Paper mache pod, made from ripped up romance novel and diluted PVA glue.  Painted with gesso.

Mien from Red Red Day creates the most heart-squeezingly beautiful objects with paper mache.  I just had to give it a go. 

My 'pod' is very thin walled and suffered a little bit of collapse while drying, but the final stucture is strong and holds its (wonky) shape well. 

It was a lot of fun to photograph the pod. I set up a little 'set' on my desk next to a window and happily snaped away for ages. I have had a fair amount of difficulty photographing my work since we moved due to lack of good light in the flat, so I'm pretty chuffed that I've found an OK solution.

Today is a public holiday here, Picnic Day.  We didn't get to have a picnic though, Chris was called into work and I had a nap - two dinner parties, two nights in a row and maybe just a little too much to drink finally caught up with me.

I used New Look pattern No. 6774 and modifications to acommodate my bust.  I have no experience with dressmaking (apart from 4yrs of Home Ec in high school), but it seems to be ok, though the shoulders are slightly too wide and the skirt part is a little too generous.

I'd still be stuck on the bodice without the help of Chris' mum, Bev, who patiently pinned up seams and hem for me :-)

I purchsed the fabric from the Darwin Spotlight Store (big fabric chain store in Australia)  This outlet had a huge range of 100% cotton dressmaking fabrics.   I'll definitely be going back! 

I've got enough fabric for another 3 dresses.... plus 3m of a georgous seersucker, destination unknown.

Hi friends, I'm refreshed and ready to blog once more.  We just had a lovely two week holiday with Chris' mum and dad including our first visit to Darwin, but I won't rehash that all here... except to say I have now seen a crocodile.

My creative stuff has been ticking along nicely too.

I've been mainly embroidering as you can see.  And I also sewed a dress!!! which is quit a feat given the amount of pattern mods required to deal with my bust.

 I'm a bit over the embroidery now.  Below is a peek at my new project, which could turn out to be quite an undertaking!!

And Mein, I tried some paper mache!!  I'll post about that later in the week :-)

I'm going to step away from the internet for a while.  See you soon!

To dye this

A small piece of felt, some badly spun (and scratchy) wool and merino top.  I included the undyed white wool to show the 'before and after'.  I don't really like the colour but for a first go I can't complain.

I was inspired to try dying with eucalyptus after reading Eco Colour by India Flint.  Who happened to comment on my last post which is pretty cool if you ask me!

One of the attractive things with eucalyptus is that you don't need a mordant when dyeing wool, so it seems a lot more spontaneous.  I once knew a lady who would do a lot of dyeing when camping.  All she had to carry with her was a pot and some wool.  

And to balance things out.  I dyed up about 10m of cotton this weekend using man made dyes.

I had a hankering after some secondary colours!  Orange, green and purple YAY!

Chris found a Sand Dollar yesterday.

I had never seen one before despite spending the majority of my life on the coast. Perhaps these critters don't like the cold Tasmanian waters.

A few weeks ago Chris went to Brisbane for work and I decided to join him for part of the time. I visited the new Gallery of Modern Art (but the majority of exhibition space was closed Hmmm) and the Queensland Art Gallery where I saw an exhibition of a watercolour landscapes by Kenneth McQueen (who I had never heard of before). I especially loved his cloud paintings.

I bought some books too, the most relevant here being India Flint's book Eco Colour. A lovely book to flick through and then go back and read (I bought it and enjoyed it in spite of the ho hum review in Vogue Living). I was even inspired to dye up some wool with eucalyptus leaves - I'll reserve that for a seperate post I think.

I made a new bag on a whim before I went and it was perfect for the trip. It was quick too (just what I like!)

The last week I've been terribly sick with the flu and my spirits have been very low, with lack of sleep and tears and various trials and tribulations at work. But I'm starting to feel better now and things are looking brighter.

I LOVE quick thumbnail sketches. Many to a page. Repetion. Fiddling with line quality, scribling in some fill.

Not that I'm producing 100's of these things. My stamina for it isn't very good. 10-15 mins MAX, then I sit on it for a couple of days, or weeks.

I've been using Uni-ball fine black pens for years, manufactured by Mitsubish Pencil Co. I don't think I'd find it easy to change now so I bought up a big supply before I moved up here. But I've noticed Chris has been stealing them, hmmm.

I seem to be getting a process together now. The sketch comes first, then perhaps some colour studies which may then be finally translated to fabric. It is very exciting to have discovered this!

