Sampler and beyond

Do you remember before Christmas I posted a photo (which I now can't find) of my new secondhand Bernina 1630 sewing machine? Although it was bought by the original owner in 1998, she hadn't even taken the plastic off the somputer screen and had hardly used it. I was so thrilled to see all the stitches available, but I have been very frustrated as I have extreme difficulty seeing what is on the computer screen. I have bought extra lights, tipped it this way and that, but finally I seem to have found the answer - a small torch, but one with an ordinary bulb, not the new led lights. I tried them, but they are useless for me.

Anyway, now that I can actually se what I am doing, I have been trying out some of the yummy stitches available - this sample is not even half of the available stitches, and that is before I start playing with the balance control - when I manage to learn to programme the thing!!
I stitched these onto calico with a gold thread, then I sprayed the piece with various sprays of colour.

The colour is not right in this photo, but I can't manipulate it any better. The red end has more of a violet tinge to it and the other end is much bluer that this picture shows. The sparkle doesn't show, but it is there after I sprayed plenty of pearl glimmer mist over everything. The stencils don't stand out quite as much in real life either. I used Interference green Opulense paint. I am very happy with the fabric, which will now go to making up more souvenirs for the Gardens shop.

Have you checked out some of the other handwritten blogs today? Jackie says it will be a character study, I think she may be right, but it is fun.

We have had a thoroughly miserable day here weatherwise, rained all day with only 2 mm to show at the end of the day! That is English weather, not tropical Queensland weather at all. I would just like to see a couple of weeks of brilliant sunshine to let all the ground dry up.

Now I have had my whinge, I am off to bed.

Jackie suggested this for today's blog. Please click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read it.

See my side bar for a link to Jackie's blog. I am sick of editing this blog and I don't seem to be able to make the link work - this last time I was taken to some ads for Google! Definitely not what I wanted.
This is the very interesting fibre fever page I received yesterday from Margreet in The Netherlands.
My chosen them is Nature and I love the way Margreet has used hand embroidery to add the flora to the page.
No time for any more. Blogger has been most unco-operative today and I have deleted and reloaded this post three times! Perhaps I should admit that it is probably my lack of knowledge which is the biggest problem. Cheers.

Fibre-fever page and photography class

This year I have joined the Fibre-fever group, swapping a fabric book page with another member each month. This month my swap partner was Ritva from Finland, whose chosen theme is Art Nouveau/Jugend. That sent me off to Google to do some research. I am familiar with Art Deco, but I had not heard of Art Nouveau before. The movement started in the late 1800s and lasted to about the First World War. I hope this picture has captured the idea of the fluidity of the movement - I went back to my applique techniques which I haven't used for years and years.
Twenty years ago, I was making lots of appliqued pieces, but then I started experimenting with free machine embroidery and all the rest of the newer (to me anyway) textile techniques, and I have been too lazy to go back to applique. It is a bit like quilting in that it is very unforgiving if you make a mistake, so there can be lots of unpicking involved!
We had the last of our photography classes yesterday and made a visit to our local Marina to test our skills.

This lighthouse used to be located in the Percy Island group not far off Mackay. It was the last operational keresone powered lighthouse in Australia, but was closed down in 1985 when the Federal Government converted all the lighthouses to automatic lights. The lighthouse has been moved to the Marina and has been restored to full working order, but is not turned on very often. If you click on any of the photos they should enlarge for you.

These are some of the very expensive yachts moored in the marina. This photo is a bit busy, but we were experimenting with different locations and techniques. After we had all taken various photos which our tutor had asked for, we retired to the coffee shop for refreshment and he put our collections up on his laptop computer for us to see what we had done right ans wrong! I think I have leant quite a bit from these few lessons - not least how to navigate my manual and understand what it is actually saying a bit better. Sometimes I think these manuals for new techological gadgets are designed to confuse us completely!

