Still here........

Busy doesn't even describe the past month or so:

• new job
• do.good Stitching
• sewing
• knitting
• crocheting
• veggie gardening
• felting
• embroidering
• article writing (for my classmates and I, we're Stitch Theorem and we have a couple of exhibitions coming up)
• CFA stuff (Country Fire Authority for those outside Victoria - it's a voluntary Fire Fighting Service and I've joined the support team - I don't go and fight the fires - my husband does that - I do admin stuff, sizzle sausages and stage manage a local Carols by Candlelight....)

Apart from the fact I love my new job (House co-ordinator at our local Community House) and all the wonderful challenges it brings, another fabulous side effect is that I have to be super-organised to ensure I fit everything in - so few minutes get wasted and I have accomplished loads of stuff that I wouldn't have in my pre-new-job life....brilliant!!

One of my exhibition pieces - not yet finished - I used a sun dye in 'bark' and used brown paper as the mask - it was a bit windy that day so I put a load of coins onto the brown paper to stop it blowing away and got a fabulous pattern I wasn't expecting - very serendipitous...

Both my boys are home for Christmas which I'm very happy about and my little brother and his wife will be coming to Melbourne in the New Year - very happy about that too :)

....the only thing I'm not happy about is the cricket...

Ok - back to it...

Quick make......all about procrastination.....

I've been doing lots of reports and project plans and stuff in readiness for two exhibitions myself and my fellow textile artist students are going to hold in January 2014 and May 2014.  Seems like miles away but it's about now that publications need information for magazines coming our around that time, not to mention I have at least 6 pieces to make......and......sometimes, you just have to stop, get up, plant some veggies (which I have done - love Spring - and the Fat Bastard purple asparagus I thought I'd killed has popped up everywhere - bliss!) and sew something simple.

I was with my sister the other day, in Ikea, and she mentioned she needed a make-up bag.  The one's at Ikea were quite cute and very cheap, but she didn't want hot pink (the only one in that size) so of course I said, "You're kidding, that's what I do...." (well, they're cute, but not cheap and I can make one that's not hot pink)

So, instead of writing a magazine article and updating my project plan (and 50,000,000 other things), I made a little pouch for my sister.  A little Echino, some Kona and a pretty zip.  Done...

Right, back to it then......

A new month....

So just got in before the end of this month and updating my endeavours - apart from not blogging I really have been quite busy with school and teaching and quilting and book binding and.......(trying to justify my complete slackness on the blogging front here)

There's been quite a bit of creativity here at Shocking Hocking - we've got a couple of assignments due for school so there's been lots of dyeing, and comparing and experimenting and sewing.

The first assignment due is a piece for our local coffee shop - every Friday at about 10.30 we gather at the coffee shop for a chat or a moan - and sometimes both.  There has been a recent change of ownership of said coffee shop and the new owner commissioned our class to make appropriate art for one of her walls. As is usual for school assignments, there was a lot of journalling and experimentation which had to be recorded and included for assessment.  I played around with used and dried teabags (a fabulous medium - love the variation in colour - Twinings Assam Bold provide the best depth) and on one of my visual art journal pages, I included some shapes which reminded me of Alice in Wonderland - so I included a pair of ears representing the White Rabbit.   This thought moved along, as it does, and I decided to also reference the Mad Hatter (this may, or may not, have anything to do with the fact that I have a thing for Johnnny Depp!).

So, this is the result...

The '10/6' sign is from the Mad Hatters hat and the pocket watch and the words, "Don't be late" reference the White Rabbit scurrying to the Tea Party (which in turn references my classmates and I on a Friday morning in our bid to get our caffeine fix! - even though the time is wrong - as mentioned, we gather at about 10.30am and the Tea Party occurred at 6pm every day).  There was a slight change before I submitted the piece - one of my classmates loves to play with words and mentioned the admonishment should have said, "Don't be latte" - much better - so I added another 'T' and the piece was handed over today. (thanks Truda)

The theme for the other piece for exhibition is 'The Sojourner' (one who takes a sojourn, or a short break) and for this one I got to thinking of 'going to the seaside', a great British tradition - and then I got to thinking about the 'naughty' postcards that are available in places like Blackpool and Morecambe (I went to school in Morecambe - West End Primary School, where I passed my 11+, then on to Morecambe Grammar.....  Jumbled into my thoughts was the bathing boxes at Mornington here in Victoria and a fabulous statuette I have a woman in a stripey cossie with a very large bum - I love this figurine - the expression on her face is just fabulous - she really doesn't care that she has a very large bum - her face reflects the confidence in herself and it's what I love about it - she really couldn't give a fat rats bottom - I'm sure we could get all Freudian here but I won't!

