Barb's Spirit Song

2011 - Here We Come

2010-12-31T19:38:00.009+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

We are standing on the threshold of the doorway into 2011

May the New Year bring a breath of fresh air into your life.

And may it be filled with opportunity, passion, laughter,

inspirational people, creativity, kindness, peace and

lots and lots of love.

Let the adventure begin......

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T10:50:00.005+11:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Eat, drink and be Merry!

2 Sleeps to Go!

2010-12-23T13:08:00.003+11:00

Waiting for Santa

Santa don't forget the Cat!

Twas the Week Before Christmas and All Through The Shops......

2010-12-20T07:15:00.003+11:00

Christmas is fast approaching. I think I am nearly organised. Just a few more presents to get. I'll try to get it done early in the week as things are starting to get crazy at the shops.

I'm moving in January, so I'm looking forward to getting settled somewhere and getting back to being my normal happy self, without all the stress. Thank you for all your lovely comments, I appreciate it.

The new online Joggles Classes for the first part of 2011 are out - I'm going to be checking them out today.

Have a great week.

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile

2010-12-01T11:46:00.002+11:00

Life is abit tough at the moment. We are selling our house and also there are other major changes happening in my life. I know I have to just go with the flow and let go, but sometimes its abit sad. I know that this door is closing and another better one will be opening for me.

So, sorry that I haven't been posting, its been very hard to be creative, whilst this is all going on. I hope you will stick with me, and even though things may be quite over the next months until the next chapter in my life begins, know that I will be back in full force once everything is settled.

I'll still be visiting all my favourite blogs though!
Take care.

Another Bead Journal Finished

2010-09-23T13:03:00.003+10:00

Before I start I'll apologise for the terrible photo. I have so much trouble trying to photograph my work.

This is my February Bead Journal finished. I finished it a few weeks ago but couldn't take any decent photos of it. This is the best of a bad bunch. If I can get a better photo at some stage, I'll replace it.

Also one other thing I should point out is that I ran out of the larger gold beads that are around the edging, so that's why there are only the gold seed beads in the left hand corner. I couldn't find them anywhere, so if I ever do I'll redo that corner.

I've started my next bead journal. This one has a Spring theme and is actually the September one. I still have some other months that I need to go back and do.

Spring Has Sprung

2010-09-23T12:28:00.011+10:00

Sorry it has been so long. I've been going through abit of a tough time. Its wonderful to see Spring finally here. I thought I would post some lovely flower photos.

Don't you just adore the beautiful lingering scent of Jasmine on a spring breeze. This is our beautiful Jasmine vine on our side fence. I usually get a big wiff of it when I come home each day.

I also have some news. Tomorrow is the last day of the 10 Week fitness challenge I've been doing at the gym. I lost 2.5kg which isn't alot, but I also lost 47cm from all over my body. So it has been working, but I've been mainly toning up and getting more muscle. I'm feeling good and have really noticed a difference in my fitness. I hated running before, but now I actually like it. I've been doing so much variety of different exercises and classes that it hasn't got boring at all. I'm going to continue on at the gym with early morning classes and also they will have a bootcamp class on a Tuesday morning with Rani our Challenge trainer. So I just need to keep persevering. I think there is about 10 weeks now until Christmas - so I'm going to keep going with my own personal challenge and see how much I can lose by Christmas.

Bead Journal Challenge 3 - February

2010-08-06T18:47:00.004+10:00

This is my latest bead journal piece I've been working on. February was when I did some beginners classes in Tribal Bellydancing. I'm just about finished with all the beading, so will be able to show a photo soon of the finished piece.

I don't know where July went. I've been busy lately. I always seem to be saying that, but time just seems to fly. During July the job I've been doing on a casual basis for the last 4 1/2 years was advertised as a permanent position. I applied for it and luckily got the job.

Also I've started a 10 week challenge at my local gym. We do 3 group personal training sessions a week and then fit in exercise classes and gym workouts when we can. I'm basing my diet on the Weight Watchers points program. I've been overweight for 8 years now and during that time have been on different diets and my weight has gone up and down. I'm determined this time to lose the weight and get back to the weight that I'm comfortable at. It will be good to be a size 8 or 10 again.

I just have to stay focussed and keep exercising. I find that if I exercise alot I want to eat properly. I also like the Weight Watchers points eating plan as it so flexible and you can have a few treats here and there if you want to so you don't feel like your depriving yourself.

Have any of you been on the Weight Watchers diet? Does anyone have any tips for me, for losing weight and keeping it off?

Anyway, back to the beading. I'll try to focus on getting it finished over the next few days.

New - Quilting Arts "In Stitches" E Magazine

2010-06-27T09:23:00.005+10:00

Do you know that Quilting Arts have put out a new E Magazine called In Stitches. Click on the name to find out more about it and to purchase it.

I've just bought it and I'm downloading it now. It looks great. I usually like my magazines in hardcopy, but I like how this has extras attached such as slideshows, videos and other info.

Bead Journal Project 3 - May

2010-06-21T19:27:00.005+10:00

I finished my May Bead Journal. The white cat is our cat, Jazzy. The black cat is a male cat from our neighbourhood that has just started coming around to our house sometimes. Jazzy always hisses at him and tries to get him to go. But he just ingores her, goes straight up to her, meows, and goes and finishes off her dinner.

Now onto June. I'm running behind, I still need to do February, March and April. I'm thinking that I will try to keep up now with each month and then try to fit these in.

Some things from Nepal

2010-06-19T09:34:00.013+10:00

When I was in Nepal I bought this wall hanging and some other bits and pieces that I wanted to show you. I love the colours, materials and beading used on this piece. Here are some more detailed photos.
These look like exotic buildings.

I also got a material panel that is big enough to use as a table cloth.

This is a table runner I bought in Lukla. Its not a great photo and only shows half of it. But you can get the idea. The designs are embroidered on.
I love the colours of this scarf. Also I got this cute little purse in Namche Bazaar.

Show and Tell time - Vintage Sari Border

2010-06-17T11:05:00.004+10:00

I recently bought this gorgeous Vintage Sari Border from Rayela on Etsy. It is so beautiful that I can't bring myself to cut it up just yet. The photo doesn't really show up the lovely gold colour that well. I'm thinking maybe I could incorporate it into a wall hanging, make a runner for the end of my bed or some cushions. I'll just have to see.

If you're interested in finding out more Rachel did a blog post on them on her blog Rayela's Fibre Focus. If you are interested in Ethnic textiles arts you will love her blog and also her Etsy shop.

TAST 2 Catch Up - Week 3 to Week 15

2010-06-11T19:38:00.003+10:00

With my trip away and things being busy at work and home, I ended up getting way behind with TAST 2. So here is a catch up piece with a small sample of each stitch from Week 3 to Week 15.

The stitches are Week 3 - Beaded Hedebo Edge, Week 4 - Portuguese Border Stitch, Week 5 - Knotted Buttonhole Stitch, Week 6 - Buttonhole Eyelet Flower, Week 7 - Rope Stitch, Week 8 - Fancy Hem Stitch, Week 9 - Raised Herringbone Band, Week 10 - Cloud Filling, Week 11 - Bullion Buttonhole, Week 12 - Sorbello, Week 13 - Raised Cup Stitch, Week 14 - Buttonhole Herringbone and Week 15 - Ladder Stitch.

I've been learning alot by doing all these new stitches. It's funny how the stitches I don't think I'm going to like, end up most of the time being stitches that I really like doing.

Free download of Beading Book - One Bead at a Time

2010-05-22T09:30:00.004+10:00

Robyn Atkins has kindly let her book "One Bead at a Time" be downloaded for free from her blog. While you are there also check out her latest book "Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery" which can be purchased directly from her.

Travel Diary

2010-05-13T12:36:00.004+10:00

Its taken me awhile to settle back into normal life again. I've started a travel diary on my Travels Beyond My Dreams blog. The first post is mainly text, but I promise there will be more photos to come.

I'm Back Home and Missing the Mountains!!

2010-04-13T20:41:00.005+10:00

Namche Bazar (3400 metres in altitude)

Hi everyone - I'm back!!!!

It was an amazing trip. It was very hard going at times but it was also so rewarding. There were amazing views and sights around every bend. Namche Bazar was one of my favourite places. I go back to work tomorrow and I know its going to be very hard to concentrate. I've only been away for 2 weeks but it seems like months. I'll tell you more about my holiday and show more photos soon. I'm missing those beautiful Mountains already.

I'm off to Kathmandu Tonight!!!!!

2010-03-24T02:42:00.007+11:00

Everythings ready for me to go. We drive to Brisbane this afternoon and my plane leaves from there at midnight. I fly to Bangkok where there is 4 hours before flying onto Kathmandu.

Its very exciting!!!

I've been emailing a few of the people going on the trip, which has been really good. I've kept in fairly regular contact with one of the people. So it was nice to send an email to her and say "See you in Kathmandu on Friday".

I'm a little bit nervous to. Its a big adventure for me. Its the first time overseas by myself, the first time I've gone on a trek and the first time I've been away from my son for more than a few days. Also there are those little doubts that come up in your mind about whether I will make it through the whole trek and whether I might suffer from Altitude sickness. I know its natural to feel these things.

