Computer frustration .......

I have so much to share with you all, but my computer has been playing up for weeks. Sooo frustrating. I cant even upload any new photos.
It was supposedly fixed, but can hardly even load a photo for my blog (even an old one).... thus just one meagre offering this week! I made this bird ATC for a friend well over a year ago, but when I flicking through my photo folder I came across it and thought it might be nice...I still like it. Naive, whimsical and simple.
When we have this computer fixed I have plenty of photos to upload, but at the moment, it just wont "play".

I've had visitors (my arty mother in law), I've received some wonderful art mail, I did a workshop in sketching and gouache. I've been out and about .... so plenty of news later.

I've been logging on and checking a few blogs when I can, and leaving comments where it allows me. At least I can still access your wonderful blogs this week.

I hope you are all having a wonderful, creative week. As the ATC says..."Create Joy"

Jacky xox

Pink and Grey....

I am taking part in another fabric book swap as you know. The page below is made for sweet Sesga who lives in Wales. The theme for her lovely little book was pink and grey. The pink fabric is an Amy Butler fabric I purchases earlier in the year when my sister and I went to "An Evening with Amy Butler" in Melbourne. front of page
back of page

I really enjoyed working on these pages for Sesga and was able to use some lovely fabrics that have been gifted to me recently. Many from the lovely Dot and also one from Kasha on this back page. Love the texture the tulle and voile piece from Kasha has added to this page.

Sampler by Jude Hill

Isnt this piece beautiful? Recently I purchased this sampler piece from the etsy shop of Jude Hill. I was thrilled when it arrived in my mailbox and was just overwhelmed by the beauty of this piece in real life....beautiful, soft, recycled fabrics. Lots of intricate stitching, a real treasure. There is a real spiritual quality to Judes work and I love visiting her blog, Spiritcloth.Tinkatink thinks this quilt is for her!!! sorry about the photos quality but a dark and miserable day today. Not good for taking photos.

I have actually been inspired by Jude to pick up a WIP and get back to it. Last year three of my patchwork girlfriends and myself made up all these snowball blocks for a quilt for my son Matt (arent they are lovely friends!!!). I had made up the blocks into strips, but hadnt joined the strips... BUT, this weekend I have nearly finished the quilt top. Now I just have to come to a decision as to the border, pieced or plain.



This photo shows the blocks before I started joining the strips and the colours show a bit better. Must say....I'm not used to working with these earthy, muted colours. For such a long time I have been using lots of bright Kaffe Fassett colours.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend. I know I have enjoyed visiting a few blogs today to catch up with what everyone has been doing over the weekend.

I will be without our computer again for most of this week. It has to go back to the computer guy as its playing up again and needs something re-installed. I'll be back visiting as soon as it returns though.

Jacky xox

Wonderful weekend ....

Apart from the fact that I have a dreadful bug at the moment (head cold), I had such a lovely weekend. A group of us girls (art girls that is) get together at each others homes every six weeks or so for an "art catch up". The house was abuzz with all of our chatter and we whiled away five or so hours before we knew it, discussing everything under the sun and having lots of show and tell. Showed off my knitting I have been doing for Grrl for her latest installation. I'm getting there Dneese....

Arent these fabrics scrummy...a lovely gift from my art buddy and fellow fabric addict Dot.

A gorgeous sunshiny pansy, a gift on Saturday from the lovely Patsy.

These are some more gifts from my art buddies on Saturday that I thought I might make into a Klimt Doll for myself. Some beautiful fabric brads from Dot, gorgeous brown silk taffeta and silk hand dyed ribbon from Julia, and the beautiful buttons were part of a gift from Ro. So many goodies get shared around at our get togethers!

I truly had the loveliest day... thank you Dot, Ro, Julia and Patsy for making the trip out to the farm for the day... it was lovely to have my friends at my home.

Beautiful bird ATC I received in my swap with Gaby. Now if any of you clicked on the link on my last post....heaven knows where it sent you as I made a typo. Try again, should work this time and Gaby's ATC's are beautiful.

