curli's photostream

curli's photostream on Flickr.

The photos of the postcards that Blogger would not accept via Picasa.

Recycled

For some reason unknown to me, Blogger will not accept any new blogs I attempt to add via my Picasa account.

So for the umpteenth time (well, it seems that way to me ) I'll try to post and add photos from here.

If you prefer go read it over on http://maureenc.wordpress.com/

AND SEW IT GOES: Another beetle and a little tutorial

AND SEW IT GOES: Another beetle and a little tutorial

From Brenda Gael Smith's "Serendipity" I surfed over to Terry Grant's blog :"And Sew it goes"

and found this interesting tutorial.

As I work a lot with A4 sized quilts, this will come in so handy !!

Thank you Terry

HAIKU ART..: Sunshine

HAIKU ART..: Sunshine

Haiku: Using "sunshine" as the word prompt

Listed below, three other attempts at expressing "sunshine" in Haiku:

1..Sun shines brilliantly

Copper contrasts with blue sky;

Grey clouds quickly hide.

2..Sun beams brilliantly

Golden contrasts in blue sky;

Melancholy flees.

3.. Blazing ball of fire

Temperatures rising;

Grasses shrivel crisp.

March Haiku : Sunshine

As usual, I had several attempts at composing this month's haiku, using the word prompt of sunshine.
I finally settled for

" Molten copper ball
In cerulean blue sky;
Surf tumbling on shore."

My A4 sized quiltlet was formed with the background of Lutradur bonded to blue homespun.
Using a card stencil I laid Expandapaint in the shape of a corona; heat treated it to get dimensional effect and then gilded it.
Using silk fabric and Angelina film I created the "ball"...the actual sun.
Next was to applique the sea tumbling on the white shores.

Possum and the Rainbow bridge

As if yesterday wasn't heartbreaking enough, this morning my beloved Possum crossed the Rainbow Bridge to be re united with Cadbury,
and hopefully Billie the kid and Jesse Jomo will be waiting to welcome them.

Yes, it was "time" for our Duchess to suffer no more. She reached the grand old age of nineteen years, not bad for a "street kid" from Amberley .
Like Caddie, Poss brought so much love and affection into our lives.
And asked little in return......except feed me, share your bed with me and let's watch TV together in the Recliner rocker.

It will be a quiet house...I will miss her squawks asking "where are you?"
Or her patting my arm or face reminding me that she was sharing the pillow with me.

The first photo of Possum was taken about 9am today.
The others were taken February 3, after Mandy had given her a hair cut.

Rest easy Possum...you will be missed

Farewell (Princess) Caddie

The Rainbow Bridge
Way back in 1993 my daughter Colleen visited the IPSWICH (Queensland ) markets and saw a tiny scrap of (feline) fur contained in a fishbowl!
For those of you who know Ipswich in the Summer, you can imagine how debilitated this tiny scrap of a kitten was!
Colleen harassed the stall holder so much that he GAVE her potplants AND the kitten to
GO AWAY.

The poor little mite had not even been weaned........she was taken to a vet....... and then CARED for.

And her life expectancy was not high.

At that stage, BODIE, my elegant black neutered male was the only cat in my life.
Colleen said"Mum! Bodie needs a companion"
Mum said NO.
But over the years, Fate takes a twist
My daughter needed move to the city and do extra study.....

Colleen's four cat people and one German shepherd came home to Grannie and Gramps

I'm sure you have heard the comment"Somewhere a cat is waiting"
(And Caddie was THAT cat!)
All five of them Billie (the Kid)
Jesse (Jomo)
Possum (aka the Duchess and the Kitchen goddess)
Cadbury (aka Caddie/Caddie shack/ aka the Princess)
and Kaiser (the adorable German shepherd) made their home at "Kenmark"
and brought so much joy and unconditional LOVE into my life.

Sadly, as of tonight, Possum/Poss/ the Duchess is the survivor of that family.
I had to make the decision to send my sweet Cadbury over the Rainbow Bridge

A Sparkling Butterfly 0001

Creating Angelina Appliques Part 2

Creating Angelina Appliques Part 1

AAQI Postcards

At last!
Today I made an effort to complete my submissions for the ALZHEIMERS ART QUILT INITIATIVE.

When I made my last batch of "paper fabric", I had this project in mind.
Because I had chosen the theme of the cards I would be making would be
"The song has ended, but the memory lingers on"
I chose to incorporate sheet music with lavendar flowers from a paper table napkin.
The face I used from the sheet music was muted too much by the layers of tissue paper, so I used my Intense water colour pencils to increase the colour depth.

Unfortunately with many Alzheimer patients, their short term memory is lost very quickly,and family and friends are often heartbroken by the patient's memories of the long distant past, especially when they are not recognised as being the nearest and dearest.

The third card will be recognisable as being from a recent "ELEMENTS: Water" series.
Because we all need a dream to sustain us, I have renamed this card "Coral Sea Dreaming".
Where better to dream than on an island surrounded by clear clean waters?

