Johanna

Meet Johanna a vintage mannequin I purchased from The Camp Hill antique and collectibles Centre. I have been looking for awhile for one to display a vintage 1930’ s hemp French workers chemise that I am going to embellish for a Margaret Olley inspired piece. She is wearing this with a length of vintage embroidered braid. Hopefully standing beautifully around looking lovely will inform further the details I want to add. There will be line drawings in hand stitch, there will be lace , there will be mother of pearl  and old glass buttons, there will be embroidery, there may be fabric, there may be other pieces of old linens.

Eco dye

So now I have soaked the pale pristine pink piece of quilted fabric in soy milk and wrapped it up in a tight bundle with coreopsis flowers from my allotment and the petals from a rose that I picked up on the ground in Woolies car park. I have now boiled/ steamed it on the stove top with some onion skins and left to cool overnight. Now I will leave it outside in the sun for a few days. I don’t think. I could be patient enough to wait longer but I’ll try. Maybe I could try and forget about it then in several weeks have a lovely unwrapping surprise!

While I was outside doing this I had a doily that I’d also soaked in the soy milk. I am experimenting so laid it in a cardboard box sprinkled it with the fallen Jacaranda petals from my tree in the front yard. Then  took very rusty nails from my rusty nail jar and laid them in a pattern resembling three wee people , like stick people, covered with plastic and weighted down. I will also leave this in the sun for a few days and see what happens.

Vintage pieces

I have recently acquired these three pieces of vintage quilts or quilted fabric. I have been reading Mandy Patullos book and she uses old parts of quilts as backgrounds for more appliqué and embroidery. So I am inspired to work these into something more to just go and see where it takes me. So the first pink piece is very sweetly pink, crisp and clean , has thin soft wadding and a pure white muslin back. I imagine this fabric could be bought off the roll . It has machine quilting in the typical bedspread of the  age manner. I am going to dye it to give it an aged look , not sure if it will be tea dyed, or onion skin or if I go to rust or botanical dye with eucalyptus.

Stitch sketching

Practising  some machine stitch sketching. I much prefer hand stitch , slow and mindful as the cloth is held in the hands. With the machine there is a bit of lost control , especially around corners and look at the fat fingers.! But then I should keep working at it and could possibly enjoy controlling my machine.  Maybe I will go over this in hand stitch as well it could give it an extra dimension. It is done on a piece of commercial quilting fabric that I altered with some diluted fabric paint. Not sure where if anywhere this is going. She is not telling me anything about herself , if she enjoys posing, what her name is what she likes and hopes for. This comes with hand work holding and feeling a part of the fabric and thread and so get drawn into the story. I shall call her my mystery, secret keeper, at least until she starts to share.

Stitching stitching stitching

Have gone back reinvigorated to continue and try to finish some pieces. So the Little Red story I have  started to appliqué down some hexagons and Grandmas house. Now to stitch down the raw edges of the linen outline. I will use some variegated thread. I have been contemplating the meaning behind my fascination with Little Red , complicated thoughts of the need to have my own cultural stories . Cultural story, family story , heritage story , childhood story which all meld together . These old European stories that are familiar to me, I can’t change that ,it just is or was. Blinky Bill, Gumnut Babies and Coogee Bear ( but that was a Rolf Harris story so has to be secretly stashed away)  add that special Australian focus to the fairy tales and nursery rhymes of forming a child’s memory. Used to teach , inform and give children that special connection to family and their childhood friends.

Hankies

I am making a little book from some men’s handkerchiefs. This is the first one folded in half then will use the double layer to stitch and appliqué on. I am not sure where this water, sea , beach theme came from . Maybe it is the blueness of the hankie made me reflect on the ocean. Little lighthouse with a vintage linen covered button.

The birds are cut from an old pillow slip.