Birds, Trees, & A Little bit of Creating

Firstly, Joan LOVED her little memory book.

I have to share with you this most extraordinary stitchery which Alison made for Joan.  It is done on the finest linen and she doesn’t even use a magnifier.  Fantastic work! 

It reads: “ He who loves an old house never loves in vane…how can an old house used to sun and rain to wattle and flame tree and a tall silky oak ever fail to answer the heart that shows it love”.  These trees mentioned are all in Joan and her husband’s garden. 

Left to Right, Alison, Irene, Dianne, Joan, Marleen and Shirley. Vicky was the photographer!

  We had a lovely lunch at a local cafe called “Two Birds” in Duggan St.  I can highly recommend this place.  Hot coffee and delicious light meals and yummy cakes, AND BEST OF ALL, everything is homemade – there on the premises.

Now for some birds of a different kind…..

One of the hardest living things to photograph has to be birds in my opinion.  Just when you press the shutter, they decide to move.  Here are a few I managed to capture on the last trip away to the Gulf.

At Waruma Dam – I think this bird is trying to grow his neck as long as that tree!!

Peacocks at Burdekin Dam – the colours are amazing and he has his very own ‘zentangle’ © on his top wing.

Peahens – not so attractive.  Why is it so?

Red Tailed Black cockatoo at Karumba having breakfast.

One lone pelican at Warumba Dam – This photos shows the cooking and wash up area on our slide on camper. Not a bad view to have while washing up!!

I love, love, love trees and often photograph them on our travels and at home.

Our big, huge tree at the back in wintertime.  All the leaves underneath will be used in the garden as mulch.

These long tall skinny things used to be trees until they were drowned at some time in the past!

Bottle trees near Jandowae in south western Queensland.

Tall Kauri at Paronella Park near Innisfail, northern Queensland.  They were planted in 1933 to form an avenue in this most wonderful park (more about it in another post).

Our poor little mandarin tree which is badly in need of some TLC but still produces fruit faithfully for us.

This is the collage card I made for Joan’s birthday – front and back.

 

First layout of ferris wheel blocks for my daughter’s friend’s quilt.  22 more blocks to go!!!!

This is a Karen Griska pattern and is available here if you would like to whip one up.

Until next time – happy creating – Dianne…………………………………………….

A Big Birthday - Best Wishes – Best Friends - Bits of Art

 

Yes, it was a biggy!

The actual day was on a Tuesday, and so on the Saturday, my darling husband and daughters arranged a family luncheon.  I did not have to do a thing – it was lovely and I was spoiled.  Our oldest daughter made the cake and it was a white chocolate mud cake.  I love white chocolate and the cake was delicious!!

Hubby doing the dishes  xxx

Lilian did her own make up especially for the occasion.

 

Even Bella, our 13 year old border collie cross, joined in the party and enjoyed some attention from our youngest daughter.

On the Monday my dear friends from quilting joined in celebrating, and we had lunch at ‘The Two Birds’ cafe.  All their food is homemade on the premises – it was yummy.

Around the table L-R  Vicky, Marilyn, Linda, Loretta,Shirley,Joan, Marleen & Moi.

  They also spoiled me rotten.

Beautiful gifts – thank you my dear friends. 

On the day of the birthday my hubby took me to the flicks and lunch.  We saw ‘The Book Thief’.  I enjoyed my day.

A few weeks ago I did this collage/painting spread on a piece of old card. It will be a book cover one day.

Front Cover

The branch part of this image is a collage taken from a picture in an old National Geographic magazine.

Inside cover

Bird image from Karen over at Graphics Fairy.

I have to finish with my cute little Lilian.  This is how they come out of prep each day holding hands – very cute. (Lilian in the middle)

 

Until next time……………..Dianne

Art Quilt Finish : Art Clean Up : Transfer Techniques

A finish at last!
A couple of months ago I did an online course with Deborah Boschert called “Branches Buds & Blossoms : a botanical fabric collage”.
This is the result and I will put it into our quilting exhibition display in September.  The theme for the display is “Botanica”, so this will fit perfectly.
I have called it “Branching Out” as I find my textile art is branching out into collage a lot lately.  It seems to be something I like doing.
Deborah had some great hints and tips, and it was a very enjoyable exercise.

