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Monthly Archives: February 2006
Spinning and Knitting
I’ve been slack on the spinning and knitting front lately because I needed to spin up some more yarn for the jumper and had more fun things to do, like make a quilt. So tonight I finally plied up around 500m of yarn and it is having a bath.
The beginning of the jumper… look at the beautiful hem
Riscy is competing in a triathalon this weekend so I suspect I’ll get a fair bit of knitting done at the event.
I have been in a bit of a knot regarding how to to quilt the big dredger quilt. I do have ideas, but they are not fully formed so I don’t want to start in willy nilly.
Fulvia suggested I step back from it for a few days, and not put myself under pressure about it. And I think she is right.
I will, however do some work away from the quilt because I have an idea to use text related to or written by John Monash (who was a big force in the state electricity commission, which has now been privatised).
I realised last night that this quilt has some passing similarities to a bag I made last year and traded with Sophie:
Interesting. Continue reading
Posted in Photography
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A Quilting Quandry
Just a bit of eye candy because the rest is just words (except for the neat workroom shot at the bottom of the post)
This vine scrambles and hangs off our ugly side fence, it is evergreen but looks its best during summer when the white trumpet flowers bloom.
Now, on to QUILTING
How am I going to quilt the beast? I want the quilting to form a simple, secondary pattern in the background, most probably a large circular area intersecting with another circular area. The quilting on the dark trusses will be linear. I may introduce some colour like I did on the proto-type quilt.
edited to add (a few hours after posting the above): Circular areas will not work. No quilting tonight, more thought required!!
I will quilt and embroider the quilt before the backing fabric goes on. I am not interested in how the stitching looks from the back and it is far neater to cover it all with backing fabric. I think some purists may have a problem with this, but as I have no current intentions to enter my work in quilt specific shows I figure it doesn’t matter what I do with the back as long as it doesn’t affect the appearance of the front.
I also prefer to use a special thin bobbin thread rather than cotton in the bobbin. This reduces bulk at the back for heavily embroidered sections and I can fit more of this stuff onto a bobbin which means less bobbin changes (we all know how annoying it is when the bobbin runs out when you are in the middle of some intricate linework!).
A Link or Two.
Check out Melanie Testa’s new quilt. I love just about every thing on this quilt, especially the colour and the texture created with her quilting
This is a link to the Indonesian Textile exhibition I saw at the Latrobe Regional Gallery yesterday: Speaking with Cloth | Cerita Dalam Kain I was going to blog about it, but sort of lost my thoughts on the matter. I was interested in the animal symbology used and the ceremonial importance of cloth the how the cloths are used for identification of clan alliance. I bought the cataloge so I’ll go back over it when I have a chance.
If you haven’t already, check out Dijanne’s Middle East photos. She is having quite an adventure.
I also want to mention the website of Omega. Real thoughtful and interesting commentary about art in general her own art practice. Omega always has some interesting links to share. I need to link to it on my blogroll because I currently get to her blog via Dijannes blog.
NOW, my farewell for the evening is a photo of my ‘still’ clean workroom. normally it would have degenerated into a messy hell by now, but I took five minutes last night (after I fused the top to the batting) to tidy up… revolutionary!
My workroom is clean and ready for quilting!
Big Dredger Quilt – A Major Step Forward
This was a bit like untangling spagetti, it took me many hours down on my knees to sort it out.
YAY, the top is fused. Though my knees are sore from crawling around on the floor for the better part of the day.
I’m just glad it is fused. It will not be square, there is no doubt about it, but I am sticking to my original principle of keeping things simple. Spending days tweaking the layout would be too disheartening, best to move on.
Riscy and I had lunch at the Latrobe Regional Gallery today. I wanted to see the exhibition of indonesion textiles (to be blogged about later) and pick out my present from the gift shop for my upcoming birthday 🙂
I nearly chose an exquisite porcelain bud vase, and almost convinced myself to ask Riscy to buy me a beautiful teapot and teacup set (a bit too much to spend though), but decided on a charming necklace and bracelet set made of colourful dried beans. Not expensive, but totally something I will love to wear.
Riscy bought these for my birthday 🙂 I love picking out my own present!
Posted in Knitting
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Black and White
Burnt tree trunk.
This tree was burnt during our recent bushfire. It is far from dead though, and will sprout all the way up the trunk. Riscy and I will go back up there in a few weeks to record the progress of regeneration.
I’m cutting out the design for my quilt right now. I get a little RSI in my right arm from this… which balances out the RSI I get in my left arm from typing and knitting. Not bad, just a niggle. Ahh me aches and pains… I do turn 29 next week you know LOL.
Riscy and I are on a roll with movies, we are going to see Brokeback Mountain tonight after we go out for Thai for dinner Yum!
Continue reading
Posted in Spinning
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The Fabric
I’m done with the dyeing, now the quilt can start. You would not believe how happy this makes me. I was starting to feel the project slipping away and I really want to see this one to completion.
A cool combination. The pale fabric is a lovely white/pale brown.
The photo has gone a bit ‘zingy’ on my screen. If you are having the same problem, just click on the image and a larger (non zingy) version will open.
I think the reason for my problem getting darks is that I am having trouble adjusting to dyeing these much larger pieces of fabric. I’m not very scientific about it and I pay the price with unpredictable results.
I’ve been talking about it for at least 6 months and have now finally decided to apply to join ARC Yinnar. I suppose my hesitation has been related to my reluctance to gain the identity of artist (try-hard artist)in this community. I’m a bit embarrased about it, when asked, I sort of mumble about playing with textiles and creating stuff with my hands.