Anyway, so I dyed some 'sand' and 'sky', dipped into my stash for previously dyed hand dyes for the bathing boxes, as well as some I'd bought (including commercially dyed and patterned fabric) and came up with this idea...

There's still a huge amount of work to do on the piece - and she's now got a change of cossie too - and her friend in the bottom right corner still needs to be dressed - but she's getting there.

During the month I also attended a class with a book binder - who showed us how to make a book using 2 different binding methods - Coptic and Case.....here's my efforts...

OMG - I LOVE book binding - I've saved papers and similar for years - so I'll be doing  lot more of this.  So tactile and so rewarding.....

Lastly, the wonderful ladies who attend my classes have been busy....singling out a couple here (not sure if that's really allowed!).....one, Joan,  made the most wonderful Golly...

and another, Barb, completed her VERY FIRST project, so we had to record it for posterity......

Barb's from 'Oop North' and makes me laugh every week - thanks Barb!

That's all I can think of - I'm off to the Quilt Show on Sunday, a hairy tomorrow and a client quilt to complete.  Coupled with a family dinner on Saturday night the weekend is just about over!....looking forward to the 3rd Test starting next week (very late in Oz, but sooooo worth watching - go England!) and continuing effort on the Sojourner piece.......

Quilt show bounty

Like many, many others, I joined the throngs at AQC in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Buildings to view quilts and NOT buy anything.

I actually drove a bus full of the wonderful ladies who come to my classes and we had a fabulous day - of course I forgot to get a photo of us all but I remembered the camera to take photos of the quilts...I especially enjoyed the twelveby12 exhibition - the artistry and work(wo)manship of the miniatures is very inspiring - I think I'd be breaching their copyright if I added photos of their quilts so I've linked to their website instead.  If you get a chance to view these beauties 'in the flesh', you should - photos really don't do them justice - especially not the way I take photos anyway :)

Another exhibition was from Korea - I had hoped to see a piece or 2 in the traditional pojagi style but unfortunately there wasn't one - but it didn't take away from the pieces on display.  I was particularly drawn to this next one...

It appears to be influenced by pojagi and the use of colour and the method of assembly is just brilliant - love it.

Given it's shaky beginning, AQC continues to get bigger and better and I really am glad I went - there was more quilts and they weren't limited to the 'traditional' - lots of 'art' quilts and different techniques displayed - something for everyone....here's a little montage of others that caught my eye...

I did take photos of the makers of these so if anyone wants info, please let me know :)

...and of course, best laid plans and all that......I bought stuff, including fabric (of which I have thousands of metres already....)

I bought fabric paint, gorgeous shot cotton applique pieces from Reece Scanell, English paper piecing templates, stamping foam, printable silk sheets, silk sari strips (to make cords from), aluminium for mixed media and some fat quarters: including Pure, Comma, Zen Chic, Urban Mod, a little Flea Market Fancy and a fabulous stencil of old London town.  I told myself that most of what I bought is for an upcoming exhibition piece, so I shouldn't feel so guilty.....

.....and now I have to go and get some work done - I've client quilts to quilt, some screen printing to do for my work-book as well as a portfolio cover to make, then after that some items for 2 upcoming markets........good job I like being busy :)

On the Friday night I attended a lecture by Judy Coates Perez, a mixed media artist from America who shared her inspirations and her works with us - lots of inspiration there - she also had a booth within the show so we could watch her work - and she is the reason I bought the aluminium sheets....

ps - Box Hill TAFE are advertising another Diploma of Textile Arts course to start mid-year - if you're interested, have a look at their website for more information.

Getting closer...

So I made the 100 items - bit later than I anticipated, but life does intrude hmmm??

Now just have to make the banner, buy the bags, have a mock run, sort out the display............

matching soft baskets - beautiful printed linen with  a solid lining

wee pouch, fully lined, using Prints Charming offcuts

I was supposed to have this baby quilt/play mat ready too, but I put a narrow red border on it and it needs another - I just don't know what - so it's hanging off my long-arm until inspiration strikes....

a mix of fabrics, featuring prints from Oz designer, Saffron Craig

So it's Friday and I'm off to school - and we're doing screen printing today - bit excited about that...

getting busy with it....

