some more play

This is part of the back cover for my Stonehaven book - by no means finished but I wanted to show how the TAP image transferred to my embellisher fabric all cut and woven - the piece from yesterday has been cut in strips and woven with a number of other strips including some knitting - I find the Valdani perle cotton and 2 different sized knitting needles something I like to play with while waiting for the bbq to be ready. If you enlarge the pic you will see how the rocks photo has nicely slipped itself into this page. I now have lots of hand stitching and some more digitizing to do so I can start putting this book of samples together. My other little book is waiting for me to finish the involved hand stitch page (which will be included in The Holey Moley Club starting July 5th)

I have just finished writing the newsletter for May - we made a fast decision yesterday to take a stand at the Melbourne Paperific in June - found a cheap airfare and booked accommodation and paid for the stand so if you are coming to the Showgrounds for this show we will see you there. We went to the very first Paperific in 2000 so it will be good to be back. We are both quite partial to Melbourne.....

The saga of the pegs. You may remember I got a big bag of pegs for my birthday. I packed up the old faithful broken and dirty ones ready for the bin, opened up the new ones (I was assured they were very expensive) and lo and behold they all twisted and buckled and were useless. So back to the old faithfuls for a few more years I think......

TAP

TAP (transfer artist paper) -I have been having a little more playtime - this piece is scrim and fibres worked on the embellisher for cutting and weaving but when I print onto TAP I always have little strips left over so I coloured one small piece with Adirondack Pigment Pens - I like drawing with these and I wanted to see how it would go onto this surface which is quite open weave and flexible. You can't really see what I have done but look at the top left hand - enlarging will show better - 3 different colours - black/slate/pesto just scribbled - but it blends into the surface so well and you cannot tell that there is anything extra - once of course I have cut it up and woven it in you won't even know but the potential for other play is there. When I have finished the piece (this is for the back cover of my Stonehaven book) I shall transfer another rock image (my printer and PSP are not talking so I am sticking to this one pic for the moment), but I will be most interested to see how the image will look.

We went to a wedding on Sunday - lovely outing - but I wore my respectable black shoes to the church and managed an enormous blister on my heel after about 5 steps. Here it is finally cool in the mornings and evenings for walking and I cannot wear my laceups.....

But we are having a bbq tonight....

Paris Roses

to make us all wish we were in Paris

Haiku Festival

Elizabeth has invited me to join in the Haiku Blog Festival on 11th May - I am busy revisiting haikus which I used to use a lot in my teaching English days

Brilliant Rugby on a lovely ANZAC day

Well - great Anzac result - the QLD Reds beat Auckland very convincingly and then, even though we missed the first 30 minutes because of the power problem in Auckland, the Hurricanes had a brilliant win over ACT Brumbies and are now on the top of the ladder - MY TEAM through thick and thin. So here are some more muscley blokes for you.

The big pile of threads from yesterday have been counted, back in their homes and all reordered. Now I really can move onto something else. When you have a job you don't really want to do it holds everything else up.

And I am thinking of the Haiku Blog Day for 11th May!

roll along to Friday

I have not really been quiet this week but rather busy counting threads and packaging and packing for Brisbane. Counting threads is boring but has to be done. Then after Brisbane it will have to be done again - this is one of the dramas of doing shows - here at home everything is basically under control. The pic above are some of our new Cotton Collection packs - hand dyed cotton scrim and a cotton machine and perle thread. I am very pleased with them - just need to make my labels.

Below is the pile of Valdani perles waiting for me to sort and count them. Yesterday I finished all the machine thread but these little babies are waiting in a huge pile.



Today I popped in to see the Year 12 Perspectives at the Art Gallery - always worth a look - there is some great work going on in schools. This one is a topic dear to my heart - Moroccan Tea Pot - by Brent Renner-Hahn from Applecross Senior High School - very nice work.



It's Anzac day tomorrow - a big day down in this neck of the woods and there are 2 ANZAC rugby games for us to watch. Not at all sure why we are having a holiday on Monday though.

transfer artists paper etc

My shipment of Transfer Artist Paper arrived on Friday and I have been testing it on various surfaces. I have printed out my Stonehaven rocks - my printer is playing up and I need to reinstall it I think because I can't fiddle with it like I usually can. I have tried lots of other transfer papers in the past and have not usually been very pleased - often a plastiky sort of effect but this one from Lesley Riley is fantastic. When you rub your hand over the surface of what you have transferred your pic to it just feels the same. These three samples - the first 2 are on Lutradur - medium and fine - the fine of course is very transparent and I love the see-through effect. it is hard to show with scans so you really have to try it yourself I reckon. Lesley is the mistress of transfer stuff so I have been hanging out to try it. And I should add how easy it is to use - good for someone like me in a hurry - turn the iron on high, lay your fabric or whatever down on the surface, lay the printed image face down, cover with baking parchment and iron it. Peel off the back, and as my father would say, Bob's your uncle.

