Something for everyone
At felting group today, member Christine Munro showed us these 2 wonderful garments she had made. The first (above) is a long sleeveless vest.
This one is more of a sleeveless overtop. It has paua buttons and features crocheted decorations.
Both these are for sale - if you're interested, contact me and I'll get Christine to talk to you.
The irrepressible Bek Pilley was also there, and showed off what she'd done to one of her long-tailed (for want of a better expression) hats - it's decorated with beads and stitching and looks magnificent.
I have posted before about Bek's hatmaking classes - well worth going to.
Invercargill's weather isn't always delightful, but there are some wonderful sunrises. This photo was taken one weekend morning as I walked the dogs along the Waihopai River.
For the dyers, this is a piece of overdyed fabric that I've made to go in my major project this year. More photos as they come to hand.
For knitters, this is a simple but very attractive scarf I'm knitting. The idea is the team a plain colour stripe up with a wool that changes colours for the other stripe, creating this interesting look. Done in 1/1 rib with an uneven number of stitches, it creates a thick, compact scarf with no annoying loose ends to darn in afterwards.
Lastly, a gratuitous cute animal shot. Here's Frodo, suitably backlit with late afternoon sun, down by the ponds where I walk the dogs each day.
The Carpet Bag Revealed, and a new quilt top assembled
I couldn't find any suitable patterns that looked like real carpet bags, so mine is a tote bag made using sumptuous furnishing fabrics. It's big enough to hold folders and books for my classes, with extra long handles to sling over my shoulder. The inside has 3 pockets (large, medium and cellphone) plus an elasticized band to hold my drink bottle upright.
This week, I've focused on assembling this quilt top - I made all the blocks several years ago. Unusually for me, I purchased ALL the fabric rather than including my hand dyes in it, as I found fabrics that worked well with the feature fabric, which is Hoffmanns "Feathers" - you can see it more clearly in the detail shot. It's the centre of the blocks and also the outer border.
It's just draped over the spare bed in this photo. I'm happy with the size, so I'll go ahead and sandwich and quilt it.
Following on....
This is a sample photograph that I've transferred onto hand dyed fabric. At this stage, I haven't done anything with it. I plan to work with photographs of buildings destroyed in the Christchurch earthquake, as this has personal meaning for me.
Anyone out there done any 3 dimensional work? I don't mean designs that look 3D, but actual dimensional and sculptural work with fabric.
Getting my mojo back
Hi everyone,
I've been struggling with my planned course of study for this year, and have decided to go back to my fabric roots. Considering I'm majoring in Photography, this may be an odd statement. I've accepted that my degree is not likely to lead to work but I may as well finish what I've started and made a commitment to. As a result, I plan to work with transferring photographs onto fabric in 2013, and hopefully devise a way of integrating these into 3 dimensional fabric sculptures. There, now I've said it so I have to do it. Talking of doing, there hasn't been much of it happening chez Goodwin. However, I've been doing a lot of thinking about doing, so that's a start :-)
Today, I had a lovely surprise. Jenny Brooks, a KQ from Auckland, is down here visiting and suggested we catch up for afternoon tea (which was lovely - thanks, Jenny!) which we did at the Art Gallery/Museum cafe, and then moved out into Queen's Park when that closed. When it was time to leave, Jenny gave me this gorgeous skein of laceweight baby alpaca - so soft and cuddly!
When I got home, I immediately went onto Ravelry to find a suitable pattern. I've found several that might suit, now to sit down and decide which to make. Jenny and I have both knitted the
Clapotis pattern - I made mine while in France and England so it has many memories of my trip. Such a lovely thought, Jenny - I'll make something really special from this alpaca.
In NQR news, my son Cass and partner Catherine are currently tramping on Stewart Island. No mean feat as the tracks are challenging and so is the weather. They'll be back here on thursday for a few days so I'm looking forward to spending a bit of time with them - I haven't see Cass for a year and Catherine for 2 years. They expect to be moving to Christchurch in April. Here they are pictured before they set off:
The end of 2012
The end is nigh...but it's another year tomorrow. I won't be staying up - the New Year is coming anyway and it doesn't need any help from me.
