Update

It seems "forever" since I last blogged an entry in KenMaursCorner...............when our world went topsy-turvy
with a decline in my husband's health: his cancer has returned aggressively and gone secondary to his bones--- a most painful condition.
He has spent two weeks in a medical ward of a Private Hospital,and then was transferred as a "high care patient" to a Nursing Home.

Despite this upheaval in our lives,there is still some idiot relief..............like going to buy a runner for the dining table,and coming home with a carved timber cat,who assures me there's another four cats of various sizes waiting for me to rescue them.
Then,last Sunday my eldest grand-daughter went with me to the Jetty Markets at Redcliffe.........lovely setting: on the lawns just above the Redcliffe Jetty;beautiful day,gentle sea breeze wafting in; a busker strumming gently on his guitar.........and I found this carving of Buddha's hand!
Kylie invested in two sets of Babushkas..........delightfully painted Russian type 'nesting dolls'.

Apart from these diversions,I have received several postcards which as yet I have not photographed to share with you........but they WILL come!

Glitz & Glamour

Well,despite a few hiccups,two of these cards are ready to brave the postal system and travel to new homes.
The third (hot shoe shuffle) I'm keeping for myself!
The swap,organised by my Crazy Quilting Friends was "Glitz and Glamour".

I hope the recipients are happy with my efforts,because ,honestly I was "stumped"................
until I remembered that Sandie some time ago had gifted me the Gibson Girl type figure,and the lady dressed for a Ball, and they gave me a starting point.

In both cards I've used a combination of silk/rayon velvet,gold brocade and an organza with silver hail-spots.

The "Gibson girl/Edwardian lady features silver leaf shapes and SRE flower on the velvet and micro sequins and flowers on the lavender satin.
Because of all the "glitz" I limited the seam treatments in order not to be too "in your face".



With "Ready for the Ball" I added a few SRE rosebuds to the flounces of the skirt; and then just played around with the other patches.
Using reverse bobbin work and gold ribbon floss on the bobbin I FME'd the shapes on the maroon fabric and added flower beads and micro sequins.
The velvet below the lady has loops of Sadi gold twist and micro snowflake sequins.
The lavender silver hail-spot organza has butterfly sequins,pink/lavendersquare holograpgic sequins and ruby micro beads anchoring them.

Thankfully,I completed my committments just in time,as today my husband was admitted to hospital for observation and possible surgery........hopefully,nothing radical,but I may be otherwise occupied for a while....

Take care,and hope to be in contact again,soon!

Hot shoe shuffle

 
Well,my card (for me) is finished......not that I did much to yesterday's photo to complete it.
It started off as a reply to the theme "Glitz and Glamour"..........
Well to me,spike heels spell GLAMOUR!!
So,with Tangoes and Rhumbas and steamy sultry nights in mind.............this one's for me!
The other ,gentler two will be unveiled when they reach their new owners.

Today being Sunday and raining as well (a rare event in our neck of the woods) I spent most of the day stitching:

I completed the EIGHT cards remaining for my art2mail Group 29 Swap........if the remaining swappers are still alive!( this has been the most uncommunicative group I've ever been involved with.........whether they all melted in the US summer;migrated to Alaska; or plain don't care.........Who knows!)

In the meantime,I have Doreen,Leslie and Alison to dream up confections (for).

As I need to get my DH to a medical appointment some 40 k away by 8.15 am tomorrow..........
and before that happens,I want to piece a "comfort doll" to play with whilst I wait out the Queensland Health System----
so,off to stitch a bit!

May all your troubles be small!

Tagged by Moonmilk!

V over on moonmilk has very kindly tagged me.
I believe I have to list the rules so here they are:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Anyway, here's my bravely compiled list:

1. I was born in Broome,Western Australia.
2.I wanted to be the Australian Anna Pavlova,but never had ballet lessons and was told I was "too big",so the world missed out.
3.I wanted to be a journalist,but father decided I should follow in his footsteps and do Pharmacy :-(
Being totally hopeless at Physics,Chem and Maths,that didn't happen.
4. I'm basically a molly-dooker but due to interfering teachers I'm more ambidextrous these days
5.In a bid for 'freedom' I started nursing training at RPH.....family wasn't able to police my activities !

