2 Girls.....

2 fashion parades


2 dresses


ONE sewing machine, one black thread, one white......




JOYOUS!!!!!!!!

Some asian Atc's.....

Spent a lovely Sunday afternoon making atc's yesterday! That was after the 3 loads of washing , ironing, vacuuming and tidying up!! At least i wasn't at work like last Sunday!!!

These came together fairly quickly ...I'd picked up this cute Geisha fabric and rich brocade in Heathcote.
I found a stash of cheapie asian printed papers and Merry had given me some Vietnamese paper that her hubby had picked up o/s. Don't know if its rice or what but its beautiful and so is the book that it comes in.
I also used this black/red material that has lots of teeny tiny script on it,
[picked it up at Big W. I often look at their fat 1/4's, they have some quite different ones sometimes....]







Traded to Tam xoxo



Choccy wrappers come in handy sometimes!!!





Used the other side of brocade for the background.
this one and the next one traded to Jan...jenxo




These fans were silver so i embossed them with black, gold and copper and i love how they came up.

Havent named them yet and I have one left for trade so ema me!!!

life in general.....

life is somewhat hectic here with two girls entering comps that need to done in the next two weeks!!!

Luce is entering the Elmore Field Days Ag art fashion Parade, her 'outfit' is coming along nicely and its no surprise my sewing machine is not going so hot as she has been busy chenilling weed mat!!!

She was runner up last year in the schools section and was quite happy with her prize money but this year , i think she wants a holiday to new Zealand to compete!!

Here are some pics from last year...

this ones taken at the parade....



This is Charlz modelling for the entry pics. Luce ironed plastic garbags over wire mesh, [glad she used the schools irons!!] The bottom of the skirt is cutup feedsack bags woven thru the wire, looks kind of feathery! the top is made from cardboard and she 'shirred' the plastic using stretched duct tape, love all the techniques she used. The necklace is made from wire, some beads with horse hair and others with plastic and hay band!! Really cool!!


Charlz is making a dress from tea towels for Finley fashion pde which was going well until she decided to add 3 ruffles and painted tulle on the skirt.

[its lovely to have creative children but it would also be lovely if they made things that they could actually wear!!!!!]...and a bigger house would help too :(

its nice getting mail....

got these these two lovely shoe atc's from Jan in England as part of a mens and ladies shoes swap. love the scrabble tiles and the little studs/brads on the ladies boot...and all the little scraps of leather.




i sent jan these, a mixture of fabric and paper and lots of stitching.
The furnishing fabrics were perfect for these.....

And there's more....

Heads [and bums] down!!!
Robin, Ann and Sue [really just dont like having their photos taken!!]

Linda's bag made from Ties. The directions left something to be desired and everyone had some input into this!!



Sue and Linda trying to work it out !!

Group photo and our finished goodies!! well some of them were! From left back, Me, Di, Sue, Merry, Heather, Glenda,
fr.. Linda, Ann and Sue.

More Pics from Heathcote....

WooHoo!! Go Di

Di and myself getting into it

Di's gorgeous flowers and she had dyed the wool herself too!!

Giving it a massage

Di's bag finished and drying, look at the curly bits on the sides where the handles attatch !!!

arty quilt.....

I had the the most fun time with Merry last night. [Merry, whose lovely home featured in my fist blog entry] We went to a fibre art quilt class last night and did we enjoy ourselves??! Yes we did!!!

This is the first part of the quilt, don't think i am going to make a quilt,I don't want to cut it into teeny tiny squares!! I want to do something else with it but not sure what yet!!
I basically wanted to play with angelina, fibres and textiva. We ironed the angelina [hot fix]to make angelia paper [couldnt get Merry's to work till we discovered it wasn't hot fix!], i love working with this.
I've not done a lot of free motion sewing, don't even have an embroidery foot, and it was bit more difficult on the romeo [ water soluble plastic stuff] to do circles and stippling. I tried some metallic on my machine too but it didn't like that so put it in the bobbin. Only trouble with this is that cos you are working on the back you cant highlight details on the front. Anyway here are few photos of mine, still got to do heaps of stitching. Will get some of Merry's too , hers is in quite different colors.....





I stuck some sequin waste in there, its so versatile and stitched over nicely too.

some mail....

I have recieved some very nice atc's in the mail recently.

These 3 are from a 'Christmas in July' swap that the 'lovely Les' sent me all the way from Canada. Les is painter but has gotten into papercrafts in a big way, totally addicted!!!


all handpainted!!


Quilled snowfalke done on a chalk background. Did i menton that Les loves to experiment with different techniques. This one you make a bath and grate chalks over it and dunk your paper. Carefully lift out and it leaves behind a residue, Magic!! The colors are so pretty.



This one really cracked me up, Santas note reads....

For Santa, for Jen,
glues, fibres, mesh, markers, stamps and pads, alcohol inks, papers, lots of free time, no work, sleep, new knees, no grey hair ,thanks Santa.

I wish!!!!

So where to start........

I had the bestest time away with my craft girls this weekend. We ate, laughed, made stuff and managed to fit some shopping in at the the market and garage sales. The main street of Heathcote [ it's soooo long!!] has some great little shops too, with a few bargains to be found!!

Faye totally spoiled us with her great food, comfy beds and great hospitality that we are already planning next years!!!!

Di , my lovely, talented friend and i did some felting. We saw some beautiful hats and scarves in one of the shops and it got us revved up to try some. Our bags probably took most of Saturday to make , i don't have a finished pic of Di's yet but it looks really lovely and vibrant with its flowers and butterflies.

This is the very first time i have felted a finished article and i was pretty pleased with it. Di and i did a felting class together years ago but we only made samples, so this was heaps better.

I'll start with mine first because i dont have a finished pic of Di's yet.


I did 3 layers for my bag and we put a plastic wrapped peice of corrugated card for the middle.

I wanted some 'shrinky bits' of material on my bag so used some organza and BOY did it shrivel!!!
I cant believe how the whole felting process just shrinks sooo much and how all of sudden it just happens!!


I also used silk tops and some sparkly acylic wool which worked in spots. I had to some dry needlefelting to finish off as it didnt felt into the fabric ....


I must have stopped taking photos from here to the finish!!!

my side seams are a bit lumpy still, but for a first go i am very happy with it!!!!



TADA!!!! My finshed bag.

Stay tuned, more pics tomorrow.....