Winter in the Garden

Winter in the Garden, originally uploaded by KathieB.

KathieB produced this Winter wonderland for Fibre Art Journals and I just HAD to share it with my readers.
Doesn't that glimmer remind you of an Aurora (Borealis)?

Jesse,our black panther

Jesse,our black panther, originally uploaded by curli.

Jesse needed to go visit Dr Eric today.

Jesse has had alump over his right ribs that has increased in size over the past month.

Hopefully it's only a cyst,but fluid obtained from a needle aspiration were sent off for evaluation after microscopic survey revealed unusual cells,

Jesse is 15 years old...but still preety active and agile.

He behaved like a perfect gentleman in the Vet's rooms.....not even a twitch when Eric inserted the needle.

I.m not sure whether Jesse thinks he's a cat,a superior being(probably) or a higher form of humanity!!

He is a most superior cat and we're hoping the surgery with a GA is not indicated.

A Swingle for CJ

A Swingle for CJ
Round about now,this Swingle should be arriving in CJ's postbox..if Ozpost are doing their job!
Why "SWINGLE"?Some folks call them Amulets,others "swing purses" I like swingle!
It can be used for mobile phone,car-keys,fantastic plastic,a comb,lippie,iPod;........wear it like a pendant and keep your hands free!
This is a fairly simply embellished purse:There is a butterfly with wings made from silk tops using the silk fusion/paper method;there are flowers made from Mokuba picot edged ribbon,some SRE featuring Joyce/Fargo Roses; some BDE and a few colour co-ordinated acrylic "gemstones" to add a little bling!

1000 Journals

 
Here is the Journal,resting ,before I proceed to embellish its pages;
The dimension of the triangular shape is 5 inches along the base(longest side)and 3.5 inches on the other two sides. 

Sydney Opera House

 
Move over Jorn Utzon,a coloured version of the Sydney Opera House has arrived in the guise of a tiny journal. 

My first tiny journal

My first tiny journal, originally uploaded by curli.

My first "tiny journal" for 1000 Journals:the first step is the hardest!

Another Kate Greenaway design

Another Kate Greenaway design from the Dover Needlework Series edited by Julie Hasler,1990

A Kate Greenaway pattern

Circa 1880,this Kate Greenaway design is one of my favourites.
WHY?
Because it's feminine,wistful and evokes the innocence of a by-gone era,when there was Time to sit and think.

A classy lady

 
At a time when I was finding it difficult to obtain crinoline or Period style designs to stitch for a proposed quilt,I discovered some historical costumed ladies designed for Blackwork in an English magazine:This lady was one of them. 

Another Blackwork pattern

 

At a time when I had no computer as yet to trawl the web for more Crinoline style patterns,I adapted this lady from a blackwork design. 

Poke bonnet & Parasol

 
Unfortunately my photographic skills aren't good enough to show the ecru threads more clearly,so the sausage curls and her bunch of flowers are fairly obvious 

Crinoline ladies

 
Over the past five years or so,I've been stitching "crinoline,or period ,ladies with the view of making yet another quilt.
Along the way I've veered from the traditional ecru of Candlewicking and added touches of colour,and further dimension with bullion stitches etc.
This "lady" is one of the earlier blocks. 

Give yourself permission to fail!

In an article by Maxine Farkas in Issue10 (Summer 2003) of the Quilting Arts magazine I found that her comments of

"First,give yourself permission to fail"

were relevent.

The best way to learn tecnique is simply to practice and experiment.Not every art quilt you make will be a masterpiece.

And that is why you will be assaulted with my trials and errors:
because I have given myself permission to fail,and I'm going to have fun doing it!

Another trial run

This mess was another trial run:
A few weeks back on January 11,I played with a prepared artist's board,bits 'n pieces of braid and lace and Lumiere paints.

I got to wondering how prepared canvas pages would work as post cards,so yesterday I found out:
I can get four (nearly) 6x4 inch rectangles from a page.I used PVA craft glue to adhere the bits to the canvas;Gave the whole a coating of Lumiere #554 Sunset Gold and then tried out Halo Blue gold(yuk) and pearlescent magenta on various bits.
Next time I'll try the quilters spray as adhesive.
Now to determine how the machine stitches on the canvas.

Experimenting.......

Link
Yesterday I tried out a few tecniques in post card format.
As I'm involved in a "one a month" (Art) journal quilt I thought I'd try out my ideas in a smaller format to see if they would work;
I hope to continue with my theme of the Murray River,and this month I wanted to look at the blue-green algal blooms that generally occur with summer heat and poor river flow.
Having just acquired some Angelina fibres I wanted to try blending them with silk tops already in my stash:

So the upper pic is my interpretation of blue-green algal blooms;
The lower pic was a bit of a play:
Trash bag or confetti quilting with a lace motif painted in Lumiere paints and the leaf an (Ozecraft) dye.
All good fun and fairly satisfactory

Bag for Kaz

 
This is the bag I made for Carol.
There are the remains of two others on the cutting room floor.....ideas I wasn't happy with.Today I finished another little one for Kaz..........but i don't know if she wants to see it in advance ,or get a surprise in the mail!
Kaz?? 

Kaz's sewing basket

 
This is what I received in a Bag Swap from Kaz(aka CarolJ)
Kaz knew that I was addicted to embroidery,beingn hooked on Crazy Quilting.so she made this basket!It's circular and has four compartments around the sides.There aRE Prairie points around the circumference and on the handle
AND there is a lovely circular (pin)cushion inside.
Lovely soft vcolours in the fabrics.
Kaz I love it and it will get used!