Snails

 Remember when the garden used to have snails? As a child I would sit an watch them slowly oozing their way across a path or along a leaf. The silvery trail left behind and the squishy eyes that were sightless waving gently out front. When picked up they would retreat into their home. For my grandfather it was a different story as he waged war to keep them from his vegetable patch. Well it seems his side of the relationship with snails has won and my side can only reminisce. 

This snail is a sample, a prototype of what I envisage, a cloth snail with all the charm ,slowness and sightless moving. It’s for an upcoming group exhibition. 

I made this one from rust dyed poly cotton . I like the rust dye but maybe I should make his shell a different colour. I am not trying to produce something that looks exact , but something that gives the impression without reverting to the stuffed animal, cutesy toy. 

Buried Book

I have been reading about @emmafreeman who is making small books and then burying them for 1,2,3 months or more. She is sending some to participants offering to bury them in other countries. To meditate and the bury your intentions, to release something ,to transform from one state of being to another. The term ‘terma’ is used as the process of burying artifacts for future generations to follow.

I decided to join in the meditative an.d transforming process. To see the change in fabric and thread. So I stitched a wee book using a hanky, some old linen, cotton and tea dyed fabric.  Then went to bury it. Under the frangipanni tree which is a special tree. When digging the hole I was amazed at how dry the soil was even after a wet few days and just after a thunderstorm which brought a lot of rain. Must remember to water this garden bed more. 

I am going to leave it for one month before unearthing. 

Quilted vase

 I saw Heidi Parkes showed some of these vases with fabric applied to them, so thought I would give it a try. Wrapped a nice shaped bottle in scraps of left over Pellon,  Then taking smaller fabric scraps  I patched the bottle together. This was a simple and engaging activity. I enjoy the feeling of recycled fabrics and threads being turned into something so sweet and special. 

I am now looking closely at bottles and jars as I finish something. Some beautiful shapes in some. Could get a bit addictive

Off loom weaving

Inspired  by this quote by Emerson I found part of a spent seed pod on my daily walk. It looks like wee boat but the part we’re breaking apart. So I decided to try to hold it together with a weave across its middle. 

These warp threads are made with an old crochet cotton on a cardboard spool that I wrapped some onion skins into and left outside for awhile. Lazy kind of natural colouring without fussing with boiling water and pots and mordants and modifiers. Just nature taking its course. 

So this is where I got up to and will start the weaving using the same cotton wild dyed thread. May not stay that way as I found this thick string that I may add. Colour as well ? Not sure . I just start and go with the flow.

Process

Sometimes when the process is the important part of the slow contemplative stitching it can lead to a product. 

I have simply enjoyed the stitching, the in and out ,the gentle pop as the thread is pulled through the fabric. The smoothing down of the stitched line and the thinking, fitting into a space, should I add more, have I added too much? are the rhythms of process and thoughts that come into and out of my mind. 

These are made with mindful and time consuming slow methods. I have ecodyed, rust stained, stitched , mended and handled fondly . The needle case on the right has a wee traveller appliqued onto the front. The 6 inspiration cards were rust printed cards stitched after ripping and yet to have a saying, statement or quote to inspire or motivate or affirm on them. The pouch at the back is to hold the cards safely inside and a scrappy ball made on a pairless sock.

Scrappy ball

Last week  I was rejected from joining an online Facebook group. I had mixed feelings firstly of disbelief, (  I thought everyone was accepted after answering the few simple questions)  moved through resentment and unworthiness to finally acceptance and humour with a touch of ‘just as well’,  I really don’t need another group to keep up with. Then I started thinking about why I needed validation from an external source. Why did I need to learn to make something that I was more than capable of doing, without the need for online tutoring, classes, guidance?  I can trust my own abilities and am confident to do so . But it was something more,  it’s the need to connect with like minded others, to be inspired by their work to see and interact in a safe setting.

So I made a fabulous scrappy ball . First I discovered a way to make a tight ball from a single old sock. Then using scraps of ecodyed cotton and silk I stitched with large overcast stitches in 6 strands of doc embroidery thread. Such a joy filled exercise. Might make more using up scraps of Christmas fabrics. 

