25/4/25

 ANZAC Day. Lots of stories about the world wars and other wars our people were involved in. Some amazing stories! Many sad stories. 

But I took the day off and tried not to get involved in all the stories - and the upcoming election!

I am working on a small tapestry. The theme is about Where the Road Leads. Initially I wanted to do a road leading to a grave - after all, that is where we end up.  But I decided that was probably too depressing. 

So I am working on an image that has road signs that indicate the trials of our travels through life. Lots of warnings, turn arounds, etc. 

I was having trouble doing all the signs so have reduced the number that I had thought to use. 

I decided to make the background grass - we are currently in an unofficial drought  - not sure why it isn't being declared. So I have been influenced by that! 

I have also tried to use up some of the bits and pieces used in other pieces. Therefore, the green is a bit random. 

Here is an image of the piece so far. 

A Blast from the Past!!

 I used to walk down at Darebin Parklands a lot with our previous dog. We haven't been recently because our present dog hasn't had a lot of off-lead walking. But we took her there recently - we are having quite warm weather at present, seemingly later than usual. So we are still needing to wary of snakes. 

I was amazed to see the cliff face looking so different from previous years. I'll have to find photos to compare the colours. 

And I have a tapestry based on the rocks that is quite purplish. No purple visible today!!

I also have a small tapestry based on a photo of a branch of a tree - it is not looking very inspiring now.

This has an enormous dead branch! Don't think it is the one I used as inspiration but I suppose it may have grown a lot in the intervening years. It is so long ago that I can't find any images since my proper computer died. All I could find was this link to my own blog. 

I also have a fabric collage I did from photos of the mulberry trees - they are gone! There are some small ones planted but of a different type. Actually, the link I found shows the trees not looking that much better - but they are deciduous and it was winter. They weren't so dead!

We have not had much rain for quite a few months now, it is drought-like. I read an article in the newspaper this last week, saying that the government doesn't declare drought conditions now. I didn't really understand why - but we are in a drought around here. 

Maybe getting some inspiration.

 I went to the AQC today, haven't been for a few years. 

It was busy around all the stalls, lots of lovely things I could have bought. I was relatively restrained but did buy a few little things - no fabric though, I have quite a good stash as it is. 

But I saw a couple of quilts that spoke to me. There were many beautiful and amazing quilts but these ones may be able to get me going again. One hopes. 

These will hopefully inspire me to do (and use) some more sun dyeing and eco-dyeing. I loved them!

  This was an amazing piece with free motion machine drawing!!

I liked this one because I like using scrim. And one of the members of our free motion machine embroidery group happened to bring a whole lot along last weekend - of course I took some, not knowing what I might use it for - now I am getting some ideas. 

All in all, a good day out!

Another month!!

 I have been trying to come up with a design for a new tapestry. The theme is Where the Road Leads (or something like that). 

I have had an idea but I can't seem to come up with a cartoon that I like. 

So today I decided to just start!!! 

My initial idea was that we all end up dead and I could do a grave but that seemed a bit depressing, so I am planning some sort of map thing with road signs along the way. I don't think I will be able to put in all the detail, so I'll see how that goes. 

I warped up the loom on Friday - as usual, it took me over an hour, I put in the floor and waste yarn on Sunday. Today I have hitched on and done a tiny bit of weaving. I have no real idea of what colour background to do - apart from a vague notion of using green - and I have a bit of left-over yarns from previous works, so I used them to get me going. 

As you may be able to see, there is very little weaving at this stage!

I hope I feel more enthused and on top of what I am doing tom !!