This is the medium weight Lutradur actually sprayed afterwards with Starburst Sprays

These 2 are the fine ones - the first is onto Lutradur sprayed with Starburst Sprays and scanned - the bottom one I had burnt the edges and Ian scanned it onto a black background. It is the same piece but this is so you an see it. I love the fineness of the thin Lutradur and you can of course layer it up and cut into one on top of the other etc.


The third one is onto mulberry bark and you can see the texture of the bark - the open weave. I haven't coloured it but I am thinking about what I will do next. I wanted to try words but not with the naughty printer just yet.


We had a lovely afternoon yesterday - catching up with friends - I love cooking Indian food - I know most people think we just eat out but it is my favourite food from way back when we were uni students. Not the curries our mothers produced - oh no - no Keen's curry powder with cold lamb and raisins and thickened with cornflower. These 2 legs were rubbed with lots of garlic, ginger and spices and then coated with yoghurt, nuts and honey drizzled on and were great. And for about the first time in my culinary life I didn't cook so much food that we had to eat it for a week. Just enough left over for a lovely lunch today (and a little more tomorrow).

Thanks to everyone who took part in my draw -I am sure you will agree that Sandy is a great recipient - she has been a customer of ours for a long time and has participated in my workshops. She is not well at present and I just hope my offerings cheer you up, Sandy. My thoughts are with you....

You might have seen that I have set up a new blog - Holey Moley Club - nothing much happening yet but excitements to come so do bookmark it!

60th birthday pressie draw

Yesterday at half time in the rugby, Bruce pulled a name out of the bowl having shook it up and carefully popped his hand in and the winner is -
Sandy J - hope you enjoy it all Sandy - I think there might be slightly more than 60 goodies plus one of my lounging around wild women. I will send it all off to you tomorrow. I know you do lots of fabulous stuff as I do visit your blog. Thanks everyone for leaving messages - and I did include the good people who emailed me rather than leave a message. Plus do notice that while Bruce has a Force jumper on it is really the Hurricanes colours so he can multi-task his support.

Today we are having our bbq - sort of belated birthday - this is good - much better than 50 as everyone is either gloating that I have caught up or commiserating. The lamb for the weber is nicely coated with spices and yoghurt and nuts and honey and waiting patiently - the icecream and pav are about to be made.

good rugby results

excellent rugby results tonight - Hurricanes won and Force won




Bruce did the 60th birthday pressie draw at half time but you will all have to wait until tomorrow to find out whose name was pulled out of the bowl.


Tomorrow I shall also show some of the fabulous transfers I have done onto Lutradur - very pleased with the results.

birthday draw and lovely papers

Have to apologise - the birthday draw will be tomorrow at half time in the Hurricanes game. I didn't have time to write all the names on pieces of paper. Day has flown by but I got a parcel of wonderful papers from Ro today - lovely as always - I shall be using them soon. Thanks Ro for sending so fast. These are some of the little ones. Ro produces beautiful papers.

I am very busy with Holey Moley - it has changed its concept a bit and I will email everyone who is on my list to see if they approve before I announce it but it will be exciting......

thanks Debbi

I got a wonderful birthday card today from Debbi and a fabulous collection of napkins - you have divine taste Debbi - thank you so much.

Life just tonks along here - I am thinking more about Holey Moley and the whole concept so watch this space.

We had our first Tagine last night - a little refinement needed but more reports to come. It was very nice though - shoulder lamb and green olives with saffron potatoes. Watch this space.

Bruce out cycling

Bruce and Kazuko are mad keen on their cycling - Ian and I prefer to walk....
These pics are Bruce out cycling on Friday

but here he is again - yesterday.



Last night Ian and I found the most fabulous Italian restaurant in Fremantle - Sandrino - I think the pasta was the best I had ever had - so fresh. We shall go back again.

I am continuing to be very spoilt - Di came to visit today - with flowers. Thanks so much. And I got presents in the mail. I am beginning to like this new 40. Plus the Playways people have given me a new permissable word - behindness - apparently I am allowed to be!

day 1 of being 60

I seem to have survived the night and woken up feeling exactly the same - the new 40. Thanks for all your lovely words - I did indeed have a great day and to top it off it is raining here today. Wonderful. Sad to say Darlington Estate has gone down the gurgler - well it had yesterday. We have been there a few times in the past for others birthdays but yesterday it wasn't busy - is that a sign? - and everything was rather mediocre. I would score it about 10 out of 20 I think. Shame but there are still lots of lovely restaurants around - maybe we have been spoilt? Still deciding what tagine to cook tomorrow though. It is doing its 24 hour water soak as per instructions. Let you know.

I shall be doing my draw on Friday when we go to Bruce's to watch the rugby -I would have photographed the basket with the 60 goodies in it but will tomorrow so you can see what someone will score.


A little play for another page for my Stonehaven book in the style of holey moley -above is the front cover - those are brown metallic beads on the side not red. The fourth and final page is hand sitching so that will take me a bit longer and then I will attach eerything - not quite decided how yet but it will appear before too long.

