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.......

over a month ago.....really????

Oh dear - what a slacker - just haven't got round to creating new blog posts - I've Instagrammed a few times and been up to all sorts, just never blogged about it.....but I promised my Wednesday ladies that I'd blog about their gorgeous journal covers they made in class....so here they are......

This project was a lot of fun - I sorted out my 2" squares into colour order and put them into brown paper bags.  Each of the ladies had to randomly choose a colour then they made the centre panel using the colours from that bag only.  The surrounding borders were chosen from their own stashes and added to the backing fabric and quilted.  They then created the journal cover - some made one and some made several and they all did a fabulous job - unfortunately I didn't photograph all the journal covers, but you get the idea :)

Other than teaching classes, I've been quilting for clients...

here's a client quilt I actually remembered to take a photo of !!

Finishing socks...

Putting together some quilt tops...

this has since been sashed with a soft grey and a border added in green - ready for quilting now

memory quilt for a client - please ignore the feet!!

Stitching for school...

and making a knitting needle holder - I've also knitted a couple of hats but I don't have any photos of them yet...

I know there's lots more (like market stalls and weekends away) but I think that's enough for now - well done for getting this far in this photo heavy post!!

It's time for me to hit the sack - we're experiencing a cold snap - expected overnight low is 3c - and I don't think tomorrow is going to be much warmer - oh well, will just have to light the fire and snuggle in with my stitching.

Cheers

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.

Press this, sew that, print this.......

Busy - loving it....

I quilted and bound the little Apple Bugs child quilt last week - I had intended quilting it with a spiral but I didn't like it so unpicked and started again....

I bought some of Sarah Fielke's 'On the pond' from Spotlight, added a couple of other fabrics and pieced a little child's quilt top which now needs to be quilted.  There was a LOT of trimming which is one of the reasons it stayed at child size.....The block is called 'goose tracks' but I'm calling the quilt 'Duck walk' - hopefully the things 'in the pond' didn't get eaten by the ducks (ok, mind slipping away here.....)

I tried a few different layouts...

The main picture was the final layout and it's now all stitched together - my husband thinks it looks 'fresh'

Some time ago we learned about collographs at school - using bits and pieces glued and shellacked to a piece of wood which is then used to print onto fabric.  I spent some time at a school friend's place and we picked up pieces from her garden and arranged them 'artfully'.  Kristen kindly shellacked my 2 pieces as we ran out of time on the day and they stayed in that state until this morning when I had a go at using them....

I used acrylic paints as it won't need to be washed - I really love the soft effect of the printing - I tried a couple of ways to transfer the image to the fabric and the best result was a little less paint, no water and me standing on the print block on a printing pad - it was recommended that we use the car to run over everything but I had visions of the blocks flying out from under the wheel and sconning one of my chooks - so standing on it was the next best option.  I'm looking forward to adding some embellishment and stitch to these at a later date.

Now I best go prepare for my classes tomorrow - a new term and a new subject for my quilty ladies - thinking about playing with colour and creating packs of fabrics to be used in blocks that will ultimately become a quilt to donate to a worthy cause....

Too, too long....

...and procrastination and duff sitting may have something to do with it....anyway, just finished a late dinner (home made gnocchi with prawns), having my coffee and enjoying the cool change after a stinky hot day in Melbourne.  Dr No is on the telly (I'm a huge Bond fan, but I've seen Dr No umpteen times and my husband really wants to watch it again), so what to do? Sew? - I could go and make some Christmas presents....or I could blog.....hmmm, what to do.....?  Well, blogging won - and for those who have commented on the last couple of posts (which were a few weeks/months ago - I'm sorry I haven't responded - I'm turning over a new leaf today)

It feels like such a long time since I actually wrote anything and I have done umpteen things in the meantime that I'm just going to record them as I remember them - so in no chronological order whatsoever...

1.  I hosted the delightful Caz of The Accidental Quilter for some time on the longarm - Caz had 2 queen sized quilts she was loathe to wrestle with through her domestic machine so she came to mine to do them - apart from an unexpected powercut, which curtailed tuesday afternoons' session, she got them both finished and did a fabulous job - most impressive for a first time - way to go Caz :)

2.  I made a frock - one of the 2nd year students at school made a beautiful linen dress and luckily the pattern is a new one.  It called for 4.5m of 150cm wide linen which wasn't very budget friendly so I searched through the clearance table at Spotlight and picked up some gorgeous voile for $5 per metre - the dress is a lot less structured in the voile and has beautifully soft folds - it turned out really well and I hope you get the idea from this crappy picture.....I'm saving for some linen to make another one but there'll have to be a few pattern adjustments....I don't think I can fudge them in the linen like I did in the voile!

3.  The Somerville Community House banner is FINISHED - yay - a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this banner - 12 1/2" pieces of calico was handed out to all the class/activities currently on at the Community House with instructions to fill the square with representations of their class or of Somerville itself.  We got back some very interesting blocks - they were painted, stitched, drawn and knitted and with a variety of mediums, from thread to paper to, in one case, a fan!  Putting it together was a bloody nightmare challenge but a couple of wonderful ladies in my Stitch and Chat group kept everything together and appliqued and stitched away with me to come up with a fabulous finish - there's a presentation/launch next week.....but here's a sneak preview....

