Aargh!!!

I haven't posted for a few days - I haven't wanted to go near my computer.  I have deleted my whole iPhoto library.  No-one told me that it was kept in the Pictures folder!!!
My computer has been telling me for ages that the startup disk is full, so I decided to delete some pictures and documents I had scanned and no longer need.  I trolled through the folder and thought they all had jpg on the end, not noticing a little icon that said iPhoto library.
I think I can retrieve it from a backup, from a few weeks ago because the backup has not been going well either, but I still can't open all the pictures, so I think I may have to delete other stuff - I hope that is the problem.
I haven't been game to try it yet, will need hours to go through it properly and make sure I don't delete other important stuff!  If that doesn't work, I'll have to get professional help.  More time and money wasted. But worth it if I get my photos back.

Glasswing

I contacted the Discovery Centre at the Museum of Victoria and sent them images of the butterflies on the passionfruit vine in our garden.  They have replied, quite promptly, and identified it as a Glasswing.

It turns out that the passionfruit may be a native also.  It looks a lot like the red passionflower that had a link on the butterfly page. There is some more info at the Australian Native Plants Society website.

Looking at colour palettes.

My drawing teacher advised me to have a look at some of the colour palettes in nature, so I took a few shots in the garden this morning.  Some of nature is very bright.

Here are a few shots from this morning.  I will have to go through the hundreds of pictures I have taken on other days to see what else I can find.  There should be plenty of inspiration.
The canna lilies are out at the moment, lots of bright colours there.

Continuing to Play

I have continued to play with some ideas that might work Design Concepts and Applications, one of my subjects this year, where we are looking at Biomimicry - not that we are about to invent any fabulous new way of doing things - and I have been looking at the way plants spread out: how they branch out to fill a space, how they attach themselves to other plants, or to their own branches, and twine around.
I have been wanting to try some of the products that I have seen advertised or used in other projects, so I have tried to make some backgrounds and some of the designs.

Here is an example I made using hot water soluble sheets, I laid out some yarns between sheet of soluble fabric and then did zigzag over them.  I tried to leave a little of the gluey substance when I was rinsing out so that there would be some stiffness to the work.

For the background,  I have used some heat shrinking fabric that you attach to the cotton with a grid of some sort, that you sew on, and then steam the plastic sheeting so that it shrivels and causes the fabric to buckle.  I am not sure what I might use this for but it could be a very interesting background to one of my plant pieces.

metamorphosis

The butterflies came out today.  Are they the babies starting out a new life or are they the elderly, entering the last stages of life, albeit able to breed?
Do they hatch or do they emerge?

Have  you noticed that the bottom part of the wing is transparent?  

Anyway, enough philosophy for today.  They are really quite pretty, very like the chrysalis.  Here it is, on the banana passionfruit plant.

Permission to Play

We have been looking at disperse dyes and thermoplasticity in our Experimental Textiles course and I have found is fascinating.  I attended a Play Day at the Victorian Embroiderer's Guild a couple of years ago where we played with disperse dyes but, for some reason, I did not follow up on it.  But combining the dyeing with the thermoplasticity has somehow appealed to me.  Recently I visited a friend and we had a very pleasant day just mucking around, no absolute goal, no specific design, in mind.  It was very relaxing.
Here are some of the results.

I am not sure what I could use them for but they were fun to do.  Maybe something will occur to me, perhaps for some of my other subjects.
The one above was inspired by the passionfruit we have growing out the back, the spiraling effect was very similar to the actual plant.

Patchwork and Quilters Guild of Victoria

I was out walking the dog this morning and came across a sign that said Patch Work.  Intriguing - was it a meeting or an exhibition?  I called in and learnt that it was the monthly meeting of the Patchwork and Quilter's Guild of Victoria, it meets there every month.  Big hall, lots of people!  It had that happy buzz sound that you get with a group of women doing something they love.
Maybe it was a sign that I should join - I've picked up their leaflet at many a Quilt Convention but have been too lazy to join.  I can hardly say it is too far to go to meetings now that they have a new location.
I have been finding my interest in patchwork (not the quilting so much) reviving recently, after having not done any for several years (not much, anyway).  I decided to do my Studio Textiles and Design course to enhance my design skills and, since I started that course, have done very little patchwork.  The course has introduced me to many other textile techniques and skills and I have been distracted by them.  I have enjoyed them greatly and have learnt a lot but I am finding I would like to incorporate some of what I have learnt with patchwork and quilting.  I have a piece that I have entered into the Graphica exhibition that is very patchwork and quilting oriented.

It is based on the many tiles we saw and the tulip motif that is so often on show in Turkey.  The technique is based on Beryl Taylor's video workshop, put out by Quilting Arts. You can see my first attempts here.