PLOS Lesson 5

While watching the squeak v the squawk (Ladies final of the Australian Open tennis) I took out my sampler for lesson 5 of Personal Library of Stitches online course with Sharon Boggon (alias Sharon B). As it was also 35C it was quite pleasant to sit in front of the tv and the airconditioner and stitch. This sampler design was based on a ‘savewater’ design garden at the Melbourne International Flower and garden Show last year created by Sustainable Gardening Australia.
The ‘smartie’ tree is based on a sculpture by Lisa Jane Miller and is Pekinese stitch, chain stitch and satin stitch.
The grass tree is detached chain and coral stitch.
Foliage is double feather stitch and herringbone.
Native daisies are quill stitch, detached chain and french knots.
Kangaroo paws are slipped cable stitch and alternating cretan.
Spider and web are long arm chain stitch and long & short satin stitch. straight stitch.
Dragonfly is buillion stitch, chain & back stitch.
Now onto Sampler 6! Cheers.

First blog

Sit back and relax with a glass of red (or champers or chardy if you prefer). Apologies to Sharon B for stealing her byline with a slight variation, I find a glass of red more conducive to relaxation than a cup of coffee.

This is my first blog entry and comes after 12 months of reading and commenting on others’ blogs (all good mind you). I was hesitant to start in case I didn’t have time to keep it up (4 children, work, study, housework, sport etc), but decided it was important to ME to find time to explore my creativity through textiles and that starting a blog to chronicle my explorations and, hopefully, progress would be an incentive to make time.

This weekend I started with a workshop with Dale of Thread Studio at the Victorian Embroiderer’s Guild Summer School at which I met some lovely and talented inspiring ladies, Dale included. Dale had us trying many different techniques to produce various fragments which could be used to create a piece of artwork. We all went away with pieces on which to further experiment and add layers to in whichever direction we chose.

This piece was a line drawing on tissue paper fused onto felt and distressed and decorated with tea, moonshadow mists, xpandaprint, embossing powder, foil, machine stitching, oil pastels, paintstiks. It was great fun!!!

And these little tags began life as india ink stamps on tissue paper fused to felt. They were distressed and painted and then sealed with clear embossing powder. I will punch eyelets into these and use on cords as dangles from a box or journal.Cheers