The Work Continues
The work on my exhibition piece is going rather slowly. I took a tumble at the weekend, ending up flat on my bum. I felt everything concertina and now have a very sore back. I can’t sit at the computer for any length of time so this is being done in bits and pieces. I was so sore on Monday that my physio couldn’t get very close to me, so gave me some exercises and will see me first thing in the morning!
I have done a little sewing on the background of my piece, but I can’t manage the weaving. I’ll have to find a lower table to put my loom on, but I haven’t felt like doing much.
Before all this happened I found a great resource for embroidery stitches:
Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework
http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html
She has every stitch that has ever been sewn I think. Between the site and my many books I think I have worked out the embroidery I want to use. But I must get going on the weaving I have only about 3” done.
While the piece is an actual work in progress the design is also changing somewhat as I go along. It is always exciting to see how the creation will turn out. It’s a bit like this post, I was going to talk about something completely different but I guess that can wait for another time.
I bought a pen style needle felting tool and am thinking of adding some embellishment with that. I have been playing with some of the shibori silk off cuts and some wool fibre and some silk fibre. I found a bit more resistance to some of the silk. Anyway it is interesting, I am wondering if there is much difference in the over all effect between the needle tool and an embellisher machine?
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Christmas Time
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and all your dreams came true. Ours was very quiet but nice. This year has just flown by and December seemed to fly by about 10 times faster! One minute we were at the beginning of Dec, and I was thinking I had this and this and this planned for then, then and then (ggg if you follow me ggg), but all of a sudden it was Christmas week!!!
I am taking part in the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association’s Travelling Suitcase Exhibition “The Maharajah’s Garden” 2010 – 2012. The finished item needs to be in by Feb 1st! and a size of 40X60cm/15.7x23.6in. The basis of my design will be shibori, both dyed and shaped, with a strip of woven shaped shibori. My background fabric will be silk twill; I did some sampling with fine cotton.
The first photo shows the cotton all tied up, some areas have beads of different sizes and buttons. The lower area is stitched shibori.
I am taking part in the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association’s Travelling Suitcase Exhibition “The Maharajah’s Garden” 2010 – 2012. The finished item needs to be in by Feb 1st! and a size of 40X60cm/15.7x23.6in. The basis of my design will be shibori, both dyed and shaped, with a strip of woven shaped shibori. My background fabric will be silk twill; I did some sampling with fine cotton.
The first photo shows the cotton all tied up, some areas have beads of different sizes and buttons. The lower area is stitched shibori.
The next photo shows the underneath.
All tied up and dyed.
Judy
And underneath, and the next two show close ups of several areas.
I have just finished tying up the silk twill, I hope to dye it today.
I also hope to get the very fine silk wound for the warp, later. Luckily I still have the end of the cotton warp on my sample loom from the Shibori workshop with Catherine Ellis I took last April. So I will tie the silk on to that. The weft will be silk and polyester. The polyester is needed to hold its shaped after it is steamed. It should only take a couple of days to weave. I will attach that to the silk and then quilt and embroider the top to batting and a backing. I am still trying to decide if I will do a pale base colour immersion dye first and then paint different colours on, or just paint the colour on! Seeing how the first or second dye goes, I may retie it and re-dye it again.
Well I’d better get off here and get working!
Spread your Wings and Soar
I also hope to get the very fine silk wound for the warp, later. Luckily I still have the end of the cotton warp on my sample loom from the Shibori workshop with Catherine Ellis I took last April. So I will tie the silk on to that. The weft will be silk and polyester. The polyester is needed to hold its shaped after it is steamed. It should only take a couple of days to weave. I will attach that to the silk and then quilt and embroider the top to batting and a backing. I am still trying to decide if I will do a pale base colour immersion dye first and then paint different colours on, or just paint the colour on! Seeing how the first or second dye goes, I may retie it and re-dye it again.
Well I’d better get off here and get working!
Spread your Wings and Soar
Friday, 4 July 2008
My Dad
I have sat down to write this quite a few times over the last month, but have done something else, anything else.
