Found it......

The collage of our painting day missing from previous post......
Jacky xox

Painting day fun....

First I have to share a picture of my new baby...... isnt he beautiful! This little fellow was born on Wednesday. What a beautiful surprise to see him standing in the paddock as I left for work Wednesday morning....He is only just standing for the first time in this photo. A birth, a new baby is always such an uplifting experience. Now.... the painting day! On the 8th Jan. our little art group had our first get together for the year at Patsy's home. We were going to paint BIG, and paint big we did. Not one cloth, but two...we were prolific.

This is the second cloth, cut into 5, so we could all make our own personal cloth to take home. This picture was taken from Julia's end of the table. We began by all painting a base cloth and then each person personalised their own piece.

This is the lovely Patsy getting all the paints prepared for our freestyle painting experience.

This is the first cloth we worked on. After a little trepidation we all really just let ourselves go (as you can see!!!). Such a wonderful feeling painting with such freedom...quite cathartic. It was the hottest day we have had for the summer I think. We were all hot and sweaty, but no-one cared, we were in the zone.

As you can see much more paint added here to the finished piece. Dot and Patsy helping in transporting to Patsy's studio to dry our banner. Circles seemed to be the theme...nothing preconceived...they just appeared and we went with them.

Of course none of our get togethers are without a little feast. Dot, Julia, Ro and Patsy (L to R) ready to eat. The food was most scrumptious and plenty of it. I did a little collage of our feast but have lost it in cyberspace somewhere.

And as usual there has been some stitching happening...more to my angel cloth (hope you're not getting too bored with it). I promise it will be finished soon and I will move onto something else! Click on the photos for a closer view if you like.

I hope you all have a wonderful week...lots of stitching and painting.

EVERY HEART SINGS A SONG

-PLATO-

Jacky xox

Embrace the New Year ....

I hope you have all celebrated the beginning of another new year, in fact a new decade. We saw the New Year in with friends and family, having a quiet chat and a few drinks...very relaxing and most enjoyable. We were at home in bed by 12.30. Ahhhh.... we must be getting old. But at least we stayed up to see the New Year in. Amongst all the festivities of late, work still goes on on the farm. We had more hay baled yesterday, so the boys have been busy. Everything is still quite wet on the farm, so to date we have only been able to bale the silage. It is a very late hay season, with only intermittent hot spells.

Peace Angel cloth

I have been finding time to sit and stitch a bit more to the Peace Angel cloth. I just seem to keep adding a bit more to it each time I sit down to stitch...it is growing steadily.

A close up of some of the stitching on the trees and a few more trees pinned that I think I will add. It's been a peaceful, lovely time of year to stitch this cloth...no rushing, just picking it up when I have a minute or two. That's what I love about slow cloths.

LIVE IN THE SUNSHINE.

SWIM IN THE SEA.
DRINK THE WILD AIR.

-EMERSON-

Enjoy and embrace all that the New Year brings.

Jacky xox

Christmas Cheer ......

Christmas is nearly here....I am enjoying the preparations (although as always I could do with a bit more time), and I am so looking forward to sharing the day with my family.

Last weekend I caught up with my friend Dot for lunch on Sunday at the La bel Amici Cafe in Frankston for lunch...beautiful cafe, very arty and wonderful food. The picture below is of one of their Christmas decorations...isnt it gorgeous! I am thinking I might try and make one next year! I think that would look very special hanging above the dining table. Below is a little Christmas wreath I decorated with some fabric scraps and a little festive owl. This little fellow was made a gift to my friend Nat. He looked very smart adorning her Christmas tree...filled with beautiful handmade hearts and other decorations.

I visited Nat on Saturday and she taught me how to make the little Christmas wreaths below from a plant in her garden (of which she very generously gave me a cutting....so watch out friends, you may receive one of these next year).

My friend Dot is making a little quilt a la Jude Hill/Rebecca Sower style. I made these three blocks for her to include in her quilt.

And I have been working on some Christmas trees....thank you Jude for the wonderful little tutorials recently. I have since done quite a bit more stitching and plan to finish this piece over the Christmas break. It is part of my cloth "Peace Angel".

It has been a wonderful year....so many new adventures for me with cloth and also with my painting. I have met so many lovely people online and made some lovely friends.

I wish you all a Christmas filled with the wonder and joy of the season and look forward to catching up again next year.

CHRISTMAS IS THE GENTLEST, LOVELIEST FESTIVAL OF THE REVOLVING YEAR.

- W.J. CAMERON -

sending you all a jolly red hug!

Jacky xox

Festivities, but still stitching....

Lots of festivities at this time of year! Busy, but such fun. These little festive owls were part of my gift to the girls in my art group.... Dot, Patsy, Ro and Julia.

Saturday I caught up with the Art Group girls for our Christmas lunch at the Bunyip Kitchen...as always the food was SCRUMPTIOUS and the company wonderful.