We has showers again overnight, but a fine windy day today and we now have two concrete slabs in our back yard. Jock is confined indoors much to his disgust - we don't fancy doggy footprints across the concrete. I am beginning to be hopeful we will be able to plant two trees early next month rather than having to wait till spring. The builder says they will be finished before the end of the month - three cheers!

Glass cases and eye tests

At long last I have managed to get to my workroom and sew up the lace fabric from the Technique of the Month into this glasses case and some bookmarks. I am very happy with the result as I think the fabric is more robust for handling than the usual chiffon covered fabrics. I think I shall be trying this technique again.
The next class I take should be one to teach me how to keep within my limits - as usual I am so over committed at present I am not catching up with anything! I have had fun taking a camera class to teach us how to make the most of our digital camera. We had to practise taking action pictures for one exercise. Hannah was visiting and was blowing bubbles. Jock thought this was a wonderful game, but the photo below is the only one I could get which was any good - he was far too quick for me, even with all the tips I had been given. This photo looks like he is standing still, but believe me it was only for a split second! We have been taking him to doggie school for the last few weeks, he behaves really well there, sits, stays, comes, drops - and doesn't jump all over everyone. Just a pity he is not doing the same thing at home!
He has been completely stir crazy lately as we have finally got the repairs under way - and when they they started there was no stopping! We had 10 people from four trades here yesterday with Bill and me trying to clear out the greenhouse and garden shed to keep ahead of them - I am exhausted. This has certainly been the catalyst for a giant springclean though - particularly in the garden shed! The junk Bill has kept in there is incredible.

I have finally been back for a scan of my eye and then to the optometrist - who says he can improve my computer glasses anyway, and the script in my dark glasses is one behind the rest so that can be replaced as well - yippee. I will keep having injections in the eye each month, they haven't improved it, but they seem to be preventing it from getting any worse. Do get your macular checked with your eye specialist or optomotrist - it is so important to make sure you will still be able to see.

Thank goodnessthe weather has cooled down a little in the last couple of days. but we have had quite a lot more rain. I finally have a new clothes line after nearly a month and the first day I wanted to hang clothes outside of course the rain came down, so I had to hang them under cover again after all! It seems hard to believe that some parts of Queensland are still in drought, but our state covers a very large area.

The State Government, based in the bottom south east corner of the state, is trying to bring in daylight saving again, and even talking of having a trial just in the south-east corner. I loved daylight saving when we visited Tasmania, but here in the tropics the heat would be unbearable in the late afternoon. Apart from being 1100 km north of Brisbane, we are also a lot further west so the sun sets later anyway. I know there will be a lot of you out there who will say I am mad, that you just love it - my country background is coming to the fore I think.

Having got on my high horse, I am now off to bed!

Postcard received and update of Lace technique

Today I received a lovely surprise in the mail. A few weeks ago I left a comment on Karen's blog and won a prize. With everything else happening around here I completely forgot about it, then today this attractive postcard turned up. Thank you Karen. I have played with the colours for ages, but I cannot get them right. Thebackground is a much deeper purple than this and the pink circles are not nearly as pink.

Yesterday I was posting in too much of a hurry and my eyesight must be even worse than I thought, the second photo I showed was not the lace fabric at all - it was my take on the product of the month which Dale sent me - silk rods and fibres etc and some lovely spray colour. I have added some leaves to it as well. I have posted the photo again so you don't have to scroll back and forth and I have posted the photos in the wrong order - I was going to put the painted lace up first, never mind.

For the product of the month, Dale sends out a parcel of goodies each month to try out, so we don't have to buy large amounts of something just to try - lots of fun.

The colours of both pieces ended up being quite similar, though they started off vey different - that is part of the fun.

I hope everyone has a very happy Easter. Cheers

Technique of the month and other things

The latest technique of the month was painted lace. I fused the lace to a piece of calico, then sprayed with some brusho colours in spray bottles.