But when I get on that plane, I'm going to take a deep breath, relax and let go of all this and go with the flow of the experience. (Well, that's the plan)

It is going to be such an amazing adventure. I'm sure when I'm high up in altitude, with Everest and the other mountains all towering around, its going to be such a magical experience of feeling like being in the presence of the Gods. I can't wait to see how magnificent the Stars and Milky Way look.

Be back soon!!!

Barb

TAST 2 - Week 2 Knotted Loop Stitch

2010-03-15T20:03:00.012+11:00

Week 1 Diamond Stitch and Week 2 Knotted Looped Stitch

I love this week's stitch. I have always liked using buttonhole stitch in my work, but I think this is going to be my new favourite. It gives a great effect when stitched over and over again like this coloured sample below.

Its fun stitching curves and I also like the effect of the random length stitches in the purple sample.
If you would like to learn how to do this stitch or to learn more about TAST 2, go to Sharon B's blog Pin Tangle.

To see an interesting sampler of this stitch go to Fat Quarter's Blog. She's come up with some interesting variations. The square looks great. You can see the full sampler on her flickr site.

TAST 2 - Week 1 - Diamond Stitch

2010-03-10T14:25:00.003+11:00

Week 1 - Diamond Stitch samples

This was a new stitch for me. Don't you love it when you first start off on a stitch you've never done before and you have to study the instructions while you are trying to do it, and finally it all clicks and you can do it easily.

If you want to find out how to do Diamond Stitch go to the TAST 2 Week 1 Blog entry. You can also see some of the other participants work by going to the TAST Flickr site.

If you want to find out more about TAST 2 and to explore the participants blogs go to Sharon B's blog entry.

Bead Journal Project 3 - January

2010-03-05T12:46:00.005+11:00

January - Sunrise at Corindi Beach

This is my January piece - I'm running behind but hope to catch up in the next few months. Each of my pieces are going represent an experience I've had during that particular month.

Each of my pieces are going to incorporate beading with embroidery, etc. I'm hoping to incorporating some more elaborate beading in the other pieces as I go along.

I was going to bead around the edges of this, but I've decided that when I finish at the end of the year, I will join them all together to make a wall hanging, so I will do some beading around the edges of the finished piece.

Come have a cuppa with me and be inspired

2010-02-24T17:40:00.019+11:00

Come join me.

Would you like Tea, Coffee, Hot Chocolate....

I'm having Chai

Get comfy and come exploring with me....

First up, go and have a look at this new free E-Zine called Textile Arts Quarterly.

For some TAST 2 (Take a Stitch Tuesday) inspiration go to CJ33's Flickr page to see her Embroidery from the first TAST.

Also Camzy's Flickr page has some amazing TAST embroidery.

And Kay Susan's TAST pieces show many interesting variations of stitches.

To see some more gorgeous stitching go here to Mrs Kitty's page on the Hand Embroidery Network.

Now for some Textile Art:

It was a nice surprise to stumble across this colourful Needlefelted Textile Art piece by KoolKookyKreatures

To see some amazing talent go to Moy Mackay's Gallery. Her felted pieces look like beautiful paintings. She has come up with an inovative idea of having an exhibition of her Scottish landscapes available as an application that can be downloaded onto iphones. We have an ipod so it should be able to be downloaded onto that as well. For the details go to her blog post.

To see a Flickr Mosaic of the gorgeous Fibre Art of Karen Cattoire go here. If you would like to see lots more of Karen's work go to her Flickr site. She is an amazing talented Textile Artist.

To see lots of beautiful colourful Fabric Art creations go to Molly Jean Hensons Flickr site. If you would like to find out more about Molly go to your blog Creative Life and Times.

How about some Painting and Mixed Media:

I love these whimsical folkart paintings by Karla Gerard. To see a gallery of her work go to her flickr site.

Find lots of creative inspiration from Love Stitching Red's many Flickr Mosaics

And for the grand finale of our little adventure go to Art Trader Magazine where you can download these free e-zines. Issue 6 has an article on Karen Cattorie who was featured above.

Now that should keep you nice and busy! Hopefully it has your creative juices flowing.

Thank you for coming along on this little cybertrip with me. I hope you had as much fun as I did. You'll have to come for a cuppa again with me soon!

Join Sharon B's TAST 2

2010-02-24T08:30:00.004+11:00

TAST 2 (Take Another Stitch Tuesday 2) with Sharon B starts on 2 March. Its free to participate. If you would like to find out more go to Sharon's blog post here.

Even if you don't want to participate its worth a look as there is a list of links to all the participants blogs. So grab a cuppa and do the rounds of some wonderful creative blogs.

Shimmy those hips!!!!

2010-02-19T17:20:00.005+11:00

'Fat Chance Bellydance Group'

I couldn't help myself, I had to post one more Tribal Bellydancing clip.

I love the lighting on this, it creates a wonderful atmosphere and enhances the costumes and the dancing.

Enjoy!

Tribal Style Bellydancing

2010-02-16T17:22:00.005+11:00

'Heavy Hips Bellydance Group'

I've started doing a beginners class in Tribal Style Bellydancing. Its so much fun. I love the costumes.

I found this clip on YouTube. Hope you like it and it gets your hips wiggling!

DJ Pettitt's Photoshop Manipulation online class

2010-02-09T18:06:00.007+11:00

Finally I've had a chance to have a play and do some of the exercises for this class.

I'm only a beginner at doing this so don't look to closely. I had trouble selecting the antenae on the original photos, and didn't have the patience to fiddle too much, so my poor butterfly hasn't got any.

The photos used are not mine, they are D J's from the class. To find out more about D J Pettitt go to her blog here.

I have two more days off work - Yay!! So tomorrow I'm going to get stuck into doing some beading so I can catch up on the bead project.

A Change of Plans

2010-02-03T04:37:00.005+11:00

Photo from World Expeditions website - Sherpa Everest Trek

I had a phone call to say that my Nepal trip had been cancelled as 4 people had pulled out and there weren't enough people to run the trip. I was really disappointed, but I had the option of going on an alternate trip that leaves around the same time, called the Sherpa Everest Trek.

This trip goes to all the same places but goes further. It goes to Ama Dablam Base Camp which is 4800m in altitude. So this is the trip I'm going on now. I'm very excited about it. It leaves on the 25 March (3 days earlier than the other one). The only disappointment is that Sorrell Wilbey wont be on the trip. Go here to see the trip details.

I can't believe January has gone already. I've been exercising heaps, losing abit of weight and starting to feel abit fitter.

Its been hard with school holidays and work to try and fit in some "me" time to do some creating. But now school has started again, I'll be able to do some beading and embroidery on my days off when I'm home alone.

We're back from our short holiday by the sea

2010-01-26T20:17:00.009+11:00

We spent 5 days staying in a cabin at Corindi Beach Caravan Park, near Coffs Harbour. Its located on a headland looking over the beach and our cabin had ocean views. It was a really beautiful spot. I woke up early each morning to see the sunrise. We saw dolphins swimming around a few times. After the sunrise I went for an hours walk along the beach. This is something I'm really going to miss.

The lagoon area out the front

Looking to the left down towards Red Rock.

(I didn't take a photo out to the right of the other longer stretch of beach were I went for my morning walk)

The view from the cabin

Our cabin by the sea

My husband and son fishing at Little Beach at Red Rock.

Then the days were spent relaxing, swimming and fishing. We also went to another place close by called Red Rock. My husband and son fished at this great spot called Little Beach, where the river flowed out to the ocean. It was a really pretty spot, the water was beautiful and I really enjoyed my swim there.

Our late afternoon hangout - such a beautiful spot

We finished off the day by sitting looking over the ocean, having a few drinks and talking, before having a BBQ dinner. The weather was lovely but hot. I slathered on the sunscreen, but still managed to get abit burnt. We drove back home today and I'm going through withdrawals. I really missed my swim in the ocean today. Oh well, we'll just have to go back there again another time. Its only about 2 hours drive away so not too far to go. Its back to work tomorrow for me....oh well, I shouldn't complain, it's only 2 months and I'll be going on my overseas trip to Nepal. Time is getting away quickly, already one month of 2010 nearly gone. I hope the rest of the year slows down abit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

2010-01-02T18:14:00.009+11:00

Hope you all enjoyed your New Years celebrations.

I hope 2010 is your best year ever.

So...another year begins. Another blank canvas to fill with wonderful experiences, happy memories and fulfilment of goals and dreams. I've written out my list of things I want to do and pursue this year. I love doing this as it gives me some direction and sense of accomplishment.

For anyone wanting a challenge for the beginning of the new year, Dale from The Thread Studio, in Perth, Western Australia is taking submissions for her exhibition "Textile Tantrums". That theme really gets my creative juices flowing. I would like to do a submission but not sure if I will have the time. If you are interested the details are here. Submissions must reach them by 26 February, so there is still time to get working.