Just recently I discovered a box marked ‘Art” which has been sitting in the bottom of the linen press for about 15 years unopened since we moved into this house. 

Embarrassingly, most of the stuff inside had to be chucked out as it had deteriorated somewhat.  This prompted a bit of an art clean out.  Looong time ago I was very into folk art painting and did such an awful lot of it.

A lot of the supplies from that era were put to the back of the cupboard and the back of mind until a couple of days ago.  Here is what I discovered ( & embarrassingly – again - I forgot I had some of these things).  I was very excited to find them, anyway. 

Brushes Galore - all shapes and sizes

A tube of oil paint in burnt umber which I used to love using for antiquing and giving the aged look.




An ink nib, a kemper tool (you fill the well with acrylic ink or watered down acrylic paint and draw with it), and my wonderful paint trowel.



The dining ??? table – plenty of paints.
Have you ever tried to transfer a quilting design onto a quilt which has already been layered.  Jeesh, it is no mean feat.  This often happens if the quilting idea comes at a late stage in the artistic development of the piece  LOL.
Firstly I tried using the pattern drawn onto tulle and this was very successful but I used a white pitt pen to transfer with.  By the time I had quilted one lot of scrolls all the other transfers on the fabric had rubbed away.  Grrr.

During a wakeful period in the night (you know how it is) I remembered I had purchased a clover product called Transfer Mesh.  Couldn’t wait to get out of bed next morning to give it a whirl.
I find Clover products very, very good on the whole.  This transfer mesh was quite troublesome though, as the pen and pencil wanted to get stuck in the wee holes, which is probably why they tell you to use blunt pencils.

I used a 2B pencil to draw the lines onto the mesh and then a Karisma pencil to transfer to the fabric (as per instruction on the video).  What I learned, with trial and error, was a light touch is better than going hard at it, and slow and steady is better than fast and impatient!!
If you have one of these sheets, do give it a try, it was the best solution to this awkward problem  You can see a video of how to use it HERE – but be aware the audio is terrible.
Until next time……………Dianne

Paper Collage Fun & Fabric Box

When I saw the fabric box on Anneliese’s blog HERE I knew I had to make one for a friend for Christmas.
The tutorial is on Jane LaFazio’s blog.  Jane has a fabulous blog with a few little tutorials for us to try out and her art work is very inspirational.  Take a look HERE… and enjoy.
Firstly I collaged the fabrics to the stiffening (1)  and then I added a fern stamp in an off white colour using a handmade stamp I made from a polystyrene fruit tray. (2)

(1)

(2)
I added some embellishments and some free motion quilting. (3)

(3)
The finished box.


To finish the top off I hand sewed a silk sari strip around the top and added a little bead drop on each corner (4)

(4)
A couple of weeks ago I signed up to do a “Getting Started with Collage” online class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  I am a great fan of Julie’s, and love looking at her videos and art work.  (Click on Julie’s badge in the side bar to visit her)
If you get a chance, visit Julie’s blog and be inspired, especially if you love journalling and collage. 
Because I love to make cards I used her techniques to make some greeting cards to have on hand.  It is a process that I got really engrossed in, and for a few days the dining table looked more like an art studio – a very, very, messy art studio with a mad wannabe artist at the helm!!!

Julie showed us four ways of designing a collage.
Using some monograms as a focal point I made these collage cards for friends’ birthdays (next year).  How is that for organized??

Front & Back of the M Card

Front & Back of the J Card.

The blue card is using the ‘grouping’ design and again I used a focal point on the pink card.
The pink card uses old dressmaking patterns and a stencil from a magazine cut out.

On the left a pictorial collage and on the right the ‘crossing’ design.
Most of the paper used in the collage has been created by me using acrylic paints, spray inks and various methods of surface treatments following some of the instruction on Julie’s video.
It has been soooooo much fun and I can’t wait to make another big mess and do some more collage.
Thanks to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for making this online class for us to enjoy.
Until next time…….. Dianne.