It looked really bright after the first pass, so next I added some gold foil, before painting over with watered down Lumierre metallic colours. I sprayed some glitz spritz over everything, then added some green pearl-ex pigments to the watered down paint and brushed lightly over. You can't see the gleam in this photo, but I like the finished colour. It will probably end up as a case for glasses.

I took these photos at the Botanic Gardens, the firs is the flower head of the Comersonia Bartramia, a common tree all along the coast, especiall along creek beds. they make a lovely show in the summer.

What I really find interesting though are the seed pods, they look so spiky, but are really quite soft, even when they turn brown.

I have been trying to practise my photography with not a lot of success at doing my homework. The University of the Third Age in Mackay is running classes to show us how to make the most of our digital cameras. We have to take certain sorts of photos and then Alistair puts them up on his computer in the class for us all to learn from each other's mistakes - or their successes. I have certainly learned a lot about the different functions of my camera already, I just have to keep practising so I remember it all! I need to look carefully to see what camera I am taking home too - the lady sitting next to me has exactly the same camera as I do, very handy for comparing notes and looking up our manuals. BUT - on Saturday I wanted to use my camera and found I had all the wrong photos on it, when Irealised we had taken each other's cameras home!!! I had a quick trip to her house to exchange cameras and commiserate with her over the tree still leaning on their house waiting for the tree removalists to deal with it. She is hoping it will be gone sometime this week - not classified as urgent as their roof is not leaking.

I heard a funny story about a landholder's experience up on a remote property in the ranges behind Mackay. The noise of the wind had spooked his dog who took off in the middle of the night, then rushed back and jumped into bed with the landholder - but - the dog was covered in leeches! The landholder must have had a good sense of humour, he said he and the dog bled together for the rest of the night! He also had a massive tree on his roof, as well as about another twenty fallen over between his house and the road. The SES didn't get access to his place for about 4 days, he was without power for 8 days, no water for 3 and no phone for 7, but he was still joking as he told his story and said he wasn't too badly off. I think we got off very lightly.

What is happening now

Nothng very creative is being done around here - we are all trying to pull ourselves together after the cyclone. Once more Mackay has been incredibly lucky and has missed the worst of the weather. The last time Mackay took a direct hit from a cyclone was in 1918, and that just about wiped out the township. We certainly don't want another one like that. Dougal and Nikki had their power restored late on Monday night, but there are many areas still without power and not likely to be reconnected for 3 - 5 days yet. Ergon is having a severe test with so many very large trees down across lines, just getting access is very difficult.

There were pictures in the paper today of very expensive houses built high on cliffs above the beach so they could get a magnificent view, but I am not sure they will be so happy with the rooves ripped off in the gales. I have always said I would rather drive to the beach and live in the security of being slightly inland!
The stores selling generators have made a killing. Dougal said he saw 5 pallets of them sold at Bunnings on Saturday morning while he was looking for some timber - and I know lots more were brought to Mackay over the weekend.
Nobody has been killed, but there are stories emerging of some serious injuries, and more property damage than was apparent at first. Many people are only now able to tell their stories as they had no phone service for several days either. We always had a landline service (and we have deliberately kept a Telstra phone to use when there is no power), but our internet came and went a bit.

Here are a few cheerful photos, taken when we were walking in the Gardens on Sunday. I love these crested pigeons, this family is nearly always to be found in this area of the Gardens. If you click it should enlarge.

These two fungi are commonly called stinkhorn fungi, but I know they have more detailed names than that. The top one starts with a beautiful lace net around it, but it was getting a bit old.

The blowflies love them. This one is yellow, but we get very bright red ones as well, and they love the mulch in the garden bed just outside the men's toilets - we have had to put temporary signs saying the smell is from the fungi, smells just like a very horrible toilet - not a good advertisement for visitors!

We are gradually getting back to normal(?) The family kept coming in here while they had no power - don't blame them for that - they could eat and shower in comfort. There were lots of "power parties" in the area - friends from blacked out areas visiting those with power, bringing their defrosting food with them.

Hopefully I shall have somethingdifferent to write about next time. Cheers