Busy Times–a holiday required

Hello All.  A long time between drinks, but life has been chucking us wobblies as well as some good times, leaving me precious little time to create. 
In between all of it I have been throwing a bit of paint around some paper and fitting in a bit of art work whenever I can.
My house is becoming a trash can as I save all sorts of recyclables and odds and ends that I think may make some kind of arty mark.  Everything is eyed off as a possible stamp, mask or stencil – LOL – nothing is sacred.  Different papers and ephemera are cluttering up the bottom of the cupboard too.  All fun!!!!
Here are some prints from the humble egg carton. 


The end of the celery makes a lovely rose print.
We have a very small vegetable garden now but we managed to grow some beautiful broccoli this winter. 

Last weekend we went out to Leyburn Historical Sprints for my DH’s birthday.  Luckily it was a sunny warm day with no wind – an interesting day out is all I will say, but DH and his brother in law enjoyed it.

DH, Brother in Law, Ian and DH’s sister, Catherine.

A much needed holiday is just around the corner, so until next time, enjoy your arting and crafting
………………Dianne.

2014 -The Word & Update on Pearl Couscous

Firstly an update on the availability of pearl couscous.  It is available at Coles!  Just thought I would have a look and lo and behold, there it was!  Hope it is as good as the Israeli couscous from the deli. It has a recipe on the back of the packet and a link to where you can find more recipes. Also, when I made my salad I boiled the couscous in chicken stock instead of plain water to give it a bit more flavour.  It may have been a little to salty so you could go half in half.

A lot of people around the blogs in recent years have been coming up with a word for the New Year instead of an actual resolution.  What a great idea - I thought - as I never keep those blessed resolutions anyway!
Soooooo, my word for the year  I decided upon is EXPLORE

Here is my first ever art journal page. 
One thing I am not aiming to do is  a journal page a day, like some diligent people out there.  One now and again for fun is my goal for this year.  I am enjoying  playing with all the different media and hope to EXPLORE as many techniques as I can.  

What I am hoping is that it is going to be a  journey of discovery this year in all my areas of Eat, Play & Quilt.

New and interesting recipes to try (especially Mediterranean which I am currently interested in), new and exciting places to visit in Australia in our camper, and new techniques in the mixed media field to incorporate into my quilts and art projects.
There are some amazing people I have been following on blogs, watching on You Tube, and learning from, and here are links to just some of them.  Be prepared to lose some time!!! Be sure to check out their tutorials and videos to lose some more time. 

http://alisaburke.blogspot.com

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com

http://dianatrout.typepad.com

http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com

 



Our agapanthus have put on a beautiful show this year.

TAST Embroidery 2013 & More Dyeing Fun

 

There has been some frantic stitching going on here at Eat Play Quilt.  Christmas is looming fast, and, of course, the ‘last minute girl’ has just realised this.  There is always good intentions in the New Year to be more organized but, alas, it is just the make up of the girl.  There is a lot of Secret Santa stuff, so I cannot show at the moment.

As the stitches come on to Pintangle each week I have been trying to keep abreast of my TAST i.e. (Take a Stitch Tuesday).  You can check it out HERE.

Here is the latest sample I have finished:

The little coloured ones are Raised Cup and the pink one underneath is Turkman Stitch.

I enjoyed doing the Turkman stitch very much.

Week 68 – 75

top to bottom:

Slipped Detached Chain

Buttonholed Double Chain St.

Crested Chain

Bullion Buttonhole

Wrapped Coral

Portuguese Stem Stitch

Zig Zag Chain St.

Woven Zig Zag Chain

Week 63-67

Top to Bottom:

Scroll Stitch

Top Knotted Buttonhole

Buttonhole Bar

Coral Stitch

Fancy Hem Stitch

 

Week 76 – 81

Vandyke Stitch

Woven Cross Stitch

Cloud Filling

Chained Cross Stitch

Raised Chain V1 ( L )    Raised Chain V2 ( R )

I have really enjoyed doing these samples but I will definitely have to refer back to the instructions to repeat them.  So many interesting ways to use needle and thread!!!

My friend, Joan, has just returned from a marvellous holiday around England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts of Europe.  Lucky duck!  She brought me back these goodies.  The little reindeer decoration is wooden and carved by hand in Austria.  Thank you Joan.

Shirley has been a bad  good  influence on me and I can’t go past a second hand bookshop anymore without checking out their old embroidery books.

I was lucky to pick this wonderful book up from Lifeline for just $4.  The book says it is about colour, but most of the illustrations are in black and white.  There is quite a bit on colour theory at the back of the book which is very informative.  There are also many design possibilities for creative embroidery.

 

There has been some more attempts at botanical dyeing.

Firstly I tried some bark.

“mmm What’s for dinner dear?” 

The fabric came out a beautiful deep rich caramel colour.  (no photo yet – too boring)

Next, I decided to try the bouganvillea flowers as they are so rich and steeped in colour at the moment. Here are pictures of the plants.

Lilian & I plucked the blossoms ready for the boil up

This is the fabric soaking in the pink bouganvillea juice.  It looked very promising – smelt disgusting.