February Haiku: (Romantic) LOVE

After using "Patriotic" Love for my first attempt for the February Haiku,
I thought to try my hand at "Romantic" Love:

I finally decided on showing two of my attempts on the one art piece
which was constructed using a piece of pink Lutradur which has been "washed" with a layer of Lumiere
Pearlescent / Magenta paint.

I appliqued three floral fabric hearts, and one heart outline in the same material to the background Lutradur.
In the top left hand corner, I added a textured cardboard heart which had also been washed with the Pearlescent Lumiere paint.
The heart outline had sprays of green vine embellishment added , and in the quilting lines within the heart I wrote in metallic gold ink:

"New love flourishes
Blissful days and nights
Soul mates forever."

In the shadow quilting above the heart I wrote:

"Love's sweet melodies
Bliss filled days and nights
Valentines always. "

Unfortunately, my photographic skills are not up to making the gold writing easier to read.

Postmark'dArt : Buttons

All that needs be done now, is to address, and mail these fabric and fibre postcards.

Then---I can return to working on a couple of cards for the AAQI.(Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative)

February haiku

The word for this month's challenge is "love".
I chose the love for one's country

PATRIOTISM

for my theme, and this is my journalled page.

Nearly there!

Today a few more buttons and seam treatments were added,as was also the reverse side of the piece.
I've had this sheet of "buttons" for about five years, waiting for the "right piece"


Now I'm ready to cut and divide the square into six postcard sized pieces and then finish the raw edges, and hopefully, by week's end five of the cards will be on their way to new homes.

Postmark'dArt : Round 12 :A WiP

The themes for Round 12 of Postmark'dArt group were posted on the group's notice board a few days back.I chose Buttons
Recycled
Bridges
Element: EARTH
for my themes.
As we had a limit of six people per group I thought it would be a good chance to employ the method suggested for the ELEMENTS over the past few rounds.
Commence with a 12.5 inch square of interfacing (my choice is FAST2FUSE) and construct one large block, then divide into six (6x4inch) postcards
Add backing; "finish" edges; Address and pop into a mail box.

In my fabric stash, I have a few pieces of button themed fabric, none of which really have a commonality of colour ways, so I added a few pieces of plain homespun and used a Crazy patch method of constructing the basic block.
To the crazy patched block I am adding embellishments in the form of buttons, sequins, braids and laces.
(More still needed)
If you look closely, you can see yellow marking lines: this is where the large block will be divided into six.
I also have a button themed paper to use on the reverse side to complete the theme.

Work in Progress: Tropic seas dreaming

Another fabric and fibre "quilt" to accompany another of my Haikus attempted during January:

Tropic seas dreaming
Under moon coral reefs spawns
Life begins anew

The "quilt" to represent the haiku was based on a photo by Pawel Achtel.
Its size is "Journal size" : 8.5 by 11 inches

The white coral in the foreground was built up using Xpandaprint, and has six strands DMC embroidery thread and Coats Crochet No.8 to add contrast.
Needle felting in greens and cream were also added mainly on the right hand side.
Small sequins and pearl beads are used to represent the coral spawn, but I feel that more need be added to mirror the millions of coral spawn floating upward on the tide.

Paper fabric

 
 
 


Yesterday was good weather for making some more paper fabric for later use.
I'm not altogether happy with the results, as I was "experimenting" in a "what if" mode.As usual I commenced with a layer of muslin and favourite colour ways: lavender , blue and pink tissues.
(Note to self: get out of the rut and buy some orange, purple & red tissue paper for a change!)

The first piece I used some old sheet music as I had the idea of theming it
The song is gone, but the melody lingers on
See March 2008 blogging

To my mind, I spoiled the effect by including large pieces of Angelina film, when I should have used only slivers of it.
Never mind....they can be cut out and used for something else in another project'

The second piece I layered flower sequins in the tissue paper. I was wondering if I would have trouble with airbubbles forming and the tissue tearing.
One thing I found was a new tool!
My silicon scraper makes a great tool for smoothing the wet tissue.!
I also use a foam stencil brush and splodged silver glitter powder on the paper. Nice effect I think.

The third piece was a re-jigged failure from last year, after I found that metallic tissue is NOT transparent.
I used yellow and spring green strips of tissue over those flower sequins again.Probably some Lumiere paint will be washed over the sheet, later.

The flood continues

About 3pm today I went to check how murky Moreton Bay is, with all the floodwaters and flood debris that have flowed into it.
Today's photos revealed oily, silt heavy waters, with trees, large planks, furniture ,dead fish and birds, plastic barrels, and parts of boat ramps.

For an area that is a designated marine park, the mess is horrendous......and there will be more to follow as the flood waters survive.

You may have heard of the Drift Cafe that broke it's moorings at Milton, and crushed into the bridges?
The following link will show you where it finally came to rest at Sandgate, a little further south than Scott's Beach/Redcliffe

HAIKU ART..: (Beginnings) Fire-storm

HAIKU ART..: (Beginnings) Fire-storm: "Fire-stormSummer fire stormsLand lies scorched and blackened.Rains revitalize."