An excerpt from the Terms and Conditions for the Exhibition - "As many pieces as possible will be presented in an exhibition that is planned to be shown at various venues. The exhibition will be opening at Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne (March 2010) and shown at other venues including Textile Art Festival in Brisbane(May 2010), WA Craft, Quilt & Stitch Show in Perth (August 2010) and The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in October 2010, and another couple of events still being negotiated. The exhibition will be featured on The Thread Studio website in a special gallery section and featured in at least two international magazines. You must be prepared for your work to be retained for at least a year and possibly longer".

I saw the exhibition last year and it was wonderful. I would love to have a piece on show. I'm pretty busy throughout January but maybe I could get something done in time. I've never had anything in an exhibition before, it would be very exciting to have a piece picked to go in it. I think I will try.

Travel Blog for my Nepal Trip

2009-12-30T16:44:00.003+11:00

If anyone is interested I've written my first post on my new blog I've created for my Nepal trip and any future travels.

It's called Travels Beyond My Dreams.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!!

2009-12-24T15:56:00.008+11:00

Merry Christmas everyone

and

I wish you all an abundance of

Love, Happiness and Good Fortune

in 2010.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow

and stay safe over the holiday season.

Lots of Hugs, Barb

I Joined the Bead Journal Project!

2009-12-16T16:38:00.006+11:00

After reading Kaite's comment about joining the BJP (Bead Journal Project) I decided that I might as well jump in and do it. Thanks Kaite for the prompting.

I'm going to try to be organised from the start with maybe my backgrounds ready so it makes it easier for me to get started on it each month. They are not going to be totally beaded pieces, but beads mixed with embroidery/mixed media, etc.

I'm actually feeling excited about doing it.

Also for anyone interested in online classes the new Joggles classes for next year are up on their site.

Beaded Art Doll Finished and Final Day to Register for the 2010 Bead Journal Project

2009-12-15T15:27:00.004+11:00

I've finally finished the Beaded Art Doll from the online Joggles class I did awhile ago.

Also if you are interested today is the last day to register for the Bead Journal Project for 2010. I would love to join but not sure if I could keep the commitment.

To register and find out more go here.

Needle Magazine

2009-12-03T11:36:00.004+11:00

I really like the new free online magazine "Needle". It's for those that love embroidery, both traditional and contemporary. Its put out by the Hand Embroidery Network. There's even an article in this first issue on Susan Sorrell - yay!!

Go here to take a look at the magazine.

You might like to also go and look at the Hand Emboidery Network (HEN). They have a call for entries for their online Winter Embroidery Exhibition with the theme "Winter Wonderland". They have extended the deadline to 31 December. More details can be found on their blog.

Also, view their current exhibition "Living Organisms" here.

I'm going to Kathmandu!!!!!

2009-11-07T17:03:00.007+11:00

I'm excited!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been wanting to see Everest and go trekking in Nepal for a long time. So since I'm turning 45 in December, I wanted to do something special.

I've been looking at brochures and thought I'd picked out one I wanted to do, but then I went looking on the internet at a few different companies. I then found the perfect trip with World Expeditions. It leaves at the end of March for 15 days. Its a fundraising trip for the Australian Himalayan Foundation and part of the money goes towards teacher training (something I'm interested in). We trek for 7 days and camp for part of this time. We also visit the first school and hospital that Sir Edmund Hilary built.

The thing that also makes this trip really special is that Sorrell Wilby is escorting it. Sorrell is an amazing woman. She rode a bicycle through Asia, walked across Tibet, walked the length of the Himalayan Mountains and climbed all the major mountains in Africa. She wrote books on these trips and worked for Australian Geographic. She now does segments on an Australian travel show called "Getaway". I remember reading her books when they first came out and loved them and her sense of adventure. Its going to be wonderful talking to her and listening to her stories.

So, abit less that 5 months to go. Now all I have to do is lose weight and get fit. I'm off to a good start. I've been exercising for 1 - 2 hours most days and I've lost 2.5 kilos in abit over a month. I'm going to start a new blog for this trip and the lead up to it. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Catching Up

2009-10-30T13:44:00.004+11:00

This is a painting my son did for me in the School Holidays. I was with him when he was doing it and it was great seeing him work out the different things he wanted to do. Although I'm not teaching anymore, (I'm trained as a primary teacher) I had to stop myself from trying to give him ideas or direct him. That would have just stiffled his creativity. I love how it turned out - its something to treasure.

I can't believe its almost the end of October. I haven't posted for awhile as I've been busy with school holidays, work, etc.

Its my son's 8th Birthday tomorrow - time has flown. Last year he had a Halloween Birthday party but this year he's not having a party. We are just taking him out to an indoor Play Centre for the morning and he wants to have lunch there as well.

I have some big news - (no I'm not pregnant). I'll leave you in suspense until my next post but I'll give you a little hint. I'm doing something really exciting that I've wanted to do for a long time and since I'm turning 45 in December this year I decided it was about time to do it!!!!!!

Spring has Sprung!

2009-10-06T19:40:00.004+11:00

Its beautiful seeing all the flowers blossoming. This is a new hanging pot of Petunias that I got. I also have a purple one. I was just sitting it in the wooden planter box until we could hang it. They have really brightened up our outdoor area.

Some big news - I'm a Nanna!!! My step daughter had a baby last week. Its a little boy and they have named him Flynn. Its good that they have moved closer to us. They're only an hours drive away now, so we'll get to see them lots.

Also my 7 year old son is excited to be an Uncle!!!

I've Missed Stitching!!

2009-09-24T15:00:00.006+10:00

This is my latest creation.

I've really missed doing embroidery and beading. I haven't attached it all together yet. I'm going to attach it to the purple silk background and then stitch it onto the painted canvas. Its only a small piece and the canvas is 6 x 6.

Back to Normal

2009-09-24T09:55:00.005+10:00

The dust has gone - blue sky and clear air today.

It really makes you appreciate this lovely spring day and the lingering scent of Jasmine in the air.

Dust Storm

2009-09-23T12:07:00.003+10:00

We woke to a lovely day today and watched on the news where there were dust storms in Sydney and other areas down south. The pictures showed an orange sky with poor visibility. The ferry's on the harbour had been cancelled and flights diverted to Brisbane airport. I was thinking poor people down there.

But by 9.30am the dust started rolling in here. Sydney is approximately 600 klm away so we weren't expecting to get any dust here. Its been windy and hazy since then. I'm glad I'm not working today so I can stay inside and also my son is home sick today from school with a cold. So I'm glad he's not out in it either. The light outside has a yellowy twilight tinge to it. It's a little bit eery.

These photos were taken about 10.30am. The sky isn't orange here, just a dirty white colour. It looks abit like heavy smoke lingering in the air.

We have a festival of Cricket on in our town this week with state sides playing. I'm wondering whether they will have to cancel todays games. Also tomorrow is our Main Horse Race day of the year. There's a half day holiday for it. I'm not going this year but I'm hoping that tomorrow will be all clear for those going, otherwise it would be disappointing.

Week One - Petit Dolls Class with Suzi Blu

2009-09-22T16:48:00.009+10:00

Here are some of my first drawings. Sorry, no masterpieces here. I just wanted to put them on here to document my progress. I haven't had much experience at all of drawing, so I'm happy with my progress so far. The class is open now until the end of December so I'm going to spend more time than just one week particularly on this first lesson.

She's Finished!

2009-09-12T15:45:00.003+10:00

Saffron

She's all finished and I've named her Saffron. That was really fun. I'm sure I'll be making more of these.

I'd like to come up with my own pattern and idea. I have a few ideas swirling around in my head that I'd like to make sometime. I might put them down on paper and see what I can come up with.

But in the meantime, I have drawing to do. I need to start on my Petit Dolls Class. The good thing is that Suzi has now opened this class until 31 December, so there's no rush now. I'm not the best with short classes, I tend to be left far behind and life always seems to get in the way. So this is great news as I can plod along at my own pace.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Nearly Finished

2009-09-12T06:07:00.003+10:00

She's nearly ready to go out on the town. Her skirt is all finished and ready to go on her today.

Cloth and Clay Doll Progress

2009-09-11T03:57:00.007+10:00

This was a progress shot from yesterday. I've attached her limbs, done abit of the painting and made her skirt. So she just needs abit more painting and the skirt to be attached. This was really fun making her. Darlene from Art4Sol left a comment saying that I'd got the doll making bug. I think I have!

I had these three Kookaburras on our side fence yesterday. The weather is starting to really warm up and I was having lunch outside. They stopped laughing when I came outside with the camera so I couldn't get one of them in full song.

Its nice having lots of wildlife around. We have a little strip of reserve beside our house and a creek and reserve behind it. Last week when I came home I saw a Kangaroo munching on grass just over the other side of this fence in the reserve. It makes you feel like you are living out in the country even though we are in a residential area.

Petit Dolls and Cloth and Clay Dolls

2009-09-03T19:44:00.004+10:00

Suzi Blu - Les Petit Dolls Online Class

I'm very excited as I've enrolled to do Suzi Blu's Les Petit Dolls Class. I've wanted to do this class for awhile now. If you are interested in doing it, the class hasn't started yet. It starts on 5 September so there is still time to join the class. Suzi is a great character. She teaches in a very fun and flamboyant way. I love her style and hope that some of her talent rubs off on me as I'm only a beginner drawer. Go here is you want to find out all about the class and to register. You might like to also go here to find out more about Suzi and her Les Petit Academy.