Now my friend Lynne has asked to see more of the pages from the Nic Hohn journal I received, so here are some more for you Lynne.

It rained hearts and love.

Sing sweetly in the Morning

Of blessings in the dew.

could almost hear the silence

It was a bright, sunny day;

her first daffodils were in bloom,

"They're going to be a picture" she said happily.

Beautiful pages, I hope you enjoyed them.

Believe it or not I had much more I could have showed you this week, as I have been stitching a fabric page for my friend Sesga for our swap....but.... I forgot to take photos before I gave them to Dot on the weekend. Luckily for me, Dot is going to take some photos and send to me so I can show them on my blog soon.

Also, Dot embellished the most glorious piece of handmade felt and mounted it on watercolour paper for me. Unfortunately my photo turned out a bit blurry once I uploaded it, but I will take another for my next post as it is a very special piece you must see, lots of wonderful detail.

Anyways, I think this post is quite full enough!

I hope you all had a lovely sunshiny weekend...hope you got to spend it with some of your friends too.

Enjoy your creativity.

Jacky xox

The birds & Leroy.....

I am so blessed where I live. Will you look at these two Wedge Tailed Eagles that stopped off near the house to sun themselves on the weekend. Absolutely awesome birds!!! They allowed me to get within 50 metres to take this photo (you will have to click to get a better look). I dont have a camera with a fancy lens (but I would love one...its on the list). So, this is the best I could do. We have lived on this property for nearly 21 years now and each year we have a group of eagles nest in the trees in the hill behind the house. We started with two and there are now six. It appears their offspring are happy with their parents nesting site too.

And now for a bird of another type. I have recently done a swap with Gaby of Colourful Adventures (her ATC's are truly beautiful). I am getting quite a collection of her gorgeous ATC's from a couple of swaps we have done recently. I will have to take a photo of them for you, but really you should check out her blog.... so much detail. Gaby requested a fabric ATC for our swap...I hope she likes this little fellow.

This is my latest Klimt Doll for a swap with Mieke in the Netherlands. I hope she likes this doll made especially for her. Sorry the photo is not the best, the colours are a bit washed out... and looks much better in real life. She is winging her way to the Netherlands as we speak.

And just for a bit of fun, this is one of our dogs (we have 3!!!!). This is Leroy and he is nearly two years old. He is the most beautiful and gentle soul and we love him to bits... doesnt he have the sweetest face? I took this shot of him as he waited patiently while I took photos of the eagles....and I was worried he would scare them off...He knew to sit very quiet and still.

I hope your week is bright and cheery and I will leave you with this lovely quote that I found on my sister Lee's blog recently!

"Nothing is worth more than this day."

- Johann Van Goethe -

Jacky xox

Look who arrived today !!!

I went down to the front gate this morning to check the mail and guess who was waiting for me?????? The gorgeous mrs. mizzle. To say I wasnt excited when I saw my package from Lynne was an understatement. Beautifully packaged in Lynnes very personal way....

A gorgeous butterfly card (that is sure to be part of a journal very soon), some amazing feathers artfully held together with copper wire and a safety pin. The tag Lynne made is wonderful too. I must take a photo of it to show you in my next post as you need to see the texture. What a gift mrs. mizzle is. She is already dispensing of her sage counsel and offering some good advice. Very, special. Thank you Lynne for sharing your wonderful art. At present she is residing on my bookshelf.... she tells me she loves to read in her spare time.

Love in a package from Sesga. More art goodies in the mail this week. My dear friend Sesga from Wales sent me a lovely package....check out the beautiful vintage owl brooch, the scrummy fabrics and beautiful little key ring. Not to mention the hand printed birds on the silk... the birthday fairy was good to me.

AND a beautiful book from the talented Nic Hohn, sharing her love around. This is the back cover, but I just love it (show you the front another time...some of my photos didnt turn out too well this time).

