Little Girl's Quilt

I finised the second baby quilt last week. You might remember the fabrics gathered here.
This one is for a wee girl and started off like this

The colours were fine, but the balance of pattern interest was off...

until I added butterflies

I added some fusible to the back of a couple of butterfly print fabrics, then fussy cut and ironed them on. They have now been edge stitched as part of the quilting.

Thrilled with the end result.

So pretty don't you think?

Workshop Thursday

Yesterday I pulled out this velvet and bleach base which I started last year a la Angie Hughes (go here to see how I did it)

I gathered foils - Jones Tones and chocolate foil wrappers - as well as some lovely fine glitter

Got myself reinspired by looking at Angie's galleries of some of her gorgeous velvet garden pieces and then did some fusing and foiling on my piece.

More to follow soon I hope.

On ANZAC day

Jacob (my 11 yr old) is turning into a keen cook, so on this special day we've made ANZAC biscuits together.

ANZAC BISCUITS

1 cup uncooked rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

125 butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 tablespoons boiling water

Blend oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Melt butter and syrup over low heat and remove. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water, then add to melted butter mixture. Stir this into oats mixture. Drop full tablespoons of mixture onto a greased tray and flatten (allow room for spreading)

Bake at 150degC (300degF) 25 minutes

The New Studio

We are very lucky to have a large room on the back of our garage. Craig used to use it as a music room, but when he saw the trouble I was having with my very small creative space we did some rearranging and now we share the room and call it "The Studio" - fits both the music and creative space ideas.
First of all, to the left as you enter the room, is my lovely sewing space with a view of the backyard.
Click on any picture to see it larger.

Note the wee iron & ironing board - they are very handy for small jobs. To the left you can see one of my inspiration boards. I use this one mainly for quilty ideas and photos of my special people.

To the right is my cupboard of mixed media supplies with a fav Egon Schiele painting on the door. The cupboard marks the boundary between my space and his.

If you move into the corner along that same wall and look back at my space you can see my cotton fabrics all arranged by colour in plastic drawers beneath my lovely large table.

The table is the other boundary in the room - it's opposite the Egon Schiele cupbard but with plenty of space to walk around it all....loving it ;-)

This is another long view of the desk. Wonderful for fabric cutting/mixed media work/journalling/and playdays (and coffee!).

To the right you can see some of the plastic drawers from the previous space. Much more accessible here.

And another inspiration board on the door to our garage. This board holds some of my work, as well as special cards and ideas that inspire me.

Then we turn to face my design wall - it's just the fluffy back of a plastic tablecloth hung up but really effective.

It's large enough to audition quilt pieces on, and you can just smooth fabric onto it without having to pin anything. Easy to rearrange on.

And either side are some new purchases of shelving which are wonderful.

My left shelves contain fabric focussed patterns and magazines related to both quilting and mixed media fibre art. It's so great to have my recipes for silk paper and other silk and sari ribbon projects alongside the actual materials.

The right shelves contain paints, ink sprays, and stencils, focussing on art journalling and book making. You can see a good supply of book sale items which may be used for images, text use, or to recycle in a new book form.
I feel so so lucky lucky lucky (happy dancing) to have such a generous space with all my supplies so close at hand. The Egon Schiele cupboard contains other mixed media supplies, and I do confess to another drawer unit in the shed which has lovely useful basic and base supplies like batting, bonding materials, tyvek, lutradur -- you get the idea. I have wide-ranging interests ;-)
Oh...and there are a few more arty books still inside the house!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. You should come and play sometime :-)

My creative space

Having your own creative space to start projects and then leave them set up for next time is wonderful... especially if you are trying to utilise micro-movements.
I've always been very lucky to have my own space where I can stitch and store my fabric, mixed media tools and supplies, but in our current house it was really small and a challenge to work within....here's a quick tour
Door to the small office space

Look left

Look right

Now walk the 4 steps from the door to the desk, turn around and look back to the door : left (the same wall as directly above) - the plastic drawers pull away if you want to get into the cupboard....

Right

And my fabrics were crammed into this cupboard in the hall - not pretty!

We've had a rethink of spaces and now Craig & I are sharing what we are calling "The Studio" - very excited to share inside next time....

Feed your mind

Finally made it to Wellington yesterday to see the Wedding Dress exhibition at Te Papa.

Gorgeous gowns - beautiful fabrics and lace and shoes and veils and fabulous designers - if you didn't make it or would like to look back at what was on show, check out these blog posts from Te Papa. So inspired.
Deb went with me to the wedding dress expo, and afterwards showed me another website to love -- gorgeous fashion and stunning use of fabrics : Mackenzie mode
Have at last caught up on blogposts from when I was away and had to share a few gems ::
Gorgeous quilted creations  and sketchbook workings in the Design Matters gallery of recent student work.
Gorgeous machine quilting too by Kate Themel
Amazing red thread journal dress made by Ruth Rae.
New discoveries for me : Kim Henkel whose talents include book making and gorgeous tea bag art.
Yes and Amen blog - Junelle Jacobsen creates simply lovely art journal pages.
Have also been enjoying some lovely library books recently :
Although I can't draw, there's still lots to inspire me in this book, including ideas for overcoming first page jitters, designing your pages and some journal prompt ideas. :

Take a peak inside via amazon

If you can't get hold of the book, or you just want more there is a blog too.
It also led me to discover Laure Ferlita -- she has come up with this really cool concept called Imaginery Trips....now that's something I'd like to try for a themed art journal :-)
And Pam Johnson Brickell does beautiful watercolours too - she calls herself a Nature Artist - but I am drawn to her work because of her calligraphy and lettering on her pages.
On the Fiction front :
Enjoyed this read over Easter - lovely cover, subject matter not at all related to Easter!

Currently enjoying

We are half way through our school holidays...hoping to get onto something creative this week. How about you?

Easter Holidays

Had a wonderful Easter break chilling out in Turangi and Taupo.
New experiences : kayaking from Kuratau

New sights : Orakei Korako

Happy family times

Enjoyed the rich variety of scenery all within an hour's travel from our bach.

Renewed our enthusiasm for walking - we will definitely be checking out walks to do more of this now we are home again. The mountain above and the 3 pictures below were all taken on the same 2 hour Taranaki Falls walk from Whakapapa village.



Gorgeous scenery in this wonderful country we are lucky enough to call home

Aratiatia Rapids

And then today - a wood pigeon in a tree in our front yard!

It's been a great week

Fun with Wax

My friend & I had a play day on Tuesday this week. We decided to try a few things using melted beeswax.

We had a proper melting pot and dipped various papers & tags in to see what we got.

LEFT after dipping in wax -- RIGHT before

Love how the music becomes translucent with the waxed layer.

LEFT = after wax

These tags were stamped first with my lovely Tim Holtz Papillon Stamp set. Love them every time I use them.

This tag came up so effectively - originally the cardstock was a very faint lavender, and the stamping seems more dimensional now.

Ordinary wrapping paper didn't have so much of an effect, although the feel of it is nice.

But this handmade paper from Trade Aid with leaves embedded into it looks lovely. The torn pieces lying on top of the original paper were stamped with another part of the Papillon set before waxing.
A simple technique, with lots of fun results.
Hope you have a fun and safe Easter long weekend.
Talk to you next week