Jane DesRosier's Cloth and Clay Doll Online Workshop

I've also enrolled in Jane DesRosier's Cloth and Clay Doll Online Workshop. The good thing about this workshop is that it is available at anytime and you work totally at your own pace. I love these dolls. I've started my first doll and I can't wait to get her finished. If you would like to sign up or register go here. Or even just go to the site to check out all the gorgeous dolls.

I've set aside the beaded art doll from the last class I did as I need to contemplate the type of hair to do on her. I will get her finished soon!

Beaded Art Doll Progress

2009-08-28T20:33:00.006+10:00

My progess so far on my Beaded Art Doll. I just need to bead around the head, add beaded hair and then attach the head. The photos aren't the best but I'll get a better one when it is all finished.

Computer Trouble

2009-08-27T19:54:00.002+10:00

Had some computer trouble. There was a virus that wouldn't let us log onto anything on the internet - abit scary, but all is fixed now. That will teach me to download something from one of the facebook ads on the sidebar - you live and learn!

I'm also going to start moderating my comments - I hope no one minds. I'm just doing it as a precaution as I don't want any spam or virus links put onto my blog. I'm probably just getting paranoid but anyway it wont hurt to do it.

Doing some more scans on the computer tonight - will try to get some computer time in tomorrow night and finally post some photos of the progress I've made with my beaded art doll. It's been awhile since I said I'd post them - I'm sure I'm testing everyones patients!

See you.

I'm back!!

2009-08-17T20:00:00.002+10:00

It's been awhile since I last posted. I've been having abit of a stressful time with work and also a few health issues but nothing major. Things have started to settle down now though and I'm feeling alot better. I have a full week of working this week but then 6 days off - Yay!!! So I'm going to have some time to play.

I've been working on the beaded doll. I've finished the body and the beaded shield. I also got side tracked and did some embroidery as well. I haven't got photos yet, so I'll post some when I get a chance.

The new Joggles online classes have been posted. There are 43 classes this time around. I like the sound of the Altered Journal class with Sarah Whitmire. I'm not sure if I will do it this time around as I have some other online classes that I'm really interested in doing.

Have a good week!

Still Playing

2009-07-22T20:19:00.002+10:00

I'm still playing around with the background on my blog. I'm trying out a few different ones. On the weekend I'll get time to fix my header up and make it fit in with the background I choose to go with. So in the meantime the header may look abit strange with the background.

I've Been Playing

2009-07-18T16:54:00.005+10:00

This is my second beading sample. I'm starting on the beaded doll now. I'm not sure what design I'll do on her yet. I like the colours in this beading sample so I might use them again unless some other idea pops up.

I've been playing around with my blog today. I still have some playing to do. I kinda like the 3 column look as 2 columns can get abit crowded. The background is a freebie by Itkupilli I think she is very kind to give these for free as well as all the information that she shares on her blog.

I'm not sure if I will keep the blog header or change it. Also I'm going to do some rearranging of all the sidebar icons and maybe delete some that aren't necessary. I'd like to be able to create my own blog background but I'm not that clever yet. I think I saw something on Itkupilli's website which mentioned how to do this - I might have to go and have another look.

Thanks Marga!

2009-07-17T16:01:00.005+10:00

"Sunshine" - ATC by Marga

I received this lovely ATC in the post this week all the way from Florida from Marga

It was a lovely surprise and the first ATC I have every got from anyone - so its extra special.

It came in this little cover that she had also made, which is a great idea.

Thanks again Marga, you made my day!

Some More Beading and Hand Embroidery Group

2009-07-11T07:03:00.006+10:00

I've finished this sample. The edges are abit wobbly and the beading isn't the best but I like how the motif turned out. It is my first try at this type of beading so its going to take abit of practice. I found it abit hard sometimes when trying to get into the corners to make it even. I suppose it all takes practice. I need to put a backing on it and do some edging and that may fix the edges up abit.

I really like this sample so far. It looks terrible in the photo. The bugle beads are a very light green and a darker green alternated, with a gold seed bead on each end. It wouldn't scan. When I've done some more, I'll try to get a better image of it.

This weeks lesson is the start of the beaded art doll. We are making the face moulds, the body and starting on the beaded shield front. I haven't started yet so I'll have to get cracking!

For the Hand Embroiderers out there you might like to visit the Hand Embroidery Network Group. I've joined but haven't had a chance to have a good look around it yet.

Have a good weekend!

A little Weekend Visitor

2009-07-09T12:24:00.008+10:00

Last Saturday this little cutey got handed into me at work. It had been found in the children's park right next to my work. I rang Animal Rescue and they didn't have room for it, so they asked if I could take it home for the weekend and ring them again on Monday.

So when I took it home I was sure to tell my 7 year old son that we were just acting as carers for the weekend and it had to go back on Monday. We already have a cat Jazzy and really can't afford at the moment to have a second cat particularly as we go away abit and have to put our cat into a pet resort for those times.
Anyway, within moments of bringing him home it had the name "Midnight". It was so affectionate and playful. We all fell in love with it. It kept ending up on my husband's tummy or shoulder - I think it was trying it's hardest to win him over. When I fed it for the first time it must have been so hungry that it went splashing right through the milk to get to the food. In the night when it was getting tired it snuggled up underneath my chin, which was really cute.

Every time our cat would see it they both would hiss at each other, but on the morning before the kitten went Jazzy was hanging around getting abit closer. It was best that she didn't get too close to it though as she probably would have been heartbroken when it went. As it was, in the afternoon she looked all over the house to see where it had gone. There were also a few tears on my sons part.

On Monday I took it out to Animal Rescue and they said that it was only about 2 months old. As it was so loveable and friendly they said that it shouldn't have any trouble finding a home. Also they said that everyone usually wants a black and white kitten. It still pulled on my heartstrings - it would have been nice to have kept him. But I suppose sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

I couldn't work in a vets or for Animal Rescue, I'd fall in love with all the animals and want to keep them all. My sons like that too.

So heres hoping that little Midnight is snuggled up somewhere now with a new family who are going to love him like crazy as he had such a beautiful nature.

Another Surprise!

2009-06-30T13:28:00.004+10:00

Spirit Garden

My Spirit Garden piece is this weeks most popular photo on the Fibre Focus group. That was a lovely surprise which made my day!

If you haven't been onto this group before, take some time to check it out. There are lots of interesting and very talented people on there.

Textural Beading and Embellishment Class

2009-06-28T19:15:00.004+10:00

I've started doing a Textural Beading class with Janet Lasher. This is one of the samples I'm working on. The class also involves making a beaded art doll. I've wanted to make one of these for awhile now and haven't got around to it, so I'm looking forward to finally doing it. The class is up to week 3 already. I wish the classes where 2 weeks to every lesson. It would give alittle bit more time to work on things as life always seems to get in the way. Anyway, I've been enjoying it and I'm interested in learning more.

A bit of an update on my mum - she is finally out of hospital after 8 weeks. She had her 75th birthday in hospital and my brother and Aunty came up to surprise her.

I'm Happy to Accept this award

2009-06-19T14:31:00.003+10:00

Thank you for this award Jan from Stitch Witch and Darlene from Art4Sol. It was a lovely surprise and I appreciate that you thought of me.

I have to pass this award on to 8 other creative people. Here are a few rules when accepting your award (these are not my rules) Please feel free to deliver this gift to 8 other people and include the following text with the award on your site: These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. I'm passing this award on to the following people who I've been inspired by, and love reading their blogs.

http://adventuresinthread.blogspot.com/
http://yarnaboutyarn.blogspot.com/
http://fat-quarter.blogspot.com/
http://margascrafts.blogspot.com/
http://alis-clair.blogspot.com/
http://lindavincent.blogspot.com/
http://verlenebrooks.blogspot.com/
http://travelfibreandthread.blogspot.com/

There are also many more blogs that I read and enjoy regularly too.

Arm Knitting

2009-06-03T07:16:00.004+10:00

At the Textile Arts Festival there was a short class on Arm Knitting. I didn't do the class as there was a talk I wanted to go to. Anyway, I found instructions on the web and had to try it out. Go here for the instructions. They say you can make a scarf in 20 minutes. I'm only a basic knitter and it took me about an hour as I had to re-read the cast on instructions a number of times before I could work out how to cast on. But after that it was easy. My tension isn't the best. I'm going to pull this one apart as I just wanted to try it out, but I'd like to try it with the proper yarn sometime.

The wool I used wasn't the best as it was abit too thin. You need a much thicker wool. The wool they use is called Slubby Yarn. I think you could use any thick yarn.

If anyone does some Arm Knitting, I'd love to see your results.

Textile Art Festival in Brisbane

2009-06-02T09:24:00.009+10:00

The Festival was great. I bought some bits and pieces.

These are all wool except for the one on the right which is silk.

These are sari ribbons, sari silk twist and chiffon.