While in Christchurch over Christmas, Sophie took me into Restart, the container city that's been set up in Cashel Mall. (For overseas readers, much of the inner city was destroyed in the February earthquake of 2011). While there have been myriads of photos published, I hadn't been into the city and seen how it looked for myself. These photos were taken with my phone.
We had coffee upstairs in a container cafe. This is the view across the mall....
...and down to the outdoor seating on the ground.
Here's Sophie engrossed in her phone. It was a lovely warm day.
Looking across to Ballantyne's lounge area - now in a container, though most of the original building is still there.
More clever use of containers.
Somewhere down Lichfield St I think - many of the landmarks are gone.
Most of the damaged buildings have been demolished. Sophie told me that Clarendon Tower, the highrise she was trapped in, has been pulled down.
The shell of Knox Presbyterian Church on the corner of Victoria St and Bealey Avenue.
It's a time of renewal and regrowth in Christchurch, and my son Cass and girlfriend Cat will be moving here in the New Year to be part of this.
Best wishes to all my blog friends and readers for a happy and productive year.
A lot of water under the bridge.....
Yes, dear blog friends, it's been a long, long time since I last posted. This has been quite a tough year, especially the second half, when I found myself doing 7 papers which was a heavy workload. There have also been some ongoing health issues that I won't bore you with (because they're not relevant) but which have also contributed to the lack of blog activity.
I spent Christmas once again with my daughter Sophie and her partner Mark in Christchurch, fortunately without the accompaniment of strong earthquakes this time. Sophie had requested a quilt (again) and this time, I obliged.
The top was made from a jelly roll of batiks, combined with my own hand dyed fabric that was dyed to co-ordinate with the batiks. The borders were quilted with leaves and flowers, while the pieced windmill blocks were just outlined. Sophie pronounced it suitably tasteful.
While I was in the mood, I also quilted this top which I made many moons ago. It's lap quilt sized and I really like it. It's just made from bits of hand dyed and tie dyed fabrics. I also made 2 quillows for my friend's sons but didn't photograph these. So the lead up to Christmas was pretty busy with all that stitching.
It's summer here, so this is what's in the garden at present :
Feeling like felting
I know I've been very remiss about posting as I'm not sure if anyone is reading blogs these days. Due to time constraints, I mostly just look at Facebook to see what my creative community is doing. I'd be interested in reader comments on that issue.
It's only 11 days till the end of Term 3. Year 2 of the degree has been really busy and demanding, and while there are fewer classes next year, I have a Major Project which is done independently and which is the equivalent of 3 papers, so it won't be any easier.
I'm doing felting of various kinds in 2 projects at present - vessels in Professional Practice, and pods in Sculpture. Much of what we do is conceptual, critical reflective and so on, but we do have to produce actual finished work for Sculpture, so I've been concentrating on that.
My daughter Sophie wanted a felt hat for her birthday, and to ensure that I made a good job, I went to another of Bex Pilley's hat felting classes. Here's a few photos of what went on.
Bex explaining how to fold the fibre over the template.
Some of the luscious colours the class was using. Sophie's hat was plain black so no photos.
And here are some of the finished hats....a pixie hat...
..a fedora style...
...a cloche hat...
..a pixie hat with a fedora top...
..and another cloche.
Here's the pods I made during the class for my sculpture project.
And lastly, here's the dogs enjoying a patch of sunlight on my bed.
Missing in action
You could be forgiven for thinking I had fallen off the edge of the world...seeing as I live at the very bottom of the country. However, my busy study schedule (50 hours per week plus) means that I'm simply not getting to blog.
Here's a medley of photos:
This was taken at Bluff this morning....
...and so was this. I love the colours of the sky there.
I made and dyed felt balls for my Professional Practice project.
This is Bek Pilley, who was teaching a bunch of us how to make hats....
...and this is what I made.
The twins were unimpressed with all this.