This is a round stone page with hanging stones....

and this is the back cover with some tiny knitted inserts.

Now we are off to Fremantle to see what we can see - last of our Easter break

Happy Birthday Dale

Wow - scarey stuff - today I am 60 and as I said in my newsletter - a big day finally arrived.
I will add some more pics after my lovely breakfast coffee made as usual by Ian, to show the wonderful flowers Grant has sent and my tagine from Ian - some Morrocco coming up next week. I don't seem to feel any different - just as well - too many more things to do and places to visit.

Here are my beautiful flowers from Grant -

and my Tagine from Ian (along with a big bag of new pegs - after about 10 years I can throw out the grotty old broken ones...)

Ian and Bruce and I are off to Darlington Estate for a birthday lunch later on.

I do have a big give-away - a basket full of 60 items from The Thread Studio and also including a little piece of my work. If you leave a message today I will have Bruce pull it out of a hat on Friday.

some holey moley

it is so muggy here in Perth today - it is April you know. And I think it will be tomorrow too - makes one so lethergic. Just watched the Highlanders win in Invercargill and I envied their cold and then I watched the first 10 minutes of the game in Canberra and I envied their rain.

Instead I came home and stitched my holey moley page for my Stonehaven book. However I can't decide which page I like best - the wrong one or the right one.



this is the back


and this is the front - at least I think so.

Off to try something else instead while I decide.

hurricanes win

really they shouldn't have but they did - right into the final moments. The Force should have won but they dropped off in the second half and I still didn't think it would happen but it did. So now they are 4th on the ladder for the moment. Too exciting and exhausting along with the really high temperatures for what should be mid-Autumn. Corey Jane in the dying moments with his try and they all have silly mous and silly sideburns and silly beards....

and I did buy salad stuff to go with the bbq meat so all was well

the end of the working week

has come and I am nearly up to date but intend to have a nice relaxing day tomorrow playing. No business work... famous last words.

this is the start of a holey moley piece of stitchery - as you can see I didn't do much in Bali my excuse being that I left one of the threads at home. I did finish some other little bits and pieces but I will wait until they are all together....

It's 6pm and if I don't go off to the hsops and buy some food there will be nothing to eat in this house tomorrow except for tomatoes and there will be nothing for the bbq before the rugby tomorrow night apart from meat....

all work and no play

makes Jack a dull boy so as it is nearly 6pm we have stopped for the day - almost - steadily working my way through the orders and I reckon I will have a clear slate by the end of tomorrow. Last night we had a lovely bbq and were planning another tonight but we missed the butcher so we are having lasagne instead and a sit outside as it is a lovely evening. Very good time of the year although it has been 32 today. our surrounds are becoming quiet so hopefully that means everyone is heading off down south for Easter and we will have the area all to ourselves.


Here is the main swimming pool at the villas we went to looking up to the dining room. Great place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even better for swimming in.



This is a lovely waterlily just outside our villa - I am off on Saturday to visit the water lily shop - I have figured where I can put another one. My waterlily here flowered while we were away. That's 4 flowers now since we moved it from the atrium to outside. It must be very happy.

Back again

We had a wonderful relaxing weekend in Bali up in the hills just near Ubud. Same place we went to last year and we read, swam, ate, had reflexology and nothing much else. There was hardly anyone else there so we had lots of attention but it is also very quiet and our villa was the same as last year looking out into the rice fields.

Now we are back we have been very busy today - all the mags have gone out and many of the other orders so a long day and we will be all up to date we reckon - by Thursday. Lots to do tomorrow though. I did mange to do some stitching as well but not as much as I had planned because I discovered I had left some thread I wanted to use, at home.

Now - for all of my newsletter readers who have been visiting daily - the big day is not yet - keep visiting though!

Thursday Stuff

wow - it never rains but it pours. This afternoon we are off to Bali to the place we went to last year for a r and r long weekend. But as punishment , the QA and Studio mags turned up late last night just as I was writing the newsletter and this morning we have been working like little troopers to get as many as possible out. I usually allow 2 days these days as there are lots. And of course we have been inundated with orders this morning as well. The newsletter special is a really big hit so far this month. We might run out of stuff.... Anyway if you don't get your mag or order until after we get back on Monday arvo I must apologise. I decided that really I am only human after all and we do need the break - reading, swimming, stitching (well me not he)



Here is the front cover of my little Stonehaven book - needs more stitch but it is in my suitcase. I am also taking a special piece to work on for Holey Moley.



Here is Harry Daniels - wow Grant - a Godson - big responsibility being The Godfather

I won my bet with Ian and he bought me a lovely bottle of Otago PInot Noir whic I shared with him at Koinoina last night.

I will be back on Tuesday with my holiday snaps.

some more hundertwasser

Three last pages - and I have really enjoyed seeing them.



this one is by Gloria Allport - Hundertwasser meets the Maharani of Cooch Pahwarni



this one is by Jenny Bargh



and this last one is from Kirry Toose