The date!

 I met someone this morning who was excited about the date, it being 26/1/26 tomorrow! We had a lovely discussion about our mutual interest. 

So now I have to post something, even though the interesting date is tomorrow. 

We are having some very changeable weather - extremely hot, a couple of cooler days, extremely hot. Bushfires, flash floods also - fortunately, these events have not been in my immediate vicinity but they are very disturbing anyway. 

I have planted some sunflowers again, being part of a Facebook group that shares the interest. I planted them a bit later than some of the others but they are going to be looking good soon! If they survive the extreme heat forecast for Tuesday. 

It has been interesting to watch which way they face as they grow - east to west. The first flower was more east-oriented but I think a couple of the others will be more west-facing. 

We also have some day lilies and it has been fascinating to see the different flowers each day. I think they may have finished flowering now. 

As you may have noticed, there is very little mention of textile work!! I have attended two workshops in January, one was a two day one about using the element of line in designing a stitched piece. I really enjoyed the drawing exercises but have struggled with the hand sewing. 

Then I attended a tapestry weaving workshop. I enjoyed that greatly too - I knew most of the attendees and everyone knew at least one other person, so it was relaxed and friendly. 

I have tried to do a bit more since and am hoping to hunker down in the heat and get more done - trying to avoid having to venture outside (except to water various plants and put beach umbrellas over some of the more exposed plants).

Still June - 24/6/24

 Well, I have been trying to get motivated and have something on the go - it may be a total failure but at least I am doing something.

I have gone away for a few days in the hopes of actually sewing rather than fiddling around the place thinking of things I 'should' be doing. 

The EGV is having its annual members exhibition later this year - later than usual, October. The theme is Making Waves, There are so many ideas I have had. I decided not to do waves breaking on the beach - now I am doing exactly that!! But they are not big waves, my idea is based on the moon causing tides, so I have a seascape based on that. 

So far it is rather rough and ready. And ... I am doing it all by hand!! Not my usual thing at all. 

I have used scraps of fabric I had saved from other projects - never throw anything away - which is all fine and good until you realise you have collected a lot of stuff and, one day, someone may have to deal with it. Hopefully, that someone will be me doing a clean-out but it is getting to the stage where some serious destashing 'should' happen, 

Here is the WIP. I may decide I hate it but that is for a later day's decision.

In other news, I have been accepted for the Kate Derrum Award exhibition at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. It opens in July. Here is a list of the entrants who were accepted. I know a lot of the names, some online ones and some personally. Looking forward to the opening night!!

My piece is Labyrinth. It is a finger labyrinth but I doubt that anyone will be allowed to handle it at the exhibition! 

This piece was done a few months ago so my focus in now on the embroidery. 

Ambitious

There was a working bee for the people involved in Unfinished Business ... Finished (I discovered that is the actual title, at the working bee!).

Some of the people involved have made some amazing works, some are just starting, some are doing things I would never have conceived of doing. It should be a great exhibition.

I was trying to finish off the second vessel, having made a new back.
I sewed on the silk roving and it didn't get caught up in the edge - hooray.

I sewed the binding on and then sewed the pieces together. It is much better. Thank goodness.

There were several packs of donated pieces that hadn't been picked up. Lots of blue fabric in one of them. So, of course, I took some.
Fortunately, someone else was looking carefully at the blue fabrics so I just tore off a few pieces to do a small raw edge appliqué.

I got the photo from 123RF, not being able to find any of my own beach scenes.

Copyright: elen / 123RF Stock Photo

There were also some more threads for a counted stitch embroidery and they seemed to evoke the sea for me. So home they came too.

Actually, they remind me of a tree trunk too. I'll have to see if there is time to come up with a new piece before hand-in date - which isn't far away.

I haven't used many of the threads in the image but did manage to put in a few.
Now I have another piece made, quiet different from my previous vessels.

Autumn weather

We've all been complaining about the unusually hot weather lately. Today we were 'not complaining' about being rather cool.  The temperature where we were only got to 17C (62F) - and it was windy!  This is a bit of a change from the 35C (95F) we had a few days ago.  Typical Melbourne weather.  It is supposed to warm up again in a few days but not to the same heat we have been enduring.

We took Penny to the beach at St Kilda, for a short run.  We had totally forgotten that the Grand Prix was on.  It was a little tricky to get to the beach we wanted but we did manage it.  Turns out the race was just starting as we left the beach - it is a very noisy race! It rained in the morning (celebrations!!!) but was fine for the race.

I recently saw a post on Vera's blog about her Naked Lady flowers.  I thought I had missed my chance to post about them because the heat did dreadful things to them.  But, lo and behold, there were some in the garden today.
I had to post about them, just to see if I get lots of hits because of what we call them.  I have no idea of their proper name, I have always known them as Naked Ladies.

The hollyhocks have seeded and new plants are coming up - and they are flowering too!  I keep getting more flowers in the freezer.  I will have to do some more dyeing soon.  I just need to think about what I am going to do with the fabric.  But I can't let those wonderful flowers just go to waste - not that they would be wasted, we do have a good compost heap.

We were also lucky to see a Dingy Swallowtail Butterfly emerge from its chrysalis yesterday.  It took a while for its wings to dry out and we were able to get a few good shots.

If you look closely, you can see the drop of liquid hanging.  This is the last of the liquid it squirts out just before it is ready to fly away.
It doesn't look all that dingy to me.  Not sure why it has that name.