4.  The veggie patch is growing strongly - we're already eating lettuce, silverbeet, zucchini's, sugar snap peas, asparagus, rhubarb, carrots and spring onions.  There's fruit on the tomato plants - many that self-seeded from last year and the first lot of corn is almost ready to throw up the flowers that will pollinate the ears of corn...there's also pumpkins forming...this abundant growth is thanks to the very changeable weather we've experienced over the past month or 2

5.  I joined the wonderful ladies of the Mornington Stitch Group for our Christmas breakup, hosted by the lovely Emma at Treehouse Textiles.  I've nicked the next photo from the Group mama, Cathy's blog...(Cabbage Quilts)....thanks Cathy and Emma :)

we had a Kris Kringle swap - what a talented bunch we are ;)

6.  I made 3 more Farmers Wife blocks - so that's 100 finished and I only have 11 more to make - YAY!!!!

...and now I've run out of memories!  So, I think I'll sign off - the sewing machine is calling and Christmas is approaching...til next time

TWO finishes.....

.....amazing what a deadline or 2 does to productivity in my house.....

I've been so focused on things to do with school and the CFA raffle quilts that another deadline snuck up on me when I wasn't looking.  Tomorrow is Crib Point Community House open day (between 10am and 2pm for those on the Peninsula tomorrow - 7 Park Road, opposite the HMAS Cerberus entrance) and given I am a tutor there, I have the opportunity to talk to interested folks to come and join my class.

The idea is to have a static display of projects completed this past year as well as some items that a potential student could make if they wished.

I'm going to include a display of some of my quilts (and maybe someone will buy one!) and I had 2 tops that I particularly wanted to show - one of which I intend to bundle up as a kit - so they had to be finished.

The following photos are rotten - it's late and I didn't get any taken in the daytime - I'm going to try and remedy that tomorrow.

The first is Ice Age...

Drunkards path, using the Tokyo Roccoco range with added solids

The back - again using fabrics from the range

The quilting is wavy, overlapping lines, representative of the fissures in glaciers and mirroring (in a fashion) the pattern in the border and on the back.

The next one, binding sewn down in the wee small hours of this morning, is mostly made with Kate Spain's Terrain (the bundle I won at the Bloggers Quilt Festival last year).  I added some white and some matching Kona solids and a stripey binding (Kumari Garden range) that I've had in my stash for a while...

the backing - pieces of left over Terrain and small flower print in grey and white

Quilting for this one is an edge-to-edge pattern called 'Stars and loops' - it's one of my favourites.

So now I just have to write up a flyer that I can hand out, as well as find something I can use as a business card (for quilting services) to promote everything I need to promote....

I'll try to get a good photo of the display tomorrow

Community projects

When I first joined the local community quilt club, we met in a tiny room - no-one could bring their sewing machines because it was too cramped, not to mention dangerous (an Occupational Health and Safety nightmare!)  So when I took over teaching, I vowed to myself that I had to find a better venue, especially as I intended to introduce Project of the Month and sewing machines were mandatory.....

A couple of times we'd used the room at the local CFA (Country Fire Authority) for making charity quilts - the room was large, well lit, lots of power points and has an accessible kitchen - perfect - so I slept with one of the Firies (it's ok, he's my husband!!) and we were able to secure their meeting room on wednesday mornings and wednesday evenings - so much better and so much more conducive to boosting creativity.

The Firies have been great - if they're in the building when we are (for call-outs and other stuff) they never fail to pop their heads through the door and say hello, so when they asked if we could make a quilt to include in their upcoming 70th birthday celebrations, we couldn't say no -  in fact, we said 'yes' twice! - and all proceeds from the raffle will go to the Burns Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital.

We've started two quilts - one that we hope will appeal to the older generation and the other, a more modern style.....neither are finished (lots more to do) but here's a little preview....

Simple nine-patches in country colours and applique created by the very clever Jan and Lynne - Somerville is known for chook farms and apple and pear orchards

This one is called 'Ladders' - appropriately - by the very clever Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson fame - out of the new 'We Love Color' book

Obviously more to do before they're finished - but well done ladies - doing a fabulous job :)

.......and here's a little montage of some of their creativity so far....

Love my ladies.....

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...

Stitching by hand

In between sewing by machine and putting some hand quilting on my sisters hexy quilt, I've been creating a couple of samples for my Diploma.  This term we're studying colour theory and I for one did not know there was soooo much written about colour - it's truly fascinating - so we've been cutting and pasting and painting and colouring and stitching........

Last week was red and fly stitch.......

This week was blue and french and colonial knots.....

I found out on Sunday that I've been sewing french knots incorrectly - oops - but then I was shown how to do a colonial knot which results in a larger knot, so fills in more space - scores!!!

Next week is yellow and buttonhole stitch, so that'll be interesting.

While I was faffing about today, I made up next month's project for my classes - and we're going to make a zipped, lined pouch - I stuffed up the base though - made it too wide, so will have to make it again - I also have to write the instructions - I'm supposed to be doing that right now but I got distracted ;)

I copied the stylised flower shapes and drew them on the left hand side of the pouch with fabric markers - I messed up placement a bit but I don't think I mind - I really love that floral fabric...unfortunately I now only have a piece about 4" x 11" left :(

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 :)