6.Met my husband at a friend's wedding and yes I believe in love at first sight!

7. Who- ever says they've never had a cross word with their partner in half a century is a liar or brain dead.

8. In case you don't know........I love fiddling with fabric and threads.Not sure whether the results are artistic,but I enjoy it and that's all that matters isn't it!

Now........WHO will I tag?

Jacqui aka Jam-mam

ChiefTenBears
Quiddity

Jo has been away for a few days,so I'm safe in dobbing her in VBG.

I think I'll go have a cup of coffee whilst I think who else to throw into the cauldron!

WiP : Glitz and Glamour

My friends over on CQFriends are having a postcard swap,the theme set being
"Glitz and Glamour"

So, I've been playing with a few ideas,which as you can see have a fair amount of embellishment required to make them glitzy.

The first card has a lady resplendent in a period ball-gown:
With her I've used some luscious silk/rayon velvet from my shopping binge at Colourstreams last week and some gold brocade.
There's also some Angelina fibre over the lavender block on the left.









The second card features an Edwardian lady,(I think)
For sure she's no Gibson Girl as the sleeves are wrong for that style.
I've tried to stay with the colours she's wearing,but I just had to add a dash of glitz with the gold fabric.





Finally,I must admit that this Orange and black piece has been the most fun for me!
The background piece is (hand worked) needle-felt (also bought last weekend in Murwillumbah)
I blended a little lemon through the orange to lessen the starkness of plain orange;
I've also felted some "Mohair glitz" for a bit of sparkle.

Micro sequins are blooming along the feather stitch.



With these three postcards, I now have 14 cards needing to be finished off,so I best go do a stitch or three!

Comfort Dolls

My friend NZJo
has been lamenting to me that the Aussies and Kiwis are not as yet supporting this “Comfort Doll call” in our own countries.

Yes,I know some have been sending dolls direct to Pat Winter in the USA,but don’t forget we have women in Australia and New Zealand who also need a helping hand.

Because of this,I have reproduced below Jo’s blogging on the matter…….

if you can help out at all,please consider emailing Jo at the addie below,or even me
at broomegal at yahoo.com.au

Now please go read Jo’s message,and then maybe go check out Pat’s blog too.

Comfort Dolls Down Under
Pat delivered the first dozen dolls to a shelter in her area this week. You can read her post here. She has asked that I collect dolls from this side of the world, to save on postage there and back. Pat would like to try contribute to any countries that the dolls come from. So come on all you Kiwi's and Aussie's,send me a comfort doll, sure to pleasea fellow female who lived it rough,It will sure help to know that someone cared enough...( if you want to stop the bad poetry, send a doll...NOW)I would like to do a refuge here in NZ, then find a willing Aussie to do the leg work over there. You can contact me via my profile, or my email is playcentrejo(at)gmail(dot)com.

Finally completed

I showed these three cards a while back when they were still unfinished!

Each is 6x4 inch postcard size and ready to go a-travelling!

The brown ones were needle felted using DISSOLVE-4X WSS and my Janome Xpression.

The red one was n/f by hand and then needled (by Xpression) into a piece of Timtex for stabilising.

Glitzy little sequins from Colourstreams were added by hand,as was the brown vine and yarn on the brown cards.
The brown ones were originally constructed for a "colour me brown" challenge suggested by Myfanwy over on Nuvo Felt.

The glitter in the cards was from the addition of some "Spring glitz" from one of my favourite E-bay sellers (Thanks Elaine!)

A combined effort

A while back,as part of my first attempt at making "Inchies" I sent some purple inchies to Patsy.

The other day,she sent me a link to see what she had done with some of my little squares:
The above photo is the result.

The cards displayed in the Artcardideas Gallery is superb.....I can only hope that one of Patsy's cards are judged a winner.

Gorgeous embellishments

A close -up of some of the sequins.
The top left hand pack are leaf shapes that glow green/bronze/gold;

The others are 3mm circular shapes ,that you'd swear were minute crystals.

The colour range they display depending on the light angle are most intriguing.

