Recycled clothing

Finally I have finished the series for the "Recycled Clothing" for the PostCardMailArt group.It has been an interesting exercise learning to use my left foot on the sewing machine control, instead of the right (which is in plaster for another four weeks)

The fabrics I used in a crazy patch style go back some 29 years!
One I wore to my son's wedding, and the others came from blouses and after-five wear.
Some weeks back I was wandering around a local scrap booking shop when I spied a packet of dress-maker's dummies, and I already had some minute clothes hangers from another project, so I "fashioned" something to display on the dummies

You've got mail!

I have been very slack this year in updating my blog(s)
But I am still creating, albeit rather slowly.

The first two pics were based on the topic "Urban focus":

The brief being to

"Take picture of an overlooked city feature (manhole covers, crosswalk stripes, street lights, doorbells, shop awnings) and interpret it Mail by April 30th. "

I had GREAT ideas of showing maybe the Storm water drains that flowed out on my local beaches;  

 road barricades, as my area upgrades roads in a popular shopping/cafe precinct.

I photographed road signs dealing with    DOG WALKING/friendly areas

                                          Rubbish bins

                                          Street scape spotlights.

But finally I decided upon a love of mine: TENNIS!

So I give you "Chain wire surrounding tennis courts"!

The other cards refer to a swap on "stitchin fingers" site: where the brief was needle felting involving ribbons.

The first pic shows a needle felted

 background on an unused diaper lining; and needle felted silk ribbon forming flowers.

Back yard birds

I always love it when the various bird species come to visit. This one, is a Little Corella

which although fairly common in the suburbs, becomes more so, as Winter (the Dry season) draws closer. As we have had such a prolific Wet Summer season the Corellas and Galahs are taking advantage of the blossoms and seed pods that are forming.

Consequently, my bird bath is regularly full of debris! But it's a small price to pay for regular visitors

Girlie postcard

I volunteered to make a post-card for swapping on the "stitchin fingers" site where the theme currently is "girlie"

Still being in a bit of a recycle mode after my recent Recycled cards for Postmark'dArt group,

I once again used paper fabric as the foundation, and added "fussy cut" pieces from an Avon catalogue.

To me, the pink, ruffled dress seemed so "girlie" and feminine!

Adding some lace, crystals, beads and ribbon completed the card.

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?