Friends & Felting Fun ......

I received the most beautiful surprise in the mail last week.  Leanne Pizio  (Paintergirl) had sent me a package with some gorgeous japanese fabrics and hidden amongst them a box with this treasure below inside....one of her ceramic lotus pods.  I was blown away by her generosity...for years I have visited her blog  admiring her wonderful ceramics (especially with bird and owl images) and paintings.  I still cant believe I now have some of her art in my home...it is even more beautiful in real life.  Heartfelt thank you Leanne for this lovely gift.

 Ceramic lotus pod with beautiful turqoise glaze inside.

And another lovely friend Dot gifted me some beautiful kimono silks and thread to add to my stash for my Magic Diaries cloth.....yummy.  These will fit in very nicely thank you Dot.

 Dots birthday tomorrow,  and we usually organise a creative day or workshop to celebrate our birthdays.  This year Dot invited myself and our friend Nat along to a felting day at Elizabeth Armstrongs studio.  Elizabeths studio is an Aladdins Cave of colour and texture...my creative mind goes into overdrive when I enter her studio.  Below is the scarf I made on the day.

Nat took the photo below (on her trusty iphone) of me and my scarf in progress on the day.  Pop over to Nats blog to see the amazing scarf she made on the day and some more photos of Elizabeths studio.

Today I have been doing more linocuts .... working on a special project and this week I will be doing more on my Magic Diaries Cloth....incorporating my new fabrics, playing around with a little 'beast'.

NEVER  FORGET

EVERYTHING  AND

EVERY  PERSON

THAT  HAS  A  PLACE

WITHIN  YOUR  HEART

-SARK-

Have a creative and happy week.

Jacky xox

Tearing and stitching .......

I have been enjoying tearing fabrics and stitching this week....enjoying the relaxed pace of the Magic Diaries workshop I am doing with Jude Hill.  The pace is relaxed, the stitching gentle and the interaction with Jude and other cloth mates is just lovely.

I am enjoying working with the earthy tones below...very Australian colours (fabrics...one is a vintage japanese kimono fabric and the other a hand dyed fabric from my recent trip to Thailand).



my stitching this week



The torn strips were for my fabric weaving and I have added the stitched moon.  At the moment this block is just basted down,  but more stitching will appear as this cloth evolves.  I dont want to add too much stitching/embellishing as yet as I'm not sure where this is going and will add more once it has grown a bit and I can see the story more clearly.



I have noticed that quite a few of the cloth mates have incorporated their own symbol for this quilt....something personal to them.  I have decided to make the above heart (without Jude's feather) my personal symbol for this quilt.  This stylised heart shape is one that I found  I use repeatedly in my journal, so I thought that as this quilt will also be a type of journal I will stitch a version for this quilt and repeat it throughout.  



I do love fabric weaving and the torn edges give such an organic look to cloth.  Again I have used the old kimono fabric and the hand dye from Thailand.  I enjoyed stitching the ragged cross stitches in my moon, reminds me of the stitch used in boro cloths to strengthen a cloth.

sweet bird song

While I was stitching away yesterday I could hear the most beautiful bird song outside (click for a closer view).  This fellow was serenading me outside my kitchen windown...having a wonderful time!  It was nice to stand and watch his antics for a while....I think he is quite the extovert warbling away, loving having an audience.  I might have to sketch him later.

Off to work again tomorrow....I count down those three days until I am home again and stitching/painting.

Jude has been talking about edges these past couple of weeks,  so I thought this quote from Sark fitting...

DANCE

ON 

THE  EDGES

OF NEW

BEGINNINGS

-SARK-

Jacky xox

Winter Sunshine......

The 'beginning' .... my first block stitched for my Magic Diaries with Jude.  For weeks I have been procrastinating, drawing up ideas, selecting fabric stashes, but I hadnt put needle to thread.  I am happy with this little nine patch, loving the way stitches show through to the front, the fabrics...the grey and the centre patch are fabric from Thailand and the other a natural linen.  Now I have started, I am itching to do more!

The 'beginning'

Reverse side of 9 patch  taken in the dappled morning sunlight.

Someone else was enjoying the winter sunshine this morning....this is Minnie.  We havent seen a lot of sunshine lately so she was making the most of it.

 Being winter I am enjoying crocheting some scarves....I visited the Tarrawarra Gallery at Healesville on the weekend to see the Archibald Winners Exhibition.  Wonderful portrait paintings...awesome in fact.   The winning portrait this year was of one of Australia's most well known painters, Margaret Olley.  Sadly she passed away last week,  so it was especially poignant to see this exhibition and remember this beautiful, talented lady.
After the exhibition my sister and I did some wandering around Healesville and I bought these lovely wools .  The Charcoal is for my sister and the two variegated (arent the colours yummy!!!) wools for my friends twin girls who will turn 9 at the end of the month.

 I am keen to stitch more on my latest quilt,  so in my travels this weekend (this time I was over in Geelong seeing an exhibition by local printmakers)  I found these vintage fabrics in a little shop.   A couple of kimono's and old scarves.  These will come in very handy and may find themselves in a dye pot soon.

I bought a new long line vest today .....I only noticed the sunshine heart when I got home.....so I'm sending you some sunshine....

Enjoy your week....I plan to stitch .....

MOST  OF  ALL,

LOVE  YOUR  SELF.

-SARK-

Jacky  xox