We exchanged gifts.... The beautiful heart danglie was a gift from the lovely Ro , made from her gorgeous fabric/paper. Glorious colours and already taking pride of place on my mantle piece. The gorgeous hand towel underneath was a gift made by the lovely Patsy...my favourite Kaffe Fassett fabrics and such beautiful sentiment. You will notice I have taken most of my photos on Patsy's beautiful creation.

This gorgeous needlecase was made by the lovely Julia of Verdigris Rose...just stunning. Such beautiful colours with lovely teeny-tiny beads...very special and already being put to good use. Pins and needles have been transfered.

inside the needlecase

And from Dotee a quirky little handstitched christmas ornament....Leunig style? I do love quirky and whimsical and this little fellow is hanging from the Christmas tree...very proud of himself. Also received a lovely mug and special serviettes (soon to be used in a journal no doubt!). All once again upon Patsy's lovely appliqued handtowel.

The lovely Dot sent us this mosaic of our day out and about....see what I mean about the food and the company....click for a closer look (hope it's clickable). There is such a buzz when we all get together. We love catching up!!!! We share art, we share our lives, we laugh a lot.

As I said...... I did do a little stitching.......

WE ARE ALL GIFTED.

INSIDE OF YOU ARE TREASURES.

-SARK-

jacky xox

Primitive, Naive ...

I have been having a wonderful time lately painting a couple of spreads in an altered book I am doing with the girls from my little art group....Julia, Dot, Ro and Patsy (still blogless).

I have recently been inspired by Katherine Dunn. I bought her book, "Creative Illustration Workshop" and have been blissfully reading through and taking in her wonderful primitive style art. The pages below were painted for my friend Patsy... she is a gorgeous, vivacious, fun loving friend and these pages seemed to flow so easily with her in mind. "Peace Carriers" (inspired by Katherine Dunne and Haitian art).

The full page spread.

A little blue bird of happiness, trailing along behind the Peace Carrier.

"Peace Keeper"

For these pages I first painted an undercoat of black gesso and then painted with a mix of acrylics and gouache ( I do love the pigmentation of the gouache...rich, strong colour). I have also used pastels and ink and some collage here and there.

I really love this naive style, both in my painting and my stitching...I am having fun with it! Jude and Judy have showed me the way with cloth and Katherine and Lynne have showed me the way with paint.





And....there has also been a little stitching. Not much... but a bit. I am working on Christmas gifties (as usual I am running a little late), cant show them yet.


Over the weekend I went to my friend Nats art exhibition opening....wonderful day... pop over to Nats blog to see photos from the day. Lots of indigo and cloth, wonderful basketmaking and bookmaking....

MOST OF ALL,

LOVE YOURSELF.

-SARK-

Sending love and colour.

Jacky xox

Happily stitching....

A weekend at home ....bliss. I've been doing more blog visiting than creating lately! It's a bit too easy to spend hours visiting wonderful blogs and then not leave yourself enough time to play around !

After a visit to Storycloths blog, I was reminded of a book I had purchased by Janet Bolton whose fabric art I have always loved. If you pop over to visit Storycloth you will see she has made two of Janets lovely angel cloths . This inspired me to get out my book again and have a play....below is my very rustic version of these angels. Click for a closer look...you will note the pins and needles....more stitching to be done tonight. This little cloth is approx. 4" x 8". I am wondering whether I will make a pair too. Whatever, I am having fun stitching my version! And this gorgeous little fellow below is the owl I recently received in a swap with Robin Olsen...I do so love him. Very funky isnt he
and I love the colours she has chosen for me." William the Wise" by Robin Olsen.

Above and below ....how did I manage to do this and I havent found a way of deleting one of the duplicates!!!

The images are from one of the Collage Boxes that Lawendula is sending around the world. Each person takes between 12-20 pieces from the box to use at a later date in their art. They then replace with images etc. from their own stash and forward the box to the next person. I have chosen my pieces and will be sending the box on its way again tomorrow. Such a fun swap, thanks for organising FM.

And finally a bit of dyeing from my recent efforts...and I must tell you that recently I havent been having a huge amount of success. Many insipid looking pieces coming out of the pot. I thought I should show some as my friend Nat is an avid dyer and always keen to see what I have been up to.

The two below I was quite happy with. The first piece with the natural colours was done by steaming leaves in some dupion silk (they werent native leaves, sorry I dont know the name). At the same time I had also steamed some soft cotton the same way. The silk took the colour quite well, but the cotton just looked dirty...a project to overdye down the track.

The one with the pinkish tinge was from steaming some found fuschia flowers. I was very happy with that colour, but dont know if I will wash again as it seems to lose colour each time I wash/rinse. I used a small piece of kimono lining silk for this one. These pieces will be nice to include in some cloths at a later date.

I hope you have all enjoyed a creative weekend too and I look forward to visiting my favourite blogs to see what everyone has been up to.

WAKE UP TO SEE THE OTHER SOULS AROUND YOU.

LET THEM AFFECT YOU.

-SARK-

Jacky XOX