It's That TIme Again

Those who have been following my mutterings for more than a year will know that the wedding anni time has arrived again and we are off to Franz Josef for a night out - well - off to Auckland tonight, Queenstown in the morning and 2 nights in Wanaka, up the Haast Pass to the glaciers, on to Reefton to see Max and Nelsa and back to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass and then back to Auckland and home to Perth. We will be back on Thursday. Somehow I missed a day in my planning so we are motoring slightly faster than usual. I have stitch and paper and have set myself a task to create 2 little books while I am away on my Stonehaven theme - one on a khadi zig zag book and one on fabric. We shall see. Plus have camera as well.

For all you right aged people - 1968 it was! And yes - it is us and yes it is all my own hair - it was pretty long way back then and that really is Ian's own hair as well. And my father was very proud of me because I saved him money by making my wedding dress with about 50 hand covered buttons down the back and loads of rouleaux. Those were the days. He was even more proud when I cut it up later and made two garments from it but he took a long time to recover from the cost of my shoes which cost 5 pounds and they weren't even red.

a bit of a doddle

After all the stitching on Romeo and kunin felt, a little run on vanishing muslin was a doddle. Sprayed with Colourwash and easy to work on and then the heat gun - I could have ironed it all away but I rather like the little hairy bits and pieces. I might come back and stitch a more involved piece in the vanishing muslin later on I think - this was a quickie. The Flower Stitch book is almost finished now - must say I have had loads of fun pushing it and me too to the limit.

more stitch-a-lot

For all those intrigued by the twin needle and flower stitch foot, here is a lot of flower stitch on Romeo. Because Romeo is slow dissolving and I am very gentle with my water action, you will see that I have managed to retain most of the circles. Again the little circles are like fossils. The piece reminds me a rather fragile piece of lace. lots of potential for garments but lotsa stitching. But you have to punish yourself to get the effect you want surely. I thought I would change thread colour - this is Arabian Nights.

Bid 4 a Cause

As one of the 14 artists who contributed an art piece for Bid-4A-Cause, I wish to announce that the auction starts on Friday November 27. This is some detail of the piece which I made for it.
The art works can be viewed on the website & bidding will be in reverse auction style. Please dig deep for this worthy cause as all money raised will go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for research into prevention & cure.
Other artists are Helen Godden, Lisa Walton, Wendy Bailye, Dijanne Cevaal, Jocelyn Leath, Caroline Sharkey, Sarah Louise Ricketts, Robyn Kennedy, Nic Bridges, Erica Spinks, Brenda Gael Smith, Sue Dennis & Olga Walters.You can link to their sites via the Bid-4A-Cause button on the right.
Thank you in anticipation of your support.

the things you do

Early morning drama on Saturday - no ABs vs England on Fox Sports. That meant a trip to the Irish Club so we pottered around until 9pm, went to Ecco in Subi for a late pizza and wandered rapidly to the Irish Club to find their Setanta dish was not working. Panic meant a drive to the Athena Club but it was chokka with a Greek wedding so off to Rosie O-Gradys which last time we tried this was hopeless with the crowds on a Saturday night. However. all was well as they had a bar at the side for we rugby fans and even though we missed the first 20 minutes it was a good game. Here's Jimmy Cowan about to score the only try.

Lovely morning - off for a walk and then back to the flower stitcher - I have almost finished all the samples for the flower stitcher booklet - I am enjoying exploring and using it. I shall be loading another holey moley pdf sometime today as well.

Holey Tantrums

Here is the finished work - Holey Tantrums. And yes all twin needle - and yes - all on the flower stitcher - and yes if your machine takes a twin needle it should have a button you push to make sure you don't break your needle.

lotsa stitch

Rule no 125 when using a twin needle - make sure you push the twin needle button on your machine......four twin needles later....... this is one layer of my textile tantrum and tantrum is highly appropriate because I hate breaking needles......

Incidentally, you can see the detail by clicking on it twice - Ian has pointed out the little + sign after you have clicked on it once. Learn something new every day.

some musing on Thursday

When we were in Melbourne we walked passed this glorious building in Queen Street, I think.
Constructed in 1890 for the safe keeping of valuables and securities in vaults in the basement, this building is a notable example of the Gothic Revival, the favoured style of the architect, William Pitt. The façade includes moulded griffins and heraldic figures in delicate Gothic detailing, and has an overall form that was further elaborated in his design for the Stock Exchange around the corner the next year.



Melbourne has loads of wonderful buildings which I love to see - Perth managed to get rid of most of its.

We are having interesting weather - loads of rain - very heavy (not quite so good for the ceiling in our office as water rushed in and Ian had to climb on the roof to clear the leaves away having first gone around to Grant's to get his ladder back) Very windy too. Great fro the garden though and we don't mind at all because we feel it will be a long hot summer.

Last night we went to the Australian Chamber Orchestra - last one for the year and glorious as always. Richard Tognetti and his orchestra are fantastic. We have only managed to get to 2 concerts this year - tut tut - we forgot the first one and were away unfortunately for two others.

Happy Birthday Kazuko

Happy birthday Kazuko - hope you have a wonderful day in Sapporo and Bruce has a good surprise ready for you. We shall have a toast to you tonight (not beer though!) you could really be in Paris......

back home again from Melbourne

We had a very nice weekend in Melbourne - always a pleasure to go there. We were staying in Little Burke Street which is very handy to everything. The AQM - Aust Quilt Market was good - low key but we met lots of nice customers and got a pile of orders and came home safe and sound and back to work. Our special treat on Saturday night was an outing to Movida - ooh - it was a lovely. We booked 6 months ago and could still only get into the 6pm spot. Wonderful Spanish restaurant. Now we think we would like to go to Spain.