I remember having the caterpillars in my classroom for several years.  We got the eggs from the Melbourne Zoo Butterfly House, they stayed on the lemon tree I had in a pot in the classroom, and then they made their chrysalises.  As they take quite a while to emerge and let their wings dry, we got to see part of the process once the school day started.  One year we had waited patiently through the weeks of the process and took the tree outside so the butterfly could fly away at the right time. We all sat quietly, watching it emerge, flutter its wings dry and get ready to fly.  Just as it eventually fluttered away, down swooped a magpie for a lovely butterfly snack!  A life lesson learnt that day.  There was just a shocked silence, then we went back inside.

Shell

We found a shell at the beach yesterday and I brought it home because it reminded us of a pitcher. We were wondering if it could have inspired the first person to make that shaped pitcher or if we are inspired by our knowledge of pitchers. Chicken and egg type discussion.

I seem to have posted a bit lately about visits to the beach, what with Sag Bay, Lorne and Green Point. This is all a bit surprising for me as I rarely go to the beach, especially in recent years.

Going to the Beach - again

This morning I went to the beach with my sister and the dog. It was a lot different from my last excursion to a beach.

Today the weather was overcast but warm. In fact, we all had a swim. It is a great beach for dogs, they are allowed on the beach till 10.00am in summer, all the time in other seasons. There were not a lot of people around and most of those had dogs with them, at least at the earlier time. As we got closer to 10.00 there were more people without dogs.

I do not go to bayside beaches in Melbourne very often, so it was a lovely change of pace, as well as a wonderful way to start the day.
We had a good view of the city. What looks like sunrise isn't, unfortunately, it is smog. There was a smog line visible right around the horizon but the view was still very peaceful.

I took some photos of the water, it was quite flat and grey but had lovely tones in it.

There were a few dead jellyfish on the beach and some smaller ones floating around in the water, fortunately not many. I tried to take a photo of one in the water but the camera cannot see into the water as clearly as the human eye (not today anyway). It is just visible, if you look carefully.





If you want to see the dog at the beach, go here.

Going to the Beach in January

Going to the beach in January is a normal sort of thing in my life. So some friends took us to the beach today. We headed north to a place called Sag Harbour. On the way we had a wonderful chat and didn't notice the miles passing by. What we did notice was the snow beside the road and the very picturesque houses up around that area.
It was a cold day again - about 24 degrees Farenheit, according to the instruments in the car. When we got there it was a little windy but not too bad. I leapt out of the car to take some pictures. Silly me didn't put on my coat but I managed to get some good shots before I got too cold.
The beach had snow on it, a rare sight for us, but it also had frozen water at the edge of the sea. How cold does it have to be to freeze salty water??














We were the only people actually on the beach - the one non-Australian in our group didn't leave the car. However, there were people wandering around the town and visiting the shops. The weather obviously doesn't put a dent in the weekend pleasure.

Dangerous place, Lorne

There were some signs that gave us pause, when we went out at Lorne. The signs at the beach were fairly clear. We used to go to the ocean beaches in our childhood and so are aware of the dangers of the rips and currents.


But the flags were out and swimmers kept between them.



The surfers tend to sit waiting for good waves a bit further along the beach. It was calm the whole time we were there, so there was a lot of waiting and the surfing was only on relatively small waves.

Although the weather was not hot, there were people in the water every day and the life guards were there also. Actually, we had a variety of weather in the few days we were there, from sunny and warm to cool and rainy (not enough rain but some).
The Lorne Life Saving Club was on duty every day we were there and seemed to have classes every afternoon, after school. We saw exercises in rescuing drowning swimmers and the younger members seemed to be having lots of fun while practising these important skills.

Making a box frame

Yesterday I spent ages making a box frame for my textural tapestry. I handed it in today as part of my assessment for tapestry, first year. It could have been handed in in a plastic sleeve but it was getting squashed and that seemed to be ruining the textural effect.
I went to Bunnings to see if they sold picture frames but they only sell pre-prepared canvas mounts. So I wandered over to Lincraft and found a box frame for scrapbooking, at half price. But when I came home and tried the tapestry in it, it was not deep enough and was still getting a bit squashed, so then I had to devise a way of making a deeper box for the frame.
Fortunately my sister is into miniatures (doll's house stuff) and was able to show me some scene boxes she has made. I cut up some core board and made the box deeper, put in the work, closed the box up and then covered the outside with some sample wallpaper that she had (that sounds much simpler than it actually was). The advantage of making the box with core board is that it is quite stiff but is also light.

Now all I have to do is find a place suitable for such a deep box. Actually, I have two pieces to find spaces for, the final piece I did was a scene at Rye beach. I have posted about it before.

I find that I am learning all sorts of things in this course, not all of them what I expected. Firstly, I would never have expected to have chosen tapestry as a subject. I chose it because it was one of the optional electives in the course and students who had done it had recommended it. I have really enjoyed it, much to my surprise. That is one of the benefits of doing a course that offers skills that you thought you would not want to learn but that are mandatory.
Another thing that is happening is that you have to learn more than the skill of the technique, you also have to learn about mounting and presenting your work. That is often a big learning curve too, usually gone through at the last minute, as you get work ready to hand in.

Almost finished

I worked on my tapestry for my final piece this weekend and have hitched off. I have not cut it off the warp as I will take it to our final class for the year to make sure that it is ok. It is based on a picture I took at the front beach at Rye a few years ago.

The colours in the tapestry picture have come out much more orange than it actually is but it gives an indication of the work. I had to take some poetic licence with the colours and with how I interpreted the boats and waves but I am pleased with it overall. There are things wrong with it but, for my first piece, I think it is quite successful.
Now I have to tidy it up, braid the ends and mount it. Then decide what to do with it.