My dear Father died on the 25th May. There was really nothing major wrong with him, his body just seemed to gradually shut down, it started early this year but accelerated after a fall where he hit his head and ended up with half a dozen stitches, towards the end of March. He was in hospital for a month and then came home for a week and a half.
Moira and Derek were especially wonderful in looking after him.
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
www.nuthutchcreations.etsy.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
I have sat down to write this quite a few times over the last month, but have done something else, anything else.
My dear Father died on the 25th May. There was really nothing major wrong with him, his body just seemed to gradually shut down, it started early this year but accelerated after a fall where he hit his head and ended up with half a dozen stitches, towards the end of March. He was in hospital for a month and then came home for a week and a half.
Moira and Derek were especially wonderful in looking after him.
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
www.nuthutchcreations.etsy.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
KOKO
Last Tuesday week we lost my beautiful Koko. It all happened within two hours. He got a blood clot due to underlying heart problems, which we knew nothing about and he was at the vets only a fortnight ago. I just can't believe he's gone. He was
only 9yr.
Oh my darling Boy, my baby
All my babies are special in their time, but you will always be extra special.
Your startlingly blue eyes, which you would cross when you thought I'd done something silly...
Your long "spider" paws...
Your big "batty" ears...
You would snuggle and cuddle...
You were so handsome, so svelte, so regal as
only a Siamese can be and yet at times you could look as ridiculous as only such a Siamese can look!
You could lay asleep in a tangle with paws everywhere
with your soul mate Samson.
You would curl together
so intertwined that it was hard to determine who was who...
Oh my baby boy
you were my first Siamese...
You taught me what made a Siamese so special,
because of you we have Samson.
With only 6 months difference in your ages you became instant and
inseparable soul mates.
You will be forever in our hearts
We miss you so much
You are my special love,
my darling baby boy.
Friday, 11 January 2008
A New Year
Things have quietened down somewhat here. Tess and the boys only stayed a week, they went home last night. Tess and I spoiled ourselves yesterday morning and spent a hour or two at our local Spotlight store (a material/ craft/homewares store) on our own – no boys! Tess makes cushion sets, notice boards etc and sells at craft fairs, so we had a lot of fun, although she only got a couple of pieces of fabric that were on sale. I also got crystal beads that had been really marked down and some yarn.
I made a couple of necklaces and earing sets for presents this year, here are a couple that I remembered to photograph.
The top left is the one I made for my mother's 80th birthday on December 21, the pink one top right is one I made for Moira to go in me stocking, and the starfish one is another pic of one I made very early in the year. I also made a crochet wire set with multi coloured aventurine, which I forgot to photograph before I sent that off. So beading is playing a big part in my creativity at the moment.
We have had a week of really hot weather culminating with the last two days being 40+C/100+F. I really do not handle hot weather these days. Thankfully we have not had any major fires so far.
Mum goes into hospital on Tuesday for bilateral knee replacements. She will probably be in hospital/rehab for about 3 weeks.
My reading material at the moment is the 6 O'Malley Chronicles by Fr Andrew Greeley. I thing they are a fabulous story of a Catholic Irish Americain family from Chicago. I have also just finished his "The Making of the Pope" - the election of Pope Benedict XVI and what it means for Catholics today.
Derek and Moira will probably go back to Queensland at the end of next week to pack up her house and depending on whether they can get through the floods that are happening up north, bring her furniture etc back here or if they can’t get through put it into storage up there.
Two weeks into the New Year and things are starting to get busy again!
A New Year, a time to think of new things, new beginnings, new thoughts, new starts. We don’t have to wait for the beginning of another year to make new starts, change our lives, we can do that each day, each moment ….. but do we?
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
http://jsheppwings.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
Things have quietened down somewhat here. Tess and the boys only stayed a week, they went home last night. Tess and I spoiled ourselves yesterday morning and spent a hour or two at our local Spotlight store (a material/ craft/homewares store) on our own – no boys! Tess makes cushion sets, notice boards etc and sells at craft fairs, so we had a lot of fun, although she only got a couple of pieces of fabric that were on sale. I also got crystal beads that had been really marked down and some yarn.