Fleeting flashback

 This image reflects a memory from childhood. I found a wee mandarin segment when I was enjoying a piece of fruit. I could not bear to eat this ‘baby’ so made a bed from a matchbox and placed the tiny segment inside. I always loved playing with my dolls, watched creatures in the garden , the smaller the better. So caring for this little mandarin segment was part of the care.

The matchbox is lined with dyed teabag paper and I have added cotton pieces to embellish and imply a bed. The large mandarin segment is stuffed with scraps of fabric to be sustainable rather than use polyfill. It is 3d with the gusset at the back edge. Might stitch some lines of ‘pith’ onto it.

Felted Pudding

 At yesterday’s ATASDA meeting we had a textile taster of making a felted Christmas Pudding. Felted with brown and white merino wool onto a styrofoam ball. Then embellished with felted green leaves and small red holly berries. New Christmas ornament for Harriet’s tree. 

Have been challenged now to make  a pudding inspired by Norman Lindsay’s Magic Pudding . Not sure how easy the face would be? 

Project Bag

 I finished this small bag today. The embroidery on the front is four wee humble weeds that were growing on the verge over my front fence. One is a dandelion , one is a grass with seeds but not sure of the others.

The fabrics are vintage, recycled Japanese fabrics that a friend of mine @merodybuglar bought me back from Japan six years ago. I have quite a few small pieces but have not touched them , keeping for best, too good to cut into, saving for later etc.  So now the perfect project. The lining is so beautiful and soft. The front even has a small repair on the top right square. The cord is a vintage thin tape that has a vine stitched down the middle. 

So easy to make and I am certainly not a bag maker. I will make another one for a friend who is retiring at the end of the year and maybe a Christmas swap for ATASDA .

Earth Mother

 Yesterday I participated in a wonderful workshop with @zuzu_and_me in Eumundi. Erzu is a wonderful tutor and the day was filled with meditation, herbal teas, gentle guidance, quiet reflective discussion and a tasty lunch.  I have done wet felting and needle felting with the embellishing machine but not hand needle felting. So this was a very inspiring day with lots of ideas to do more work in this technique. My doll is reflecting the earth mother coming out from the lava of a volcano . Here I was thinking of my mother who was passionately interested in land forms, rocks and in particular volcanos. The three circles in the front are seeds , from Jacaranda  pods that I have lately been investigating through drawing and stitching. So this Earth Mother has come to spread more seeds on our rapidly threatened earth. Three for each of my girls and there is a small one for my petite fille, Harriet. 

As we stayed in Noosa for the weekend it was lovely to see the last few installations remaining on the foreshore walk to the Noosa National Park, for an exhibition , Floating

These were amazing large hanging , fabric jellyfish. I did not get the artist’s name so if anyone does I’d like to be alerted so I can give credit to them

Finding Texture

 I have stitched up this wee textile piece and pulled up the Threads to get some texture into the random placement of fabrics. All found as scraps , some Indian silk, scrim, cotton patchwork fabric , batik and silk. Laid down and then stitched across or round and up and down pulling gently until it all came together. Very freeing from the need to be neat, with corners meeting and ironing as you go. I am really enjoying this play with fabrics and stitch to make textures. Overlaying with sheers  and lots of folding and scrunching to get it all to fit into the space.

Jacaranda month

 I have been collecting fallen parts of the Jacaranda tree on the footpath outside my house. October in Brisbane is definitely Jacaranda month. For the rest of the year I hardly even notice them as they lose leaves and the green foliage when they do have leaves is fairly fine and spindly. There is a painting in The Queensland Art Gallery of a beautiful scene around a wide spreading Jacaranda. I believed the staff scatter  the purple petals around its base on occasion. 

There is also the message for students that if you haven’t started studying by the time you see the first Jacaranda in bloom it is far too late for you. Especially true around UQ campus where jacarandas line the ring road along the river. 

So I have arranged the petals, seed pods, seeds and stems. Looking, looking planning to sketch, draw , paint, press , smudge into paper . 

Art Gallery visit

Last week I went to the HOTA gallery at Burleigh Heads and had an inspiring time. One of the exhibitions was students art work.