Alas, the bouganvillea experiment needs more work.  Must get some mordant of some description.  Anyone got any ideas??

The fabrics from both the orange and pink bouganvillea came out pretty, but very insipid (no photo – boring again).

I will keep trying.

Until next time……………………..

Collaging, Sewing, Inspirations, Spring Fever and more…..

It is a while since I blogged but I have been busy behind the scenes.  Plenty of socializing and outings and a bit of creative sewing and of course the ordinary mundane stuff everyone has to do when they would rather be creating!!!
A funny type of Spring Fever has hit me in the way of a head cold.  It has been so very hot, and having a head cold in the heat is no fun, let me tell you.
 
This is one of our magnificent star jasmine plants.  I wish we had smell-a-blog so you could share the scent with me.  The smell reminds me that Melbourne Cup day is coming soon and that summer is fast approaching.

SEWING:

I made this block keeper for my dear friend, Shirley, to store her embroidery pieces in while they are awaiting to be put into her amazing embroidery book. 
The pattern is one I have used before, and is a tutorial my the lovely and delightful Teresa from All Things Vintage.  Pop over and see Teresa’s blog and be inspired to craft more.  She really gets things done!!  Thank you for your wonderful tutorial, Teresa.
COLLAGING:
In the past week I signed up for a fabric collage workshop with Deborah Boschert, “Branches, Buds and Blossoms”.  Things were going swimmingly until the sound jack decided not to work on my computer inside the house.  I have soldiered on and this is the piece so far – just fabric placement at this stage.  It is so much fun!  I can’t wait to embellish it and do some hand stitching on it.
 
The final layout before embellishing.

The feature fabric.

SOCIALIZING:
The Toowoomba Quilter’s retreat was held on Oct 11-13 and it was fabulous, as usual.  We don’t have to lift a finger, just sit, chat, sew and eat (in any order)… all in a bushland setting. 

L-R Debbie, Vicki, Sally and Dianne – yes, me.
The quilt group also ran a bus to the Queensland Quilt show in Brisbane. 

This quilt by Olive Claydon won the Viewer’s choice award and well deserved.  All tiny hexagons!!!!  Well done, Olive.  isn’t it amazing???
You can see more of the winners HERE on the Qld Quilters website.
I bought a few goodies but most of it is just card crafting and textile art stuff.  No fabric was purchased (for a change). 
‘
These really cool stencils.  A couple of them by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer whose journal work I love.

Hemp thread, Acrylic glazes, gold rubbing stuff, acrylic ink sprays, cog wheels stamp and a watercolour pad.  I just wanna PLAY.
In the past week, Shirley and I also visited a display by the local Toowoomba Embroiderer’s Guild and a display by ATASDA (Australian Textile and Surface Design Association). Both very inspiring.
After our visit to the ATASDA display, Shirley and I were inspired to do some botanical dyeing.
More on that later………………Until next time.........Dianne

TAST Embroidery Re-visited, Spring Garden & Leafy Greens

 

Spring is here at last and we have been having the most delightful warm spring weather.  Lovely sunny days and cool, good for sleeping, nights.

Plants in the garden are loving the conditions and some have decided to send forth their blossoms a little earlier than expected.

Lavender given to me by my good friend, Shirley.  It is growing wild and I know it is wild because it has not had any special attention.  Goodness knows how it has survived.

Some of the lavender came inside for display and the perfume is gorgeous.  Do you like my vase?  It is Venetian glass which I bought in the early 70’s when travelling around Europe on a 9 1/2 week bus tour with a heap of other young Aussies, Canadians, South Africans and New Zealanders.  It survived the journey along with a very heavy ashtray in similar colours.  I love it.

Very vibrant iris also a plant given to us by Shirley.  (She has a green thumb)

The magnificent unkillable white daisies which are stunning when all out like this.

Finally I felt in the mood to do a little more TAST stitching.  Alas, I never did complete 2012 stitches.  These latest samples are from the 2013 stitches and I decided to do a much simplified version of each stitch. 

TAST is conducted by Sharon over  on Pin Tangle.  You can join in whenever you like and learn some very interesting stitches.  I have close ups of a couple of favourites shown here.

Top to Bottom : Knotted Feather St, Inverted Feather St. Raised Herringbone Band. Triangular Feather St. Herringbone Square and Laced Square Herringbone (combined) and Buttonholed Herringbone.

Buttonholed Herringbone

(oops blurry) Combined Herringbone square with Laced Square Herringbone

Do you like rocket?  I hadn’t had much experience of rocket until our neighbour grew masses of it and gave us some .  Now I am hooked on this leafy green which has an unusual, peculiar taste.  We are told by the medicos and nutritionists to eat our greens for optimum health and the rocket is lovely combined with other salad leaves.  Eat some rocket today!!

Now for some family photos.

Lilian is displaying her organic collection of bits and pieces she sourced from her Papa’s backyard.  She was very proud of her ‘allection’.  She is looking even more cute now that a few freckles are popping up.

 

L-R:  Lilian’s Papa, Lilians Grandad, Lilian and her mummy.