I made a couple of necklaces and earing sets for presents this year, here are a couple that I remembered to photograph.
The top left is the one I made for my mother's 80th birthday on December 21, the pink one top right is one I made for Moira to go in me stocking, and the starfish one is another pic of one I made very early in the year. I also made a crochet wire set with multi coloured aventurine, which I forgot to photograph before I sent that off. So beading is playing a big part in my creativity at the moment.
We have had a week of really hot weather culminating with the last two days being 40+C/100+F. I really do not handle hot weather these days. Thankfully we have not had any major fires so far.
Mum goes into hospital on Tuesday for bilateral knee replacements. She will probably be in hospital/rehab for about 3 weeks.
My reading material at the moment is the 6 O'Malley Chronicles by Fr Andrew Greeley. I thing they are a fabulous story of a Catholic Irish Americain family from Chicago. I have also just finished his "The Making of the Pope" - the election of Pope Benedict XVI and what it means for Catholics today.
Derek and Moira will probably go back to Queensland at the end of next week to pack up her house and depending on whether they can get through the floods that are happening up north, bring her furniture etc back here or if they can’t get through put it into storage up there.
Two weeks into the New Year and things are starting to get busy again!
A New Year, a time to think of new things, new beginnings, new thoughts, new starts. We don’t have to wait for the beginning of another year to make new starts, change our lives, we can do that each day, each moment ….. but do we?
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
http://jsheppwings.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Christmas
I know it has been ages since I sat down to write a proper post, I am sorry, things have gotten rather hectic here.
Moira has come home to live. One extra person (plus 2 extra dogs and 2 extra cats) does tend to put a strain on things, but so far things seem to be settling down well enough.
The next “happening” is that Derek and Moira will drive back to her place in Brisbane, Queensland, and pack up her house (Derek begins his holidays on Friday) Then the fun begins! We will either have to build a couple of storage sheds (which we had been planning on doing this year) or put her furniture etc into a storage unit.
Originally she was just coming for a month, and we put most of my “stuff” from my studio into the garage, and moved our bed and most clothes into my studio. So now the plan is to build a new garage onto our house, it will have access from inside the house, once that is done I think we will move everything (with the exception of my loom), including our bed and selves into the new garage and then re-do my studio. Wow! just think a large (19.5’/5.9mtx 20’/6mt) empty room to play with. It has to have new wood flooring, some new benches and cupboards – under bench cupboards and floor to ceiling cupboards along one wall, and replace the existing external double door/window. This nice empty room was originally the attached garage, which we finished off and carpeted soon after we moved in, now I can redesign to my hearts content gggg Hopefully this will house most of my “stuff”/stash/supplies/equipment/etc and still leave some room for more!!!! I’m not totally sure what to do with all this space. Any suggestions would be most welcome.gggggg
After my studio is finished and we have moved out of the garage, Moira will then move into the garage and live in that until we get a unit built for her attached to the other end of the new garage. Luckily we have the land for this.
At the moment we are experiencing very hot weather, which I am not coping well with. New Years Eve was the 3rd hottest since 1855! And we have plenty more to come!
We had a very nice Christmas. The weather wasn’t too bad the temp was only about 23C/73.5F Moira and I went to Midnight Mass, which was nice to have her with me for a change. Moira planned most of the food – roast chicken, which she stuffed and put garlic butter under the skin, roast potatoes, and parsnips roasted in maple syrup, unfortunately they got somewhat scorched. We then had a potato salad and also a green salad. These were both yummy with their dressings. For dessert Moira made her favorite Chocolate mousse as well as strawberries in white wine, unfortunately the berries weren’t the nicest. We also had (this much later ggg) plum pudding which I finally got around to making the Sat before. We had a late lunch/early dinner as Derek had to go to work that night. New Years was very quiet, Moira went up to Tess’ (Derek’s youngest sister). Tess and her 3 boys will be coming down sometime soon for most of the month!