Stash enhancement (S.E.X)

These three photos portray the results of my visit to Robyn Alexander's "Colour Streams" last Friday:

Along with a couple of metres of white muslin gauze,

I acquired two pieces of Robyn's hand dyed gauze fabric (Landscapes) in Marrakesh and Fuschia

I also bought four FQs of Silk Rayon Velvet in Marrakesh, Lillipilli;Nasturtium and Fuschia;

two FQs of Silk Organza in Nasturtium and Aubergine Truffle

and a "few" packets of mini sequins of 3mm diameter.(Oh! they were soooooooooo enticing!!)


Like kids in a Candy shop( or Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory),it was difficult to know when to stop--------

But imagine.............
only two of you .........
let loose in such a paradise...................

it was so HARD saying


"enough is enough"

Dyed!.......and gone to Heaven!

Yesterday my friend Belle and I were privileged to visit Robyn Alexander of Colourstreams
at her home cum studio cum workplace in Mullumbimby.
Robyn is a most gracious and sharing lady and I left her (with a much lighter wallet I might add)
feeling enriched and enthused by the experience.

Robyn also kindly permitted me to take some (amateurish) photos of her Aladdin's cave and allowed me to share them via my Blog with my online friends.

The first photo is taken from the outside,looking into the main dyeing area:
I was absolutely blown away by all the hanks of luscious shades in silk ribbons and threads hanging to dry.

The second photo is of the dyed fabrics and hanks of fibres.........to the right of the picture,but not visible is a bank of microwave ovens----and they are NOT used for food!

Finally, the third shot is of the large room where ribbons and yarns are stored prior to filling orders.A second room in this purpose built building is also Robyn's office and yet more ribbons.

One thing I did neglect,was to take a photo of Robyn's Studio and where she also stores her fabulous supplies of embelleshments,packages of hand dyed silk-organza;silk-velvets,felts and cotton gauze.
There were also those fabulous patterns and kits of her Embroidery kits and Catherine Howell's
fabulous bags.

If any of you are considering the Koala Convention's "Internationa Embroidery & Textile Convention" in Brisbane July 2008 or 2009....start saving your cents.!

One disappointment though: When we returned to Belle's place and started drooling over our booty, we realised that the main purpose of visiting Robyn (to buy some needle felting needles) had been TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!

ATCs

Some time back I was approached via my blog to swap with someone in France;
This week,the upper ATC arrived from Janine.
Unfortunately my photography does show the detail : the black background fabric has "LANCEL" woven into it.

My attempts for overseas swaps once again feature Australiana fabrics featuring Wildflowers;the lower card is encased in bridal tulle,because I choes to add some Australian Wildflowers stamps to the reverse side.

ATCs

Back in April, Joan in IL sent me some Japanese stamps,and in return I was to mke her some ATCs.

I've finally completed some........not only did I use Japanese stamps,but some Australian stamps I thought she might like.

Three of the Atcs are worked on offcuts of deconstructed kimonos...........regular readers may recognise the orange and the green fabrics!

Two were worked on offcuts of painted Timtex from another project;

One I used aqua Habutai silk to tone with the stamp's colour

and the final one used Australiana quilters fabric.

The green fabric ATCs have both Australian & Japanese stamps.

The gold cards are the painted timtex,with appliqued leaves cut from Rainbow Pellon.

I tried to keep the embellishing simple,in order not to distract from the stamps impact.

Red squares from SuZ

Above are the five RED embellished_art_squares received today from SuZ in NJ.

Each block has a different treament,ranging from micro beadsto hand embroidery to needle felting/embellishing.

Also of interest is the paper she mounted the art squares upon;

For more information on how she achieved this surface from crinkled magazine pages,do go visit her blog SuZ Stuff~~~~~a journey from point A to pointB~~~

at

http://suzstuff.blogspot.com

Njs purse

A better view of the purse!

Spirit doll & Swingle

Now that Nj has finally received and opened her parcel I can introduce my final Spirit doll .

Made especially for an online friend as thanks for favours received,I knew that ORANGE is her favoured colour,so I endeavoured to stay with that theme...........
the colours I used for the doll reminded me of red sandhills,spirals of dust devils and red gold sunsets,so "she" became my Spirit of the Outback.