But since my kitchen will soon be renovated and I will no longer be able to dye at home, I need access to a wet workshop and ARC seems like a good option.
I wanted to share a few links I came across today.
Woolgathering – website of Elizabeth Perry, she is working on the most wonderful jounals.
Alspix – how to make a pinhole camera. Now I really want to make one… but this quilt first…
And a great story about a civil engineer who resurrected creativity in her life… I like this because it reflects my experience in a lot of ways. It is worth browsing around that site for other interesting storys and essays. Continue reading
Posted in Misc
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More dyeing – will I ever get this quilt started?
Another day another banner. The background image is taken from some dye play I did tonight. When I was processing the photo below I realised the lino print section (spectacularly unsuccessful) would make a great background for a banner.
The banner image was taken from the section on the bottom right.
Mucking around with some dye and thickener (which was too thin!) This is part of a larger piece of fabric.
This is my favourite cropped part of the photo and maybe used for a quilt at some stage. The square grids were created when running my dye soaked sponge roller over the fabric with an upturned ice tray underneath.
Tommorow I have to travel to Melboune for a meeting all day then I have a gallery committee meeting that night. So the question is… will I find time to create something tommorow? A drawing perhaps?
I know I’ll be up late rinsing fabric when I finally get home, perhaps that’s enough.
I was commenting to my sister on the phone tonight that Riscy and I spent many years living here with no involvement in the community, virtually no friends and a hell of a lot of time on our hands. I decided to become a little bit involved (gallery, spinners and handweaver, touch footy etc) and now I seem to have too much on. It’s a fine balancing act. But better than before. Continue reading
Posted in Knitting
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Internet Friends
Fabric dyed. I’ll use two of theses pieces for the Dredger quilt. The gusty breeze made this shot fun to take.
I will need to overdye the dark value fabric as I really wanted a blacky colour not the denim blue I ended up with. Some of the lights are quite nice though, really subtle and mottled.
Last week I was excited to receive an email from Fulvia Luciano. Fulvia had come across my blog and noticed that we have lots of common interests including kayaking(!), wool and most importantly Art Quilts!!
I was intrigued because I remembered her name from my days on the QuiltArt list. When I clicked onto her website, her quilts were instantly familiar to me. I love her work for combining imagery, line and colour in wonderful complex layers.
These are two of my favourites Haiku II and Illustration 3 Although it is hard to choose just two to link to, so if you can, set aside some time to browse through all her galleries.
We are going to see Syriana tonight. Mmmm George Cloony in a beard, yeah!! I’m just hoping it doesn’t make me too angry (as most things involving the US and the Middle East do), I’m verging on the edge of sick with a scratcy throat and slight nausea (I took this afternoon off work), and getting worked up about this stuff probably wont do me any good.
But before I go, I thought I’d post another rose photo I took this afternoon:
Molineux Rose – The blooms seem to be smaller than normal at the moment, I should probably water the garden.
Posted in Spinning
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Finishing the Day with a Flourish
Thank you to those who commented and emailed me regarding the death of my friend.
I thought I would share another photo of the aftermath of the Moondarah Bush Fire with you. You can make out the burnt hill through the trees. This photo was taken facing south east towards Yallourn North (I think) most of the affect area was behind us.
A shot of hills burnt during the recent fire in Moondarah State Forest.
This weekend Riscy upgraded my computer to make it faster. We are a household of many PCs and we are in a constant state of upgrading and swapping bits between computers…. when I say ‘we’, I mean Riscy.
The fact is that I wouldn’t even have a computer if we didn’t live together. I am grateful though, because I can now hang out with people who share the same passions as myself, and more importantly, the internet has given me access to those who constantly provide me with inspiration and know-how to create things I would never have dreamt of otherwise.
I dyed about 10m of fabric tonight. Hopefully some of the pieces will be good enough for the Dredger Quilt. I am itching to get everything cut out and fused so I can start quilting. I may delay if I think the background piece needs some printed texture. All will be revealed after the rinse tommorow. Continue reading
Posted in Printing
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A Sad Day
A Rose in the Sun.
One of my spinning friends, Robina, died unexpectedly today. I am very sad and distressed for her family and close friends. I spent quite some time talking to another member of my spinners and handweavers guild on the phone this afternoon, she is shattered.
I keep thinking of that beautiful mohair/wool laceweight she was spinning, planning to knit some beautiful lace. And the Fair Isle she started last year.
Our guild is tiny, with about 12 members, and they have all made me feel so welcome, which is amazing considering I fly and and fly out during my lunch break on Wednesdays.
Robina was particularly friendly and showed interest in my projects, it was only the other day she picked me up regarding the hem of the jumper I’m knitting, advising me to knit it up rather than sewing later… it turned out so neat and I’m really pleased she took the time and effort to let me know.
Continue reading
Posted in Linocut
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Clean Clean Clean
It feels sort of boring posting a pencil only drawing, no colour. But I don’t want to paint in this journal.
EDM #54 – Someone I Love Chris watching Alpine Skiing on telly.
This actually LOOKS like Chris (AKA Riscy). The drawing practice must be working (lets not mention the hair and ear).
We were meant to have friends over for sushi tonight, but we moved it to tommorow night. So I spent most of the evening tidying my workroom. I’m sure I spend more time tidying than working there and it always looks like a pigsty (except at the moment).
Tonight I realised that I cannot put off dyeing any longer… well it will have to wait ’til Sunday. But you get the drift. I pulled out all my ‘stash’, which is very tiny, and I realised that the magenta idea sucked really badly and I’m glad I didn’t jump into it like I normally do. Continue reading
Posted in Misc
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