I have been playing on: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/index.html
Mainly looking for weaving “stuff” but also found quite a lot of antique books and articles on lace for those of you who are interested in lace making.
Time I was on my way.
Cheers
Judy
Southern Victoria, Australia
http://jsheppwings.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
I know it has been ages since I sat down to write a proper post, I am sorry, things have gotten rather hectic here.
Moira has come home to live. One extra person (plus 2 extra dogs and 2 extra cats) does tend to put a strain on things, but so far things seem to be settling down well enough.
The next “happening” is that Derek and Moira will drive back to her place in Brisbane, Queensland, and pack up her house (Derek begins his holidays on Friday) Then the fun begins! We will either have to build a couple of storage sheds (which we had been planning on doing this year) or put her furniture etc into a storage unit.
Originally she was just coming for a month, and we put most of my “stuff” from my studio into the garage, and moved our bed and most clothes into my studio. So now the plan is to build a new garage onto our house, it will have access from inside the house, once that is done I think we will move everything (with the exception of my loom), including our bed and selves into the new garage and then re-do my studio. Wow! just think a large (19.5’/5.9mtx 20’/6mt) empty room to play with. It has to have new wood flooring, some new benches and cupboards – under bench cupboards and floor to ceiling cupboards along one wall, and replace the existing external double door/window. This nice empty room was originally the attached garage, which we finished off and carpeted soon after we moved in, now I can redesign to my hearts content gggg Hopefully this will house most of my “stuff”/stash/supplies/equipment/etc and still leave some room for more!!!! I’m not totally sure what to do with all this space. Any suggestions would be most welcome.gggggg
After my studio is finished and we have moved out of the garage, Moira will then move into the garage and live in that until we get a unit built for her attached to the other end of the new garage. Luckily we have the land for this.
At the moment we are experiencing very hot weather, which I am not coping well with. New Years Eve was the 3rd hottest since 1855! And we have plenty more to come!
We had a very nice Christmas. The weather wasn’t too bad the temp was only about 23C/73.5F Moira and I went to Midnight Mass, which was nice to have her with me for a change. Moira planned most of the food – roast chicken, which she stuffed and put garlic butter under the skin, roast potatoes, and parsnips roasted in maple syrup, unfortunately they got somewhat scorched. We then had a potato salad and also a green salad. These were both yummy with their dressings. For dessert Moira made her favorite Chocolate mousse as well as strawberries in white wine, unfortunately the berries weren’t the nicest. We also had (this much later ggg) plum pudding which I finally got around to making the Sat before. We had a late lunch/early dinner as Derek had to go to work that night. New Years was very quiet, Moira went up to Tess’ (Derek’s youngest sister). Tess and her 3 boys will be coming down sometime soon for most of the month!
I have been playing on: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/index.html
Mainly looking for weaving “stuff” but also found quite a lot of antique books and articles on lace for those of you who are interested in lace making.
Time I was on my way.
Cheers
Judy
Southern Victoria, Australia
http://jsheppwings.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/geelonghandweaversandspinners
Saturday, 6 October 2007
OUR SHOW
Just in case you are wondering ……. Yes I am still winding my very fine warp!!! I have only 1 bout of 100 ends to go, so the end is in sight. Yah
Unfortunately my hairpin lace shawl will not be finished for the show, The joining is just not working out properly and I need more time than I have available to me to get it finished sigh. I had hoped to show off a new technique (well not new, but one that hasn’t seen the light of day around here for a very long time.
I think most of my skeins are ready, I just need to find the fibre samples that I have been throwing into a bag I have hanging in my studio with a swing ticket around it giving the relevant information. At least I hope they are all there. I usually spin up all my fibre and then when the show comes around and I decide which ones I will enter I have no fibre samples! At times I have even been reduced to snipping a bit of yarn and un-plying it and taking the twist out of the singles and fluffing it out to serve as my sample!
Anyway I have several skeins of wool, one of very, very fine cashmere, silk and wool blend, silk, mohair, wool from fleece (as opposed to top).
