October is a distant memory but...

...due to various complications, our blogger didn't blog at all last month. So here's what we were making back then:

Carol was working on some paper cutouts called Kirigami, from this calendar, which she's been saving for a while.

 

They start with easy ones and get progressively harder. She decided to make them in bright colours to  use as Christmas decorations.












If these are the easy ones, I'd hate to try the hard ones!

Nola was working on a postcard for later in the month. It's one she pulls out of her postcards basket to work on periodically but it never seems to be just right. It's a painted background with various other media used, mostly Inktense pencils.

 

 

 

Later in the month, she was back working on her version of the cereal box book, which we started way back here. Her book was made from a fat biscuit box so it's needed a lot of pages. She's just about ready to star putting in images and memorabilia from her trip to southern Africa last year.



Helen was working on one of her embroidered stones.

They're cute little things and people grab them as soon as she makes them!

Maz has been working on a lot of concept drawings for her work for ATASDA's biannual Palm House exhibition in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, in May next year. The theme of the exhibition is façade, because 2016 is the 200th birthday of the Gardens and artist Jonathan Jones will create an artwork celebrating The Garden Palace, a structure from the Gardens' history. Built for the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879, this massive structure burnt to the ground in 1882. It should be very interesting to see his "ghost building"!

Here are some of Maz's drawings for her work in façade:

Looks very interesting! I'm sure we'll see more of this in due course.

Maz was also working on her piece for the Miniature Round Treasures challenge for ATASDA. The works will be on display at the Epping Creative Centre in December and January.

Isn't it pretty? It's going to be an interesting exhibition.



Pincushions

Did I mention we had a day making pincushions recently? ATASDA had a challenge to members to make a pincushion for display in the cabinets at Epping Creative Centre, where the NSW Branch meetings are held. So we decided to spend a day making our pincushions.

We all worked on pincushions but not everyone finished one for the challenge and not all finished ones got photographed. Here are some we made.

Maz got excited and made two. This one is a pear. It was made from cotton fabric with hand stitching and a wrapped stem.

Her second one was a fish. It has a beaded eye and raffia tied on its tail.









The fabric is the wrapping from a small gift we all received at the recent High Tea to celebrate the 40th birthday of ATASDA, so this will be her ATASDA commemorative pin cushion!

Nola was inspired by the brightly coloured birds she saw on a recent trip to Africa and made a brightly coloured nest pincushion with bright blue eggs. It was made from woven and knotted yarn and fabric strips over a felt base,, with a felt top and eggs.

Cindy made this very elegant hat pincushion. It has a card structure with fussy-cut cotton fabric, fabric flowers and lace, embellished with velvet ribbon.






All the pincushions will be displayed at the Epping Creative Centre until the end of January.

Darling Harbour Craft & Quilt Fair

Sorry to go silent! We've created a stack of gorgeous stuff to share with you, which I hope we can do soon. But in the meantime, we've been distracted by the upcoming ATASDA stand, displaying and selling work at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair, Darling Harbour this week. Several of us will have work on display and for sale.

Tricia and Nola have gorgeous silk scarves, bags made from breakdown printed fabric and a range of hand-dyed reusable gift bags, replacing wasteful paper wrapping with something useful as well as decorative.

 

Carol has covered some art journals.

Bev has made some fabric bowls and a cushion from her rust-dyed fabric that is just to die for!

We also have our beautiful garden fragment on display and it's for sale too!

Five of us will be manning the stand at various times during the show, so why not stop by to say hello? ATASDA members will be demonstrating various kinds of textile art work during the five days, mornings and afternoon, and there'll be a visual feast of work to enjoy.

Darling Harbour, June 12-16, 9-5 every day.

February #2

On Saturday, Fibrecircle will be showing and selling some of our work at the NSW ATASDA meeting at Epping from 10am. Here's just a taste of what we have to show you.

Bev's beautiful badges, made from old lace, silk snippets and hand embroidery:

Tricia and Nola's scarves, including these new ones that you won't have seen here:

Fat quarters  of quilters' muslin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...plus all sorts of other lovely things, like the dyed socks and t-shirts and Nola's hand painted kids' tees.

Helen has beautiful gift tags and embroidered rock paperweights, Carol has bookmarks ...

 

well, you'll just have to come along and see, won't you?