Hello Dolly :o)

She's temporarily dressed in scrap fabric and matching turban. Completely hand sewn (and probably will fall apart too soon as a result), this is my first ever 3d stuffed toy creation.

I really hated stuffing her. Probably because the only thing I have to use is some cut up quilt wadding (batting). But I did enjoy embroidering her face and I hope designing and making an outfit will be a bit of fun too!

I've been on an embroidery binge in the past week.

I've got grand plans for a series of triangular banners to hang in our lounge room. But mainly this is a hand project which I can fiddle with while relaxing on the couch with my darling Chris.

Lookie! Loookie!! I made a cushion.

It was developed from one of my thumbnail sketches.  Up until now, there has been no real correlation between my sketchbook and my textile work, so I'm a little chuffed and hopeful that this is the start of something good.

I had some fun with the back. The buttons are from my tiny button stash which was a very lucky find at one of those discount shops a few years ago. A beautiful and interesting selection.

I did have some hassle with the buttonholes. I can't find the manual for my sewing machine (bloody hell!!) But after 1/2 hour of crazy searching I decided to just jump in and figure it out myself. Worked first time! I LOVE my automatic buttonhole foot thingy now.

I really like the mismatched, unevenly spaced buttons :-)

Before I go, I would like to officially record here that I have finished the first bed quilt I ever started. According to my photo records I finished piecing in late 2004 (I'm sure I started it way before that).

By the time I finished piecing this quilt top I had discovered dyeing and started to have pipe dreams of creating my own designs and perhaps getting into art. I had also just started this blog and soon after learned how to spin and knit. So I sort of fell out of love with the thing.

I couldn't be bothered to quilt it myself either, so at great expense I sent it to a long arm quilter. The quilting is ok but the backing she used isn't very nice (at all!). So it sat in my cupboard waiting for binding for YEARS.

But now we are living in NT we prefer to sleep with a thin quilt and last weekend I noticed that my beloved 'Tasmania' quilt is starting to show wear... so I bit the bullet, made the bias binding (ugh!) and bound the thing!

I quite like it now.

More 'studies' for the hallway.

In the last month I have changed the way I read blogs. After ignoring the idea for yonks, and now out of necessity due to our cruddy internet access, I use an RSS feed compliler.

It has sort of revolutionised the way I spend time on the net and I can read heaps more sites much more quickly. I'm using google reader which is working out very nicely.

Some great blogs which have been added to my blog 'stable' are:

A Stitch in Dye is the blog of Malka from Texas. Beautiful dyed / batiked fabrics. I also love the quilted cushion covers. I'm really starting to become inspired and excited and will definitely get out and do some dyeing soon.

Auntie Cookie is the blog of Shannon from Melbourne . Another fabric designer who writes like I talk, I like that!! I really love the colours she uses in her work and like Malka's blog above, I liked the cusion covers she has made. Does it sound like, maybe, I should be sewing cushion covers to deal with this cushion obsession??!

And a big welcome back to Claire of Loobylu... I missed you and I'm glad you have re-entered blogland!

I love to splash paint around, all that colour, all that immediate gratification. A welcome change from the linen tablecloth I've been agonising over for weeks - which is now thrown into the back of the cupboard and will stay there for an indefinite period!

These studies are about 20x27cm each and blu-tacked up in our hallway, and I might do more and cover the whole wall!

I'm working on a second lot which have a different shape and colour theme.

I can't think too deeply about art/creativity right now, my brain can't handle it for some strange reason... I've got to ride it out an not stress too much about it. Unfortunately it doesn't make for good blogging.

This week I collected these small bits of driftwood off the beach. I'm still pinching myself that we live about 2 minutes walk from a decent beach. How lucky are we!!

We visited the Yirrkala Arts Centre on Saturday morning. I was concerned that we might need a special permit to visit the township, but I rang the centre and they assured me that it was ok as long as we didn't drive around the town. So off we went.

I purchased this beautiful basket. I haven't been able to capture the colours as well as I would like, the yellowy green areas are just perfectly placed and I really love it.

There were also bark paintings, prints (from their printmaking studio), digeridoos and memorial poles . But textiles and fibres are my thing and I couldn't go past a basket. I'm sure I'll buy more over time. There are also beautiful mats as well.

On Sunday we went bush with some friends. One of the guys has just bought a bomby old mine ute, perfect for our mission! We went to a beach called Little Bondi (Baringura in Yolngu) which I believe is a favourite swimming location in 'non-stinger' season. We saw 3 buffalo on the way in.