I learned last Tuesday that our judged section at the show is 40+ entries down on last year, which was also down on the year before. It has been harder and harder to get people to help in the organizing and demo-ing. When Moira used to ride and she would go to Agricultural shows I would always go and have a look at the woolcraft section. Our show is the only one that the woolcraft has it’s own section. Usually it is just part of the home crafts section, it there was any at all. Over the years I have pushed and pushed to keep us going. Our section is staged in the wool and sheep pavilion, there is a stage there where there is constant entertainment and we hold a parade of woolcraft, and down on the main floor we demonstrate, and have activities for the children, whether we are teaching them to knit, weave, or felt. The week before we clean this area, we have glass fronted cabinets for the judged entries, which are cleaned. We decorate the stage and around the lower area. We steward for the judges on Tuesday, stage the judged entries in the display cabinets and tidy everything up, and put in other displays on Wednesday. Thursday to Sat night we are there doing demonstrations and the fashion parade. Some years ago the show went to 4 days to include Sunday, but we decided that we would not be there on Sunday. So all our demonstration stuff has to be cleared away on Sat night, then Sunday about 4pm we have to come back and dismantle the display and organize the entries to be picked up, along with any prizes. We organize our own sponsors for 1st prize. This is a very big undertaking for our guild, and even I am getting tired of it, but I do hope the guild doesn’t decide to disband it.
At the moment I am again spinning silk on my Ashford wheel. I also have silk on my Wind wheel (a folding wheel originally made in Tasmania) and my other wheels (yes plural) have nothing on them, I must do something about that.
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
Just in case you are wondering ……. Yes I am still winding my very fine warp!!! I have only 1 bout of 100 ends to go, so the end is in sight. Yah
Unfortunately my hairpin lace shawl will not be finished for the show, The joining is just not working out properly and I need more time than I have available to me to get it finished sigh. I had hoped to show off a new technique (well not new, but one that hasn’t seen the light of day around here for a very long time.
I think most of my skeins are ready, I just need to find the fibre samples that I have been throwing into a bag I have hanging in my studio with a swing ticket around it giving the relevant information. At least I hope they are all there. I usually spin up all my fibre and then when the show comes around and I decide which ones I will enter I have no fibre samples! At times I have even been reduced to snipping a bit of yarn and un-plying it and taking the twist out of the singles and fluffing it out to serve as my sample!
Anyway I have several skeins of wool, one of very, very fine cashmere, silk and wool blend, silk, mohair, wool from fleece (as opposed to top).
I learned last Tuesday that our judged section at the show is 40+ entries down on last year, which was also down on the year before. It has been harder and harder to get people to help in the organizing and demo-ing. When Moira used to ride and she would go to Agricultural shows I would always go and have a look at the woolcraft section. Our show is the only one that the woolcraft has it’s own section. Usually it is just part of the home crafts section, it there was any at all. Over the years I have pushed and pushed to keep us going. Our section is staged in the wool and sheep pavilion, there is a stage there where there is constant entertainment and we hold a parade of woolcraft, and down on the main floor we demonstrate, and have activities for the children, whether we are teaching them to knit, weave, or felt. The week before we clean this area, we have glass fronted cabinets for the judged entries, which are cleaned. We decorate the stage and around the lower area. We steward for the judges on Tuesday, stage the judged entries in the display cabinets and tidy everything up, and put in other displays on Wednesday. Thursday to Sat night we are there doing demonstrations and the fashion parade. Some years ago the show went to 4 days to include Sunday, but we decided that we would not be there on Sunday. So all our demonstration stuff has to be cleared away on Sat night, then Sunday about 4pm we have to come back and dismantle the display and organize the entries to be picked up, along with any prizes. We organize our own sponsors for 1st prize. This is a very big undertaking for our guild, and even I am getting tired of it, but I do hope the guild doesn’t decide to disband it.
At the moment I am again spinning silk on my Ashford wheel. I also have silk on my Wind wheel (a folding wheel originally made in Tasmania) and my other wheels (yes plural) have nothing on them, I must do something about that.
Spread your Wings and Soar
Judy
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