarves which so remind me of her.  I couldn't bear to part with the really special ones, but they weren't really me and I didn't want to just stuff them in a suitcase and put them in the attic.

So- I took a big breath and took the scissors to them before I could back down (it felt sacrilegious really) and cut some into blocks, and felted others.  I have started piecing them back together and wanted to share my efforts to date - I have also decorated some of the patches with some of her doilies, napkins, lace, buttons and brooches.  It's like a celebration as I do this, and all the memories of her wearing these items come rushing back.

I'm not sure what I will do with this piece when I finish it- the choice as it stands at the moment is to either do more on this piece and make a throw, or leave it this size and make a tote bag.  Time will tell.....

A bit of hand dying!

Looking after an aged parent (with DLB and Parkinsons) and two teenager girls (with exams, and of course their versions of teenage dementia) means that generally I have very little time to myself, but TODAY- yay- Dad goes to what the household calls "Grandaddy Day Care" for the day....


So- I will finally get some posting and creative stuff done and indulge myself a little.  Actually what it really means is that I will make a HUGE mess and then spend the rest of the week cleaning it up.  Joy.


Here's my recently hand-dyed collection of laces, cloths and doileys - all ready to be cut up and sewn back together in quilt form, and in soft toy format.  I used turmeric and tea to give the soft brown/aged effect, and for the brighter yellow a very concentrated turmeric.


The others were from commercial dyes and not nearly so satisfying - let alone you sort of know how they are going to turn out and the other baths were a bit of a mystery until everything had dried off.

At the local Op Shop (Aussie speak for Opportunity Shop/Thrift Store/Charity Store) I stumbled across these delightful "things"- not sure what language they're in or what they were intended for originally, but they'll go in my stash until I find the perfect time and place to use them.....

Now I just have to decide what to do with the rest of my day and my time....

Tea cosy crazy

I love tea, and I love teapots...  So naturally I just lurrrrrve tea cosies.  I have played around with unusual yarn that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything made of, but somehow looks great when knitted into a tea cosy.  I have also played around with casting on, off and different stitches and just seen what has eventuated.  Here are some of my endeavors of the last week, and I am really happy with them...

I think I might need to stuff and wire the fluff ball on the top of this one so it stands up straight.  I haven't come up with a name for this one, so if anyone can help me that would be great!  I will write up some of these tea cosies into patterns if anyone is interested....

This one is a disco tea cosy, complete with mirror ball on the top.  I call it the Chaka Khan..

And this is like an English cottage garden, but then I went crazy and added a thing on top and it looks a little alien.  So- it has become my Alien Flower Garden Teacosy.... 

I feel a new altered book coming on...

I am so excited.  Went to the local church Spring Fair, and discovered an absolute gem of a book just screaming to be turned into an altered book.  It is a whopping 1745 pages long, has colour illustrations and is in great condition.


The best thing is that it has a screwed down spine, so removing pages from the book to make room for the work within and still have the covers stay flat is going to be a dream.  Pictures below show it in its natural state...

I am about to start on it, and I will post photos as I go.  Look out for posts on Websters altered book, if you are interested....

Handmade Journal

Here's a journal I made from scratch.  It uses a slightly heavier weight cover, and then hand printed paper, stamped and decorated is layered inside.   The whole lot is sewn together and then the spine is decorated with scraps of material and interesting buttons are sewn on to the ribbons and spine.  I have about 50 pages in this journal, and use it to write in quotes I come across, recipe snippets, ideas I want to record.  As such the journal is very organic and constantly changes its look as it is added to.  I have uploaded some photos of the journal and the contents, but when I get organised (and learn how to do it!) I will create and upload a slideshow...

Altered Book Work

Here’s a few scans of my paintings and mixed media work- I paint them into an altered book, which ends up being an art book full of different ideas and themes- this is one of my favourite things to do as it is very portable.  Ro Bruhn started me off on this project when I did a workshop at her studio in Melbourne, and I am always adding and changing the pages as I find and add-in interesting papers or draw something onto the pages.  Have a look at her blog if you want to look at other altered books...   http://robruhn.blogspot.com/

Tea cosies

I have been obsessed lately with knitting…   and when I took the kids and my father away down south over the school holidays, I indulged myself while the weather raged outside.  Here are a few of the outcomes of the late nights I have obsessively sat up telling myself “Just one more row”…

The first tea cosy (below) is sitting over a Robur "Perfect Teapot"- it reminds me of a Dr Seuss book...

This second tea cosy takes itself a bit more seriously- at least colour-wise...  It is sitting over a little tea for one teapot, and is very very cute..

Some jewellery: Leather lariats, silver and cinnabar

My loverly daughter has been slaving away styling my blog for me (she gets to stay in bed that way, without me nagging- kids have it all worked out)…..  So- here it is- my first post of hopefully very many.

I thought I would post a few photos of my latest bits and pieces- firstly a few necklace lariats made with leather, real pearls, pearl shell, Tibetan silver, cinnabar beads (love em!), and a variety of charms I made from shell, gemstone and found objects.  Each piece I make is different and unique.