Though they took off when they saw us. I was a bit worried as they have been known to kill people. (Chris took the photo)

Once we had settled down with a couple of fishing rods we noticed some stuff happening in the distance and I thought it was a shark!! There was a fin poking out of the water... very exciting. We watched for a minute before we realised that it was acutally a small pod of dolphins YAY!

They were actually driving fish towards us and at one stage they seemed to be less than 20m from the shore. So close I could hear their 'bite' as they tried to catch fish!

Chris got some great photos, but I'll let him post them on our other blog Gone to Gove

I turned 31 yesterday! Good ridance 30, what a suckful age (I never thought it mattered, but turning 30 really DID matter, and not in a good way).

Anyway. so now I'm 31. Sounds like a grown up age doesn't it! And being the responsible 31 year old that I am, I've knuckled down and done some cleaning of my workspace.

With the move North, I have sacrificed a dedicated studio. My studio space is now one desk, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and and little area for my computer and I share the room with Chris. Actually when I write this all down it sounds like heaps... But it isn't working for me at the moment and I need a rethink.

I'm thinking that I will use the top of the drawers as a storage area for my sewing machine and clear a drawer for use as a place to hold projects that I need to vamoose quickly (nothing stifles a creative urge than a big old UFO hogging up my space!!

Sounds like a plan doesn't it?

And what will I work on with all this free desk space? I'm thinking I need to do some drawing and a little bit of painting. That always calms the nerves. :-)

Oil Recovery

Hi. I've been absent. Going through a creative dry spot and not really wanting to blog about it.

Today I'm coming down with a cold, and had ample excuse to curlup on the couch and watch many episodes of Antiques Roadshow back to back... but for some inexplicable reason I took myself, my sore throat and a camera out to take photos. Just here around the town flats.

Made in Australia (an ancient and weathered water ski)

It is amazing how much great stuff you see when you are in the right frame of mind and when your eyes are tuned in to 'seeing'. I love that feeling.

Keogh's Bench

Last week I went to Brisbane for work. It was nice to have a change of scenery and I can certainly understand the people who have told me that you need to 'get out' every 3 months or so. This is such a small, isolated town... you can lose your perspective really fast and start thinking Gove is the centre of the universe and get pissed off about things that really don't matter. I wasn't at that point, but I can see that it could happen ... hell, in my job I see plenty of instances where it has already happened!!

In Brisbane I caught up with my old friends Monica and Matt and their baby, Kate. Kate is totally georgous, just scrumptious. Monica and Matt were great, taking me out for coffee and shopping at Spotlight...and Mon took me to a great underwear shop where I stocked up for the coming months. This climate is hard or undies and there is nothing even vaguely resembling a lingerie shop in town. Thanks M+M+K.

Spinners and Handweavers of Gove ( I peeked in the window, the building seems to be very unused, but there looms and/or spinning wheels in there...)

So. What do I know? I know that I desperately need to go into a phase of 'observation'. I want to create... I really do, but I can't do it out of thin air. I need material. I know this.

I had sort of been thinking that since I'm up in the Territory that I should be focusing on nature etc. But every time I think this, I feel magnetically drawn to the couch. The idea of going out into the bush, in the humidity, getting bitten by insects and ants ... seems to put a dampner on my enthusiasm. Hmmmm.

I've been in the mood for blue. This weekend I made blueberry muffins, a blueberry cake and the embroidered Circles on Blue.

What set me off embroidering circles was some little placemats I made (also in blue) embroidered simply with running stitch 'bowls' decorated with lazy daisies. My nan taught me how to embroider when I was very young and I've always remembered the lazy daisy - it is so easy, but also so satisfying.

So I've finished the circles. I pillowcased it with two layers of cotton fabric so now it has a nice heavy substanital feel. I decided not to quilt it, but I did top stitch around the edges to help it stay in shape. 66cm x76cm.

Today is the Australia Day public holiday and it officially marks the end of the 'bum on couch' season for me. The Australian Open (tennis) finished last night and the last test match (cricket) of the season concludes today. It's not like I'm a big sports fan, but having these things on the telly triggers the feel of the long summer holidays from my childhood and must also send a message to my brain that it is ok to loll about on the couch for days on end.

The last couple of summers I've knitted my way through the summer, but this year its been about cooking, setting up the house and embroidery.

I'm not sure what I want to make next. I've certainly got plenty of UFO's to tackle, but I'm not particularly keen on them for some reason.