These are the various material pieces I bought. I love the 5 design pieces on the right, it was hard just to pick these. The 2 smaller woven pieces beside these at the top are upholstery samples. The green piece below these is hand dyed and the Stitched brown piece is also hand dyed. It was from Lisa Walton's stall. She had lots of wonderful hand dyed fabrics. She sells these on her website Dyed and Gone to Heaven.

I went to a few of the talks - Dale Rollerson from the Thread Studio talking about her Textile Art Explorations, one on Shrink Magic and I went to the talk by Marion Gorr about Overseas Textiles.

Marion runs a Silk business and spoke about her suppliers of Silk in China. She showed slides of these. Also they have set up a craft centre for the women of the Vikasana Institute in South India. They have done workshops with the women and give them the waste silk which they use to make dolls. She had a selection of the dolls there. They are going to be returning later this year to give more workshops. The dolls are lovely and they each have the makers name on a label on the back. They had a computer link up with the women in India showing them making the dolls and we were able to ask questions.

This is a photo of some of the dolls. You can see these and other items on the Beautiful Silks website. You can also go here to purchase the dolls online. You can learn more about the Doll making project here.

I did a class with Dale on Ratty Tatty Papers. There wasn't enough time to make a little book as they didn't supply enough irons for us to all use. But we did get to play with making silk paper and using starburst sprays to get different effects. It was also good to be able to see Dale's samples and books she has made, up close.

All the Art Quilts and the other displays were wonderful to see (Recycle Reuse, Collections, State of the Art and Bernina USA Fashion show and Creative Challenge). It is always amazing to see what people can come up with.

I forgot my camera, but here are some blogs with posts and photos of the festival.

Lisa Walton - Dyed and Gone to Heaven. Lisa shows a photo of her quilt "Solar Flare" on her blog. This was really beautiful to see up close. The beading doesn't really show up well in this photo though. Lisa has sold this quilt to a Lady who is going to display it in her Healing Centre. How wonderful - I'm sure this piece will be helping out in the healing process for all those who come in contact with it.

Robin's Ramblings

Also another post by Robin which shows photos of some of the amazing quilts.

Dale Rollerson - Down Under Dale

Textile Art Festival in Brisbane

2009-05-29T19:18:00.008+10:00

I'm going to the Textile Arts Festival in Brisbane tomorrow. It's going to be great. I've put my name down to do a Make and Take Class with Dale from The Thread Studio. I'm really excited to be seeing Dale and her products in person as I'm so used to just ordering from her website it will be strange seeing all the products there in real life. There are lots of talks I would like to see but I'll have to wait and see when I'm there to see how much time I'll have.

This Talk sounds excellent:

2.30pm: Marion Gorr, Beautiful Silks, Stand 44. Marion travels to meet all her suppliers to ensure their policies of non child labour and good working conditions are satisfied. In 2008 Beautiful Silks built a simple craft centre for the women of the Vikasana Institute South India. She will share her experience in sourcing and creating ethical textiles, and explain waste-to-wealth products. Also she'll share experiences of the team's recent foray into creating women's micro credit groups and direct selling websites for the poorest textile workers. This talk is accompanied by projected images and real examples of the results her recent travels to source textiles in India and China.Join Marion for this fascinating insight and – depending on the Indian-Australian communication network on the day – a live link up with textile workers in India. This is a once-only event on Saturday – don’t miss it!

I hope to catch this talk. There was a class on at the same time that sounded really interesting - Arm Knitting. The class description says that you will knit a scarf in 20 minutes. This has me intreged. So I'm tossing up over the two but I don't want to miss the talk. Maybe I'll go to the talk and just go and see the class sample at the stall.

I'll try to remember to take some photos to put on here. I know I'm going to be very tempted to buy lots of things. I would like to get some batik fabrics if they have any there. I also can't wait to see the Art Quilts on display.

Shisha Embroidery

2009-05-25T20:59:00.000+10:00

This is one of the pieces I've been working on. I still need to put a border around it and maybe some more beading and a design on the border. I'm thinking of also mounting it on a canvas. I showed this background in the post that I did on Indian Inspiration. I haven't named it yet, I'll wait till its finished.

I love the look of Shisha Embroidery. There is a good tutorial on the Joyful Abode blog.

These are some books on Shisha Embroidery that I have.

This is a great book. It is quite detailed. It shows 10 different methods of doing Shisha as well as lots of design ideas. It is packed full of photos - the only disappointment is that they aren't all in colour.

Nearly half of this book is made up of Transfer patterns to be used for Shisha Embroidery. This initially put me off this book as I don't really like using patterns but these are good as a starting point and useful to inspire your own designs. In the introduction it links Shisha Embroidery to Mumtaz Mahal, whose husband the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal. It states that she, "Is credited by some with having originated the idea and techniques for Shisha embroidery." There is an interesting section on Regional Styles of Shisha Embroidery. It also has diagrams on how to do Shisha and other stitches. This book doesn't have alot of photos. Once again most of the photos are in black and white. This is a shame as the patterns and embroideries are so colourful, it would be good to see them in their full splendour.

I love the picture on the front of this book. Surjeet Husain, who wrote this book, was born in India and intially learnt embroidery from her Aunt. She is now a Lecturer in Textiles in London and teaches the art of Indian and English embroidery. The book has sections on General Information, Stitches, A Project - a Bushkiri Bag and Design inspiration. It has some good designs at the back and shows how you can develop a pattern. Surjeet has two other workbooks on Indian styles of Embroidery.

Some links that show Shisha Embroidery are:

Shisha Embroidery Flickr Group

Stitch Magazine Article

Shisha Google Images

Jane Austen Meets Bridget Jones

2009-05-24T20:19:00.004+10:00

"Lost In Austen"

This DVD was one of my Mothers Day presents. It was on TV a while ago and I only got to watch one episode. When I was off work from my operation, I got to curl up on the lounge and watch this all in one go. I really loved it. It's really well done.

If you're a Jane Austen and Bridget Jones fan you have to see this, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Crazy Weather

2009-05-22T08:00:00.002+10:00

We've had stong winds and heavy rain for the last 2 days in the whole region. There has been lots of flooding north of us and into Queensland, the worst some areas have had in 35 years. Schools have been closed yesterday and today. They were asking people yesterday to not travel on the roads if they didn't have too as there were trees coming down and power lines.

There is some flooding in our city so far, but the river is rising and they expect it to peak today at 10.4 metres at noon. It goes over the levee bank at 10.6 metres. They are asking everyone in the CBD to evacuate by 10.00am today. The Sun is trying to shine, so we may be lucky and not get any more rain. It still could be a major flood as there was alot of rain overnight in the whole catchment area. My work is in the CBD near the river, but it is raised up. I don't think it will be open today. I haven't had to work the last few days so I was able to stay at home and off the roads. My husband works over the other side of the river so I'm hoping that he will only just be moving things at work this morning and then coming home.

Lucky that 2/3rds of the city is up on a huge hill. We live up there too so no flooding for us thank goodness.

I've been doing some more stitching. I'll have something to show soon. I'm working on a UFO and also working on the Orange Indian piece from my Indian inspiration post.

Guatemalan Textiles

2009-05-07T10:50:00.013+10:00

I love fabric and embroidery from other countries. I have been reading Rayela's Fiber Focus blog and came across her posts on Guatamala. There are some posts on there from Erin, who has an Etsy shop called La Chapina. She sells wonderful packs of Scrap sampler Huipil patches. I ordered one as I wanted to have some interesting pieces to use in my stash.

They came with a cute little worry doll.

They are all so colourful and interesting. I'm going to incorporate them into different pieces that I do.

I went on Dalene's blog - Art4sol today and saw that she has also purchased a pack of these and she has done a post on this today. I hope Darlene doesn't mind that I've also done a post. It's abit like show and tell - I wanted to show mine too. Darlene does some really lovely work, so it will be interesting to see what she uses these for.

I wanted to find out some more about Guatamalan Textiles so I got these two books out of the Library while I was waiting for the pack to arrive.

This book is one of the books in the Fabric Folios series (a great series). Its full of vibrant photos of Guatemalan Textile pieces with explanations of the techniques. The introduction presents interesting background information on materials used, principal techniques, patterns and symbolism plus more. This is a large hardcovered book. Its a beautiful book that covers Textiles from the areas of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand; Orissa, Rajasthan and Gujarat; Mexico and Guatemala; Panama; Romania and Benin. It is full of lots of "Eye Candy". There are many photos of traditional costumes, people and beautiful fabrics. It is written as a Textile Tour of the world where you are transported to each country as she writes about her travels, details about people she meets and her experiences with lots of background information included. It will be hard parting with this one!

Textile Online Workshop - Holey Moley Club with Dale Rollerson

2009-05-07T10:30:00.005+10:00

Dale from the Thread Studio is running a 12 month online workshop. To find out more details go to her blog Holey Moley Club. It is a 12 month class starting on the 5th July. There are 6 lessons, with one class ever 2 months. This is a great idea as 6 week classes tend to come and go too quickly. This way you have so much more time to create and interact. Sounds like she has lots of interesting activities/challenges planned for the time in between the classes too. It sounds very tempting.

New Online Community for Art Quilters

2009-05-02T07:16:00.003+10:00

Just a short post. Quilting Arts Magazine have a new Online Community up and running. It looks quite good. Go here to sign up.