My favourite 

Weaving

I have been weaving , colours inspired by painting at GOMA . Trying proportions of colour and matching yarns. Also plying new yarns to use .

Poppies

 I have just discovered the amazing colour, form, and beauty of poppies. I had been given some from a garden a friend is watering while the owner is away.

I haven’t stopped looking at them, sketching, pressing the petals as they fall, photographing and videoing them as they dance in the breeze.

Even now when all the colourful petals have dropped I am now admiring the green twisted stems and the wee furry flower heads. 

My new favourite flower. 

But they have such a special place in my memory. My Dad grew poppies in our garden in New Zealand, but as a child I just saw them as another part of the natural, and cultivated botanical world I lived in.

Then my first trip to France when I was 22. When I saw the blood  red poppies growing wild in the green fields I suddenly got a tiny glimpse into the deep, deep meaning for my grandfather and many others wearing them every ANZAC day in Australia. He spent time in the trenches in France during WW1 and would have seen these wild poppies growing. Hardy, fighters, bending but not breaking.

September Postcards

 These are the next two postcards for members birthdays in my Broadstrokes textile art group.

This first one was the most recent for Jane. As the theme is travel, I sent her on a fantasy travel journey. The background fabric in a vintage style imaginary map. On top I have stitched small squares of fabric collected from various countries around the world. 

The second one for Mel who developed a range of work titled Sunday Drives. She would go on day trips in the car around the Brisbane environs, taking photos , sketching and bring these back to her studio for further exploration. So my postcard to her has her figure in the centre surrounded by flowers, sketches, maps, phone camera, a car and a wee cat face as some of her explorations simply led to her backyard and neighbourhood with her Cat , Calico. The ‘compass’ in the top left corner is made from the inside of an envelop as  Mel worked on a collage a day using envelops a few years ago as part of our group project.

Gum Blossom

I have made this sketchbook from a tea packet and some random sheets of paper. Sketched this gum blossom  from a small sprig I have on my ‘nature table’ . The paper it is on is kitchen lunch wrap, not sure where the brownish horizontal lines came from. A bit of watercolour paints over the top. I am going to try and continue on in this random wee sketchbook with more from my collection. 

Tags

 All year I have been following along with Anne from @hannemadebyanne as she gave inspiration for a weekly tag. These have been many and varied, some are based around a stitch, others by a colour and still more by a technique. Some I find I can do very quickly as they are quite basic while others take more thought to get just the right fabric, thread ,embellishments together. 

So here are a few of my latest tags.

Placemaking

 Map of the place of my magical childhood . Tall pines , red toadstools, gloworms, hedgehogs . Living next to the wild forrest land that bordered the Botanical Gardens in Wellington New Zealand. 

Stitched on a beautiful soft linen handkerchief. The map I have drawn of the important places to a young girl are shown. The depth and breadth of my world at the time. From the Forrest , my home, school , church, fish and chip shop, the iconic red cable car and the wharves which we walked around as a family on Sunday afternoons as my Dad loved boats. 

I love the way my little world at the time looks like a pocket , a bag, life held safe in the upturned vessel, a concave container. The quote from Shakespeares St Crispan Day speech in his play Henry V, from the King to his men 

“from this day to the ending of the world, 

But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”.....

we five , we happy five...

I used some black embroidery thread as well as some hand dyed cotton Wildflowers by Caron in Sticks and Stones Dyelot. I had been saving this beautiful variegated thread , but for why? So using my good ‘stuff’. 

Chakra Cat

 In doing a seven day challenge where the 4 th day was repurpose I wanted to think outside the square as most of the pieces I work on lately have been repurposed. So I found this calico half stuffed blob in amongst my fabric. I often see it and it makes me smile as one of my daughters was starting a doll and go5 no further. Every time I see it I smile but don’t have the heart to throw it out. So here it is repurposed for this challenge. I simply stitched fabric onto the body, made a cat face mask that can be removed and added the seven buttons for the seven chakras. She will sit at my work table and be what ever I want her to be. Inspirer , encourager, task master, silent listener, humour adder , pin pillow..... 

The back has a little red heart stitched on a square of calico, also found floating around my studio. I have no idea where it came from or who stitched it. So perfect for this piece now.