...because getting jiggy with it sends out all the wrong messages and seems to invite offers of unwanted accoutrements from 'anonymous'........

anyhoo - have been busy stitching up a storm.....

I completed a client quilt today on the longarm - I used a pantograph pattern I haven't used before - half feathers and a leafy type of shape...

Anne pieced large stars in this gorgeous range of fabrics - Will and Lily or something - not that - but I can't remember the name, mixed with some self patterned whites and creams.  The quilt is really prettily sophisticated and the pantograph I used fits it perfectly...

I also got stuck into one of my assignments for school - we've been studying art history this semester and each of us had to give a presentation about a period in history to the rest of class.  After each class we had to update a timeline and then do a little representative free motion stitching piece......here's the Venus of Willendorf from the Prehistory presentation - noone is really sure what she represents - could be mother, grief or simply prehistoric porn......

For the final assignment, we had to create a stitched piece using mostly machine stitching.  Originally I was going to design something close to my presentation - the Vikings - but after reviewing my notes and sketches, I got thinking about women's hair-do's...

We'd been shown the Willendorf Venus' beanie style hairdo, the flowing locks of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the tightly wound curls of Queen Elizabeth I, amongst others......so I played around with that (and recording development of the piece in my visual diary, just like a good student would!) and came up with this...

Each of these ladies had red hair which is why I used orange silk for the background - and then I stitched and stitched and stitched.  I added hand made cord to represent ribbons or bands worn in the hair and a few beads.  The only casualty was my finger when I didn't get it out of the way of the needle fast enough - that was fun - not - especially when I had a splinter in the thumb of my other hand...oh well, done now....now to finish the time line...oh, and the community house banner....and the ironing......and a Kris Kringle gift for sunday for my sewing group.....you get the drift....

The Vikings are coming....

Not really - but I have been looking into their arts and crafts - let me explain.....

This semester, one of our units is 'Art History and Art Theory' and in the first week, we had to choose a period in history (on a time line given to us), research and give the class a 15 minute presentation on either an artist from the period, or failing that, the style of the period - we also had to include environmental influences, ie social, political, etc etc.  and discuss their arts and crafts.

I really do not know what drew me to the Vikings - apart from their pillage and plunder of my homeland a thousand or so years ago, I didn't have a great deal of knowledge about them - and the name of a Viking artist didn't really spring to mind.  I knew they wore horned helmets and were very violent.....

Well, they were violent - some of them anyway - and they didn't wear horned helmets - and surprisingly they were quite civilised.

In the course of my research, I came across a type of weaving that Viking women were very proficient at - it's called Tablet weaving - it produces a type of braid that they sewed onto their clothes etc - there is a lot of information about it on the net and  I picked up a fabulous old weaving book from the school library - and it's very easy to do at home - so I thought I'd have a crack.

First I had to make the 'tablets' - I made mine out of playing cards but Viking women would have made theirs out of leather, wood, stone or bone.  Next was the threading of the warps, followed by the actual weaving.....

the tablet - I made 8 of these

the first attempt at threading was a bit of a disaster

threading again

all threaded and looking a little more orderly

getting the hang of it - the tablets are rotated in 4 x 1/4 turns forward, then 4 backward (otherwise the warp threads start to weave themselves - ask me how I know!)

 Here's the braid so far..

I used some crappy cotton yarn I found that I think I bought in the 80's!

By threading up different colours in the holes, adding more tablets, turning the tablets in different directions and swapping the order of the tablets as you go along creates other patterns - you can even create the alphabet and make a name braid....

So I'm going to take this practice braid off the clamps and make some more tablets - I'm thinking lots more tablets because I want to use perle thread for the warps (so I'll need heaps otherwise it's going to look like a cord, rather than a braid!), because I've had an idea about what I want to produce for the textile piece we have to hand in at the end of the semester...oh, and my BFF found a Youtube vid that shows you how to do Viking knitting with metal (jewelers will know all about Viking chains) and I want to have a crack at that too....

Better off red..

I have been busy getting my folio together for school - this unit was all about colour theory, different dying techniques, samples and stitcheries;  We also had to create a folio cover based on 'The colours of our lives'......

It took me quite a while to work out what to do for this folio cover - I knew I wanted to use fabrics I'd dyed myself and I also knew I wanted to use the colour red...

After much faffing about and false starts..

false start no. 1

I thought about layers and how we choose to reveal only some parts of ourselves...and came up with this..



and promptly had an omg moment - it looks RUDE!!!!