Have a good weekend!

Still Abit Fuzzy Brained!!

2009-04-30T17:32:00.004+10:00

I'm getting back to normal slowly. I'm still feeling abit off. I was going to go back to work today but just couldn't do it. Yesterday I went out to a few shops and did some food shopping, thinking that I was feeling better. But by night time I felt exhausted. My bodies telling me it needs more time to rest. So I'm having 4 more days at home, then next week I'll be working Monday and then Friday for 4 days. So atleast I have a few breaks in between.

I've been doing a little bit of sewing here and there. Nothing to show just yet.

I have to give you some links to some fantastic Embroidery. Go to the blog Fat Quarter or to Flickr to see a beautiful Assisi-dragon piece. Make sure you click on the photo to enlarge it and check out the amazing variety of stitches. I love this piece - I have to keep going back to look at it more to take in all the stitching. Colours are beautiful too.

Also Lisa did the Personal Library of Stitches class with me. She did some wonderful contemporary embroidery samplers for the class using lots of colour and great designs. You can see them on her flickr page . She posted a great photo of all the samplers together on the Joggles class forum. They looked wonderful. I don't think she has that photo on flickr.

Anyway, bye for now.

Things are going well.

2009-04-20T12:32:00.002+10:00

Thank you for all the well wishes. I haven't had a chance to reply to you all, but I will soon.

I'm feeling abit tired and sore still. It isn't so bad though as it was key hole surgery, so it seems to be alot easier than when I had my caesarian. Anyway I'm taking it very easy and resting alot. The good news is my husband will be home from his motorbike ride today. Yee Haaaaa!!!! I'm not sure if I'll let him go away again if things like this are going to happen when he goes (only joking).

My mum is still in a fair bit of pain but they managed to get her up and sitting in a chair yesterday. Hopefully things will keep progressing well for her.

I was surprised to see the new Joggles classes are out. I didn't think they would be for awhile yet. There looks like lots of good ones. Go here to look at them.

My Quilting Arts magazine has finally come today, so I'm going to go and relax now and look through that. I love the cover, I can't wait to look inside.

Anyway, I probably wont blog for a week or two. I'm just going to take the time to rest and get over this. See you for now.

What a Week!!!!

2009-04-18T17:49:00.002+10:00

Well things didn't turn out the way I thought they were going to this week.

On Wednesday I started getting some stomach pain, which lasted all night and into Thursday. It wasn't extreme pain but it wasn't going away. So I went to the Doctor who referred me to the hospital where they diagnosed that I had to have my appendix out. I was feeling abit scared of having an operation. I was also feeling abit sorry for myself as my husband is away and he was out of mobile phone range for a few days. Anyway, I had the operation very late on Thursday night and I got to speak to Duncan (my husband) on Friday night. Anyway he is on his way home. He may be here tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

The worst thing though was that when my Mum, Stepdad and son were coming in to see me at the hospital on Friday morning, my mum fell over across the road from the hospital and dislocated her shoulder and has a small fracture in her hip. She ended up being in emergency all yesterday and is in quite abit of pain. She is fairly old and has quite a few things wrong with her, so this is the last thing she really needed. It looks like she will be in hospital for atleast 2 weeks if not more. I really hope it all goes okay for her.

I got home today, but will be taking it easy for awhile and wont be working for 1-2 weeks. So I didn't end up doing the stitching I intended to this week. But after I have a few days of getting over this I should feel up to doing some I hope.

Happy Easter

2009-04-11T16:24:00.001+10:00

Hope you have a Happy Easter.

My husband is going away tomorrow for a week on a motor bike trip out to Cameron's Corner, where the NSW, Queensland and South Australian borders all meet. He can't wait. He will have my camera, so I wont be able to post any new photos till he gets back. I have to work a few of the days he is gone but I'll be trying to get some stitching done on the other days. It is school holidays though, so if the sun comes out (we have had rain on and off for weeks), we may go on a few outings to the park, etc. Otherwise we may have a few snuggly days watching dvd's.

Personal Library of Stitches

2009-04-06T10:09:00.011+10:00

This class is going way to fast. This is my exploration for Week 4. I used about 8 shades of green. I also used a couple of thicker threads and also DMC 6 strands. This thick background is just made up of layers of Cretan stitch.

I then went on to explore some stitches that can be used to represent flowers. From left to right - Algerian Eye or Star stitch, Fly stitch, French Knots grouped together, top - French Knots and Bullion stitch and bottom - Palestrina stitch. I used two different coloured threads in my needle for the Palestrina stitch that has the yellow in it.

This was really fun and I'd like to do a full piece with this type of background sometime.

I now have the Week 5 notes to go on with and then the Week 6 notes come on Thursday. I still have lots of exploring of stitches to do for all of the weeks. This class really gets the ideas flowing. I now understand why Sharon Boggon from Pin Tangle (and the teacher of this class) has such a very long sampler.

I haven't done the last 2 of the Stitch Explorer challenges but I'll catch up on them when this class is finished.

Banjara Patch

2009-04-05T14:54:00.007+10:00

This Banjara Patch came in the post this week. The two main shisha mirrors are quite big. I love the beads, bells and coins along the bottom. I bought it from Rayela's Art Etsy Store. I love it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. I will probably put it up on my studio wall. Check out all the other interesting things Rachel has in her shop.

You can read about the Banjara and Roma people in Rachel's post on her blog Rayela's Fibre Focus. It's sad how these people have been treated throughout the years.

I only came across Rachel's blog recently but I've been enjoying going back through all her previous posts - I still have lots more of her posts to explore.

I also found this website called Surya's Garden which is a trust set up to revive the ancient Banjara - Lambhani embroidery skills and motifs. I love how colourful their traditional dress is. This site also has an interesting section on their History - Go here to find out more.

Personal Library of Stitches

2009-03-29T21:50:00.002+11:00

Did more stitching today. This is another sampler for Week 3. Hoping to get one done for week 4 before the next class notes come this week. This class sure has got my creative juices flowing. I've been getting lots of ideas of things I want to try and I've been drawing lots of designs in my sketchbook.

I went and saw the movie "Duplicity" last night. It was good but it jumped back and forwards in time abit so you had to really keep track of what was going on. It was abit confusing at first. But it was good as abit of light hearted entertainment.

Personal Library of Stitches

2009-03-28T17:37:00.008+11:00

I managed to do some more stitching. I was having just abit of a play. Its abit of a combination of Lesson 2 and Lesson 3. I'm going to d0 samplers for Lesson 3 and 4 next.

Going to the movies now with a friend to see Duplicity - hope it's good.

Personal Library of Stitches

2009-03-20T12:43:00.005+11:00

My Week 2 sampler for PLOS was looking abit bare so I added more to it. I'm happy with it now. The week 3 lesson looks really interesting, I'm going to get started on it today.

Personal Library of Stitches - Online Joggles Class

2009-03-18T16:28:00.006+11:00

I've started the Personal Library of Stitches online joggles class with Sharon Boggon. To find out more about the class go here.

I've been wanting to explore embroidery stitches more so this was the perfect class for me to do. It's been fun. Week 3's class notes are coming out tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.

Week 1

Week 2

I really enjoyed doing my last post on Indian Inspiration. I think I will do some inspirational posts again on different topics in the future. I found lots of great sites and photos that I hadn't seen before as well as being able to share those I love. Its also great having all these links in the one spot that I can go back and refer to. It's a shame that the music can't be linked in with the post so it can be played along with it anytime someone goes to it.

Indian Sensations

2009-03-08T14:54:00.052+11:00

This is a piece I've started on, which is inpired by India. There's lots more embroidery on it still to come.

India is so rich in beauty, colour, culture, religion, amazing textiles and architecture. Although I haven't been there before it is one place that inspires me creatively. So I wanted to do a post that celebrated all these wonderful aspects of India and gives lots of inspirational avenues to explore the many aspects of Indian style.

So sit back, pour yourself a cup of Chia, put your speakers on, imagine you are wrapped up in an exotic embroidered sari in your favourite colour and let yourself slip through space and time into a land of enchantment, visiting ancient temples, taking in the aromas of the many spices in the Indian Bazaars and let your spirit dance to the beat of the drums....

Photo Credits

Click on photo credits and click on the links to go to each of the various photographers sites. You can find many amazing photos of India on Flickr.

More amazing Indian photos from various photographers can be found on my flickr favourites page.

Explore the many Indian Inspired books:

Also some books I want to get The Techniques of Indian Embroidery and Indian Embroidery.

Watch these wonderful films:

Slumdog Millionaire

Monsoon Wedding

A Passage to India

The Darjeeling Limited

Spend some time looking at India through others eyes - explore these blogs and websites: (click on the names to go to the sites)

Deezden - Dithi does beautiful Indian art work and her blog is so colourful and inspiring

I'd Rather Be in India - Tiggy writes about her visits to India, her second home. Her dyeing, stitching and teaching are inspired by her love of India.