We got up at 1am to watch the All Blacks but it was such a boring game. When we got back to Perth we watched the Wallabies vs Ireland - that was a good game and exciting to the end.

When I am away my little notebooks fill up with new ideas - now just have ot find the time to get going on them. BBQ tonight though even though it is threatening to rain.

sticky jam

well not really sticky jam but it is raining and very humid and sticky and Pearl Jam are performing at the Perth Oval on Saturday - the roadies have spent all week tap tap tapping as they set up for it and great big truck movers (I forget their real name) have been rocking up - 3 came thundering down the road when I was out this morning early. Great deal of trouble getting around the roundabout. Huge stands and stuff being erected -

BUT - we won't be here as we are flying off to Melbourne this afternoon for the Aust Quilt Market - trade show. Just hope it is not tooooo hot in Melbourne. We will be back on Sunday night and we have atreat on Saturday night but I will reveal that when we get back.

Amanda - a flimsie is what we call our hand dyed prefelts. They are made of fine merino wool - beautiful to work with and definitely flimsie.

my new toy

My new toy arrived the other day - a wild carder - and even better, Ian didn't have to put it together from scratch. (unlike the new garden shed which is still lying in bits on my studio floor).
I have been having fun feeding slushies and scrim and yarns and felty scraps and all sorts of other fibres through it and then laying it onto a flimsie and running it under the embellisher machine. We should have them for sale on the website before too long. I needed to see what I could do with it before I brought them in. I am very pleased with it as it speeds up a few operation stages up for me.

I am working on my Stonehaven fibres and stuff - I am putting the final touches to choosing the thread colours for the new set of variegated machine threads in the Earth Element Collection. I have 3 lying on the bench doing the final choose and waiting for Jacinta to send me fibres for the last one so I can match - then I can send them off to the dyer and voila we will have 4 new variegated thread and 20 new plains. If you click on the pics and enlarge them you can see the threads on the bench in their stages of being decided. It takes longer than you think to choose colours and make sure they are right.


You might be able to see the diferent textures worked on the flimsie. I have been working on this colour - see the flower stitcher piece from the other day. I am starting my Textile Tantrum sample because I need something for the advertising. This might be the one - as usual it will be cut in places. I might do a photo or two transfer using TAP - I like the cracked effect on an embellished background. Do you think that sounds innovative or what?

Happy Anniversary

Kazuko and Bruce - haven't 7 years flown by? Hope you had a wonderful night at the spa retreat. It only seems like yesterday that we all had a fabulous day for your wedding.

Sunday's flower stitcher

Today's flower stitcher piece is also about layers and textures and some gilding flakes as well. We have just loaded all the new gilding flakes to the website and because they are so lovely and useful, we have made them our promotion for this month. Click on this little one for close up.

This morning we had breakfast with Grant for his birthday yesterday and at one stage we went to an exhibition on the Berlin Wall only to find it really wasn' t on until Thursday only. We didn't fell so bad when we saw other people going to it as well. Bad advertising somewhere.

great game

We watched the Wallabies vs England game first - have to say I kept falling asleep and then we were going to go home to bed and watch the replay but Grant persuaded us to stay up and watch the All Blacks vs Wales - a great passionate game with a very good end result. So off to bed about 3.15am but worth it and we certainly didn't fall asleep during this game. Bit slow this morning though.

Happy Birthday Grant

Happy Birthday Grant - not too many years older than this.... Still the same smiling face and you are catching up to me.

Watched the Air New Zealand cup final this afternoon - Wellington once again the bridesmaid...

Friday Musings

It has been a busy week and to top it off the weather for Summer has arrived. Very hot and sticky. We have been flat out getting new stuff on the web (there is more to come) and parcels have been arriving and unpacking has been especially exciting. There are 3 new Iridescent and 3 new Professional Paintstiks for me to play with over the weekend - I am very busy creating charts with all the stiks so that I know exactly what the colours are like for blending etc.

Then I have been working away on the flower stitcher getting the next Let's Play booklet closer to fruition. This little piece above is waiting for some 3D flowers to be stitched on. Enlarge it - it is an excitement of colour - this thread is Indian Splendour.

Today we had big boxes of Flaked Metal Leaf delivered - all big flakes this time so Ian is planning to work like fury over the weekend and we will have them all on the web - I have been decanting and have colourful metallic flakes everywhere but fortunately mostly at our little warehouse. The boy from the next door unit was fascinated as always - I gave him a little jar of big gold flakes because he is getting married tomorrow. I am planning to play with them tomorrow - the flakes that is - for some samples for the web.

So the week has raced on and we are about to stop for the night. I also had another new toy delivered this week but will post a pic tomorrow. All very exciting and of course the Holey Moleys have started their 3rd lesson - I hope they all have their shoe collection out and turned over.

Off to cook my chicken curry.

Le Scrunch

today's Le Scrunch - a little more colourful and easier for you to see - click on it to see the lovely scrunchy texture.

Textile Tantrums

We have posted the information for the 2010 Challenge. Do go check it out

Textile Tantrums



I hope lots of people will enter - I am currently looking to take it all to NZ and hopefully Germany and maybe elsewhere. It is a good opportunity for experimentation and excitement.

Saturday

We really enjoyed the rugby in Tokyo yesterday - the All Blacks had a good win and a clean sweep of the Bledisloe Cup - now they are on their way to Europe - play Wales next Saturday.

Love the weather at this time of the year - before it becomes too hot although you need to go walking early.

Le Scrunch - it's not Grilon or Texture Magic although we do sell both but keep watching this space - I am playing and experimenting.