Leafygal

Getting out the Bleach...

No- I'm not going blonde (although sometimes I think my brain is..)
I spent some time last weekend at the Creative Fibres group stamping bleach onto velvet. Technically known as discharge dying as you are actually removing the dye. The results are unpredictable as different dyes have different colour components.

We discovered that not all velvets are equal and some didn't work at all.

The best fabric turned out to be Jo's old velour "Tracky Daks" which were well washed and this probably helped. I am now regretting having given my mothers old velours to the Op shop.

I used a lovely little apple cut in half as one of my stamps and it worked out really well.
I also carved champagne corks into shapes for other stamps. Glad to find a use for this object that somehow seems to breed in our household!!
Now I need to start embroidering and embellishing the fabrics - that should be really fun.

Nostalgia

Met up with some very old friends (in both senses) for lunch the other day.

Recently I  found some old letters that I had written to my mother. She kept everything that her children wrote to her - cards, letters, programmes for "Concerts" performed when we were about 10 years old etc.etc.etc.

Some of the letters were from when I was first a student in Melbourne and living in a Teacher's College Hostel called Frank Tate House in Dandenong Rd in Armadale. One described a day out at the Botanical Gardens.
I read this letter to my buddies over Lunch and was sent some photos recording that day long ago.
I decided that as it was such a long time ago they wouldn't mind me showing them to the world. Rather cute weren't we?

I'm not showing the photos taken this week as we are mostly larger, more wrinkly and less leggy than we once were.  Three of us in this photo were at the lunch, the 4th took the photo.

Here's one of her as well, just so she doesn't feel left out!  We were obviously being somewhat irreverent to poor old Frank Tate!!

I wonder what happened to that dress of mine? It was a favourite - hot pink raw silk.
Unfortunately it might just fit half of me these days!

Swapping out

The ATC 's are finally finished and I had a small swap on Saturday at the Fibre Arts group meeting.
 I applied some net and machine couched some shiny gold thread (looks black in these pics)  I then couched on some knitting yarns using a rough herringbone stitch by hand.
At this point I cut the shapes out into ATC size (2.5 x 3.5 inches)
Once they are cut you can see what each needs to complete the designs. I decided to do some hand embroidering in a bright Orange as a complimentary colour to the blue-violets I had already used.
French knots I love doing and a couple of star bursts made just the difference. I even got fancy with a feather stitch and french knot flower.
I like them and I think the swapees liked them too.
I got 2 lovely cards in exchange - both very different from each other and from mine. Ain't variety great!!
 

The long and winding road....

Spent some of Saturday at the Emb. Guild Creative Fibres group.
I did my first free motion stitching after reading the instruction book on my "new"(18months ago) sewing machine.
Here they are.  

They are going to be ATC's (artist's trading cards) so when I've added more fibres and some hand embroidery wthey will be cut into small cards and the edges finished. Then they can be swapped in the group.

Stay tuned.....

Extra Charming

Here's what I mailed off to the States yesterday to my mmartfriends group.

The first lot are for the category "Beads".  I know lots of the group will have made their own beads but I was hard pressed just to get them threaded in time!

I disassembled an old earring from an Op Shop to get the pale blue beads. The larger top ones are polished recycled glass

My second ones are at least made by my own hand. The category is fabric. They are just under 1 inch square
I used a square of metal mesh and buttonhole stitched a square of felt to it.
I then added shaped sequins and jump rings and "Hey Presto!" a Charm.  The sequins are a bit too shiny to show properly but they look fine in real life.
 

Amazing Bra-artworks

I found these most astonishing artworks through one of the mixed media art groups.
I have seen "decorated" bras before but none of this calibre.
It just shows how fertile the imagination can be.
It still amazes me how every person given the same challenge can develop something so unique.
Here's a small selection (with permission from the blog owner)
 

The titles are: (see if you can guess which is which!)

Look at them Melons.
The Bra from Hell.
Classy and Brassy with a touch of Mink.

Fifi and Mimi. Monkey Business!
One pink Feather.
Allie's Dream

(I think I share her dream somehow!)

I do read, by the way!