Rang - The Colours of Life

The Indian Road Romeo

Indian Embroidery Styles

Indian Yarn

Once Upon a Tea Time

An Indian Summer

Photo credit - go to Photo_Mind's photostream

Drift away on the aromas of curries and spices on these blogs:

Indian Food Kitchen Blog

Petrina's Indian Food Blog

Also explore Flickr Groups inspired by india:

I Love India Traditional

Incredible India

India - Miniature Paintings and Wall Paintings

Shisha Embroidery

Indian Food

India - Art and Crafts

India - Village Life

Hope you have enjoyed your travels.

Namaste

Happy Late Valentines Day

2009-02-16T21:01:00.005+11:00

I'm abit late for Valentines Day. I meant to post this on Saturday but didn't get a chance. I crocheted this heart using one of the tutorials from the 'Top 100 Tutorials for 2008' that Ellen has on her Blog The Long Thread. There's lots of ideas to try. This heart tutorial is by Bella Dia and can be found here. It was lots of fun and easy to make.

I got these beautiful tulips from my husband. Hope you had a lovely day.

Sam the thirsty Koala from the Victorian Bushfires

2009-02-12T18:01:00.005+11:00

Sam the Koala was reunited with the fire fighter who gave her water and helped her to survive. These photos are gorgeous. They have said that she is doing well.

For the full story go to here.

A wild koala could normally rip you to pieces with their claws. Wildlife rescuers sometimes have great trouble trying to catch sick or injured Koalas and can get hurt in the process. This is beautiful to see. We have a large Koala population in the place I live and have a Koala Care Centre that looks after sick and injured Koalas. We sometimes have a Koala in the tree at the front of our house.

See the video of Sam and the fire fighter here.

If you would like to make a donation to the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal you can go to the Red Cross Website.

Bush Fires in Victoria, Australia

2009-02-09T11:26:00.005+11:00

The stories coming out of the many affected areas of Bushfires in Victoria are devastating. At the moment they say over 700 houses burnt and 108 people dead, but they expect there will be more. There is a whole town that has been burnt to the ground. The wind turned and there was hardly any warning for them all. What a horrendous thing to go through. It was amazing how some people managed to get out. You can read about it on the ABC news website. There are still fires burning in Victoria and NSW - but hopefully there wont be anymore loss of life. Its also horrible to think of all the wildlife, livestock and pets that have been lost as well.

We live in Northern NSW so are well away from the fires. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to the many people affected by this. Also to the many firefighters, police and other people who are helping - it must be very tiring and emotionally draining for them all although I'm sure they would give their all, even when exhausted, just to help in the situation.

Week 2 Layout - Online Workshop Now We're Rocking with Photoshop

2009-02-02T16:41:00.004+11:00

I finished this today, just in time before the Week 3 lesson arrives. I've really been learning how to do lots of different things in Photoshop Elements. I'll have to have a play.

January Stitch Explorer Challenge

2009-02-01T15:53:00.006+11:00

I went shopping on Friday and got these materials and threads for the Stitch Explorer Challenge. The pink lace was sitting on the side of the bench when I went to buy the other things so I thought I would buy a metre of it. Not sure what I will use it on.

So today I worked on the January Stitch Explorer Challenge using Chicken Scratch. Above are 2 examples.

I then played around with designs and colour to create these. You can make some great mandala style designs out of this style of embroidery.

Jessica Sprague Online Workshop - Week 1 Layout

2009-01-30T14:50:00.003+11:00

This is my finished week 1 layout for the online workshop I'm doing with Jessica Sprague called "Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop.

Camping at South West Rocks

2009-01-29T20:45:00.012+11:00

We went camping for 4 days over the Australia Day Long Weekend down to South West Rocks. Its a lovely beachside town.

Look what was outside our tent every morning and afternoon - Kangaroos.

Here's a mum with her little joey poking its head out of its pouch.

Our campsite.

This is Trial Bay Goal which was built up on this lovely headland. Bad photo but I forgot to take one out the front and this is the only one that shows the whole Goal. It was built in the late 1800's and used as a jail. Then during World War 1 it was used as an internment camp. There is still alot of the main structure still remaining.

I loved how the trees and hills where framed by this arched window.

There were lots of arches.

It had an earie feeling walking down here and also going into the cells. You can see 2 stories of cells on each side.

This is Smokey Cape Lighthouse. It is a steep walk up to here. About half way up they have made the old Lighthouse Keepers House into a Bed & Breakfast. Its a spectacular spot.

This is the view out in one direction, out the front of the Bed & Breakfast. In the other direction there is a long stretch of secluded beach. Beautiful.

We will have to go camping back there again.

A Quick Post

2009-01-22T23:16:00.003+11:00

I'm doing a great online class at the moment on Digital Scrapbooking on www.jessicasprague.com called Now We're Rockin with Photoshop. I'm not really doing it for the scrapbooking, although I don't mind scrapbooking, but more so I can learn all about my new program Photoshop Elements 7 and also how to make my blog header more interesting. I've been wanting to be able to do all those swirly brushes for quite awhile now. This is only the first week and I've learnt alot already. Jessica also sends daily emails with extra info and challenges. Also there has been lots of digital freebies. Going to be busy over the long weekend so will post again early next week.

Have a good weekend!

Yay! Stitch Explorer Challenge has started

2009-01-15T16:10:00.006+11:00

I was excited this morning waiting for Sharon's Stitch Explorer Challenge to be posted on her website. The first months embroidery style is Chicken Scratch.

When I was reading the post I realised that when I was in my early 20's I made my mother a blue and white checked tablecloth with Chicken Scratch embroidery on it (I didn't know the name for it then).

I'm not sure at how adventuous my exploring will be. My first thoughts were that I didn't really like the continuous pattern of this style but when looking at continuous patterns in the natural world (such as the photo above) there can be great beauty and style in this. So I'll give it a go and see what eventuates.

As I'm not that experienced with alot of embroidery stitches I'm using this challenge just to become familiar with the stitches and styles themselves, so if I don't come up with anything too wonderful, it will still be a great learning experience for me.

I'm thinking that I will be doing swatches that I will make up into Mini Quilts. Then I'll put them together to make a cloth book.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who has done embroidery samplers before to find out the size they did them and how they organised them? Also what material do you prefer to use?

Colours to Dye for.....Not quite

2009-01-13T14:34:00.005+11:00

I thought it would be a good school holiday activity to do some dyeing with my son and also do some fabric for myself at the same time. As you can see from the photo above the fabric wasn't the only things that got dyed. After a half hour stint on his slip and slide all the dye had come off.

I used dylon cold dye which I got from Spotlight. The funny thing is that they were selling the dyes but not the cold fix satchels to go with it. When I asked they said that they haven't been able to get any but that salt works just as well. Anyway I haven't done any dyeing before so thought I would try it anyway and used the plastic bags to put the material in. The results weren't that great. The colours are abit faded out and pastel on some of the material. One of the material types was quite good - it looked great when wet but faded out when I washed it. I'm thinking it is because I didn't have the cold fix satchels. Anyway I know for next time and we had fun which was the main thing. I don't know how well the colour in the t-shirt will last. I might use some of the fabric for stitching backgrounds or maybe for Monoprinting.

My aspirations for the year.

2009-01-01T19:59:00.007+11:00

This is a picture of the Hindu deity, Ganesh. The photo was taken at the Crystal Castle near Byron Bay, in Australia. He is believed to be the "remover of obstacles" and the "Lord of Beginnings". He is also known as the "Patron of Arts and Sciences". So it seemed appropriate to use his photo as a good omen for the year ahead.

I wrote out all my goals for the year in this new Diary/Planner that I bought.

The list includes things I want to do, Some places I want to go to and things I want to get done around the house. Some of my creative goals are to make a beaded art doll, dye material, finish my UFO's and develop my embroidery skills. Also I'm wanting to go to the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane in May where Dale from the Thread Studio will be.

I am also going to be participating in Sharon Boggons Stitch Exploration Challenge that starts on the 15 January. It is open to anyone and just requires you to go here to read about it and leave a comment on this post introducing yourself and supplying your blog or flickr address. Go here for Sharon's blog.

There is also a Bead Journal Project challenge that has been going for a few years. I'm thinking of maybe doing it this year if they run it again. Will have to see.

Also the Joggles classes have been announced for the first part of the year. I'm going to try not to do as many classes this year. But I have been wanting to do Sharon's Personal Library of Stitches class for along time so I think I will do that. Also it will go well with the Stitch Challenge.

A New Year Begins

2009-01-01T19:39:00.003+11:00

Happy New Year!!

We had a great night. We went out to our local hotel where there was a band playing. I haven't been out for New Years Eve for a few years. We had a great time - although I did have a few too many drinks. My legs were abit sore today too from the dancing and also we walked home (20 minute walk) as there was a long wait for taxis. So we had a easy going day today.

I usually write a list on the 1 January of the things I want to do in the year - this will have to wait till tomorrow. It's always exciting contemplating the possibilities your life could bring in the coming year.

Santa came to our house.

2009-01-01T19:23:00.004+11:00

and these are his dirty footprints from his boots to prove it.

Santa was also abit hungry and he managed to eat and drink all the things Dylan left out for him.

We had a lovely Christmas day - hope you all enjoyed yourselves over Christmas.

Twas the Night Before Christmas....

