Other things we're doing...

Helen has been making another book. The theme of this one is Lemon, Lime and Orange.

 Gorgeous colours, aren't they?

Helen also brought along a challenge piece she's been making for another group. It involved food dyes, lace, thread couching, beads and found objects.

She thinks it may be another postcard.

She was also working on another canvas work embroidery, which is intended to be a purse, when it grows up.

It's going to be a beautiful purse, isn't it?

Yvonne was knitting a boy's jersey for her little grandson.

It's a very modern looking style isn't it?

Carol has also been knitting, in her case a cowl scarf (sorry, no photo!) She was also making flowers, which are prototypes for a journal cover she plans to make.

Last of all, Maz has been travelling the world and here's what she brought back for each of us!

Yep, there's lace and buttons and unusual fabrics. I wonder what these will become?

Next, our latest postcards..

Some work we've been doing

The things we make in our time together and the things we make on our own at home are always interesting to see. You can see how different we all are, in the things we like to make.

You know Helen will be embroidering, probably on rug canvas.

 

She was working on this a few weeks back.  She said, "just don't ask me what it will be when it's finished". So we didn't. I  guess we'll find out in due course.

 



It was Robin's last meeting with us, as she's moving away soon. We'll miss her!

She was knitting, as she loves to do. This time, it was an intarsia jacket from the Jane Slicer-Smith book, Swing Swagger Drape.

Cindy was embroidering on paper. She likes to work in a mixed media kind of way, often involving paper. 

The piece is part of a collaborative work we're making for an exhibition. You'll see the various parts in due course, when they come in to us in March, and then the finished work. in April.

Carol loves all things shiny. This time, she was incising metal shim as an experiment.

She thinks it might be a book cover later on. Or maybe just a sample.

It certainly gives a gorgeous effect!





Nola was putting together her journal for the exhibition work she made late last year. Yes, usually you would do the journal as you go! But she had been keeping an online log throughout the process, and this was assembling the log and her samples into a visual record of her process. It's more useful to use in the future in this format than as a computer log, though the log is easier to keep as she goes.

Cindy brought along some sketchbooks she's using for an online course with Linda and Laura Kemshall. It's strongly focused on drawing but in a mixed media context.

They're gorgeous, aren't they?

Nola showed us some sample prints she'd made, on paper and cloth, exploring the possibilities of the foam board print plate.

This one was a three-colour print on cloth, experimenting with overlays to create shadows. The weave of the cloth is also a visible feature, as the print is only about 15cm x 10xm (6in x 4in).

We had very few postcards to swap, because we were all working hard on our collaborative work.

This one was made by Maz. 
 
It's hand stitched onto a cloth background, with the edges turned over a card base.

Cindy layered fabric strips and machine- stitched them down with fancy stitches. She added an applique butterfly created wit hand stitch.

The edges were machine satin stitched with variegated thread.

Next time, more about Habitation...

July postcards and other stuff

Only Helen and Nola made postcards this month - it was that kind of month.

Helen's postcard was a beautiful embroidery on canvas.

 Isn't it gorgeous?

Nola's postcard was also hand embroidered, inspired by Elizabethan/Jacobean designs, with a double picot edging.






Helen brought along her work for the Lateral Stitchers group challenge, Ancient Civilisations. She says the work was loosely inspired by the Sutton Hoo helmet.

Nola showed us some prints from impression printing plates she made with Claire the week before.

Robin was wearing a top she made with beautiful fabric from Tessutis, that source of gorgeous things.

It seemed to be a knitting day at Fibrecircle. Here's Carol knitting a headband from her own handspun yarn...

... and Robin was knitting a cardigan from a rayon-cotton blend.

Helen was knitting too but she wouldn't show what she was doing...

So now you know! See you next week.
 

Some other things...

Do you ever get the feeling that the textiles world is an enormous web of connected strands? Very appropriate, for fibre and textile artists, I guess!

Helen brought along a work that she made for Lateral Stitchers. For those who don't know, Laterals is a group of the Embroiderers' Guild of NSW, who have been meeting for more than twenty years to make innovative textile art. They often have challenges and this one is Menu. Members were formed into groups to make works inspired by different courses of the meal and Helen was given Starters.

