fabric fun .....

I have been having fun with fabric these past few days. My friend Nat had my sister Lee , her friend Linda and I over for Sunday lunch and a day of fabric play....Nat taught us how to make fabric baskets. I have long admired Nat's fabric baskets (see the two finished baskets below...just two of many...if you click on this picture you might be able to see the miniature baskets Nat has made also!!!!
Nat's finished baskets and the beginnings of our first baskets...front my base, left Lee's base and right one that Nat started to demonstrate the technique to us.

On the day, I didnt quite complete my base, but since I've been home I have done a bit more stitching....quite addictive, but I must admit that my fingers are a bit sore from 'pushing' the needle through. I am using a selection on indigo dyed fabric that my sister recently bought me back from a trip to Chaing Mai in Thailand and some japanese indigo strips from Nat.

And here is our *teacher* Nat busy stitching away on her base. We had a lovely lunch, and chatted non stop all afternoon. It was so nice to sit and stitch with a group of women, I havent done that before..... we felt a bit like the Amish women, gathering to stitch ....lovely way to socialise.

I love the Japanese and indigo fabrics, but also have a real soft spot for the lusciousness of sari silk. These gorgeous fabrics were purchased from my friend Julia Dean (Verdigris Rose). Julia has some wonderful packs she is selling in her etsy shop...great value and beautiful fabrics.

A few of you have asked about my son and how he went at the World Equestrian Games.....fantastic!!! Australia came 7th out of the 28 countries that competed (we had never before made the top 10 teams and thus it was our first time in the Team Finals. Matt and Espirit had a fantastic final round jumping clear for Australia....our only team member to jump clean in the final....very proud of Matt and Espirit. The above photo is of Matt and Espirit in the Warm Up arena. I think they both look very dapper with their Australian Flags.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

Love the animals

Love the plants

Love everything

Dostoyevsky

Jacky xox

Friends...Fun....Laughter...

Recently I've caught up with a few of my art friends...lots of fun, laughter, beautiful food, art and of course sharing. The first pics. are from the Art Journal I worked in for Julia for our Round Robin Altered Book in our little group of 5.

Mixed media pages for Julia's journal above.

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And these are some of the girls (Julia, being the photographer is missing) L-R Patsy (no blog yet), Ro, myself and Dot.

Lots of fun was had.....the above is Patsy at work printing/stamping after we had a little stamp making session with Ro. Some wonderful designs and backgrounds came out of this little play session.

Julia got us all outside with fabrics and paints, collecting leaves for some sun dyeing too. That was fun!!! No photos or the results, but there should be soon. I decided to steam my bundle ...bit of a flop...turned out a slimy mess. My fabric is now wrapped around the branch of a tree in the garden to see if I can get some colour happening! Will let you know how I go.

I dont know what's happening with blogger today, but twice now photos I uploaded are not appearing. I had some lovely photos of the delicious meal we had at Julia's....but they are somewhere in cyberspace. For some great photos of our day out visit Julia's blog, she captured it all. She was the hostess with the mostest...lovely, inviting home, scrumptious food and lots of fun things to look at *play* with.

Last weekend I caught up with my other art friend Nat and Dot again. Dot had arranged for us to visit the Convent Farmers Market...oh yumbo!!! As you can see from the mosaic above we had a great day. Fantastic fresh produce...beautiful cheeses, olive oils, olives, yarns, fruit and veg, bread, cordials...we bought it all (and we're enjoying consuming it this week). Click on the photo above to get a better look at us enjoying the day in the sunshine.

ONE SHOULD ABSORB THE COLOUR OF LIFE.

- OSCAR WILDE -

There has been a little stitching and fabric play happening...will save that for another post.

Enjoy your week!

Jacky xox

Hello .......

I'm back from my trip to Switzerland....and very slow getting back into blogging.....

My husband Paul and I had the loveliest time visiting with Matt and looking around Switzerland. And..... yes..... Matt did get selected for the Australian Team to ride at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky (I'm very proud of him). Both he and his dad are in Kentucky at this moment...it all happens very quickly once you are selected for the team. Competition starts to day and finishes next weekend.

I had to share this photo of Matt and I taken on our visit to Lucerne. Please indulge me.

Matt and I at Lake Lucerne.

I did actually get some stitching done while I was away (not much as you will see). You may remember this piece below from my earlier post....just a bit more stitching now. Each time I walked in the woods near Matts home I imagined little spirits that lived in the woodlands and thought I would put them into stitch...this is the beginning of my little Swiss Spirit cloth. A sunflower sun as there were fields of beautiful sunflowers and everyone seemed to have sunflowers in their gardens...huge sunflowers....such fertile soil

, and the little woodland spirit. A woodland spirit.

I've also added to my beast cloth....little embroidered butterflies and more fabric......

The Hare of Tonimbuk

And I've even managed to get to a lino-cut/printmaking class with Helen Timbury since I've been back. Lots of fun and a few more 'hare' inspired lino-cuts to be made soon. I do love printmaking.

Now this one is for Jude....what a woodstack. On her blog Jude has been talking about stacking wood, so I thought she would enjoy this (click for a closer look). There were beautiful woodstacks everywhere in Birr where Matt lives and I took quite a few photos of them...they really appealed. I will be doing a post later featuring all these amazing woodstacks. This one was on my walk up to the woods....

And here I am in the woods....I loved the filtered sunlight, the beautiful trees and undergrowth...so different to our Australian bushland. There was miles and miles of amazing tracks... so peaceful....

The woods and tracks were so beautifully kept.

I miss those walks....maybe I will have to visit again soon?

I hope I havent bored you with my *trip* photos...but I just wanted you to see a bit of the Switzerland I saw...and of course a little bit of art.

EXPECT

WONDERFUL THINGS

TO HAPPEN

Jacky xox