Wednesday, December 29, 2010

fabric through spoonflower #2

I was absolutely delighted when Australia Post delivered a parcel from Spoonflower on Christmas Eve. The parcel contained a few more design samples, so the above four designs are now part of the fabric collection. The below is the new colorway that is now available for one of the designs in the pallet series.
new colorway available



           Click here to view the full collection

Enjoy the upcoming New Year celebrations and wishing everyone a happy, prosperous and creative 2011

Thursday, December 23, 2010

red turkey for christmas

Redwork is one of my favorite traditional techniques and its also one of the oldest embroidery styles being most popular between 1885 and 1925. Any plain outline stitch is acceptable for Redwork with most being embroidered with "Stem Stitch". Embroidery stitch "Back stitch" is also widely used, and "Backstitch" is my preferred stitch. I enjoy the rhythm of stitch and the impact of simplicity, one color against a plain cotton background. The stitched portraits I'm working on at the moment while by machine have been heavily influence by Redworks impact of simplicity and the use of just one color.

The term Redwork was adopted because the majority of the embroidery designs were stitched with red thread - "Turkey Red Thread". Turkey Red Thread was one of the few colorfast threads you could buy in that time period.

In the above quilt I have hand stitched the Christmas pictures, machine pieced the pictures with borders and finished it off with both machine and hand quilting. Patterns for the pictures are as follows: The toy shop in the upper left corner is by Bronwyn Hayes the Holiday Elves are by Aunt Martha's for Colonial Patterns. The finished quilt measures 47" X 50" (120cm X 127cm).

Would just like to wish my visitors and followers a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Many Thanks for your support and encouraging comments throughout 2010 the year of new beginnings.





Sunday, December 19, 2010

natural Line, pattern and color

While I might be looking forward to a few days break from the constant rain, the garden on the other hand is loving it. Early Early this morning it wasn't raining so I started the day with this weeks photo project and just focused on taking photos of leaves.  When we start to work on our art projects we consciously or subconsciously use the elements of design: color, line, shape, texture, and form. Mother nature provides us with so many natural examples of these elements. The veins (line) on the leaves form patterns, shapes and texture. For example: the veins of the Monstera Vine (bottom photo) are quite thick and raised creating texture.  So as well as taking the photos I was also able to lay a piece of fabric over the leaf and do a rubbing using "Shiva" oil sticks. The red vein on the Strelitzia leaf is the complementary color to the green. Complementary colors are colors that lay opposite each other on the color wheel - other complementary colors include yellow/purple and blue/orange.

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Sketchbook Challenge:


I've decided to join the 

How the Challenge Works: "Here's everything you need to know about how the Sketchbook challenge works: The sketchbook challenge is a new project launching on 1/1/201..."

We will be following along with the below artists as we fill our sketchbooks based on a monthly theme that will be announced on the first of each month.

We'll be sketching alongside:

Each month the next theme will be announce on the blog and throughout the month we will be shown sketchbook pages from the above artists on the blog and they will be sharing their inspiration and intention behind the pages created. See link on side-bar it will take you straight there to sign up and join in!

Time to dust off the pencils!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

all shapes, forms and colors

Spotted while at the Christmas meeting last Saturday with  ATASDA (QLD Branch). With all the rain we have been having recently the cracks in the wood of a couple of outside picnic tables have become the perfect spot for the yellow fungi to grow.


There are many different shapes, forms and colors. The below photos have been taken on various bush walks around the South-East Queensland area.


Thursday, December 2, 2010

Creatively De-Cluttering

Collage using magazine pages only #1
Collage using magazine pages only #2
There is no choice than to think that my studio at the moment is a little cluttered. What's even more surprising is when you type the word clutter into Google, it's like you've just discovered Pandora's Box. My Grandma's dictionary printed in 1952 and the various websites all seem to agree that clutter can be defined as:

Things you do not use or love
Things that are untidy or disorganized
Too many things in too small a place
Anything unfinished

And there's various websites that give you plan of actions to de-clutter both your surroundings and your mind. Anyway it seems that I have intuitively embraced the task as per the recommended formula, I picked an area (the magazines) and got stuck into it even gave myself little breaks and rewards along the way in the form of creating several collages just using pages from the magazines in front of me. I so enjoy creating the collages their fun, enjoyable and finished in the same day so no unfinished projects (a criteria satisfied). And even better they go straight into my visual diary which means I've satisfied another criteria of de-cluttering - put it away straight away. And I even threw the magazines out once I finished the collages. The best quote I found during the internet surf was by Peter Walsh: "Homes are an orgy of consumption"
  That certainly conjures up all sorts of thoughts and images.
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