2008-12-24T17:40:00.006+11:00

The stockings are all hung up and even Jazzy wont be missing out.

We just had a really big storm, but no damage was done. Just lots of thunder and lightening.

On my way home from work today I was listening to a CD with lots of Christmas songs. I always have abit of a chuckle to myself about singing along to songs such as White Christmas and Let it Snow, when its a humid hot summers day outside. I love all those songs though. I especially like Judy Garland singing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and all the songs off the Bing Crosby "White Christmas" album. Those are all the songs my mum used to play when we were growing up. There's also some good Australian Christmas songs like "Six White Boomers" and "Aussie Jingle Bells".

We are having Christmas dinner at our house tomorrow and my Mum and Step-Dad are coming over.

Dylan is very excited and was worried that Santa wouldn't be able to come when we were having the storm. But all is well now and he has been assured that Santa and the elves are currently packing the sleigh.

Merry Christmas to you all. Hope you have a wonderful, safe and happy time with family and friends.

I'll enjoy looking at all those photos on blogs of White Christmas's from around the world.

All the best. Take care.

I had a wonderful Birthday yesterday

2008-12-21T21:39:00.003+11:00

I got some lovely presents for my birthday. One of them was a Keith Urban concert DVD. I went to Keith's concert in Brisbane earlier in the year with Donna, one of my friends, and it was one of the best concerts I have been to. So I watched this in the morning and got to relive the memories. He has some beautiful songs.

Then we went to Byron Bay for my birthday and looked around the many interesting shops. I bought a book (that wont surprise anyone) and also a beautiful ceramic green mug with the "OM" symbol on it.

We then went to the Crystal Castle and had lunch. It isn't an actual castle. They have beautiful gardens, a labyrinth, cafe, bookshop, crystal and jewellery shop and a Buddha walk with lots of statues. There are also amazing giant pieces of quartz, rose quartz and amethys scattered throughout the gardens. My friend Donna and I enjoyed taking many photos of the various statues, the view and the beautiful flowers in the garden. See the mosaic of photos I took in the post below.

Crystal Castle

2008-12-21T21:29:00.003+11:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by Barb64

A mosaic of photos taken when we went to the Crystal Castle.

I have been blogging for one year today!!!

2008-12-19T06:32:00.004+11:00

I just realised that it was 12 months ago that I started this blog. I'm enjoying the blogging world, especially going around and looking at all the various blogs of so many wonderfully creative people. I have loved reading all the comments people have left on my blog and being able to connect with people that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Here's to another year of Blogging, creative pursuits and keeping in touch with new and old friends!!!

The first present under the christmas tree

2008-12-19T06:04:00.004+11:00

There was a storm last night and Jazzy was hiding under the Christmas tree. My son saw her under there and said "Mum there's a present under the tree".

This is the tree. It looks great with all the lights on. Not many days to go now, the countdown is on.

Looking forward to the weekend. I was supposed to be working but it is my birthday on Saturday. I'm going to be 44. Also Duncan's work Christmas party is on that night. So I wanted to enjoy myself and not have to work. We will probably be going out to lunch somewhere on Saturday. I also bought myself a few books for my birthday and I have managed to not open the package yet although I was very tempted.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

2008-12-13T05:41:00.005+11:00

This is the bell that Dylan found on his bed after watching Polar Express - one of Santa's spare bells from his sleigh.

We have a shop bought tree that we got a few years ago that looks fairly life like. It's the biggest tree I've ever had and nearly reaches the roof with the big star at the top. Lots of our baubles were old looking so I have started each year building up a supply of new baubles. Also I like how different ones, like the one above, will have a little story to go along with how we got it.

These are some that I got this year.

I really love the green and the pink ones. They have a real Indian look about them. I think there was also a blue one the same colour as the blue bell one above. I think I will have to go back to the shop and get the blue one - might even get some more so I have two of each. They are just so lovely. By the way - there's no colour co-ordination on our tree. Its a real mix and match of coloured tinsel and various coloured baubles - but I love it that way.

Australia - The Movie

2008-12-07T19:49:00.004+11:00

I went and saw the movie Australia last night with one of my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We laughed and cried. It had great scenery as well. I loved Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and the little Aboriginal boy. It was just an enjoyable entertaining movie.

I have been sick of hearing all the bad reviews over the last few weeks since it came out. Also I think they went abit overboard in criticising Nicole Kidman. I think she is a great actress. I also read a blog (I forget which one now) that went on and on about how bad they thought the movie was and picking everything to pieces. I do respect other peoples opinions but I think its abit much the way some people go on. Of course not everyone is going to like the movie, or any movie in that case. But I think it's enough just to say they didn't like the movie. So many people seem to just look for negatives. You could sit back and just pick everything to pieces in life as nothing is ever going to be perfect or exactly how you would do something yourself.

Anyway, enough of that....just expressing my opinion.

I've got a busy week this week - my son's school Christmas concert is on and a few Christmas parties to go to. Christmas is a nice time of the year. My son, Dylan, is 7 and is still wrapped up in the magic of Santa. I did a little surprise for him the other night. We were watching The Polar Express and in a commercial I snuck out of the room without him realising what I was doing. At the end of the movie when he went to bed there was a big red round bell on his bed with a note that said - "This is a spare bell from the sleigh for your Christmas Tree, Love Santa." He loved it so much, he was abit too excited to go to bed. If you haven't seen the movie - the boy in the movie gets a bell from Santa's sleigh for Christmas. Anyway Dylan has been telling everyone about it. Its fun doing little things like this - I hope it is something he will remember.

Week 3 Online Mixed Media Class with Jane LaFazio

2008-11-27T21:28:00.005+11:00

I've really been enjoying the online class I'm doing. I've skipped a few classes but I'll go back to them. This is from Week 3 and only needs some stitching. Today I was working on Week 4 which I should have finished tomorrow. Looking forward to tomorrow as Week 5's lesson will be available on stitching. As the class is through Joggles.com in the USA the class comes through in the early morning sometime - in the past I have been known to get up if I haven't been able to sleep and print the class out in the wee hours of the morning. I don't think I'll be doing that tonight though, feeling abit tired.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the USA!

Not just another embroidery book

2008-11-26T16:54:00.005+11:00

I was so excited when I received this book in the mail. I purchased it from The Thread Studio and it cost a fair bit. So I was abit worried when I ordered it. In the past I have ordered some books from various places and been disappointed because the content hasn't lived up to my expectations. But this book definately exceeds my expectations.

This book is so comprehensive and inspirational. In the introduction it mentions that "241 stitches are clearly described and illustrated ....exploring the possibilities of contemporary embroidery. The author has also done extensive research on the embroideries of other countries, bringing to light new stitches and unusual variations of traditional stitches."

The sections of the book cover - Starting to Stitch, The Stitches - Flat stitches, looped stitches, chained stitches, knotted stitches, couching and laid work, and Creating with stitches.

When explaining stitches she gives comprehensive directions, easy to follow diagrams, lots of variations, ideas and examples of work. I really liked how she talks about the background of the stitches, the country they came from and various little snippets of stories relating to them. She writes in a casual way that is easy to read and follow.

I particularly enjoyed the story about her search for a Tuareg nomad blouse from Niger, which she had once seen a photo of and her duplication of the stitches.

The Creating with Stitches section is really inspiring and gives lots of ideas for creating your own contemporary designs. Some of the chapters, Building Borders spontaneously and Embroidering flower shapes, both give many ideas for combining stitches in different ways with lots of illustrations.

As you can tell, I love this book. It makes me excited and full of inspirational ideas just looking through it. When I first got it, one of my first thoughts was that there was a lifetime of learning in the book. It is a great reference book to have for embroiderers of any level.

November is running away.

2008-11-25T13:28:00.003+11:00

October TIF

I can't believe it is nearly the end of November. I've been busy working the last few weeks also I have a bad cold at the moment. But atleast I have 4 days off work so I can spend some time doing my online class lessons and TIF. I've done alittle bit more of my October TIF piece which you can see in the photo above.

Last week I got some great books/mags in the mail that I want to show. I was supposed to leave them unopened till my birthday in December. I only lasted one day though, and couldn't resist opening the package.

Also I have a book that I want to review. Its an embroidery book that I was blown away with when I received it - its jam packed full of wonderful embroidery and inspirational ideas. But you will have to wait till tomorrow for the review - hopefully I've got you feeling curious. See you then.

Backgrounds

2008-11-08T17:31:00.008+11:00

Following are some backgrounds I've been doing for Week 1 of the Joggles online Mixed media class with Jane LaFazio.

There are some very talented people in the class so it is going to be interesting to see their class work. I think my favourites are the first photo (the red/orange one) and also the yellow/green one. It doesn't look as bright in real life.

This is week 2 of the class, so I have to get thinking about what images I will use. I might also make some changes to the backgrounds as I go. I might need to tone down some of the patterns abit and make some additions. I will see how it all unfolds. Its alot of fun!

Tissue Paper

2008-11-05T16:46:00.002+11:00

I bought this tissue paper today from K-mart in the Christmas section. I love the designs. I think I will have to use this in some of my work. Its abit too nice just to wrap presents in and then have it thrown away.