For those of you who know me this is a very funny statement
I'm the person who reads the cereal packet if nothing else is available (I can't remember there being nothing other than a packet however)
I also read at 3 am if I just got home, so that I can get my brain into sleep mode.
I panic if I am not within 50 yards of a readable book and go to great lengths to get to the library if I may run out of book before I get to sleep.
Here is a reader's quiz just so you can measure up too. I'm not sure what a literate good citizen is but it must be OK if I'm one!!!

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen   You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Thready as she goes

I survived my first meeting of the Creative Fibres group of the Embroiderer's Guild - Geelong Group (just to give it a proper title to start with - to be known henceforth as "The Creatives" or "The Fibres" or ???)

Our first demonstration was how to make silk paper - I am restraining myself from running out to buy some silk fibres to start straight away. I must use fabrics that I already own and embellish to make them more gorgeous.  (Oh all right I've heard this somewhere before!!! Stop laughing!)

Our first homework is to make ATC's. Now you know I've made these before  but in paper not fabric.
It's exciting! Ideas are coming... where's that plastic sheet?

Recycling envelopes

For some time now I have been saving security envelopes. You know - the kind that are printed inside so you can't read through the envelope and get someone's innermost secrets or bank account details.
Well Tony finally found out what I wanted them for.
Our mmartfriends group is having another Fat Book swap, this time on Techniques.

I decided to do a Serendipity Squares background using the envelopes.
First tear them into chunky pieces. Then glue them down onto a sheet of paper or card and make sure you cover all the paper.
Get out your rubber stamps and stamp all over the pages to help integrate all the various bits of paper into a whole. Then comes the fun bit.
I used embossing powder - gold metalic to emboss a few more stamped images on the backgrounds.
I enhanced the whole thing with a bit of scribble using watercolour pencils.
Cut out the squares to size.

In this case to show the technique we are doing 4x4 inch pages.
To use the squares you actually cut them much smaller, into "inchies" 1x1 inch or to use as the background to an ATC 2.5x3.5 inches.

These are some of the 22 that I had to make. The gold is a little dull in the scan. It is actually shiny bright.
Here is a single square a smaller piece that I had left over and an inchie .
As you can see each inchie is a mini art piece in itself. Imagine each of the squares divided into 16 and each one is an inchie  Aren't inchies cute!!

Isn't that the best way to use up old envelopes?

Dancing in the dark

It's funny how life can throw things at you which force you stop and smell the roses.

We've been suffering extreme temperatures for the past few days, over 40c and up to 45c. The whole state is sweltering and there have been widespread power outages as a consequence.
Last night was our turn.
Power went off about 6.30pm. I was in the den with the portable air conditioner on and Pepper the dog and Charlie the cockatiel also enjoying the cooler room.

Dinner was about to be served and because we knew that we were about to have these days of heat I had done some food prep several days ago. We had cold spinach and ricotta pie with a tossed salad.
Usually we eat in the den, but the sea breeze had fortunately arrived and we could open the doors to the deck and although the sun was still hot and determinedly shining in we ate at the dining room table, at the shaded end.

When we finished I went out onto the deck and sat at the little table and read while the sun "sank slowly in the West"! Pepper lay in her "flat- pack- dog" pose, on her side with legs outstretched and enjoyed the breeze and the sound of the next door puppy chewing his squeaky toy.The skyline gradually rosied over and glowed faintly green as the dusk crept on.
It was now too dark to read so I just sat and called Tony to join me

A black flapping shape passed over and then some more. The bats were flying over from the Botanic gardens to the river valley below us and across to Queens Park. I remembered the bats that used to fly past our balcony in Sydney when we lived in Elizabeth Bay. There were hundreds of them and they traveled in small groups. Our bats last night were not so numerous and passed singly or at the most in pairs.
The moon was now clear in the sky, a very slim crescent shape with Venus glowing beside it. The hillside opposite us was for once in darkness. The only lights were cars crossing the bridge and weaving their way up the hill.

I finally moved back inside to find and light some candles. A romantic glow made our room look special and I was about to boil water on the stove for a cup of tea when the electric buzz of the fridge and the radio and beeps from microwave and TV rudely interrupted. I almost wished them away again.

[photo not mine but gives some flavour of the scene]