The purse/swingle (neck jewellery) was crazy quilt pieced (like the doll) and is large enough to hold a mobile phone and a fantastic plastic.
Not that it shows up too clearly in this photo,but the main embellishment is an ear-ring acquired in Turkey over 30 years ago.

Postcards from Maureen

I finally managed some postcards over the weekend:

The first two were (hand) needle felted as I watched TV as the Wallabies lost the Bledisloe Cup to the NZ All Blacks.

I n/f the tomato red wool on a foam block,cut them to 6by4 inch size,mounted them on Timtex and further embellished the pieces with n/f abstract shapes featuring wool and "Glitz" mohair.



The next three I developed using Australiana themed fabrics and Australian stamps.
Maybe they won't appeal to some people,but my idea was to give a taste of Australia to my overseas friends.

Embellisher_Art_Squares

One of the groups I belong to Embellisher_Art_Squares is currently running a challenge to produce twenty four 1.5 inch sqauers for swapping with other members;
They need to be constructed using an "Embellishing/needle punching machine.
Using white wool as the foundation I overlaid and needle felted/punched some tomato red merino wool,plus the odd soupcon of navy blue to form the felt.
I also used Dissolve4X WSS as the base.
When I had a piece of felt ready for embellishment I tried several methods:

Some had butterfly sequins stitched into position;

Others I used micro beads and stencils to apply swirls;

Still others were couched with Sari silk yarn/fibres;

And on others I used a Gutterman's black metallic thread that I normally use to depict insect wings in embroidery.
on some I chain stitched swirls,on others fly stitched "branches"


I hope the recipients of the above squares don't mind that I have not done a "finished" edge...........
as I felt that edging would overwhelm the work on the actual square.

WHAT would you do??

This morning I escorted my husband to his Oncology clinic appointment……after “visiting” with his Oncologist we went down to the main entrance /foyer of the hospital to wait for transport home.
Not long after we got there,a gentleman (who I recognised as a doctor in the Specialist’s clinics) passed us and waited outside with his luggage.
After a wait of some ten minutes,he left his case/portmanteau outside and came back through the foyer to disappear into “somewhere” in the hospital!
( and yes,he did have a mobile phone)
In view of the media grabs we see on TV regarding “suspicious left luggage” I was a little apprehensive……
I recognised him as a doctor;
he had left luggage in a conspicuous place and vacated the scene.
I was standing near LARGE plate glass sliding doors…and I wondered (as silly old women do) which way a blast would cause the most damage.
There were no obvious security persons to approach!
I reasoned that as the luggage was the OTHER side of a concrete pylon,if I turned my back and stayed in my semi sheltered corner (if there was a blast) my back would be splintered.
Add to this, that ,at the moment,an Indian doctor (in Brisbane,Queensland) has been held for over a week pending investigation into a possible relationship with recent bombings in Great Britain……..
I KNOW the media goes ballistic in these situations……
but……………….
WHAT would you do?
Thankfully,nothing happened at Redcliffe Hospital today……..but rest assured,if I see that doctor when we visit again in two week’s time,I will front him,and tell him to be more careful.

My wool stash

Twelve months ago,my wool fibres fitted in a small shoe-box;
Now,they are overflowing this Archives box!

More wool!

My son,his wife and daughters came visiting today,after their two weeks' vacation in NZ.

Whilst visiting the Agrodome at Rotorua, my daughter in law noticed baskets full of wool roving and bought these for me.
Whether they are Merino or Corriedale, I'm not sure;
but today's acquisitions are not as soft to the touch as the hand dyed Merino I bought a couple of weeks ago,so I'm guessing that they are Corriedale.

With all the fibres I've accumulated recently,methinks I'd better get serious about my needle felting and try to reduce my stash.

Another Buddha

"When" my patios are finally built,this beautiful timber piece will be mounted (under cover) to add another quiet spot for contemplation.

He will 'balance" the Buddha just outside my dining room window,as this one will be the opposite side of the house.
There is also a largeish plaque of the Sleeping Buddha to be positioned.
No photos until he's in his new home.