Happiness is....

Our Magnolia is in bloom. First day of Spring tomorrow.This blog post by Hanna inspired my own bead creations over the last couple of days Below are the paper ones. I liked adding the text words. Others are wrapped with metallic thread or wire, or encircled with stamping.These are the fabric ones. Embossing worked well. Threads were glued on with gel medium. And these are some I made a few months ago - you wrap silk strips (the pink) around a wooden chopstick. Stich some kunin felt with metallic thread and a fancy stitch from your machine. Then wrap strips of the felt over the silk and use a heat gun to burn back the felt - crusty and lovely eh?Purchases from the past week that are making me happy :
Silk sari ends - shot silk and gorgeously raggy....wonder what I will create with these.And a few new accessories - I needed the new bag and wallet (my others broke in the last week)...I just really wanted the necklace!What's making you happy this week?

Review of this week

Highlight of the week : I won a merit award for this quilt at the show :-)

Has been a lovely week gifting the Paris book and the Charity quilt.

The boys had wacky hair day at school today to raise money for the Cancer Foundation. You can't really see that we sprayed their hair blue - but don't they look cool?I have been enjoying some good books this week.

This book is by Gerard Smith the quy in the art shop, and is a down-to-earth, smart guide to acrylic paints, choosing colours, tools (brushes/canvas/palette knives etc), gel mediums, stencils/sprays, and some projects to get you started. I found it informative, and sometimes very funny. It is aimed at people who want to paint, but of course if you dabble in mixed media this can be applied. Libraries are wonderful for exploring this kind of topic. Also from the library, my current novel :

This book is beautifully written. I am enjoying the plot, but it is passages like this that I love :

I stepped again, and life moved to greet me. I felt particulate, like pieces matching pieces. I heard the benign crinkle of the trees as the wind swept into the branches, and the music of birds popping to life like individual instruments singled out from an orchestra.

And this description of a girl climbing ropes in gym :

Pip's hands went fast, fist over fist, with her legs crossed like wishful fingers, pinching to maintain counterbalance. Even in the gymnasium's fluorescent light, her hair gleamed like a length of satin ribbon. Ahhhhhhh.

And some blog love for you this week :

A fellow kiwi living not too far from me, and artistic talent Debrina's altered art diary.

From her latest post, this great link about women and art.

A new (to me) art quilter Stephanie Redfern : her blog here, her cards gallery on her website here

Nice series of sketchbook posts here (you'll like these Katherine they feature poppy seedheads motif) http://ginaferrari.blogspot.com/search/label/sketchbook%20project

And from DJ Pettitt - a link on flickr to free texture files. Very cool. Her post about it here

That's it from me today....I don't seem to be able to do a short post!

Have a lovely weekend.

Quilts to Show

As promised, I am sharing the photos of my 4 quilts that will be on show this weekend as part of the "Celebration of Quilts" by Rose City Quilters. In order of production :
"Guitars" was made for my husband's 40th birthday. It is a pattern by Robbi Joy Eklow. She is a wonderful quilt artist. Click here for her gallery on her website, and I highly recommend her book, which of course I own :-) Click on the cover to see inside.In the book she explores quilt design and machine quilting motifs. Craig's quilt was fused, and then the applique also quilted the 3 layers together.
"Pacific Paradise" is a quilt pattern is by a New Zealand quilt artist, Donna Ward. I love her Pacifica designs. The colour choices are my own (and are closer to the top view than the detail photo!) Quilt 3 evolved from Susan-Claire Mayfield's online mystery block of the month in 2009 at Gourmet Quilter (sorry, the link to this seems to be gone now). The geckos, tapa flowers and border are my variations. I called it "Pacific Stars" and it was gifted away.My fourth, and maybe favourite, quilt is from a class I did with Mary Transom (another very talented NZ quilt artist). Click here for her website which features many of her wonderful original designs. This is my "Blue Poppies" quilt. If you are local, please call in to view the quilts. The show is on 10-4pm, Fri 27th - Sun 29th August, at the Convention Centre in Palmerston North. Adults $5, children free when accompanied by an adult.

Paris Book

I have shown you paper/stitch pages in progress, and the cover for that book, but couldn't reveal it properly because what I was making it as a gift for a special friend. Philippa is going on holiday to Paris in September and I wanted to give her a special journal to capture her thoughts, and hopefully inspire her to write some poetry while she is away. I gave it to her yesterday for her birthday. I was going to be smart, and do this as a slideshow, but it became too complicated to be able to do and share with you today! So this is a very long post of pictures - hoping that you will scroll through and enjoy them.
I made her a birthday/bon voyage card, in keeping with the Paris theme. And inspired, once more, by Ruth Rae.The journal cover front and wrap The spine - the pages were reasonably thick, so I nestled 4 spreads together, and stitched them in as 4 separate signatures. This gives her 64 pages in total. Open front cover - 1st page. The picture is of the apartment where she will be staying. Above left - Moulin Rouge and a clear envelope. I have included a few envelopes for her to insert wee treasures. Below left - the Windmills cafe from the movie "Amelie". She will be staying in Montmartre.Had to include Carrie in Paris (below left) since we are both big fans of "Sex and the City"The page below left because she goes in September. Below right is a vellum page. The below left page was created by printing the image of the eiffel tower onto sheet music fed through my printer. Another vellum sheet on the right. And to finish - space for a glue stick and a couple of fav pens.I have used images from a variety of sources (with special thanks to Katherine for booksale hunting and Sandy for travel guides). Some are attached with stitch and others with gel medium. I really appreciate Mary Ann Moss's talents and sharing on her blog. It was seeing her beautiful work that inspired this project.
I hope Philippa has as much fun using this journal as I had in creating it.