So I cut away a few more layers, stitched a little more and roughed up the edges for texture...

this looks very orangey, but trust me, it's red! - the colours on the previous 'rude' picture are more true

Much more presentable!

I also finished all my stitcheries...

yellow and blanket/buttonhole stitch

orange and straight stitch

violet and chain stitch

green and satin stitch

red and fly / feather stitch

blue and colonial knots with rice/seed stitch

so, just have a few more things to do and it's presentation time on friday.......phew

Bee blocks.......and lots of other stuff....

It seems like forever that I posted - in reality, it's been a week, but not getting on the computer everyday makes such a difference - the 'To be read' list of posts from the uber talented I follow continue to circle the globe and I don't seem to be making any dent in it with the paltry time I'm 'allowing' myself - hopefully all will change next term (this term really has been very busy and I'm hoping it's not indicative of the rest of the course)

So, I got up early, read a couple of posts and thought I'd quickly add what's been happening around here....

A couple of Bee blocks, the first for the Australia Bee....

such a pretty block

The next couple are for do.good Stitches - Melissa sent the pink dot for the final round and the rest we contributed...

The final pink round on the second one actually matches the first for colour - so the saturation you see is a bit exagerated!

These blocks have been sent off to their respective bee mamas.

In other news, the ladies in my classes have been busily sewing away their projects of the month...

The gorgeous Barb - and it's the very first thing she has ever made - love that beaming 'I made it myself' smile..

This months project - a zipped, lined pouch - they did a fabulous job.....

A couple of days ago I dyed some fabric to use for the stitched piece for school - the brief is titled 'colours of our lives' and I'm going red....reddish.....what the??

Buster had to get himself in the photo again - this time his 'other' end

 

So, time to go......today I'm mounting samples of fabrics dyed with various dye mediums (sun dyes, RIT dyes and Landscape dyes) and I really must make a start on the reports.......arrivederci...

WIP Wednesday - well it would be, but now it's Thursday and the link is closed :(

omg - I knew it had been a while since linking up with WIP Wednesday at Lee's, but just saw that the last time was 9th Feb - definately a long time between drinks!

So obviously there's a little bit of creativity going on in the meantime - most of which relates to the Textiles course I'm doing, but I got a few things done outside of that too :)

I have a finish which started about here....

Totally inspired by this

Here's the back........

there's actual sunshine in Melbourne today!

I finished up another quilt...

I'm in the process of adding hand quilting to this next one...

Completed some farmers wife and projects for school, sewing bees and my teaching classes...

I also managed to complete a few quilting commissions on the long-arm too - I'm sure there's more but it's been so long I think I'd be here forever finding all the photos!

Anyway - pop on over to Lee's and check out everyone else's awesome WIP's - huge amount of inspiration out there :)

Images from School 3 - LUSCIOUS FRUIT

The last of this series for tonight..................

The brief for this assignment was to chose a fruit and portray its lusciousness using textiles.  We had to bring in an actual piece of fruit and explore its form.  Now, at considerable risk (because my teacher will likely read this) I completely forgot to get a piece of fruit ready for the initial class....so as I was running out of the house to jump into the car to go to school, I let the chooks out and spied the lemon tree....so I grabbed a lemon, thinking, "That'll do...."

Man, did I struggle with representing a luscious lemon (serves me right I guess!).......I played around with all sorts of stuff but nothing made me think, "Mmmmmmm, how luscious....."

So, I pondered, had a glass of wine, pondered a bit more and thought "What would make a lemon luscious?"  Lemon meringue pie? Lemon curd? Lemon cordial? Tequila?

Yep, Lick, Sip, Suck - works for me.......

So I created a Luscious Fruit Basket, with lemons, salt, a shot glass, instructions (on how to Lick, Sip, Suck like a pro!) and a bottle of Tequila.....

Lemons made from shaped and stuffed panne velvet and hand dyed fabric leaves - with a twig from the garden for the stalks.  A bag of 'salt' made from fabric I created with my printer espousing the virtues of the lemon.

Carol made a wallhanging from a stylised apple accompanied by shine and stitching - you can defo see why Eve had such a hard time (if you subscribe to that theory!)

Kristen created a gorgeous 3D fig, full of texture and colour

Margaret cleverly represented longans in this wall hanging

Many apologies to Carolyn, who created a couple of amazing cherries, and Sherryn who really thought outside the square to produce a handbag in the form of a dragon fruit - I didn't get a decent photo of these 2 pieces of work, so I can't show them tonight.

I'm in awe of the talent and skills of my classmates - I'm in splendiferously inspiring company.....