Helen also brought along  a work she has been doing at Fibrecircle for a few weeks. It's also for Laterals, on the theme of Ancient Civilisations. It's inspired by a tile border on a fishpond in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Of course, it's canvas embroidery, with embellishments, which came from a bead shop in Covent Garden - she's never seen anything like them anywhere else. They work really well with this, don't they?

Yvonne was knitting a capelet, ready for the EWES sale this past weekend. The EWES are the Epping Weavers Embroiderers and Spinners. They are one of the many groups using the Epping Creative Centre at Dence Park, where they had their sale.



Meanwhile, Cindy was working on her piece for the Untethered group's exhibition out of hand in November. Untethered is a sub-group of ATASDA NSW, and their first exhibition will be held in November, at Wallarobba Arts and Cultural Centre at Hornsby. As three of our members are also members of that group, I'm sure you'll hear all about it! This is just a teaser of what she's making - it's looking fabulous!

  

Carol was working on her postcard for June. It's gorgeous and glitzy and I'm sure you'll see it again!

 

 
While we're still on things handmade, Helen brought us all a present of some handmade paper she bought at the Milk Factory Gallery a while back. It's beautiful, isn't it?  It's too pretty to use...

 

 That's us for May - we'll have more Trees and our finished Rhapsody work in June. See you then!

And some other things...

Carol brought along a magazine called Vintage Fashion, which was a reprint of a lot of original articles. Some of the entries were hilarious to our modern eyes!

Women were urged to avoid "Mistakes we all make", including wearing the wrong frock, wearing too much pattern (how shocked the writer would be to see the mix of prints in modern clothing), the Mix Up Hat (wearing a hat that doesn't suit the rest of the clothes) and the many disasters of dress that might befall a girl going to a dance. We were all quite taken with the notion of chiffon knickers, made from "ivory chiffon with pale pink trim" which, we were reassured, would go well with summer gowns. At least, the wearer would be cool!

But our absolute favourite was the tip to set our hair with sugar solution, which, when "sprayed into submission", lasts a week! We imagined a group of girls in summer gowns being chased by a swarm of bees...

We weren't just reading amusing things out of magazines, though. Yvonne was making her postcard for June, which we're not allowed to show anyone yet. Robin, our newest member was knitting a beautiful lace scarf, which had us all lost in admiration.

Nola was working on a very old Fibrecircle UFO. Remember way back here when we made Round Robin book pages for one another? Nola was embroidering another page for her own book, the theme of which was Travelling to Byzantium.

Next meeting, we hope to have something a little different to show you!

More Ruby and other works

Carol and Yvonne were both working on their Ruby challenge works in August.

Yvonne was making some of her signature tapestry weaving.

Can't wait to see where she goes with this!
Carol decided to make a ruby slipper, fit for Cinderella to wear. Here's what she did so far...

Amazing! You should see more of this later too.

Maz was working on some knitting. She finished the jacket she was making with the Noro yarn...

... and had cast on again with more of the same yarn.

Isn't it pretty?

Cindy has been hard at work too. This piece was made as a gelliplate print and then stitched.

Beautiful!

Her second work is made from woven strips of prefelt, hand stitched.

She used scraps of the same woven prefelt, machine couched and backed, to make some additional elements, which haven't been stitched on yet. I'm sure you'll see it when it's all done!

And some other things we're making

Show and tell for our first meeting in July was small, because only a few of us could be there.

Nola shared progress on the knitted coat that she started back here. She's almost finished the first front but it was too tricky to photograph.

Maz brought along her unfinished work for ATASDA's upcoming Future...Past exhibition at the Palm House in the Botanic Gardens. It's layered muslin with hand embroidered images, so it's very light and sheer.

You can see her work and the work of many other talented ATASDA members at the Palm House from 14-26 August, 10am-4pm.

Carol brought along a scarf she'd woven, in tabby weave in blue and grey.
Here's a close up of the weave...

So simple and so effective!

 

During the meeting, she also...drum roll, please... finished her Doctor Who scarf! She was working on it back here, remember? It's been going for a while, not surprisingly.

She wants everyone to know that this is the short version of the scarf.

 

Helen brought along a work she's made for the upcoming Lateral Stitchers exhibition, the theme of which is Klimpt. It's inspired by the Stoclet Frieze, in her trademark canvas embroidery, and the photos really doesn't do it justice.

More information about this exhibition to come.