Each day I open it on a different page. This was my page for today, beautiful sentiment. Thank you Nic...just perfect.

Dont you just love this owl??? On Sunday my sister Lee and I went to a lino cut and print making demonstration by the talented Helen Timbury (who I am pleased to say lives locally). Now, I would love to say this was my lino cut, but that would be a fib.... Helen generously let us all have a play at making prints with her lino cuts. I just adored this owl.

and this beetle

and this bird.

Lee and I (and maybe Dot) are going to take a class with Helen in August to learn printmaking techniques.... really looking forward to that.

Sorry if I have been out of touch this past week, but computer problems hit our household. We were without our trusty computer for nearly six days..... back on track again now and will try and get to visit some blogs again .... I have been having withdrawals.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and you have a week filled with happiness.

Jacky xox

Plenty of stitching ....

I have been doing plenty of stitching these past couple of weeks. I am involved in another fabric book Round Robin with Dot, Linda and Sesga. Each month we make a page for each others book. I love working with fabric and really enjoy stitching. This week my book went to Dot for her page to be added to my book. I am looking forward to seeing what Dot creates for my book...she is the Queen of Embellishing. My book all finished and ready to be packaged off to Dot. The cover and a glimpse of some of the internal pages.

Inside the front cover (I love this page with its random strips and stitching).

Some Kaffe Fassett flowers adorn the first page. I did many a stitch on this page. Click to have a closer look.

Back of the KF flower page. Lots of stitching again and some KF circles for good measure.

Inside the back page a little pocket for any notes the girls want to leave me.

After looking back at these pages I have noticed that there is a bit of a floral/garden theme coming through in the pages. Initially I had started with a blue/green theme.... I dont know what happened, but thats half the fun, seeing what evolves.

I have started my knit up for Dneese ( Grrl&Dog).... lots of fun this freeform knitting. Might have a pic. of that next week too. Check out Grrl's blog to see what she is up to.

Bye for now and have a happy week .....

Jacky xox

Luscious felt ....

As part of my birthday present this year my art buddy Dot booked her and I into a felting class with Elizabeth Armstrong.... what a fabulous day we had. When we entered Elizabeths studio it was like walking into Aladdins Cave... lucsious fabrics, threads, fibres... a riot of colour. I was in seventh Heaven. Her studio is such a happy and colourful environment. My camera card was full so couldnt take many photos but my dear friend Dot said I could use some of hers for my post. (thanks Dot!!!) Elizabeths beautiful studio were we had our workshop.

Layering before welt felting.

The finished felt collage after welt felting.

What a wonderful experience .... I loved all the layering of beautiful colours rovings, gorgeous fabrics, silk threads, soy threads and much, much more. But.... boy were my arms sore after the class. The rolling...... 900 times!!!! But once you see the finished piece, it is all worth it.

Felted Flowers.

Mmmmm... these leave a little to be desired. I obviously need to practice these as they are rather tatty looking (look like they've been out in a storm!!!)

Cecille.

As part of my birthday gift Dot had commissioned one of Elizabeths handmade felted dolls...isnt she gorgeous. Such beautiful colours and sooo lovely to hold. Thought I should share her with you all.

Also for my birthday my sister Lee and another girlfriend of ours, Jen, had lunch at Donovans down by St. Kilda Beach. Perfect day, perfect food, best friends ...just the best day. After a most delicious lunch we took a walk down by St. Kilda Esplanade.

Street art in St. Kilda dont you just love this owl!!!





Entrance to Luna Park at St. Kilda. Brings back lots of childhood memories for me of many family trips to this Fun Park.

WIP Journal for friend. Have since bound the spiral part with fabric.

And this beautiful Kaffe Fassett Pencil roll made for me by one of my lovely patchwork girlfriends.... One of my favourite KF fabrics and about to be filled with my Inktense pencils. Thank you Coral.

This week I have been working on fabric pages again. Will have pics to show you soon (thought this post was quite full enough).

Take care and have a wonderful week of creativity.

Jacky xox